Unit 18 HRMSI Assignment

Introduction

A very essential practice for a business that desires to increase the performance and productivity of its employees is Human Resource Management. Human Resource Management department in an organization is commonly concerned with many extensive operations such as the process of recruitment, training and development of the newly recruited employees, their performance analysis along with their appraisal. Human Resource Management is actually responsible for the ways in which an organization behaves. This unit 18 HRMSI assignment is an endeavour to study and look into the practices of Human resource management within the business entity UKCBC Hotel.  (Brunot, 2010)

Task 1

LO1 Understand human resource management

P 1.1 Analyse the role and purpose of human resource management in a selected service industry.

Being appointed as a trainee in Human Resource Management Department of the UKCBC Hotel, my motive would be to assess and analyse the significance of Human Resource Management in the hotel industry. Employees or the Human Resource is the most significant resource of an organization. Therefore it is essential to have prudent Human Resource Policies.

Issues plugged away by the ukcbc hotel in its hr policy:

UKCBC ensures that the company plugs away the following human resource issues:

• Classifying the employees
• Equal opportunities for employment
• Time Periods allotment for meals and breaks.
• Decisions on Workdays, Paydays, and pay advances
• Deducing payroll
• Making compensations for overtime
• Casual, sick and personal leave
• Policies concerned with vacations
• Improving performance level of employees
• Policies concerned with dismissal and termination
• Evaluating performance of employees and increasing salary (Hoque, 2010)

Problems that are addressedin hr policies at ukcbc: A large number of issues are addressed within the policies incorporated in human resource management, depending upon the kind and the nature of the company and the nature of its business.  Instances   of issues of this kind  include the policies such as  policies for promotion ; medical benefits given to the employees; benefits of using equipments and resources of  the company such as  access to telephones, Internet, personal use of fax machines, etc.; drug testing; sexual harassment;  smoking; retirement  plans; pension, child and elder care; reimbursement of  expenses of employees like the travelling expenses and  expenses associated with the  conducting of the business of the company; training assistance;  grievance  redress; dress codes; sponsorship for  recreational activities etc.

Reducing the attrition rate and retaining talent with the help of appropriate hr policies of ukcbc: UKCBC has a belief that if HR policies are applied prudently and appropriately, they give an edge in the effective management of change via the adoption of   progressive techniques.  Having this vital point in consideration, the focus of Human Resource policies of UKCBC is on areas like acquiring and retaining talent, training and development of employees, social security benefits and compensation management.

UKCBC tries to hire the best possible talent available in various disciplines through a very rigorous procedure of selection. Another priority of UKCBC is the training and development. Apart from the regular in-house programs of training, various management development programmes are organized in association with the management institutes of good reputation, in order to help the employees or executives to keep themselves updated and acquainted with latest management philosophies and concepts.

Emphasising on ensuring social security benefits in hr policies of ukcbc: Benefit of social security is again another important aspect that UKCBC emphasizes upon on consistent basis. The company emphasises on policies so that they ensure the benefits of social security to the employees during service as well as after retirement. A number of prominent measures in this respect are best possible medical facilities for the employees and their dependents. Various sincere efforts are made by UKCBC to meet the expectations and aspirations of the staff via the adoption of best possible HR practices. Various bench marks and studies with respect to organizational culture, employee satisfaction, climate motivation, etc are conducted from time to time by external agencies or in-house expertise   so as to comprehend and introspects the pulse of the employees and undertake required corrective measures. (Introduction to human resource Management and environment, 2009)

P 1.2 Justify a human resources plan based on an analysis of supply and demand for a selected service industry.

For the development of the human resource plan estimation of the demand and supply of the services rendered by UKCBC Hotels is made. An analysis of the requirement of the workforce is conducted and the vacancies are fulfilled via the promotion of employees already employed and the recruitment of new employees for such vacancies on which internal promotions are not possible. (Lunenburg, 2012)

Hr planning based on supply and demand at ukcbc:

• Assessing the  Human Resource in the company: Assessment of the human resource at UKCBC is done to determine the internal and external factors affecting the business. The external factors and environment includes the economic conditions prevailing in the nation, such as the competition existing in the market and the market fluctuations. The internal factors and the environment of the UKCBC hotel include the policies and processes of the organization and the implementation of those policies and processes.
• Analysis and Forecasting Demand in advance: This is a significant function of the Human Resource Management at UKCBC. Since UKCBC hotel is new in the market, the unexpected factors and requirements of human resources erupt from time to time.
• Analysis of pipeline of skilled employees and Forecasting the Supply: An analysis of pipeline of skilled employees is consistently made by Human Resource Management. This analysis is made so that the human resource in the pipeline can be used in case more supply of human resource is required without being trained specifically.
• Balancing the Demand and the Supply: Human Resource Management department at UKCBC balances the demand and supply of the human resource effectively so that the supply matches the demand without resources being wasted in waiting on bench ultimately leading to the decrease in business overheads.
• Drafting and implementing  the Action Plan: HRM of the UKCBC hotel forecasts and then drafts the plans to meet the future demands of the human resource by providing adequate supply. (Hoque, 2010)

Task 2

LO2 understand the effect of employee relations and employment law on services industries businesses

P2.1 Assess the current state of employment relations in UKCBC Hotel.

Employment relations referred a small possible interconnections and links developed in official or unofficial ways by managers, employees, and employee representatives like the trade union officials. No concept of the unionization or collective bargaining etc is found at UKCBC hotel but the employees are provided with the consultation by a consultant who does this with the help of the collected feedback and the employees’ complaints. The procedures for filing complaint and grievances are designed at the UKCBC itself and no demand for the statutory requirements and the procedures etc are required. The empowerment of employees is done by the medium of the delegations, authorities and the responsibilities assigned to them. This helps in empowering employees by other means than the means of collective bargaining and unionization.

P 2.2 Discuss how employment law affects the management of human resources in UKCBC Hotel

The management of human resources at UKCBC is largely affected by the employment laws that govern the hospitality industry. A large number of laws and regulations exist that have to be followed by the hotel. 

Some of the major employment laws are mentioned below:

Employment Rights Act (1996): - This act incorporates all the rights with respect to the employment of the employees. These rights mainly include: -

• Right to Information with respect to wages of the employees
• Right to work in safe conditions
• Right to file complaints at the tribunals of employment.

It is essential for UKCBC to follow these acts as it helps the employer as well as employees to know the rules and regulations set by the government for the benefit of the company as well as the people working in the company. (Legislation of Government of U.K., 2009)  

Work Act 1974: This objective of this act is to provide completely healthy and safe working conditions to all employees working in UK. Main characteristic of this act is to cooperate with the supervisor, senior, and employer in order to carry out the duties effectively and to take proper care of others and self at the workplace. This act also declares that employees must not intentionally get into the way of safety and health. For example, the employee must not leave fire doors undone; must remove the signs of fire exit etc. (Legal Information Institute, n.d.)

Right to work in Healthy and Safe environment: All employees have the right to work in safe and healthy conditions and all employers have a duty towards the provision of safe, healthy and secure working conditions for the employees working in their organisation. The rules that comes under this section are: -

• Cleanliness
• Safe drinking water
• Clean toilets
• Protection against Hazardous Substances
• Fire Safety

Contracts of Employment: Contract of employment refers to the contract which includes the terms and conditions with respect to employment of the employee in an organisation. It is vital for the employees to know the terms and conditions that are mentioned in the contract as this helps both the employer as well as employee in case of conflict. The elementary elements for this contract to exist are:

• The employment contract should have the support of valuable consideration.
• The contract should be legal in the eyes of law.
• The contract should not enter into any purpose that is illegal. (Utah State University, n.d.)

Actions against unfair dismissal: This act empowers the employees to take legal actions against their employers in case there is unfair dismissal of them and their services in the organization. In UKCBC the management can ask their employees to work efficiently and effectively if they do not deliver services according to the required standards, but cannot dismiss any employee. The management has to provide legal notice to the employee if such condition arises. (Advice Guide, 2010) Therefore, the Human resources management at UKCBC hotel must keep in consideration all the employment laws and treat all the employees equally as the failure from the hotel’s side to comply with any of the employment laws can make the hotel to pay penalties and punishments.

Task 3

LO3 Understand the recruiting and selection process

P3.1 Discuss a job description and person specification for two selected service industry jobs in UKCBC Hotel

Job Description refers to the part of the process of Job Analysis. A Job Analyst studies a job and collects the relevant statistical information related to the job. Then the job analyst prepares a summary of all the information that is collected by him and then summarizes it in a prescribed form that is known as Job Description. The specification of the qualifications, personal skills, abilities, and experiences that are to be considered during the recruitment and selection process is known as Personal specification. The criteria for this includes duties to be performed in the job and minimum eligibility requirements for performing the job effectively. (Cushway, 2008)

In UKCBC Hotels there are various jobs for which various qualification, abilities and eligibility conditions are required. The two positions that we take into consideration are the job of a waiter and the job of a receptionist at the hotel.

Job description of waiter:

The waiter’s basic job is to take orders from customers and patrons and to serve food and beverage to them at tables in the dining halls.

Responsibilities to be borne by the waiter:

• Greeting the customers
• Informing the customers about the daily specials
• Presenting the customers with the food and drinks menu
• Answering queries with respect to the menu
• Taking the orders from the customers
• Relaying  the food and beverages order to the  staff in the kitchen as soon as possible
• Preparing drinks and garnishing food.
• Removing used dishes
• Cleaning the tables

Essential eligibility for the waiter: Any kind of formal qualification and education is not required for becoming a waiter, although education up to high school is helpful in this job.

Training given to waiter at ukcbc: The waiters in UKCBC hotel are given short training. These trainings provide the employees to have good rapport with the employees. These trainings train the employees to work in teams.

Qualities desired in a waiter:

• Good Interpersonal skills: The waiter must be courteous, attentive, and tactful while dealing with the customers.  They must be polite in all conditions and should resolve the problems of the customer as soon as possible.
• Good Communication skills: The waiter needs to have good communication skills that includes listening to the customer patiently and replying to the queries in  polite and friendly manner, apart from having good language skills.
• Skills to provide good customer-service: The waiter must be pleasing, polite and should have a substantially good patience level.
• Attentiveness: The waiter must be attentive to the even little needs and requirements of the customers that include specific garnishing and toppings.
• Good Physical stamina: The waiter needs to have good physical stamina as they have to stand throughout the day to take and serve customers.

Job description for receptionist at ukcbc:

The objective of the job of a receptionist is to deliver a service to the customer that is friendly and efficient so as to help in the creation of warm atmosphere for the guests entering the UKCBC hotel.

Requirements essentially required in the receptionist

• The receptionist must have fluency in English language
• The receptionist must have a bank account on her name in the UK
• It is mandatory for the receptionist to have the proof of right to work in the UK and must have a residence proof.

Responsibilities that must be borne by the receptionist

• Provision of excellent customer service at all times to keep the customers satisfied.
• Dealing with the enquiries made by the guests and customers in a professional way irrespective of the ways in which the queries are made, i.e. whether they are made on phone, in person, or via email.
• Administering with all kinds of reservations, cancellations or no-show, in line with the policies of the company.
• Reporting  all issues related to the maintenance  to the line manager
• To remain up to date with the current policies regarding promotions, and pricing strategies.
• Should be able to handle the evacuation required in case of any emergencies like fire and earthquake.

Specifications for the job of receptionist:

Focus on Customer Service:

• A receptionist needs to be of amiable nature, helpful, smiling, and welcoming for the customers to give a friendly and comfortable environment to them.
• A receptionist needs to remain patient and polite in all situations
• The receptionist should have a positive attitude and should be confident
• Should be committed towards increasing the business.
• Should have the ability to communicate with the employees and customers in a professional manner
• The receptionist needs to be dressed flawlessly(National Career Service, 2012)

P 3.2 Compare the selection process for two different positions in UKCBC Hotel

At various levels of the management at UKCBC, the positions are selected in different manner because the requirements for the posts at the three levels i.e. senior, middle and the lower level are different. The recruitment and the selection procedure for all the three posts at UKCBC hotel are briefly mentioned below:

Selecting candidates for senior positions: At UKCBC, hiring agencies are contacted for selecting the candidates for senior positions. These agencies are responsible for testing the candidates for the leadership and management capabilities. The candidates are shortlisted and then interviewed. The selected candidates are hired on the criteria of the required skills and experience.

Selecting Employees for technical positions: The hiring agencies and/or the websites are used for selection of the employees for the positions where technical skills and capabilities are required in the UKCBC. The assessment of the competencies of the candidates is done to assess the presence of skills and specifications required for the job. The short listing is done on the basis of this assessment and then after interviews the final selection is done.

Selecting employees for low skilled positions: The advertisement of the vacant positions is made either on the websites or through newspapers and magazines. Selection is made after interviewing the either on the telephone or face to face by the supervisors of the UKCBC hotel. (Richason IV, n.d.)

Task 4

LO4. Understand training and development in service industries businesses

P4.1 Assess the contribution of training and development activities to the effective operation of a selected service industry business

Many intangible benefits of training exist that benefit the organization and the employees both, consistently in the long run.  Training helps in providing multi skilled employees to the organization. Training helps in making the employees more loyal and committed towards their job and the organization. Training also helps the employees in providing better understanding of their jobs that ultimately leads to reduction in accidents. In this report I have tried to understand various aspects concerned with training and development in hospitality and service industry such as UKCBC.

Types of training provided to employees at ukcbc:

Following are the main types of trainings provided to the employees at UKCBC Hotel.The training process may be either cognitive or behavioural. Cognitive trainings are used to increase the information and knowledge of the employees and behavioural trainings are used to enhance their skills. The two basic types of training are as follows:

• On-the-job training

• Off-the-job training

• On-the-job training: On the job training refers to providing the training to the employees when they are on the job and the basic concept is learning by doing things. Trainings of such kind include internship training, apprentice training, job instruction training, job rotation, orientation training, coaching etc.
• Off-the-job training: Off-the-job training is a training method where the employees are trained in the environment which is away or outside their workplace. This method is adopted in the case of groups and not in the case of individual training. Off-the-job methods of trainings include programs such as discussions, lectures, case studies, demonstrations, role plays, games, and simulations etc.

Other types of trainings:

• Training for Development of behavioural and soft skills: This type of training is helpful in development of the leadership, communication and negotiation skills within the employees of UKCBC hotels
• Training concerned with ethical issues:  These Trainings include all ethical issues with regard to workers and clients along with environmental and legal issues etc.
• Training concerned with good customer service and customer satisfaction:  These trainings at UKCBC hotel aims at training the employees to give the best possible customer service that includes all basic elements like conflict resolution, communication, and problem-solving geared towards issues that are customer-based. 
• Training concerned with safety related issues: Through these training employees at UKCBC hotel are made aware of the policies regarding fire safety, lockdowns, emergency evacuations and various other security related issues.
• Training for maintaining quality: Training for maintaining quality at UKCBC hotels aims at familiarizing the employees with the various methods to detect, prevent, and eliminate, the non-quality items at an optimum level so as to give a competitive edge to the company.
• Training related to technical and technological aspects: Training related to technical and technological aspects aims to teach the new employees the technical and technological aspects required in his job and expectations demanded by his job.(Dias, n.d.) 

Difference between training and development:

Training: Training refers to a process that aims at equipping the employees with new competencies, skills, and knowledge necessary to perform the job effectively and efficiently with the help of various methods and tools.

Development: Development refers to a process that aims at the development of already existing skills of the employees and making them perfect. This way the employees are made more productive and efficient to meet the changes in the current business and they are prepared for new roles by advancing their present skills.

Contribution and effectiveness of training and development to employees and employers with a reference to the ukcbc hotel

• Helps in developing the skills of employees:The most important benefits of training to UKCBC hotels  is that, it is helpful in the development of  skills within the employees that  helps in  reducing the  overall cost of production and operations in the organization.
• Helps in inculcating a feeling of self-worth within the employees: Inculcation of skills within employees helps UKCBC hotel to retain its skilled workforce.  A sense of self-worth and dignity develops within the employees who are trained as they have a feeling that they are valuable for the organization, leading to the culmination of larger job satisfaction.
• Helps in Enhancing the confidence level amongst employees: Training and development at UKCBC hotels gives its workforce an opportunity to realize their real potential and hence perform to the best of their abilities. This enhances the level of confidence amongst the employees.
• Helps in reducing  turnover rate  and retaining employees: A very vital benefit of training and development at UKCBC hotel is that it helps in reducing the employee turnover and retaining the skilled staff.
• Helps in escalating the productivity, efficiency and loyalty level amongst employees: Training and development programmes at UKCBC hotel make the employees acknowledge the fact that the organization values and cares for them and so aims at their development. The employees try to reciprocate this gesture by working more diligently and efficiently thus leading to more productivity and more returns in profit margins.
• Helps in escalating the level of customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is helpful in increasing the repetition of business which is the key to success. Training the employees for promotion of good customer satisfaction and customer relations, UKCBC hotels increases the quality of its services.  JIT adopted at UKCBC lays stress on reduction of waste and waiting time in the service and production process.
• Helps to increase profits: Optimization of the potential and skills of the employees consequently has a direct and positive impact on the returns in profit margins of the organization. Because of the new acquired know-how, the trained employees can take up new and more roles that consequently helps in improving their versatility.
• Helps in building good reputation of the company: In order to sustain fairly well in the competitive market, an organization must have trained and skilled workforce and managers who are familiar with changing technology and changing consumers tastes. Training employees at UKCBC hotels helps in improving the organization’s position, strength and reputation in the market. (McNamara, n.d.)

Conclusion

As we see that UKCBC has just entered the market, it needs to be aware of all the essential elements that affect the business. The hotel needs to pay attention to all areas and aspects with respect to employment laws, employment relations, significance of analysis of the supply and demand factors, etc. The unit 18 HRMSI assignment also throws light on the recruitment and selection process that is adopted by UKCBC hotel, job specifications and job descriptions required for various vacancies and positions in the organization. Along with this the assignment apparently highlights the contribution that the training and development makes in the progress and development of the organization and its employees.

References

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