Unit 18 Human Resources Management Assignment Solution

Programme	Diploma in Business (Marketing)
Unit Number and Title	Unit 18 Human Resources Management
QFC Level	Level 5
Credit value	15 credits
Unit Code	Y/508/0487

Introduction

Harrods is a retail chain company that is based out of Brampton Road in London. The company has been very strong and following the great approaches and practices in the human resource management. The entire assignment has the basis of discussion for the human resource management and its implications on the Harrods and its business. The assignment comprises of 4 tasks. Task 1 would be differentiating on the personnel management and human resource management. The various functions, roles and responsibilities and impact of the legal and regulatory framework would also be part of this task only. Task 2 would give an emphasis on the human resource planning, various stages that are involved in the planning of HRM, recruitment and selection process that is followed in the company and its evaluation of effectiveness. Task 3 would be stressing on the importance of rewards system for the employees, their growth and satisfaction. It will also involve the study of the process of Job Evaluation and the methods by which the performance of the employees could easily be monitored. Finally Task 4 would be analysing the subject of cessation of employment, the various reasons and employment exit procedures that are employed at Harrods so that they could easily improvise their systems, processes and practices. This way they would be able to keep the existing employees satisfied and motivated to work passionately. Through these tasks, the complete system of HRM at Harrods would be studied and analysed.

TASK 1

P1.1 - As new internship HR Assistant at Harrods, your new manager wants you to distinguish between personnel management in Small retail organisations practising PM and human resource management at Harrods

Harrods is one of the greatest retail chains in the city of London. It has been the most popular one for the reason of its strong belief and implementation of human resource approach oriented policies, practices and the procedures. Although retail sector has the highest rate of attrition yet due to its strong and free culture and motivating environment at work, it has very high retention rate of the employees. The employees working for the company are very satisfied. Even if offered higher packages would never like to leave or exit Harrods. Employees have equally contributed to success of the Harrods (Cowell & Singh, 2002).
There is a difference between the personnel management at the small companies and the HRM implemented in the bigger organizations and that are discussed here. Personnel Management is only oriented towards the work or the tasks related with the personnel working for the company. It has to recruit, manage and do the exit procedures for the employees. Personnel management has a strong basis of the traditional belief and practices involved for the employees. The major aim of this was to stress on work and get the work done from the employees earning the targeted profits and the revenues for the business. It used to work at the operation level in the small corporations. The basic tasks of recording, maintaining and storing of the database and the internal employees communication was done by this department.
On the other hand Human resource as the name suggests is the major trend of this period. Each and every company is considering its humans or the employees working for it as its resource. They have been involving the employees in the important and strategic decision making of the company. They have been finding ways in which they could change and amend their ways, work and the practices as per the requirements and needs of the employees. Companies have been playing a great role in the alignment of the business goals with that of the aims and goals of the individuals working for the company. Human Resource has specialized and been converted into various departments like employee engagement, learning and development, recruitment and selection and the training and development etc. Personnel Management formed the basis but at present is considered one of the sub functions of Human Resource Management (Miller, 2006).

P1.2 - Assess the function of the human resource management in contributing to Harrods purposes.

Human Resource has no longer been like the personnel management. It has spread its wings and formed various sub-functions that enable the smooth working and development as a department. Harrods has been one of the successful organizations that is contributing to development and growth of the company through various functions of HRM:

• Training and Development – Harrods has the major objective that all the employees who are hired and retained at the company need to possess the requisite skills, competencies and the talent. They are always involved in the bridging of the gap of the available and the required skills among the employees as per the feedback of their team leaders. They are also involved in making them learn the new practices and the processes that are benchmarked with the industry standards.
• Hiring and Retention Function – Harrods has been employing the best practices and tools that can easily test the required skills and competencies among the candidates that come for the interviews in the company. It has a strict process and competency driven process of recruitment and selection.
• Performance Management & Evaluation – The employees working for the company are consistently tested and checked for the skill gap they have. Based on their performance and observation process by their seniors and the team members, they are advised for the taking up of bigger roles and responsibilities. Through this means only they are encouraging the career and succession planning for the people working for them.
• Learning and Development through engagement process - Employees in Harrods are made to learn in newer ways by engaging them in the strategic decisions that have to be taken for the company. The learning and developmental process at Harrods is very strong and dynamic that is always benchmarked with the new technology and learning base that comes into the market (Sett, 2004).
• Personnel Management - This has now become one of the parts of the HRM. This involves the keeping, recording and documenting the employee records and details. It is more of the administrative oriented task in the company.
• Acting as a Strategic business partner – At Harrods before the company decides or takes any decision, all the employees are involved in suggestion, view and idea process. This way the company is able to develop new processes and newer ways of making and implementing the business decisions.

P1.3 - Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in   the human resource management department at Harrods.

Line managers play a very important role in the HRM at Harrods. The company has developed a strict documentation for the roles and responsibilities that have to be fulfilled by them. Each line function has different roles and responsibilities as per the goals and the targets that have been assigned to them. It all depends on the functionality and the performance of the line manager that the performance of the department as a whole is measured. Roles and responsibilities are as listed:

• Strict adherence and implementation of the standard operating procedures, processes practices and the functions.
• Controlling, organizing and managing the team.
• Development and design of the job responsibilities for the various team members.
• Giving support, instruction, guidance and the motivation to the team members.
• Implementing the latest technology and inculcating the skills and competencies as per the benchmarked industry norms by training process (FlGUEIREDO, 2005).
• Checking, auditing and evaluating the quality aspect among the employees.
• Developing and implementing the financial budgets for the entire department or the function.
• Organization and management of the department functions & processes.

P1.4 – Analyse the impact of legal and regulatory framework on Harrods human resource management

Legal and Regulatory framework enables the implementation of rules and regulations as per the governmental and industry standards and norms. Harrods has developed various processes and systems that are aligned with the governmental norms and practices in the company. It has been abiding by various statutory compliances, norms, rules as well as regulations. They are involving the reference manuals of these practices in their day-today operations and activities as well. As per the requirement and needs of the business model of the company, it has enforced all the regulations and enabled the development of its people.
The elements that have to be amended as per the regulatory and legal framework are:

• Implementation of leadership and its effectiveness
• Building the norms and business culture or structure as per them.
• Development of efficient communication practices.
• Building the strong values (Akhtar et al, 2008).

Legal and Regulatory framework has enabled the company in remaining as per the laws, rules and regulations of the government, industry and the various sectors. It has brought discipline and strictness within its culture. It has helped the employees in knowing their duties, rights and responsibilities while working for the company. It has brought equality, performance, potential and very strong opportunities for all the employees working for the company. It has helped in the development and growth of the employees through the process of training and matching of the benchmarked standards and norms of the industry. It has brought competitive benchmarking and advantage in the sector. It has even developed processes that are indiscriminative in nature and help in attaining performance and potential.

TASK 2

P2.1 - Analyse the reasons for human resource planning at Harrods.

HR Planning refers to a process of effectively organizing, managing, designing and controlling the policies, practices and the procedures for Harrods. Planning makes the functions become more effective and even in the identification of the needs of the business and department for future.  There have been many valid reasons for the process of doing the HR planning:

• It helps in the process of finding out the various present and future requirements that exist for the company and its employees.
• If there is proper planning then all the things remain aligned and the employees remain satisfied.
• It helps in getting efficiency, productivity and the effectiveness in all the systems of HR.
• Planning process works as per the budgets allocated and thereby reducing the costs in all the areas.
• It also helps in the benchmarking of the processes and strategies.
• It helps in optimum utilization of the resources.

P2.2 - Outline the stages that Harrods can adapt in planning human resource Requirements

Harrods has always been involved in the proper planning of the systems, processes, practices and the procedures. There are majorly the following stages that are involved in the process of HR planning of Harrods:
HR capacity: First of all the organization need to develop the approach to measure the capacity of the human resource department of the organization, related with the vacancies and requirements of the hiring’s, proper selection and recruitment procedures, proper financial resources and adequate training and development measures.
Forecasting Requirements: Later they need to forecast the requirements based on the demand and supply attributes.
Demand forecasting: In the demand forecasting Harrods organization is always played a vital role as the organization human resources are the prime players to drive the success and make the organization objectives achieve in the successful and discrete way. In this forecasting they quantify the staff requirements, the skills and the jobs of the person and filling of the vacancies are measured.
Supply forecasting: In the supply forecasting they evaluate the micro environment factors on the basis of the economy affects, shifts in the industry based on the cultural and technological shifts, labour market changes and proper supply, and changes recorded in the community.
Recruitment: It helps in getting the requisition plan and finding out the type, category, kind and he level of people that have to be recruited in the organization . Plan for the deployment will help in determining the requirements for development, growth, learning and the training of the manpower. Plan for the training helps in the bridging of the skill and competency gap that exists in the various individuals. Production and Retention plans decide on the strategies and the processes that have to be appointed for the retention of the people. It also helps in the taking out of productivity out of the people.
Gap Analysis: They need to find later in this context the gaps between the operations and the strategies to make the successful and sufficient development. In this analysis the requirement of the job and skills are identified, sufficiency of the in-house management team is also verified in these factors.

P2.3 - Compare the recruitment and selection process at Harrods with another organisation such as John Lewis, M&S or Sainsbury etc.

Although the process of recruitment and selection remains same for almost all the organization yet there have been few differences that are observed in the two companies:

Basis	Harrods	Sainsbury
Procedure	Determination of the product demand. Deployment of the technology in a correct way. Availing and applying for the resources of all types for the company	Growth and development of the company. Development and management of practices and policies. Determination of the efficiency and productivity of the employees Determination of employee turnover (Legge, 1995).
Approach	The organization has a straightforward approach.	The organization has a pragmatic approach.
Analysis	Job Skills analysis is done on the basis of orientation and pre hiring operations.	Startegic assessment is done without job skills analysis and PHO (Pre hiring orientations) and NHO (New hire orientations) is not done.
Functions	Creating job description and person specification properly.	They are involved more in training and hence these exercises are done after the candidate comes on floor.
Advertisement	External and Internal, references and direct.	Only references can come to have an interview.
Procedures	In house procedures for the grooming of employees and resources.	Out sourcing the training and procedures to groom the employees.
Profile	High profiles and turning to choose specialist types of roles.	Comparatively low profiles and choosing the expertise but can negotiate if highly expensive.

P2.4 -Evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection techniques in the above two selected organizations

Even after following the right recruitment and selection process, the selection of the people may go wrong. In both the organizations there are many newly and advanced strategies have been employed for the process of recruitment and selection. These advanced tools help in the determination of the best fit for the candidate as per his skills and competencies (Minbaeva, 2005).
The effectiveness of the process could be measured in the following ways:

• Finding out the objectives, aims and the goals of the company.
• Adoption of the correct practices and processes as per the situation.
• Assessing the present as well as the future requirements of HRM.
• Mapping the demand and supply of the resources of manpower.
• Controlling the attrition rate and retaining the talent within the company.
• Development of highly effective policies and procedures.
• Encouraging the growth and development of company.

TASK 3

P3.1 Assess the link between motivation theory and its reward with an application on Harrods Case study.

Motivation: Motivation is a factor developing the potential capabilities of the employees forcing them to work harder and efficient. They are developed and feel considered with these traits. The motivation makes the people approach on a right track and they perform well with the adequate usage of the resources to define the business objectives.
Theory of motivation
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: There are five different stages in a person life and hence they are motivated to achieve those stages from the different phases and needs of the life. The stages are firstly basic or physiological needs, second is safety needs, third is social needs, fourth is esteem needs, and last is self actualization needs. Hence the person is self motivated to achieve these all the stages in the order we have discussed now and need no assistance to develop these.

In the Harrods organization we can see the example of the Maslow theory in the human resource development.
First of all the organization need to hire the resources and staff as they are getting short staffs which is their basic need. Hence after this they will move to second need which will be developing the resources according to their requirements. Thirdly they want the resources coordinate with the team and manage the resources on their own which will be the social needs fulfilling. The next need will be developing the business for the organization and hence they will achieve the esteem needs. Last is self actualization where they will take the challenges accordingly and forward the organization with the successful development.
The organization is also involved in considering the employees after the successful forwarding of the steps and making the employees recognized and considered with appreciations. Rewards are said to be a way through which the company can keep its employees motivated, passionate and satisfied working with it. There are financial and non-financial rewards. When an individual performs well and he gets the reward for his performance, he surely gets more aligned to the work or the goal that he has to achieve. Rewards enable an organization to retain the talent within it.
Goal setting theory: There is another theory which is although very beneficial for the small organizations but here as the Harrods organization is suffering with the shortage and efficient staff they can use this as a key driver to boost the growth and development. Goal setting theory is making and preparing small targets for the employees to achieve and a proper consideration and reward is done after their targets are completed within the stipulated time and deliveries are done with accuracy and perfectionism. Rewards help in achieving the 4 Ps. Punishments is the P that helps in giving the negative reward to the people who are not performing in a company. Pay is said to be a means of making the employees satisfied. It is given as per the competencies and the work performed by the individuals. Praise is said to be a non-financial reward. Promotion is a way in which the employee based on his performance reaches the path of career enhancement (Todd & Peetz, 2001).

P3.2- Research and Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors determining pay with special reference to Harrods as your scenario.

Job evaluation is a process or a tool via which the profiling and alignment of the individuals and jobs are being done. The objective of this purpose is placing the right person on the right place at the right time. It varies as per the various factors like: qualification, experience and the profile of an individual.
Job evaluation process evaluates all kinds of jobs. It helps in making their comparisons on the basis of the category, level and the type of jobs. It involves the following stages:

• Aligning the job profile with that of the type of the person in terms of his experience and qualification (Cowell & Singh, 2002).
• Assessing and making the comparison of various profiles.
• Correctly determining the salary and the perks associated with that of the various people’s profiles.
• Making the correct decision with respect to the hiring and firing decisions.

There are majorly two types of Job Evaluation Ways:  
Qualitative Way 

• Method of Ranking
• Grading and classification of various jobs.
• Job Comparison

Quantitative Way  

• Assessment of Jobs and their Schedule
• Comparison of various factors.  

P3.3 - Assess the effectiveness of reward systems in different contexts with your references to Harrods  

Rewards are the way of motivating the employees to work passionately and effectively within Harrods. The effectiveness of rewards could be done in the following ways:

• Level of accomplishment of goals and objectives of the company.
• Success level of the practices and strategies.
• Hiring of the right candidate as per the right time and at right position.
• Rate at which employees have been exiting the company.
• The level of achievement of the organizational objectives.
• Passion, enthusiasm and motivation among the employees for the work and company.
• Rise in the revenues, sales targets and the profitability of the company.
• Level at which the legal and regulatory framework is employed (Leat & El-Kot, 2007).

Job Evaluation has been quite beneficial for Harrods. It helps in providing equal opportunities to all the levels and employees working for the company. It helps in competitive benchmarking of the strategies and practices of the company. It helps in the development and growth of the employees and their successful implementation of careers. It also brings motivation, passion, succession and satisfaction among all employees. It helps in the development of healthy and successful culture within the company.

P3.4 - Examine the methods adopted by Harrods to monitor employee performance. Comment with any suggestions

Employee Performance: Employee performance is a term where the performance of the employee is assessed on the basis of the work and functions they have pursued in the interest of the organization. The companies are generally reviewing the performance quarterly, half yearly or annually to assess the fine quality of the work and providing the employee to make the justification and improvement if needed.
Methods of monitoring employee performance in Harrods are as follows:
Employees have to grow and develop so that company can easily attain success through them. The methods that could be employed to measure the performance and their levels among the employees are:
First of all the Harrods organization plays like a watchdog on the activities of the employees, they have a strong mechanism where the managers and the superiors have a close look in the every activity and operations to make the quality derived and getting the accurate results. Secondly they have quality checker and monitoring exercises in daily operations and the transactions processed are checked and verified by several hands and thus it is been available for the customers. They are using the one-on-one techniques to make the proper and accurate results evaluating the performance of the employees. They are going for the yearly appraisals based on that employee is provided with the appreciation and bonuses and if found negative proper feedback is shared and improvement chance is given. Lastly, they are properly motivating the employees and the employees in the Harrods are engaged in the self monitoring process and are efficient in filling the gaps they are finding. There are consistent surveys and many exercises which also do the same for the organization to make it developed with effectiveness and efficiency.

TASK 4

P4.1 Identify the reasons for cessation of employment with special reference to Harrods in General.

Cessation of employment is caused due to the following reasons in Harrods:

• In case employees are not able to achieve the target figures (Hollenbeck et al, 1997).
• There may be employees who are unable to achieve the figures and even they have skill and competency gap that is associated with their non-achievement.
• Cessation that is taken on voluntary basis. This is cessation before the due age and period.
• There may be layoff for the people as per the rules, regulations and the policies of Harrods.

P4.2 - Research and Describe the employment exit procedures used by Harrods and compare it with any other organisation of your choice.

Human Resource has to be taken feedback and comments from in case they are exiting from the organization. Harrods has effectively plan its employment exit procedures so that it could take up the feedback from them and even brings improvisations within the company. It takes up the responses in the form of the filling of exit questionnaire and even the interviews. The process of Cessation at Harrods has following phases:

• Finding out the goals, aims and strategies of Harrods – Through this way the correct planning for the policies and the practices and their design process is followed in the company.
• There is proper analysis of the employment and industry situation and making of the subjective policies and procedures (Legge, 1995).
• Determination of the demand and supply of the manpower in the industry.
• Development of the correct hiring and retrenchment action plan.

The process of Cessation and employment exit is carried out by two main ways:

• Design and filling of the exit form and process – The form is designed in such a way that the reasons for the exit, retrenchment and the cessation are clearly specified in the form.
• Interviewing process by departmental head and HR senior – Interview can also assess the individual even through his/her body language.  

4.3 - Consider the impact of the legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements with special reference to Harrods. 

Cessation is also similar with the other processes in terms of its performance and implementation as per the rules, regulations and the laws made, designed and developed by the government. The regulations made in this regard have the following impact:

• Government has specified certain process and practices in regard to the cessation of the employment. By following them, the discipline and rules could be adhered and maintained within the organization.
• There would be decorum and strictness in regard to the various stages in the cessation process.
• The employees know the various procedures on Cessation therefore they could easily avoid any kind of wrong doing by the company.
• Even the company gets the benefits in terms of cessation and retrenchment of the non-performing employees (Armstrong, 1999).
• The dismissal process becomes fair, clear and transparent.
• Employees remain secure, safe and develop themselves without getting harassed by their employer.
• Time period is kept as a criteria and track of ensuring the company and employee’s success.  

Conclusion

Human Resource Management has gained a lot of importance in the last decade. All the companies have been developing and even making various expertise and specialized sub departments under HRM like: learning and development, training and development, employee engagement and recruitment and selection etc. Companies have the major objective of hiring and retention of the talented, skilled and expertise manpower. They have been introducing various employee benefits and the welfare policies that are resulting in the motivation, encouragement and passion among the employees with satisfaction working for company. Harrods has been one of the retail chains that have strictly implemented the employee oriented policies, welfare measures and the practices that keep them satisfied working for them. There is a great support that the HRM of Harrods gets from the management in terms of financial approvals, employees oriented policy implementation on immediate basis and even many other measures. Harrods has a firm belief that employees are the most importance resource or an asset for the company. They have introduced a lot of rewards and benefits for their employees as has already been discussed in the assignment. They have a strict implementation of regulatory and legal framework within their culture. They are providing equal opportunities of work to all their employees. The company keeps on making improvisations in its systems and processes as per the feedback and suggestions that they are receiving from their existing of left employees (during the exit interviews). They have been making changes and implementing them as per the requirements and needs of their employees. Cessation process and its governance as per the rules and regulations laid down by the government have enabled us in saving the rights of the employees. This has even made strict regulations for the company so that they could not harass the employees (Rosenzweig & Nohria, 1994).

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