Unit 22 HRM Motivational Theories Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 22 HRM Motivational Theories
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

The Unit 22 HRM motivational theories assignment  focuses on the study of human resource management. It initiates with the discussion of the difference between the personnel and the Human resource management. It further explains about the concept of involvement of line mangers in HRM. Human resource planning has also been discussed in the unit to make the understanding of the recruitment and selection methods easier. Learners can learn about the motivational theories and their link with the reward system practiced in the organizations. Last part of the unit discusses about the cessation of the employment and the exit procedures used by different organizations. Some of the legal framework has also been studied to study the impact of the same on HRM.

Task 1

1.1 Differentiate between personnel management and human resource management.

• Personnel management: Personnel management is the management function of the organisation that deals with administration purposes. It is the extension of the general management and the personnel department concentrates on promoting the employees to work efficiently and provide their full contribution for completing the objectives of the organisation. They functions in order to recruit and orient employees. They solve their problems if addressed. (Branine, 2008)
• Human resource management:  Human resource management  is the modernisation of the personnel management. This has large range of functions. They concentrate on managing the human resource and focuses on maintaining the performance of the individual in order to enhance the overall performance of the organisation. The functions that falls under Human resource management involves function of recruitment, training, selection, problem solving, skill development and all this results in enhancement of the performance of the organisation.
• Difference between personnel and human resource management: Personnel human resource uses the tradition way of managing the employees while on the other hand, Human resource management uses the modern ways to manage the employees. Personnel management deals with the already existing rules and relates with the activities that are associated with the administration department. Human resource management performs wide range of duties and act as the mediator between the employees and the top management and deals with the activities that are related to the employees of the entire department in the organisation. (Grieves, 2003). NHS UK is the organisation that maintains its employees with the help of the personnel department. Their personnel department is linked only with the administration activities and the personnel manager works for the recruitment purposes only. Sainsbury is the organisation in UK that has one of the best Human resource departments. This department relates its activities with the welfare of the employees. The organisation is task as well as employees oriented so the Human resource department of the organisation work according to this. (Sainsburys.co.uk, 2016)

1.2 Assess the function of the human resource management in contributing to organisational purposes.

Human resource department is the most basic department of the organisation and deals with all the activities related to other departments of the organisation. The functions of human resource department help the organisation to attain its organisational purposes. Some of the functions have been discussed below in relation with the organisation called as Sainsbury:

• Recruitment and selection: Recruitment and selection is the process of attracting the relevant candidates and selection of the appropriate one for the vacancy in the organisation. Sainsbury has the proper selection and recruitment process that starts with the job analysis and ends with the interviews of the shortlisted candidates and the final selection by matching the person specification with the job description ad requirements.
• Appraisal: Appraisal is the technique of motivating the  employee relations  by providing them with some of the benefits other than their salary. Sainsbury focuses on motivating their employees and appraising them according the work they perform. The company provides extra non-monetary and monetary benefits to the employees in order to influence them to perform better. The performance of the employee in turn helps the organisation to attain its ultimate goals.
• Training: Training is very important for the employees. This is because of the change in the external and internal environment of the organisation. When the competitors of Sainsbury started selling their products online than Sainsbury also needs to do the same to withstand the competition. For this purpose, company has trained its employees accordingly. This training is required to develop the individual sills of the employees as well as to enhance the performance of the organisation as a whole. (Mondy, Noe and Gowan, 2005)
• Performance management: It is the method of managing the performance f the employees in terms of improving their performance at individual level and to enhance the overall performance of the organisation. Sainsbury uses a proper process to manage the performance of their employees. They used some of the methods like observation and surveys to deal with the issues that restrict performance of the employees and resolve it.
• Communication: Communication is the basic challenge that many of the organisation face. Restriction in the communication hinders the flow of information and hence affects the performance of the departments. Sainsbury has a proper communication, information  channel that allows the employees to communicate even with the top management. This helps the employees to share their views and problems with the mangers. It results in proper information flow and hence the improvement in the performance of the overall organisation. (Noe, 2007)

1.3. Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in human resource management.

Responsibilities of line managers: Line managers are the direct reporting managers of the department. They head the department and coordinate the functions of the particular department. They have the responsibilities to manage the working of the employees under their department. More responsibilities of the line managers include training of the employees in their department, final selection of the new recruits, maintaining the performance records of the employees as well as delegating the task to them according to their specialisation. (Sekhri, 2010). HR functions of line managers: Line managers not only perform the operational function but also have some of the HR functions to perform. Some of them have been discussed below:

1. Performance management: Line managers need to manage the performance of the employees working under their department. This involves the function of delegating the work as well as keeping a watch over the performances of the employees.
2. Motivation: HR department is not the only one, which is responsible for providing the motivation to the employees. Line managers also need to contribute in the motivation process, as they know better about the working pattern of the employees under their department.
3. Performance pay: It is the duty of the line manager to provide the rating to the employees. This rating would be according to the performance of the employees. The records of rating allow the HR department to provide appraisal to the employees.

Above all the functions belong to the HR department of the organisation but needs the support of line managers to perform effectively. These functions have been performed by the line managers of Sainsbury to maintain the coordination between the operational and the HR department.

1.4 Analyze the impact of the legal and regulatory framework on human resource management.

UK Government always has influence on the policies and the working of the organizations. It forms the law and the legal authorities that check the functioning of the organisation so that organisation cannot practice any wrong act. This legal framework also provides the employees to safeguard their rights at workplace. Some of the legal Acts that have its impact on the organisational functioning are Employment Act (1996), Sex Discrimination Act (1975), Equal Pay Act, Employment Equality Regulation 2006 etc. (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2008)

Impact of the legal Acts on HRM:

• Sex Discrimination Act: This Act forces the organisation to maintain the equality among the employees in terms of Sex. Any practice of the organisation that violated this Act may be subjected to punishment. According to this Act, organisation s needs to treat men and women equally without any discrimination and partiality.
• Race relations Act: This Act argues about maintaining the secularism in the organisation. According to this Act, organizations need not to discriminate the employees according to their race, color and cast. The policies framed by the HR department for the employees should be same for every employee.
• National minimum wages Act: This Act in UK suggests that all the employees of 16 years and above should be paid with minimum amount of wages that is decided by the government. The minimum amount of wages differs with the type of industry.

Task 2

2.1 Analyze the reasons for human resource planning in organizations.

It is the process of making plans that fills the gap between the available Human resource and the future needs of the same. This acts as the link between the Human resource objectives and the organisational objectives. Planning has to be made aligning the individual and the organisational goals. This suggests that recruitment of the human resource is made according to the requirement to attain the objectives of the organisation. (Gilbert, Winne and Sels, 2015).

Some of the reasons of human resource planning have been discussed below:

1. Recruitment and selection: Human resource planning: needs to be done to choose the best and most appropriate technique for recruitment and selection of the candidates. This method is opted according to the requirement of the human resource in the organisation.
2. Turnover: If the company faces with high turnover of the employees than this is the alarming situation for human resource planning. This helps the organisation to predict the requirement of the employees in every department and also allow the organizations to know about the reason of the turnover. Recruitment needs to be done according to the rate of the turnover and the requirement.
3. Change in technology: If the organisation is opting for the new technology in the processes of any department, it is necessary to recruit the human resource with those skills. Human resource planning provides the idea of the requirement of the human resource and facilitates the company with the required employees at the time of introduction of the technology.
4. Rightsizing: Rightsizing refers to hiring or firing of the employees. Human resource planning needs to be done in order to maintain the balance of the number of employees in the organisation according to the need.

According to the scenario, the recruitment process of the organisation is not appropriate to recruit the employees with regard to the requirement of the organisation. It is necessary for the organisation to hire a new HR manager that supports the Hr department to frame new Human resource planning policies. (Mahmood, 2014).

2.2 Outline the stages involved in planning human resource requirements.

Human resource planning act as the blueprint to take the decisions about the recruitment in the organisation. This supports to take many decisions regarding the recruitment process and the requirement of the human resource in the organisation. Human resource planning is conducted in orderly manner for effective results. The process involves following steps:

1. Identification of organisational objectives: The process of human resource planning initiates with the identification of the goals of the organisation. These goals facilitate the Hr team to link the departmental objectives with the organizational objectives.
2. Review of past processes: after identifying the goals of the organisation, past processes need to be reviewed in order to identify the errors in the process. The  knowledege & information  by this step allows the organisation to match the existing processes with the present situation. Changes have to be made at this step if there is any deviation in the matching of the process with the current requirement. (Hoch and Dulebohn, 2013).
3. Review of number of employees: This step allow the organisation to match the number of employees already available in the organisation with the goal that needs to be achieved. This provides the gap between the availability and the requirement.
4. Planning: This is the most important step as it requires the overall planning of the process. Planning involves mapping out the step and measures that need to be done in order to fulfill the gap.
5. Monitoring and control: This is the last step of the process. It involves monitoring of the process in equal interval of time; any change in the organisation function will affect the process of human resource planning. This step also involves the changes that need to be made to meet the requirement of the current situation that is dynamic in nature.

2.3 Compare the recruitment and selection process in two organizations.

Sainsbury is the organisation which has got the HR excellence award in 2010. The recruitment and selection process of the company has been discussed below:

• Job analysis and vacancy announcement: The HR team of the company analyze the specifications of the job and skills required and then made the announcement of the job vacancy by job portals, company websites and print media.
• Application short-listing:  Applications of the aaplicants have to be shortlisted according to the job requirements.
• Preliminary interview: It is the interview process in which general questions related to prior job and education have been asked.
• Selection test: This test is required to assess the technical knowledge of the candidates.
• Final selection: IT is done after assessing the results of interview and test.
• Offer letter: Offer letter has been delivered to the candidates who have been finally selected.

Another organisation that is used to recruit and select the employees is Tesco:

Tesco has a systematic process of recruitment and selection. Recruitment of the employees in Tesco has been done by internal or external recruitment methods. The internal employees of the organization have been given the chance to apply for the vacant position. External candidates are also allowed to apply for the same position but the internal employees have given preference over them. (Tesco-careers.com, 2016). Selection process of Tesco involves a systematic process of screening, assessment and interview. Screening refers to the selection of the relevant CV’s out of all the applications. Assessment test has been conducted in order to judge the technical knowledge of the candidates. Last is the interview that decides the final selection of the candidate. In this phase, interviewers ask some of the questions to the candidate and overall judgment has been done by them according the job requirements.

2.4 Evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection techniques in two organizations.

Recruitment and selection of the correct candidate is very important for the organisation. This is the most expensive process and requires an intelligent approach to make the decisions. The decision regarding the method that needs to be opted to recruit and select the employees is very critical. Many organizations fail to succeed on selection of the appropriate method and hence affect the overall functioning of the organisation in negative way. As far as the organisation in the scenario is considered, it has been observed that company is facing high turnover rates. It has been identified that the organisation has a finance manager that is looking after the Hr functions. This is the main drawback for the company. Company is not getting good people because there is no HR manager in the organisation as well as the processes that has been used by the company for recruitment is not appropriate. Effectiveness of the recruitment process in this company is very poor. The company is not using the appropriate and effective method of recruitment according to the requirement.

Tesco is the company with least turnover rates, this is because the company uses best and most appropriate techniques of recruitment and selection. The employees that they recruit are satisfied with the working of the organisation and the company is satisfied with the working of the employees. This satisfaction from both the parties can be achieved only by recruiting right people at right time and at right place. The recruitment and selection process at Tesco is very effective as the processes that have been used by Tesco to recruit and select employees are according to the requirement. Recruitment process of the company is effective in short-listing the applications according to the job requirements. The selection of the candidate is alos done as per the job specifications. (Edralin, 2008).

Task 3

3.1 Assess the link between motivational theory and reward.

Motivation is the reason behind any particular behavior of an individual. It is the positive effect of anything that influences the individual to do something. Motivation is very important at workplace. It facilitates the employees with the reason to work effectively in the organisation. It is essential to motivate employees because this motivation helps the employees to fulfill their individual goals at workplace. Rewards are the extra benefits any individual can get in return of his performance. It is a kind of achievement that supports the employees at the workplace to perform in a better way. Rewards can be given in any form to the individual. At workplace, rewards have their immense importance.

Rewards are the most important motivating factor that motivates the employees to work. It creates a sense of competition among the employees to achieve higher goals. It is the human tendency that he works for the achievements that provide hi, with extra benefits. These extra benefits are the rewards at the workplace that can be achieved by the employees with return of their performance. This also acts as the driving force that drives the employees to perform. Rewards may have many forms and it is not necessary that every individual get motivated with the same type of rewards. Some of the employees get motivated with monetary rewards while some other gets motivated with the non monetary rewards. Many theories have been proposed to study the motivational factors at the workplace. Virgin media believes in the theory of human relation and identifies that some of its employees get motivated if they get attention. They choose recognition and attention as the type of reward that motivate the employees. Many programs like NPS Championship, SHOUT etc have been introduced in the organisation to provide recognition to the employees who perform. Another theory of motivation has been given by Maslow that suggests that human needs are changing and have to be fulfilled in order to make them work. Virgin Media works on this approach by assessing the requirement and needs of the employees so that they can be fulfilled in order to motivate them.

3.2 Evaluate the process of job evaluation and other factors determining pay.

It is very necessary to determine the position and worth of the job. Job evaluation is one of the process that is used to determine the worth and position of the job. Identification of the worth supports the organisation to form the hierarchy of the system. Job evaluation is process of analysing the role and responsibilities associated with the job and rating them according to their worth. Rating can be given by the range and the importance of the roles and responsibilities associated with the job. Identification of the roles and responsibilities, payoff the job has also been determined. This process involves the segmentation of the job activities with the allocation of the resources.

Process of job evaluation:

• Job analysis: It is the process of collecting relevant data of the job and analysing them to determine the roles and responsibilities associated with it. It is used to determine and identify the contents of the job and the activities related to the job specification that need to conducted at the time of performing that job.
• Job rating: Job rating is the measurement of the job responsibilities and ranking them according to their worth. This step involves allocating the resources to the activities related to the job. Resource allocation to the job activities also helps the organisation to determine the pay ratio of that particular job.

Some other factors have also been discussed below that helps in determining the pay of the job:

• Level of the job: The level associated with the job is very essential to be known. The jobs at higher level of management have higher pay scales than the jobs at lower level of management.
• Reward system: Virgin media uses this medium to determine the pay of the job in the organisation. Reward system is the process of providing rewards to the employees who perform better than others or complete their targets on time. Bonus scheme like ASPIRE has been used by the company to provide bonus to the employees.
• Compensation: Compensation is the benefits that have been given to the employees. This also helps in determining the pay of the job. Virgin media majorly use reward system as the factor to determine the pay. As stated earlier the company uses bonus schemes and several other schemes that provide different type of benefits to the employees working there. (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2016).

3.3 Assess the effectiveness of reward systems in different contexts.

Virgin Media uses many practices to provide rewards to the employees working there. There are many schemes that have been introduced by the company that benefits the employees. Performance is the basis of providing rewards to the employees in Virgin Media. Apprenticeship program by the organisation allow many of the trainees to get training in the organisation. These trainees get recognition as rewards in terms of completion of their training successfully. The organisation also provides the opportunity to the successful trainees to work with the company in future.

Reward system in the organisation is introduced to motivate the employees of the organisation. Virgin media also works on the same philosophy. They analyze the performance of the employees and rate them. The rating facilitates the organisation to reward the employees with higher ranks. Net Promoter Score is the approach that has been used to give scores to the employees out of 10. Employees getting higher scores rewarded accordingly. Reward system not only motivates the employees but help the company to retain the talent in the organisation. If the employees have been fairly paid with the incentives then they will never leave the company.

Provision of reward is the policy that also attracts the new talent. Better policies and culture of the company provides a sense of satisfaction among the employees and the employees get attracted towards the companies like this. Rewards in non monetary terms can be considered as the satisfaction of the employees. Virgin Media focuses on conducted the regular meetings to solve the problems of the employees. This satisfies the employee’s needs and motivates them to continue their career with the organisation. To conclude, it can be identified that Virgin Media is successful in motivating its employees and this help the company to complete its goals and objectives with the achievement of individual goals of the employees. (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2016).

3.4  Examine the methods organizations use to monitor employee performance.

Monitoring is the process of keeping a check on the performance of the employees. This allows the companies to evaluate the performance of the individuals and facilitates to reward the employees accordingly. Organisations need to monitor the performance of the employees to take out the errors in the performance and to take corrective measures where necessary. Various methods have been used to monitor the performance of the employees:

• Feedback: Feedback from the line managers of the department about the employee performance helps in determining the position of the employee working.
• Assessment of the quality of work: This is also the function of the line manager to assess the quality of the work of an employee. The quality can be checked by the manager on the random basis that provides the idea of the overall performance of the employee.
• Observation: Observation refers to keep a watch on the behaviour of the employee during working hours. The behaviour of the employee affects the performance of the individual.
• Rating: This method has been used to determine the worth of the performance of the employee with comparison to other employees in the same department or at the same level.
• Meetings: Regular meetings with the employees facilitate the management to know about the performance of the employee at the workplace.

Methods used by Virgin Media:   

• Behaviour of employee: The organisation believes that the behaviour of the employee determines his level of performance. If an employee is showing, positive gestures like voluntary involvement and team work in the organisation than it signifies that he is performing well.
• Rating by Net Promoter Score: It is the method that focuses on provision of the rating to the employees according to their performance. The rating card can assist the mangers to monitor the employee performance at Virgin Media. (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2016).

Task 4

4.1 Identify the reasons for cessation of employment with an organisation.

Cessation of employment refers to the termination of the job of an employee because of some of the reason. Cessation of the employment of an individual may caused by many reasons and the job can be ceased by any of the party from employee or employer. Some of the reasons for cessation of the employment have been discussed below:

Voluntary cessation: It is the type of cessation where employee himself takes the decision to leave the job. There is no involvement of the employer. There can be many reasons to leave the job:

• Dissatisfaction
• Health and safety  problems
• Shifting to other town or country
• Better opportunity in other company

Involuntary cessation: This type of cessation involves the will of the employer. In this case, employer is the one who ceases the job of an employee due to some of the reasons:

• Poor performance
• Violation of company law
• Restructuring of the organisation

Reasons of employment cessation in the given case:

1. Poor performance: As far as given case in considered, the first and foremost reason of the termination of Faisal’s job is the poor performance. Faisal was not performing his duties properly even after having 15 years of experience in the same industry.
2. Violation of company laws: It has been identified that Faisal violated the company’s contract by some of his wrongful acts. He was spending his working hours to do his personal duties and not found guilty for using the company equipment in designing his own restaurants. (Branine, 2008)

4.2 Describe the employment exit procedures used by two organizations.

Exit procedure is the process of exiting from the organisation due to cessation of the employment. There can be many reasons for the cessation. Different companies have different policies regarding the cessation of the employment and hence they use different practices or exit procedures. Single procedure is not used by the organisation, companies use mnay exit procedure according the reason behind the termination.

Some of the exit procedure used by Tesco has been discussed below:

1. Retirement: It is the exit procedure that focuses on cessation of the employment of an employee who has completed his working duration in his life. The age of the retirement has been standard for all the employees in the organisation.
2. Resignation: It is the voluntary action of the employee to leave the job. Tesco has the rule that states about the serving of notice period before the resignation.
3. Dismissal: It is the non-voluntary action taken by the employer to cease the employment of the employee due to some of the reasons:

• Poor performance
• Violation of contract
• Criminal records
• Harassment to other employees

1. Redundancy: Redundancy refers to the cessation of the employment of the employees because they are no more needed in the organisation. The reasons can be merger, acquisition, rightsizing etc. (Grieves, 2003)
2. Exit procedure used in the case: Dismissal has been used as the exit procedure due to poor performance of Faisal and due to violation of the contract by him. The practice of dismissal has been discussed above.

4.3 Consider the impact of the legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements.

Legal and regulatory framework of the country regulates the cessation activities of the organisations. This framework is made to safeguard the rights of the employer as well as the employees. Some of the legal regulation regarding the cessation is discussed below:

• Notice period: This practice is associated with the resignation. It is mandatory for the employees to serves the notice period before resigning. This notice period is decided by the organisation itself. (Mondy, Noe and Gowan, 2005)
• Dues of pay: It is mandatory for the employee as well as the employer to settle down all the dues at the last day of employment.
• Employment tribunals: Employment tribunals are the courts that facilitate the employer and the employee to resolve their issues. Employer and employee can file the case in the tribunal court if there is any legal violation involved.

In the above case, Faisal filed the case against Bob. He has used the facility of the tribunal by applying wrong allegations on Bob. The employment tribunal needs to take intelligent decision by investigating about the case. ACAS is the code of practice that is used to resolve such practices.

Conclusion

Human resource management is the basis of the organisation. The modernisation in the personnel management forms the policies of Human resource management. Practices of human resource department support the organisation to attain its goals. These practices involve recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, training etc. Planning needs to be conducted in order to fill the gap between the availability and requirement of the human resource in the organisations. It is also important for the organisation to frame their HRM policies according to the legal framework of the country. Cessation of the employees also influences by some of the legal factors. (Noe, 2007)