Unit 36 Guest Model Managing Human Resource Assignment

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 36 Guest Model Managing Human Resource
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

The guest model managing human resource includes the information regarding managing the human resource with the effect of which users will be able to gather the information related with how the people working at the workplace could be managed and how to make the internal environment happy as well as healthy. Information related with various legislations attached with the discrimination will be availed in this report and importance of team work will be evaluated so as to help the organizations to work on these aspects and managing the human resource in proper manner. Discussion related with human resource management of Thomas Cook will take place in this report. Thomas Cook is one of the largest leading leisure travel groups. It is serving more than 20 million customers with the sale of over £ 9 billion. This organization is supported by 27,000 employees which operates the business from 17 countries. Organization having such number of employees needs a proper human resource management system. Hence, a try of providing effective set of information related with managing human resource will be made with the help of this report so that Thomas Cook could indulge in the practices with the effect of which its Human Resources could get managed.

Task 1

1.1   Explain Guest’s Model of HRM as applied to the organization.

Thomas Cook is changing and the organization have started the journey to transform the business and providing effective support to the human resource. Organization has put in place the building blocks by introducing a sustainable human resource management and adopting new techniques and models for the same (Thomascook.com, 2016). In the same manner Guest’s Model of HRM is applied to Thomas Cook.

Guest’s Model: David Guest is one of the biggest contributors in the HRM. There are different set of perspectives and approaches that are availed by David Guests and John Storey in relation with human resource management. Guest’s model was also introduced by David Guest (Bach, et. al., 2013). There are certain aspects that are attached with Guest’s Model they are:

HRM Strategy: There are various set of strategies that can be developed with the help of HRM which provides various benefits to the same. One of the most important benefits that are being availed by HRM to the Thomas Cook is reduction in employee turnover ratio. With the help of the strategies developed by HRM employees working at Thomas Cook are being assisted which brings quality in the work which is being processed by them (Wang, 2015).

HRM Practices: HRM practices of Thomas Cook include hiring of the candidates to manage the work, providing them appropriate training, appraisals and compensation and building effective set of relationship with the new hired candidates. Such types of activities help in motivating the workforce and building positive relationship with them. 

HR Outcomes: Outcomes of Human resource include commitment to avail the quality at workplace and making the workplace flexible so that work could be managed. It is important that HRM should remain prepared for the change and commit to manage the change and bring quality.

Behavioral Outcomes: Behavioral Outcomes include cooperation of the motivation and developing organizational citizenship. It is necessary that HRM should ensure that the workforce should remain motivated and happy and should try to develop the organizational citizenship so that resources of Thomas Cook could stay with it only (Kim, et. al., 2014).

Performance Outcomes: HRM of Thomas Cook evaluates the performance of the employees and the outcomes. Certain bases are set by HRM for the evaluation of performance like productivity, innovations, quality and staff turnover. It is necessary that HRM should keep eye on certain aspects so as to ensure that organization could grow as well as people working in it could also develop and work effectively.

Financial Outcomes: HRM of Thomas Cook looks after the profits and the return on investments so as to estimate the requirement of travel and tourism development programs at the workplace. For HRM of Thomas Cook it is necessary that they should get effective set of profit so that it could move on the path of success and sustainability in the market (Smith, et. al., 2016).

1.2 Choosing two organizations of your choice compare the difference between Storey’s definitions of HRM, personnel and IR practices.

Comparison of the difference between Storey’s definition of HRM and Personnel and IR practices:

Storey’s HRM at Thomas Cook	Personnel Management / IR Practices at Morgan Hunt
According to Storey’s HRM is a distinctive approach which is used by the management to seek to achieve competitive advantage by applying the strategic deployment of the workforce which is highly committed and capable of performing their tasks. In this management uses the array of cultural structural and personnel techniques (Pascal, et. al., 2013).	It is an administrative function that exists in the organization to help in developing effective set of relationship between the management and employees. It ensures that the employees should get hired which have effective knowledge skill and abilities which could ensure to fulfill the needs and requirements of workplace.
Decision making is much faster in HRM than any other management system.	Decision making is quit slowly in Personnel management.
Focus relies with providing motivation to the employees.	It requires a proper set of descriptions of the programs.
Management in it is transformational.	In this management is transactional.
Flow of communication is effective and employees are free to communicate with each other (Brunnert, et. al., 2014).	Communication system is restricted. Employees cannot communicate with upper level management.
Strategic planning is being taken into consideration	No consideration is made in relation with strategic planning

1.1 Assess the implications for line managers and employees of developing a strategic approach to HRM for any organization.

Transformation is designed in Thomas Cook to deliver sustainable value creation. For the organization this means having the best people and best process in place to create a thriving business. For such transformation line manager plays very vital role in adopting the strategic approaches which could fulfill the requirements of the organization. For a line manager it becomes necessary to implement the strategies so as to manage the culture, business policies, goals and leadership styles. Integration of the strategic approaches with the principles, objectives and goals of Thomas Cook is one of the most important aspects attached with the role of line manager (Leonard, 2013). Line manager of Thomas Coo represents its employees. He ensures that the employees working Thomas Cook should remain motivated and their jobs should remain secure and should get proper set of appraisals and bonuses. It depends on the line manager on how to maintain the environment of the workplace. Whether to keep the environment cool and friendly in which employees could work happily and have the freedom to share their views related to the work process or to make the environment serious in which formal culture is being followed and employees do not have the authorities to share their views and ideas with the management. Line manager keeps eye on the performance of the training and evaluates the requirements of training and schedules the training programs for them. Line manager of Thomas Cook ensures that quality could be brought to the workplace and organization could move on the path of success and sustainability (Fan, et. al., 2016).

Task 2

2.1 Explain how a model of flexibility might be applied in your organization.

Flexibility is the key to success for any organization. It is necessary that Thomas Cook should remain flexible and should have the plans which could be changed at the time of requirements. Organization’s of rigid nature affects its progress in the market. More clear and better understanding could be developed by gaining information related with flexibility model. It is necessary that importance of responsiveness should be understood by Thomas Cook. It is necessary that positive response should be provided to the needs and requirements of the customers so that they could remain attached with the organization (Bach, et. al., 2013). Differentiation is another aspect that should be taken into consideration by Thomas Cook. It should try to refine its services and should try to differentiate them with the services provided by others so that customers could get attracted towards the services of Thomas Cook.

It is necessary that Thomas Cook should evaluate its efficiency on regular basis and should try to enhance the efficiency so that it manages to overcome from all the aspects or risk factors which could affect it in competitive market. It is necessary that the Thomas Cook should evaluate the magnitude of the desired changes so that it could develop the strategies accordingly and could sustain in the market.

Thomas Cook could also apply the Core-periphery Growth model so as to remain sustain. It is the method that helps the organization to ensure that it could manage its functions according to the economic aspects of the market and could manage to progress in the market. This helps in ensuring that at the time of requirements it could implement the changes which could help the organization to manage the work process and helps in overcoming from all the risk factors which could affect the business (Wang, 2015).

2.2 Discuss the types of flexibility that may be developed by Thomas Cook.

It is necessary that every organization available in the market should remain flexible. There are various types of flexibilities that are developed by Thomas Cook so as to ensure that the workplace could remain flexible and organization could sustain in the market. These flexibilities are:

Functional Flexibility: It is a kind of flexibility in which training is provided to the employees which prepares them to remain prepared to get redeployed in any kind of the process (Newman, et. al., 2015). It provides cross training to the employees to remain flexible so that they at the time of requirement they could manage any kind of work. This is the activity that ensures that the time of the requirements of the workforce could be redeployed to the process which has excess work pressure so that work could be managed with the workforce available in the organization.

Numerical Flexibility: Thomas Cook has adopted the system in which bifurcation of the categories of the employees could be done on the basis of the requirements of the workplace. HRM of Thomas Cook evaluates the requirement of the workforce at the workplace and manages the workforce accordingly. It prepares the chart of the number of employees required at the workplace and hires them accordingly. For example: It keeps some of the employee relation on part time basis and some on contract basis and other works on full time basis. At the time of requirement Thomas Cook takes the help from part time employees and from the employees working on contract basis (Kim, et. al., 2014).

Financial Flexibility: Some of the payments systems supports and reinforce the flexibility in the organization these payments systems are known as financial flexibility. HRM of Thomas Cook keeps the track on the financial systems and prefers to manage the flexibility in that so that business could function in the smooth manner.

2.3 Assess the use of flexible working practices from both the employees and employers perspective.

There are various flexible working methods that are beneficial for both employees as well as employers. Adopting the flexible working practices helps in keeping the working environment cool with the effect of which work of the organization could be managed in an effective and smooth manner. There are various flexible working practices which could be adopted by Thomas Cook which would help the employer as well as employees:

Employment of Part Time: This is a flexible working practice in which employees are hired so as to work for the half time. This helps the employers to reduce the cost that indulges in the operations and salary of the employees. Employees get benefited as they can manage their other works and could balance the personal as well as professional life.

Temporary Staff: These are the staff members that are hired on the contract basis. Temporary staffs are hired on less wages or salary so as to manage the work at the peak time. Work process of Thomas Cook gets managed in an effective manner in fewer expenses (Smith, et. al., 2016).

Teleworking and home working: There are certain work processes of Thomas Cook which could be managed from home or any other place. For such work Thomas Cook could hire people who prefer to work from home. These employees get hired in less salary and works effectively as they have the responsibility to manage the work. It is beneficial for both employee as well as Thomas Cook as employee could manage the work from anywhere and do not have to work within the boundaries of the office timings and could do others earnings also. On the other hand Thomas Cook will get the employees at lesser salary that will be managing the work and will help in the smooth flow of the business.

Zero Hours Contract: Zero hours contract is the contract in which employer do not provide set working time to work for the organization. In this type of contract no fix times to work at the workplace are given to the employees. In this type of contract employees remain free from all the restrictions and could work according to their will. This type of activity helps in bringing quality to the work with the effect of which organization could sustain in the competitive market (Shuck, et. al., 2014).

These are some of the practices which could be adopted by Thomas Cook so as to ensure that its work could be managed in an effective manner and quality could be brought to the services which are being provided to the target users. These working practices will help Thomas Cook to build effective relationship with the employees and will lead to save the cost and money.

2.4 Discuss the impact that changes in the labor market have had on flexible working practices.

Changes have a great impact on the labor market, either it could be possible that the changes could have positive impact on the labor market or it could have the negative impact on the labor market. Labors in Thomas Cooks comes from different demography, there are certain local and some of the labor comes from other places, hence in such type of situations it becomes necessary that Thomas Cook should apply the flexible working practices on the labor so that they could prepare themselves to manage the changes and work according to the changes that are brought to the workplace.

Flexible working practices helps in introducing the new way of managing the work and avails the opportunities to the labor to refine their skills and bring quality to the workplace. Refining the skills will avail the opportunity to the labor to manage the earnings in more effective manner and to grow in the market. Adopting the flexible working practices will help the labor to develop the understanding with the importance of managing the work life balance with the effect of which they will be able to work more effectively at the workplace and could manage the change accordingly (Pascal, et. al., 2013).

Task 3

3.1 Explain the forms of discrimination that can take place in the workplace using the examples of recent discrimination cases which has made the news.

It is necessary that organizations should work to reduce discrimination at the workplace and should work towards to ensure that employees working at the workplace should not indulge in such type of unethical practices. It is necessary that all the employees working at the workplace should be treated equally and should get the opportunities according to their skills and abilities rather than their race, gender, religion, disability, age or culture. It is necessary that Thomas Cook should gain appropriate information related with various forms of discrimination which could affect the organization and its image in the market:

Direct Discrimination: Direct discrimination is the discrimination in which organizations select the candidates on the basis of castes, culture, religion gender or age. People working at the workplace are treated according to the caste, culture, religion or gender and organization do not provide equal opportunities to them. It is necessary that all the employees of Thomas Cook should be treated equally at the workplace and discrimination should be eliminated (Mishra, at. al., 2015).

Indirect Discrimination: Indirect discrimination is the discrimination in which certain groups working at the workplace are discriminated and are not being treated equally. All the employees working at the workplace are treated equally except several groups. In this discrimination is not being done on the basis of caste, religion, gender or culture but several groups are not being treated equally (Brunnert, et. al., 2014). In some cases discrimination could be done but is necessary that the requirement of the job should be related with the discrimination like for an organization which works for women in which only female candidates could get hired. In this case gender discrimination could be done by the organization.

One of the recent example of discrimination is Starbucks as recently women with Dyslexia has won a disability discrimination against the employer Starbucks. It was found by the tribunal that Meseret Kumulchew who was having the disability and was doing mistakes in reading, writing and telling the time. Meseret Kumulchew was responsible for taking the temperature of the fridges and water at specific time and tracking and recording the results in a duty roster. She was accused by Starbucks for falsifying the document after mistakenly entering wrong information (Case discussed in Meseret Kumulchew v Starbucks against disability discrimination).

Certain statistics were published by the ministry of justice which shows the most up to date figures which are related with the Employment Tribunal Claims were raised in Scotland, England and Whales. According to the Ministry a list of awards is being provided for unfair dismissal and discrimination claims which are necessary for Thomas Cook:

3.2 Discuss the practical implications of equal opportunities legislations for an organization.

According to the legislation it is necessary that all the employees working in the organization should be treated equally and should get equal opportunities. Certain set of practical implications are provided by the legislation so as to ensure that the employees working at the workplace should get equal opportunities and should be treated equally. These implications are:

All the HRM policies and guidelines should be reviewed by Thomas Cook. It is necessary to review because it helps in keeping internal environment healthy and safe. Policies and guidelines of HRM help in the execution of the operations (Fan, et. al., 2016).  It is also necessary that HRM of Thomas Cook should focus on financial implications and should ensure that they should be implemented fairly at the workplace. It is necessary that the employees working at Thomas Cook should get financial resources and according to the skills, abilities and positions they hold at the workplace. There are equal pay policies that are provided by the legislations so as to ensure that discrimination in the pay should not occur at the workplace. According to the instructions of the legislation it is necessary that Thomas Cook should provide equal pay to the employees and should avail it on the basis of the experience and knowledge of an individual regarding the work that is to be processed by him (Bach, et. al., 2013). It is necessary that the salary and wages of the workers should be decided according to Equal Pay Act 1979 as any discrimination could directly affect the image of the company.

It is necessary that HRM of Thomas Cook should ensure that fair practices should be implemented at the workplace. It is necessary that employees should be provided the information related discriminations and unethical practices and should ensure that employees should try to avoid the unethical practices. Preparing the compliance policies will help the HRM of Thomas Cook to avoid all kind of ethical practices from the workplace.

3.3 Compare the approaches to managing equal opportunities and managing diversity. You should give examples from a selected organization and discuss the similarities and differences in their approaches to managing equal opportunities and diversity.

Managing diversity as well as equal opportunities is a very big task for any organization. It is necessary that the organization should develop several approaches so as to manage the same. Preparing the policies in relation with the equal opportunities as well as managing the diversities will help Thomas Cook to maintain the decorum of the business. It is necessary that HRM of Thomas Cook should take care that candidates should get hired on the basis of the skills and knowledge they have regarding the work that is to be managed rather than hiring them on the basis of their caste, religion, race or gender (Jones, 2009).

Bringing the people of different diversities at one place and bringing them together to work as a team is a very tough task. It is necessary that HRM of Thomas Cook should ensure that people coming from different diversities should understand the importance f togetherness and work accordingly so that they could build effective set of relationship with each other and work more effectively at the workplace.

There are various activities that could be applied by Thomas Cook so as to ensure that employees working at the workplace could build effective set of relationship with each other and could work as a team. For example: indulging the employees in cultural activities helps them to understand different-different cultures, fun games, and office parties helps in bringing the people together and building effective set of relationship with the effect of which they could work with each other and could develop an effective team at the workplace (Wang, 2015).

Task 4

4.1 Select an organization you work or have worked for, identify and compare the performance management methods used.

Performance management is the aspect that gives set direction to the organization and helps it to manage and ensure that the organization could bring quality to the workplace. To ensure that employees at the workplace could manage the work in an effective manner Thomas Cook will have to ensure that performance of the employees could remain managed. Performance management helps in removing biasness from the workplace and providing equal opportunities to the capable candidates performing effectively in the organization. There are certain methods that could help Thomas Cook in performance management process.

Reward System: Performance of the employees is being evaluated at the workplace so as to provide rewards to the performer performing effectively. Management keeps the track record of the employees and evaluates the end results on the basis of which rewards are provided to the employees (Newman, et. al., 2015). Rewards system also helps in getting the information regarding the people who are not able to perform at the workplace for which training programs are being scheduled by the company.

Monitoring and Supervising: It is the process with the effect of which supervisors’ keeps eye on the performance of the employees and provide them appropriate direction where ever it is required. It is necessary that supervisors or concerned manager should monitor the performance of the employees and work provide proper set of guidance to them.

360 Degree Appraisals: It is another method of managing the performance of the employees. In this information related with the behavior of an individual is gathered from his peer members, managers, colleagues, friends and team leader so as to provide appraisal and reducing biasness from the workplace (Kim, et. al., 2014).

4.2 Assess the approaches used to managing employee welfare in Thomas Cook.

There are certain roles and responsibilities of an organization towards its employees. It is necessary that an organization should work on the welfare of the employees as it is one of the responsibilities of the organization towards its employees. It is important that Thomas Cook should treat the employees as the valuable assets because without them organization could not run and services will not be delivered to the end users. There are certain set of opportunities that are availed by Well Being Charters for employers to demonstrate their commitment to the health and well being to their work force (Wellbeingcharter.org.uk, 2016). Organizations of all size can take help from well being charter. Thomas Cook could adopt certain set of approaches by taking the help of well being charters which are as follows:

Personal Assistance: It is necessary that employees working in Thomas Cook should get personal assistance so that they could gain effective set of knowledge or how to refine their skills as the workplace (Smith, et. al., 2016).

Anti Discrimination programs: It is also one of the welfare programs that could be applied by Thomas Cook for the welfare of the employees. It is necessary that the employees having certain diseases like HIV or Cancer should not be ignored or discriminated at the workplace rather they should be provided equal opportunities at the workplace and should be helped to overcome from the dilemma. It is necessary that Thomas Cook should apply occupational health practices and policies so as to ensure that it could provide effective support to the employees working at the workplace and could contribute in managing the health in an effective manner (Shuck, et. al., 2014). Health management will help Thomas Cook to reduce absenteeism from the workplace which will ensure the smooth flow of the work process. It is also necessary that organization should provide retirement benefits to the employees with the effect of which they could manage their livings after the retirement.

4.3 Discuss the implications of health and safety legislations on human resource practices.

There are various legislations that are attached with health and safety at workplace. It is necessary that Thomas Cook should ensure that all the legislations should be followed so as to keep the employees safe and secure at the workplace. It is necessary that Thomas Cook should develop the policies according to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and should avail all the safety equipments at the workplace (Pascal, et. al., 2013). According to the act it is necessary that all the employees should get proper set of training of how to remain safe at the workplace. It is necessary organization should provide the instructions of health and safety measures on the walls. Thomas Cook should keep a regular check on the health and safety equipments and should ensure that they should work properly and could help in the emergency situations. 

Health and safety commission plays a very vital role in managing the health of the employees at the workplace and ensures that the management should follow all the instructions that are provided in relation with health and safety of the workforce (Brunnert, et. al., 2014).

4.4 Evaluate the impact of another topical issue on human resource planning.

There are various issues that affect the HRM planning at workplace. It is necessary that HRM of the organization should work on these issues and should ensure that work could be processed in a smooth manner. Some of the issues are:

• Lack of team spirit is one of the topical issues that have a great impact on human resource planning. It is necessary that organization should work towards to develop effective team spirit among the employees working at the workplace (Cipd.co.uk, 2016). People of different diversities work at the workplace which faces issues in coordinating with other employees which affects the work process and the internal environment of the organization, it is necessary that HRM should work towards to bring them together and developing the team spirit so that they could work effectively at workplace.
• Employee turnover ratio also affects the human resource planning. Increase in the turnover ratio affects the work process which leads to increasing the work pressure on others. It is necessary that HRM should work towards to reduce employee turnover ratio and should manage the work process at the workplace (Leonard, 2013).

Conclusion

Managing human resource is one of the most critical tasks of all time for the HRM of any organization. But it is necessary that an organization should evaluate the strategies and plans so as to manage the work force in an effective way. It is necessary that organizations should adopt appropriate methods so as to manage the work as well as workforce and to ensure that people from different diversities could come together and work as a team. Organizations should also try to ensure that discrimination could be eliminated from the workplace and each and every employee should be given equal set of opportunities. Such type of activity helps in reducing employee turnover ratio and helps in the smooth flow of the work at the workplace.

References

Books

Bach, S. and Edwards, M. (2013). Miaging human resources. Hoboken. N.J.: Wiley.

Journals
Wang, J. (2015). Stress and work: perspectives on understanding and managing stress. Human Resource Development International. 18(2), pp.213-216.
Kim, S. and Shin. D. (2014). Gender Discrimination at Korean Workplace. kjs, 48(4),
p.91.
Chand, M. (2010). Human resource management practices in Indian hospitality enterprises: an empirical analysis. Managing Leisure, 15(1-2), pp.4-16.
Brunnert, A., Vogele, C., Danciu, A., Pfaff, M., Mayer, M. & Krcmar, H. 2014, “Performance Management Work”, Business & Information Systems Engineering, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 177-179.
Fan. D., Xia. J., Zhang, M.M., Zhu. CJ. & Li, Z. 2016, “The paths of managing
international human resources of em erging market multinationals: Reconciling strategic
goal and control means”, Human Resource Management Review, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 298-
310.
Newman. A.. Mayson, S.. Teicher. 3. & Barrett, R. 2015. “Special issue oflnternational Journal of Human Resource Management: Recruiting, managing and rewarding workers in social enterprises”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 26,no. l4,pp. 1907-1909.
Pascal, A. & Romme. AGL Georges = Sjoerd 2013, “Developing a human-centred and science-based approach to design the information and knowledge management platform project”, British Journal of Management. vol. 24, no. 2. pp. 264-280.
Shuck, B., Twyford, D., Reio. T.G. & Shuck, A. 2014, “Human Resource Development
Practices and Employee Engagement: Exaniining the Connection With Employee
Turnover Intent ions”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 239-
270.
Smith, L., Rees, P. & Murray, N. 2016, “Turning entrepreneurs into intrapreneurs:
Thomas Cook, a case-study”, Tourism Management, vol. 56, pp. 19 1-204.