Human Resource Management (HRM) Unit 3: Assignment Brief
Human Resource Management (HRM) Unit 3: Assignment Brief
Human Resource Management (HRM) Unit 3: Assignment Brief
Assignment Brief
BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Business
30thDec,2018
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Human Resource Management (HRM) Unit 3
Introduction:
HRM plays a very important role in ensuring the success of the
organization and also helps its brand image which in turns help the
company. HRM is the strategic approach to the effective management
of organization workers so that they help the business gain a
competitive advantage, commonly known as the HR Department, it is
designed to maximize employee performance in service of an
employer's strategic objectives. In easy words HRM is all about
managing the employees as they are the most important assets of a
company. In this context, employees are sometimes referred to
as human capital.
LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing an
organization with talent and skills appropriate to fulfill business functions.
HRM is the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying and handling staff of an organization. HRM is
frequently referred to simply as HR.The HR department of a business or organisation is generally
accountable for developing, implementing and supervising employee policies and the organization's Connection with its
staff.HRM is really the management of staff with a focus on those staff as
company Assets. Employees are sometimes referred to in this sense as human capital. Functions of human resource
management are planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
Workforce planning is the strategy employers use to anticipate employment requirements and Most efficiently deploy
employees, generally with sophisticated technology of human resources.
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an
organization.
Functions of human resource management:
Planning:
It is one of the primary function of human resource management as it determines the number of employees needed in
the organization with skills to perform to fulfil organizational goals and objective. For instance the HR department of Mc
Donald’s will plan accordingly to the size of the organization like how much task are there and how many workers are
needed to fulfil these task as they have to reach the goal of the organization.
Organizing:
Organization is another important step because each individual is allocated with the task as per the skills so Mc Donald’s
will organize its staff after planning which task is to be done by which worker for example if they human resource
department will hire the cashier so his/her duty to complete the task. On the other hand waiter will complete his/her
duty they will serve the customers on table. So the company will allocate the tasks individually.
Directing:
This involves activating and making maximum contribution to the organisational
objective of Staff at distinct levels A primary focus is to exploit an employee's maximum potential through
continuous motivation and control.HR department of Mc Donald’s will make sure that the employees are performing
their tasks with motivation are giving their best like waiters are serving on time and cashiers are taking orders on time
without getting delayed and making people to wait in long ques.
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Controlling:
Post planning, organizing and directing, performance of an employee is checked, verified and compared with goals. If
actual performance is found deviated from the plan, control measures are taken.
Disadvantage: issue emerges once we rise above these simple practices. There’s decent assorted variety of best apply
that moves faraway from consistency. Threat of transforming into partner degree complete in itself to the detriment of
organization objectives/interests are regularly strife between benefit to organization and benefit to worker i.e.
reengineering and conservation staff may lose their voice. Probably won't be relevant through and through things or
maybe in areas of same business.
Disadvantage: will disregard laborer interests. A few enterprises are sensible all-rounder's in this manner unit of time
rehearses probably not going to be upheld one system. There’s constantly pressure. Whereas practices may meet
existing ways, things revision rapidly in this way unit of time procedure can't be excessively parochial. Should bolster
hierarchical adaptability an extreme measure of are regularly unnoticed.
Hard HRM:
Here the staff gets utilized as asset for an exchange
wherever a powerful connection is known therewith of
the look of corporate business. Amid this model, the
HRM would impressively be ingestion on would like
the prerequisites the needs of labor and oversee and
select experts according to the need.
Soft HRM:
In delicate HRM all the staff get a treatment of being in
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an exceedingly one among one in everything about first assets and remain a supply for keeping the focused edge. Truth
is told they're treated as individuals and thereupon every one of their needs get arranged subsequently. Amid this
model, the HRM would impressively be assimilation on the prerequisites of labor according to their jobs and duties with
extra points of interest of inspirations and reward frameworks .
Modals of HRM:
The first HRM concept was made by the Michigan school in 1984. They said that the HR systems and organization
structure should be managed in a congruent manner with the organizational strategy. The other people who believed in
the Human Resource Management included Harvard school of Beer et al (1984), they developed the ‘Harvard
Framework’. The Harvard school illustrated two features to and modeled the HR:
The Harvard Framework for Human Resource Management (Source: Beer et al, 1984)
We just discussed the Harvard model so far which one type of HRM is. The other type of HRM is The Michigan/Matching
Model. This model was founded by Fombrun Tichy and Devanna in 1984 at Michigan Business School. They named it
model of HRM. This model shows strong bonding between the HR strategy and the business strategy. This model shows
the importance of the HR strategy and says that it has to be highly calculative in terms of quantity of the human
resources. Whereas, the business strategy has to take the central stage. This is all done to achieve an organizational
goal. The business strategy should achieve minimum labor cost.
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Devanna 1984
Further we have another modal knows as the ‘Guest Modal’:
This modal has both aspects of hard and soft approach of the HRM. There are 4 components for the guest modal listed
as:
Flexibility
High Commitment
Quality
Strategic integration
Workforce planning:
Work force planning requires eight steps which include:
Analyze the workforce.
Skill gaps to be identified.
Examine the future workforce demand.
Retention and Recruitment
to understand the labour market
Develop plans and training.
Develop workforce plans.
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The workforce planning is required for every organization, even if you have a small business setup and you don’t own a
big organization, still there will be a lot of factors of work force planning you can use to make your organization
effective. For example, we have labor in every organization. We can use
the factors of Work force to be more effective. Work force planning can
also provide scarcity of resources. Work force planning is also something
that HR has to do in isolation.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection.
Retention and Recruitment:
In this section, the plan is set and we require to start working. All the given requirements have to be implemented. The
Workforce requirements are changed to recruitment plan. This further will include the development plans and
strategies.
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Recruitment:
it is a process of hiring suitable candidates to fill positions. The process involves searching, testing and selecting the right
candidates to work for the organization. There are 2 different sources.
Internal recruitment:
This involves recruiting the candidates within the organization to fill the vacancy. Companies do this by promoting
employees to higher position and bringing retired employees to temporary positions.
Methods:
Promotion, giving permanent positions to temporary employees, internal advertisements.
Advantages:
It provides opportunities for promotion with in the business. Business knows the strengths and weakness of the people
working there. Its cost effective and quick recruitment process People are familiar with the nature of business and the
way it operates.
Disadvantages:
It limits the number of potential applicants. The ideas can’t be introduced from outside so limited ideas will be produced
within the workplace.
External recruitment:
External recruitment is the assessment of available job candidates other than the existing staff to see if there are any
skilled or qualified candidates to fill the job vacancy. it is the searching of candidates outside of the current employee
pool to fill the positions in the organization.
Methods:
Job portals, Print Media, and Electronic media.
Advantages:
People from outside are appointed which bring new and innovative ideas. There are a large number of candidates from
which the most people with more skills and experience can be appointed.
Disadvantages:
It’s a long and expensive process due to interviews and advertising In this method selection process might not be that
effective to reveal the best candidate.
Selection:
This is also one of the main roles of the HR department as choosing the right candidates for the company is a tough task.
There are different selection methods through which the HR department makes the choice. There is different selection
methods used for different organization depending on every organization’s work purpose. The selection process consists
of eight different steps which successfully passed by any candidate leads him/her to the job. The HR department focuses
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and makes the most appropriate decision for the company as selecting and hiring the competitive and experienced
employees helps in building the organization strong and successful.
Interviews:
Structured interviews are the most effective type of the selection methods. The interview process is formed through
identification of the key requirements of the job and a list of questions is drawn up. A panel of interviewers works
through each set of questions with each candidate and scores them on their answers. At the end of the interview
process the overall scores are considered and the best candidate chosen.
Mc Donald’s:
M1 Assess how the functions of HRM can provide talent and skills appropriate to fulfill business
objectives.
Assess how the Functions of HRM fulfil Business Objectives:
The main objective of every business is to earn maximum profit but besides there are some practices which any
organization will do fulfill their objectives. As the human resource department is responsible for hiring the right people
for the right job For this certain practices are followed for example human resource department will use the recruitment
and selection methods through this they will get to know and will be able to select the right person. For instance
selection methods which are interviews, Cv”s ability test etc. By conducting interviews they can get to know the person
who effective and efficient he/she is for the job. Some of the interview questions help a lot in judging and knowing the
person. Besides this other methods such as ability test also make sure that how capable a person is for the job he/she is
applying for CV’s also helps the organization let know them what is the qualification of the person and were his/her past
experiences and how well he can manage and work for the organization in the job.
D1, M2 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Strengths and Weaknesses Approaches to Recruitment and Selection:
The human resource manager of Mc Donald’s will use the external recruitment methods for company. The first method
they will use is print media (newspaper and magazines) method as it is cost convenient and effective as well. All the
people around the world read newspaper daily which shows that there is a strong chance of getting the vacancies filled
by time. This is one of the easiest ways for the company as well as for the people to apply and find the right candidates
for the job.
The other method that they will use is internet (company’s website) as it is also an effective method. The company
representatives will put all the information required for the job along with the advertisement which makes it easy for
the people who want to join and work for our company. This method also does not cost much amount of money which a
plus point for us because it’s a new business.
The other method that I would want to use is internship programs. This method is effective because there are people
with great skills which we might find through this way. Through this method we will be able to meet people who can
work well for our organization very well and we can train them for future career.
They would not want to use the other recruitment methods as they seem costly and less effective as compared to the
others. And for restructuring and getting things done they will choose the best possible methods that cost less and give
the maximum outcome.
Lo2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organization
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer and
employee.
Development has two types; personal and professional. Personal development can refer to an acquisition of skills that
help an employee anywhere in his life. This can be achieved by an event that makes an employee mentally mature etc.
Professional development is solely related to the job. It refers to any skills or tricks that the employee picks up that help
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him in his profession but are not that useful anywhere else e.g. knowing how to make spread sheets on excel is very
helpful in the workplace but is useless if he has to cook himself a meal etc. Training is basically a means to achieve the
professional development mentioned above. Most training sessions are related to the workplace and offer very little
when it comes to personal life. There are two types of development personal development and professional
development. Professional development helps in the understanding of the job. It allows developing the necessary skills
required in the working environment. Professional development involves also different types of training required at
workplace to enhance the effectiveness of work and skills. Personal Development is obviously with age and experience
but has an aptitude and behavioural element too.HR should be able to identify these needs as well to work towards
personal development besides professional development. Both personal and professional development helps in the
enhancement of life skills at work place and helps to achieve better results in any organization where such types of
developments takes place and are beneficial for the employees as well because they perform better. Training is the
fundamental concept in the development of human capital. It is concerned with the production by guidance and training
of a particular skill by desired level. Training is a very useful tool that can place employee in a role where they can do
their job properly, effectively and conscientiously. Training is an act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an
employee for doing a particular job. Training is very important for organizational success and development because it is
beneficial for both employees and the employer of the organization. Employees perform better if they are trained and
give better results to organization.
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational profit and
productivity.
Human Resource Management Practices in Terms of Profit and Productivity:
Development and training:
Employees should must have the skills of professional development as its necessary in any organization to efficiently
perform their task. For instance in Mc Donald’s their employees must be professionally developed and trained to
perform their tasks like the cashier at Mc Donald’s must know what is his/her job and how effectively and efficiently he
can deal with the customers and technology he/she is using. Professional development further involves the training
which employees are given in order to perform better. There are certain types of training like on the job, off the job and
employees are trained professionally for example if the employees of Mc Donald’s are trained so they will perform
better the end result will be great as training increases productivity of the organization and they are less supervised as
they will have the skills to perform. Trained employees also result in the wastage and time of the organization.
M3 Assess different methods used in HRM practices providing specific example to support evaluation context.
D2 Critically evaluate HRM practices and application within an organizational context using a range of specific
examples.
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Numerical flexibility:
A businesses numerical flexibility is its ability to assign a number of employees to different roles or branches to meet
demand.
Functional flexibility:
Functional flexibility refers to a business deploying its employees effectively to achieve the best effect.
Structural flexibility:
A businesses structural flexibility is its ability to change its administrative structure in response to any changes in the
environment.
LO3 Analyze internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-making,
including employment legislation
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respects to influencing HRM decision making.
Employee relation is important when there is effective communication between employees and employer. Making
employees feel engaged and responsible is very important. They also need to be aware about what is happening in the
company’s plan and management. How management plans can have impact on their jobs etc. Employs should feel that
their opinions are being heard and cared at the same time. When a manager or a co-worker is around there are less
chances of conflicts so a peaceful working environment maintains a strong employee and employer relationship.
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Although workers are driven by salary and benefits, appreciation is equally important. Small surprises and gratitude
tokens scattered all year around make people feel much more appreciated.
P6 identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision making.
Key elements of Employment Legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision- making:
The term legislations means to cover all the laws which have been enacted to deal with employment and non-
employment, wages, working conditions, Industrial relations, social security and welfare of persons employed in
industries. Labour laws apply to all government laws to provide workers with social and economic security. These
measured are aimed at reducing output losses due to labour disputes and ensuring payments of workers ‘salaries and
other basic facilities. Labour laws are very important in terms they not only regulate the industrial establishment work
but also industrial relation, payment of wages, registration of trade unions.it defines the legal rights of employee and
employer and also provide the guideline between their relationship. Labour laws allow workers to receive basic
occupational safety services and benefits. With the enactment of labour legislations organizations have to provide
hygiene and well maintained working conditions to their employees.
Inequality at workplace:
An individual’s discriminations or unfair treatment based on different characteristics such as age, race or sex Civil rights
laws specifically addresses the protection of employment discrimination, prohibiting the discrimination of individuals in
employment. Equal Employment Opportunity Acts regulate the compliance to rules by employers.
M4 Evaluate the key aspects of employee relation management and employment legislation that affect
HRM decision making in organizational context.
Evaluate the key aspects of employee:
Labor and employment laws permit employee relations specialists to perform the basic duty for which they are hired
Protect the interests of the employer while maintaining a productive employer-employee relationship. Although legal
counsel is another resource for employee relations specialists, too-frequent dependence on legal counsel can drive up
employer costs.
In Mc Donald’s there are certain employee and employer relationship practices. Mc Donald’s provide training to its
employees who also give them the opportunity to learn something new and this can also give them the chances of
promotion as well. By training their employees they can manage the strong relation with their employees.Supervisors
and managers frequently consult employee relations specialists for advice on how to determine when to administer
employee discipline or when to consider termination. Before effecting decisions concerning the employment
relationship, training needs must be addressed. The benefits of training are improved relationships between supervisors
and their employees as well as more effective workforce as retention is always better then terminations. Other
employee relation practices which Mc Donald’s applies is that they pay the salaries which satisfies the needs of
employers and they are happy working in the organizations Other than benefits also offered with the pay which can
transport facility, leaves whenever needs and etc. Furthermore working environment also contributes to the healthy
employee relationship as Mc Donald’s provide the safe working environment and there’s job security within the
environment. Nobody gets harmed and dissatisfied in the organization. Apart from all these work-life-balance is the
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main factor of employer-employee relationship Mc Donald’s have flexible working hours and employer can go whenever
they want by informing their managers in this staff can maintain the good balance between their job and family and can
give equal time to both. Employee legislation in the Mc Donald’s including no gender discrimination at works place. All
employees are treated fairly and equally whether it’s a male worker or female worker. Mc Donald’s strictly follow this
legislation no harassment at workplace exist which leads to difficulty for workers. Besides this equal pay and benefits are
offered for both male and female workers as there is no favourism among such things in Mc Donald’s such practices in
Mc Donald’s make decisions easy for human resource because they can follow such employee relations and legislations
and act accordingly without any issues and conflict occurring.
M5 provide a rational for the application of specific HRM practices in work-related context.
Job Specification and its Rationale:
Job analysis refers to the process of systematically defining, gathering and documenting all the work-related facts and
details through different methods. It includes the knowledge, skills and abilities information that the job must have to
perform the job satisfactorily. Job analysis includes defining and ascertaining all the duties and responsibilities of the job
in question, as well as the previous conditions and their relative importance in relation to other positions in the
company. It serves as the guide in the preparation of job description and job specification.
Job Description:
The processed data will result in job description which describes the entire job profile to the management and the
incumbent as well. It lists out the job title, duties, responsibilities, tasks, activities, scope of work, objectives, authority
limits, etc.
Job Specification:
Job specification specifies all the employee qualifications, in the sense of physical, mental, emotional and behavioral
abilities. It highlights the educational qualification, experience, knowledge, skills mental abilities, age, gender, aptitude,
reasoning, etc. possessed by the incumbent to perform the job and the duties related to it satisfactorily .
Education:
Work experience
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Minimum a years’ experience in cash processing or cashier in any fast food restaurants
Should have leadership skills in managing long quest in rush hours and take orders quickly
Should give timely deliverables and should be emotionally strong
Must be a good presenter
Job specification highlights all the important areas required for getting a job it gives the HR managers a threshold and a
framework on the basis on which they can identify the best prospects. Helps in screening of resumes and saves time
when there are multiple applications by choosing those who are closest to the job specificatio.HR managers can used job
specification as a benchmark to evaluate employees and give them required trainings. It also helps companies during
performance appraisal and promotions.
CV of a Cashier at Mc Donald’s:
Dependable and polite cashier in busy fast food environment with 7 plus years of practical experience Exceptionally
qualified to take orders, record them in Postage money from customers and make changes. Effectively manages money
and cash drawer material. Familiar with the team centered ethos of Mc Donald’s which allows anyone to do anything if
the task is not mentioned in the job description.
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Key Accomplishment
Received best customer service award at Subway in 2018
Employment history
KFC Subway
Cashier
Provide friendly and timely services of food and drink
Handle all cash and credit transactions
Work on the drive thru window and also take orders on phone calls and record sales
Utilize brilliant communication and interpersonal skills to interact effectively with customers
Take ownership of the job
Junior cashier
Customer orders:
Taking customers’ orders, recording them in the computer database and returning changes.
Customer service:
Maintain friendly, smiling and good attitude with each other dealing with complaints calmly and quickly.
Cash handling:
Took responsibility for cash and matched daily cash in drawers with day- end sales and closing.
Interview notes:
What do you consider the most difficult think about this job?
How good are you at handling the cash?
How do you imagine a typical day at work?
Describe a situation when it’s hard to be courteous?
Interview notes holds the great importance as by interviewing the person we can get to know about all the important
details we want to know. By asking such questions mentioned above we can also grade the person applying for the job
on the specific criteria as
Fair
Good
Excellent
So if we will grade the person according to these criteria it will also be easy for the organization to decide the right
person for the post of cashier. Asking such questions from the person and by getting the answers will help us to know is
this person suitable for the join or not. As interview is taken on the basis of the CV so the people should only mention
those things in the CV which are required and demanded from the people applying. Also the person taking the interview
should mention tasks which they have to fulfill after getting the job and should tell the person in which area he/she will
be posted, what working hours will be and other than that a bit about salary and benefits etc. so he/she might decide
what to do or not to do.
Bilal Saeed
House No # CB 2698 Islamabad
April 15, 2019
Dear Mr Bilal Saeed
Congratulations! We are pleased to confirm you have been selected to work for McDonald’s.
We areDelighted to make you the following job offer The position we are offering is that of cashier
at a salary/wage of $30,000 monthly.This position reports to the Manager, Rebecca Zent. Your
Working hours will be from11 AM – 11PM from Monday to Friday. This is a permanent position.
Vacations:
2 weeks per annum
Employee Benefits Include: -
Transportation
Group Insurance
Short/Long Term Disability
Dental Care
You’re sincerely
Bushra Tariq.
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Lo 3, 04
Critically Evaluate Employee Relations HRM practices influence decision-making:
In Mc Donald’s when they are following such practices which maintain good employee relationship and the employee
legislations which are made at the same time there are certain practices which are followed by them for instance when
they design the uniform of the female workers so they should look in the context of Pakistan and their environment
because people in different cities of Pakistan aren’t broad minded and females aren’t respected in such type of uniform
and some might be uncomfortable also while wearing the uniform. The current uniform for females is dress pant and
shirt which isn’t suitable in Pakistan so for females specifically they should design shalwar kameez with a simple dupatta
matching the colours of the outlet of Mc Donald’s. Besides this in some outlets of Mc Donald’s they have hired the
guards which are old age so this should not take place because it means to violate them and making their job difficult. So
instead of hiring old age people they should hire young guards which can perform their job quickly. Furthermore the
minimum wage set by government is 20000 Rs so if Mc Donald’s pay less than this so they are violating their workers
which is against the policies set by government. Employee relations are maintained in a way Mc Donald’s provide the
flexible working environment to its workers for example delivery boys are part time workers so they work in different
places at a time. In rush hours delivery boys come and whenever they want to leave they can so this maintains the
healthy relationship with the employees Also Mc Donald’s offers perks other than salary to its workers which include
transportation facilities and leaves.
Hence, all these practices in Mc Donald’s will help human resource in decision making they will look upon into the
problems and the practices which are not suitable and will change it accordingly.
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