Strategic Human Resource Management edexcel Diploma Level 7

UNIT 10

Instructor: Mr. Muhammad Shafiq Submitted By: Muhammad Nadim CLC 1684

Task 1
Strategic human resource management aligns human resource function to your core business objectives. To effectively manage employees is not as daunting may think. This becomes easier once equip with the knowledge and skills how to bring out the best out of people. However, we may want to know that the use of strategies in human resource management is not as widespread as expected. This is despite the fact that proponents of the use of strategies in HR had made the proposals more than twenty years ago. Strategic HR management involves more than just the

administration of human resource programs or activities. Effective people management is all about application of strategic management to people management. We may prefer to call them employees. It does not really matter.

To incorporate Human Resource plans into the mainstream of organizational strategy and management" To instill belief on the importance of people in achieving the overall corporate plan, that people add value to the business operations of your organization To ensure that HR people learn to think and act strategically when carrying out their duties and responsibilities...and how these contribute to the achievement of organizational business plans

 To design performance incentive plans with the intention to continuously motivate employees and thus improve customer service in a dynamic environment To arrange for the right training programs to enhance current skills of core people or to provide them with new skills in line with activities and at the same time improve business

organization's capability To engage, motivate and retain talented employees In short, human resources, increasingly described as the only important asset, can play their important role in the accomplishment of the overall strategic plan and the success of the organization. The human resource department of a business not only helps to maintain the most important asset of the company - the employees but it also helps in protecting employees rights as well.

The purpose of having a human resources department is to establish, develop, maintain, and communicate office policies throughout the entire company and to represent, help, advise, and consult with the employees, while simultaneously keeping the overall best interests of the company in mind. A human resource department develops hiring plans and recruiting policies, as well as handles compensation and salary administration. It also works for affirmative action and handles employee relations, separations, contracts, performance reviews, benefits, and pension plans. Most human resource departments also develop official documentation, workplace ethics/code of conduct, employee handbooks, employee training programs, award/reward as programs and community well. connections

HR is a basic service organization that meets the requirements of the business, but makes no meaningful contribution to company strategies. They just help us hire fire and administer benefits. In this scenario, HR is not strategic. HR will become a more strategic contributor, and make recognizable contributions to overcoming competition. How is this accomplished? Through a simple internal strategic planning process at the departmental level that borrows techniques from corporate strategic planning. What Strategic Planning Will Do For HR Basic Service Organization Perception Issues More Than A Service Organization Best in Class The Process of Departmental Strategic Planning Developing The Plan Process Leadership Designation and Team Selection

Task 2
Human resource planning refers to the process by which organizations determine their current and future requirements of human resources in terms of number of people as well as the kind of people needed, and determine the ways and means of meeting

these requirements. It is a process which enables the organization to have the right people at right time and right place. It involves determining the manpower requirements of the organization in light of its operations, plans and strategies and organization structure. Specific steps of human resource planning process include: Establishing the total manpower requirements for different planning horizons. Taking inventory of current manpower availability. Anticipating changes in current manpower availability due to normal process such as improvement in abilities through skill, promotion, retirement and resignations. Establishing net shortage anticipated in case no specific action is taken to influence the availability of manpower. Determine the nature of actions such as recruitment, and training to be taken to meet the total manpower requirement. These actions also cover changes in policies and practices of conditions of employment to attract and retain the right number of employees in the company. Human resource planning is influenced by many factors both within and outside the organization. These include: Internal factors Organizational plans which determine the overall level of operations or activities of the organization. Organizational strategy and structure. Current manpower availability in the organization.

 Human resource policies and practices of the organization. Among others this includes the policies and practices relating to remuneration and other conditions of employment. Organizational culture. External factors General availability of kind of manpower required by the organization. General employment policies and practice and policies followed in the industry and in economy. Government regulation governing conditions of employment. Rate of changes in different factors in the environment including in marketplace that determine the nature of challenges faced by the company. General culture of the society within which the organization operates including any sub-culture that may exist for different groups of prospective employees. The personal selection requirements can be divided into five broad categories, namely cost, functional reliability, requirements, and process to ability change requirements, environments. Functional requirements are directly related to the required qualities of the candidate. The process ability of a candidate is a measure of his ability to be trained and shaped for future competencies. resistance

Cost is usually an important factor in evaluating candidates because in many applications there is a cost limit for a candidate intended to meet the organizational requirements.

Take a close look at many organizations and not only would it be true to say that leadership and the workforce are not on the same page, but they are not even singing from the same hymn sheet. Company objectives and organizational strategy are decided behind the closed doors of the corporate suite and in many cases never filter down to the people who are ultimately in a position to ensure that they are realized. Of course, awareness of the organizations goals and redesigned lists of personal objectives on their own wont necessarily ensure successful and effective alignment. People naturally slip back into former thought patterns and behaviors when left to their own devices, which means that HR has an ongoing role in terms of monitoring performance and ensuring that managers are keeping the momentum going and are held accountable for their own and their staffs timely delivery against agreed objectives. In addition, they need to support managers in terms of staff development by monitoring the use of development plans and providing the necessary training to allow workers to acquire the right skills and experience so that they can contribute to the organizations ultimate aims.

Task 3
This report reviews and discusses the Human Resource policies and practices at Tescos. The organisation has introduced a high commitment model which offers training and development to all employees. They have developed their culture through extending their logo every little helps to prove their commitment to employees as well as to customers. This has proved a world class model and very successful for the organisation.

Organisations are implementing strategic HR as a change agent, not to replace an out dated personnel department. Although there is still evidence within the UK just that once the these role interventions of the are implemented, organisation. The organisation that will be reviewed is Tescos; during the past decade they have introduced strategic HR with increased training of employees. The role of HR within the organisation has increased in importance. Their practice of training and the importance of HR will be reviewed with the current theory. This organisation was chosen, through their introduction of strategic HR policies, which has led to an increase in business. This has demonstrated they are a first class provider of training to their employees, and has given scope for the organisation to expand into new markets. Tescos operates in a very competitive market; the consumer has a choice where to shop for their groceries. They have expanded their portfolio to include CDs, DVDs, electrical goods and clothing. Recently they have expanded into the financial services offering customers products from Credit cards to insurance. All their products are available on the internet 24 hours a day. Their slogan every little helps is used to show their commitment to customers, this has been used to reduce prices and to increase the level of customer service. This slogan is now used in their staff training, that any intervention will increase the knowledge of the work force. they replace personnel

department. To be effective HR belongs on the board of an

The organisation is widely reported in news papers, this is due to the success of the business. They are rapidly expanding in the UK with the opening of their Metro stores and into new and foreign markets. This has taken a great deal of their resources in the planning and implementing stage of expansion. The core units need to remain focused, to retain the reputation they have built. Reinforcing the culture and values through training will focus employees on their roles. Tescos HR policy Tescos profits have soared 20% in the last year, taking them to a record 2 billion and setting a new milestone for UK business. The company takes almost one of every three pounds spent in a supermarket, and more than one of every eight pounds spent on the High Street. The supermarket chain is Britains biggest private employer with nearly 260,000 staff (Poulter, S. 2005). The human-resource strategy at Tescos revolves around work simplification, challenging unwritten rules, rolling out core skills to all head-office employees and performance management linked to achieving steering-wheel targets. This highlights the way in which Tescos business measures are closely linked to performance management (Anonymous 2003). Tesco ensures that each and every employee has the opportunity to understand his or her individual role in contributing to the Tesco core purpose and values. This requires an innovative induction programme that caters for different cultures, styles of learning and varying commitments to the job. The frontline employees are considered the ultimate reflection of Tesco to its customers, but all employees have a very important role to play in turning core values

and customer commitment into reality on a daily basis (Whitelock, N. 2003). A major Tesco challenge is to ensure that all of its employees, wherever they work, are aware of the role they play and that they can clearly see how their actions affect the big picture of the overall business. The training creates a graphical journey through the history of Tesco, its core purpose, values, business goals, financial aims, operations and marketing strategy and its commitment to customers. All employees are receiving more training than before (Whitelock, N. 2003). A human-resource-led business strategy has helped Tesco to take the lead over its rivals in the fiercely-competitive UK supermarket sector. The strategic policy (Future) started in the companys supermarkets, where its aim was to free up stores employees so they could do more and improve customer service (Anonymous 2003). Future concentrates on providing a clear way of defining roles, responsibilities and activities. The system guarantees that all employees are responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. A group of 13 key management techniques is used to improve the core skills of the workforce. The techniques include root cause analysis, problem solving, plan-do-review, situational leadership and coaching for high performance (Anonymous 2003). For the first time, people have been made a core element of strategy. The importance of this strand of the project has been recognised by putting a senior director in charge. Quarterly board meetings always review human resource issues. Tesco now tracks

human-resource

information

as

closely

as

financial

results

(Anonymous 2003). Looking ahead, Tesco intends to continue its emphasis on increasing the skills of its workforce. The firm aims to make learning into a truly integrated part of its culture, as an important way of developing organisational flexibility and remaining one step ahead of its rivals (Anonymous 2003).

Task 4
HR Examines of Tesco This section of the paper will discus Tescos approach to HR and compare this to current thinking. Recognition of the importance of HR in the UK has increased in recent years; this is a result of competition from overseas economies. In countries for example Japan, Germany and Sweden investment in employee development is higher that the UK. This has led to some organisations reviewing their policies on training introducing continuous investment in their employees (Beardwell, I et al 2004). There are fundamental differences in the approach to HR. Storey (1987) discussed these as hard and `soft versions of HRM The hard version places little emphasis on workers concerns and, therefore, within its concept, any judgments of the effectiveness of HRM would be based on business performance criteria only. In contrast, soft HRM, while also having business performance as its primary concern, would be more likely to advocate a parallel concern for workers outcomes (Storey cited in Guest, D. 1999).

The

appearance

of

knowledge

based

economies,

has

deep

implications for the factors of growth, the organisation of production and its effect on employment and skill requirements. This may call for new directions in industry related government policies. The prime minister stated that education is the best economic policy we have. That through the policy of lifelong learning the UK would have the knowledge to compete in the new economy (Tony Blair PM (1998) DTI White Paper). Tescos have exceeded the governments expectations for learning, having introduced training as a strategic advantage. Conclusions and Discussions Tescos long term strategy is to continue to place value on employee training and to integrate this value into the culture of the organisation. They are using this approach to maintain their competitive edge. The value that is placed on HR demonstrates commitment from the top levels of the organisation to training. Tescos intentions are to maintain this increased emphasis on staff training and to integrate this learning fully into the organisation. There is constant reviewing of the intervention, and make adjustment were necessary. The study of Tescos HR policies has demonstrated that by introducing a higher level of training to all employees it has an affect on the bottom line. When the employees are trained and demonstrating a higher commitment to the organisation they feel part of the overall strategy. This leads to employees feeling valued and therefore a more committed work force. This is then felt by the consumer, with a higher level of service, which gives the organisation added value.

The entire organisation is involved in training. This training is offered at all levels within the organisation, Managers and facilitators are developed to deliver this intervention. Employees have control on their training after the initial induction process. This allows employees control of their career path, with the choice of whether they want to move up the ladder or not. The HR department in Tesco is proactive, not getting caught in the every day administrative function. Their model of HR is one of best practice and high commitment. This has allowed the organisation to focus on the human resource with such practices as training issues. This focus on HR is vital to the success of the organisation, without commitment, it would amount to a waste of resources. Tescos is a very successful UK organisation. They have increased their market share and retail units over the past five years. This has been achieved partly through a fully integrated HR department. Although this is not the only factor to their success, it has certainly been a major factor in it. Other organisations could benefit from reviewing Tescos policies. They have demonstrated a model implementation of HR. This has been a contributory factor to their increase in profits. Competitors will need to review their training policies, to reduce Tesco market share. Training as an intervention has been a successful policy in the organisation, the evidence points to increased profits from training.

Note: Presentation on HR Planning is also enclosed and already submitted you.

Bibliography Books Armstrong, M (2005) (9th Edition) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice Kogan Page, London Beardwell, I. et al, (2004) (4th Edition) Human Resource

Management a Contemporary Approach Prentice Hall, Harlow. Harrison, R (2002) (3rd Edition) Learning and Development: CIPD Publishing, London Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A. (1996) Core Personnel and Development IPD Publishing, London. Reader A, Strategic Human Resource Management (1998) Sage Publications, Pitman, London Walton, J (1999), Strategic Human Resource Development, Business Teacher [www] business teacher.org.uk. available from http://www.businessteacher.org.uk/free-business-essays/tesco-hrmessay/