Managing the HR Function - Example

Running head: Managing the HR Function Your name Course name Professors’ name Date Introduction Organizations around the world continue to discover benefits that can be realised from investing in employees. There is a possibility that organizations, which are emphasizing on developing their employees, will gain competitive advantage over other firms. My organization is Tesco, the biggest private sector in the UK. This organization has more than 360,000 workers in various Tesco branches across the globe. Tesco has local Tesco Express, Large Tesco Extras, Metro, and Superstores that are in the UK. Apart from the UK base, Tesco also operates in 12 other countries including China, Japan, Turkey, and the USA. In these 12 countries, Tesco continue to maintain its strength as a market leader. To succeed in delivery of services in both store based and non-store jobs, Tesco focuses on merging roles with the business objectives. This means that Tesco ensures that it has the right people in the right job at the right time. To meet the objectives of Human Resources in Tesco, the organization has a structured recruitment and selection process that will culminate to attract desirable applicants for both managerial and operational roles. Tesco utilises workforce planning in order to foresee future demand for new staff. Workforce planning entails investigation of organization’s future needs in relation to numbers, skills, and location. Since Tesco is constantly growing, it is imperative to conducting workforce planning by putting in place favourable recruitment and training program. Often, positions are created as new Tesco stores are opened in UK and across the globe. Vacancies are also created as employees resign, retire, or are promoted. Moreover, additional jobs are created at Tesco as the company move to innovative processes and technology. Tesco, for example had focused that to keep pace with its growth rate, there was a necessity to employ 4,000 new managers in the year 2008/09. This process of forecasting organizational demand for new employees goes on in Tesco every year while reviews are done in the months of May, August, and November. This helps to adjust level of staffing at the right time and to meet its strategic objectives of opening new outlets and maintaining high standards of customer satisfaction. It is the objective of Human Resources to motivate employees to develop their careers with Tesco. This forms a reason for the practise of “Talent Planning” that has the result of encouraging people to progress thorough organizational ladder. The strategy of annual appraisal practised in Tesco aids individual when applying for greater jobs within the organization. Through the scheme, employees have a chance to identify career paths in Tesco. The task of setting out necessary technical skills, competencies, and behaviours rests with the managers. Along with this responsibility, the managers deduce training needs for a specific job and the length of time spent while training. This approach to managing human resources has assisted Tesco to reach its business objects and at the same time drive employees to accomplish individual and career objectives. The role of employees and Managers in talent planning can be represented in tabular form as shown below. Employees Managers Put down ambitions, targets, and training goals. a. Identify technical skills, competencies, and behaviours require for a job b. Help employees to draft a training pan and set target Tesco combines both Job description and person specification to show how a person fits into Tesco community. Concisely, person specification shows skills, characteristics, and attributes needed for a job whilst job description illustrates nature of the job in terms of title, reporting lines, roles, and responsibilities. This has assisted Tesco in employing the right people for the right job. More so, the planning is a benchmark for each job in relation to responsibility and skills hence help evaluate staff if they are performing to the required standards. The topmost priority of Tesco is to serve its customers. This motivates Tesco to place people with the right skills at the right level of Tesco structure. Tesco has six clear work levels within the organization that require specialised skills. This can be simplified in a table below: Work Level 1 This is where a worker is in direct contact with a customer. Such tasks including filling shelves with stock and requires the ability to work accurately, enthusiastically and interact with others. Work Level 2 This is a level where a person leads a group of employees who deal directly with customers. A person has to have the skills for managing resources, outline targets, manage, and motivate others. Work level 3 Task involved is managing an operating unit. Management skills are pertinent at this level. Work level 4 Task is supporting operating units and making recommendation for strategic change. Essential skills at this level include: business knowledge, analysis and decision making skills, and ability to lead others. Work Level 5 An employee at this level is responsible for the functioning of Tesco as a whole. Ability to lead others and make informed decisions is essential. Work Level 6 This is the highest level at Tesco and individual must be able to create purpose, values, and goals for Tesco. Ability to lead the whole organization and make overall vision is critical. To fill a vacancy, Tesco looks at its Internal Talent Plan. The strategy necessitates studying current employees to come up with those who are trying to move up the ladder. If people at the Talent plan are unsuitable, Tesco goes ahead to advertise it internally on the intranet. In cases of external advertisements, Tesco utilises Tesco Website, www.tesco-careers.com. Those who are chosen after an online application are subjected into an interview and subsequent assessment centre that are run by line managers. People who have interest in store jobs are often required to drop their application at the stores and wait to be contacted. For specialist jobs such as bakers and pharmacists, external advertisement is done through both print and none prints media. At the initial stage of selection, Tesco examines candidate’s curriculum vitae to assess whether an applicant has characteristics that match person specifications for a vacancy. It is vital to note that Tesco provides job type match, a tool available on the career page. This helps potential applicants to check where they fit before applying for a job. Selection process at Tesco is rigorous to provide consistency in the selection. Summary of Interview with HR Professions in Lloyds TSB Lloyds TSB is a resultant firm of a merger between TSB Group and Lloyds Bank Group. Lloyds TSB Provides financial services and banking to wide variety of people both in UK and 27 other overseas countries. This establishment has about 70,000 employees serving more than 16 million customers in over 2000 local and international branches. The markets handled by Lloyds TSB are personal and private banking, corporate banking, insurance, and mortgage sectors. Availability of internet and telephone services has made it very easy for the company to provide services to the customers. Delivery of HR Objectives The objective of HR in Lloyds TSB is to create an environment that is favourable for any person to work. To achieve this objective, Lloyds TSB has built a supportive culture where employees are trained and advised on their careers thus making Lloyds TSB a great place to work. In doing this, the company has realised that the employees would be able to meet customer expectations and even exceed them. Additionally, Lloyds TSB has a dedicated HR team in each division of the business whose function is to advice and guide on reward, resourcing and relationship with employees. To achieve the goal of becoming a diverse and inclusive organization, Lloyds TSB supports performance by availing learning and development opportunities to the employees. Lloyds TSB is a destination of choice for most employees given that the company advocates for flexibility in workforce. This has enabled Lloyds TSB to deliver level of services that places the company at a competitive edge over its competitors in the financial sector. Through a flexible workforce, Lloyds TSB customers benefits by dealing with professional, pleasant, well-informed, and passionate person. Lloyds TSB has recognised the need for excellent customer experience especially in the present competitive market where retailers, wholesalers, and supermarkets can offer financial services. Service industry like banking, finance, and insurance relies on ability to nurture and develop workforce. This is why Lloyds TSB has made substantial effort to enhance staff motivation and commitment. Availability of work options in Lloyds TSB presents an opportunity for HR to build effective, motivated, and happy workforce and eventually to sustain the business in the current competitive business world. To understand the needs of all customers and build lasting relationship with them, Lloyds TSB concentrates on diversifying the workforce. This is achievable by using focus groups and diversity policies. Benefits and Challenges for Managing and Delivering HR Services in Lloyds TSB The task of delivering HR services in Lloyds TSB is beneficial to an HR professional. One of the factors contributing to this benefit is flexibility in workforce. A human resource professional will be able to strike a balance between personal and work life. Lloyds TSB provides its employees with flexible options with an intention of ensuring that workers are comfortable in their personal and work life. The other benefit accruing to the HR professional is availability of development opportunities that takes the form of training and education. The advent of Information Technology has further made it very easy to deliver HR services owing to the fact that the whole organization is interconnected by internet technologies. On the other hand, it is becoming very difficult to satisfy needs of all employees in the present world where demands are many. This poses the greatest challenge for HR professionals at Lloyds TSB. How HR functions adapt to changing organisational context and strategy To handle change within an organization, HR implements training and support for the workforce. Adapting to changing business environment, calls for firms to change their operations or rather way of doing things. HR function then communicates and involve employees in change process. The HR may need to consider possibility of benchmarking with other institution to facilitate establishment of gaps. An example of training for development is a partnership between Finsbury Park CT and Lloyds TSB to deliver competence based training program for customer service roles. This program identified key competences, skills, and knowledge. An assessment of how the HR functions To make certain that HR function remain flexible and efficient to provide a cost-effective service, activities such as acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance of employees is conducted appropriately while consulting with business functions. During acquisition, planning activities such as recruiting of workers is done by paying attention to employment laws and competence of a candidate. This has the effect of employing productive workforce. Workers are also developed to increase their skills and output. Conclusion From the analysis of both Tesco and Lloyds TSB, it is obvious that HR focuses on having the right people at the right job and at the right time. The two organizations are convinced that their successes depend on how customer service has been shaped to respond to customer needs. Apart from workforce planning done in the two organizations, the objects of HR are usually merged with overall objective of the firms. This has the effect of ensuring that the business attains its goals. An important element that can be borrowed from Lloyds TSB is the aspect of flexible workforce. Many organizations in the present economy are advocating for flexible option to work. The aim of adapting flexible workforce in Tesco is to allow workforce to live a full live i.e. build their personal life as well as professional life. Assessment Activity 3 Working of an HR Scorecard The HR Scorecard was introduced in 1992 by Robert Kaplan and David Norton to provide a mechanism to illustrate a company’s performance against its strategy. The HR scorecard presents a performance metrics, which the HR department can use to measure its performance and value as a whole (Kaplan, 1996). By using a combination of leading and lagging indicators, managers takes into consideration both internal and external sources of information. Scorecard features HR department as a strategic asset and partner in an organization (Becker, 2001). The scorecard further gives a basis for defining functions of HR department as well as providing optimising solutions and balancing duties for saving costs. Generally, the scorecard links people, strategy, and performance. Steps involved in constructing hr scorecard are enumerated below: a. Definition of business strategy b. recognize HR as a strategic asset c. create a strategy map d. come up with HR deliverables within the strategy map e. Align HR architecture with deliverables f. Design measurement system that can be used by HR g. apply management by measurement HR scorecard places emphasis on business performance by examining strategic implementation instead of relying on financial results. Normally, financial indicators are lagging indicators and hence desired to rectify or change past results. On the contrary, performances drivers are within the present control of management hence are classified as leading indicators. To ensure that the whole organization takes part in implementation of a strategy, there is need for manages to specify critical process measures, gauge, and communicate them to employees. The HR scorecard is therefore a unifying factor when implementing a strategy in an organization. Criteria to Include in an HR Scorecard to Evaluate the HR Contribution a. Point out to clear, steady, and persuasive relationship between company strategy and work of each employee. b. Examine critical steps that can have major impact on company performance c. Highlight on the impact of HR on company performance in ways that all employees, managers, and supervisors can understand. d. Improvement of HR to reflect changing organizational needs Tools for Evaluating the HR Function These tools can be classified into quantitative and qualitative approaches. While quantitative approaches allow a HR professional to collect and analyse information using numbers, qualitative approaches allow a professional to use judgement and opinion. Benchmarking is another tool that allows a professional to compare one’s own HR processes against another organization (Greer, 2001). This tool assists an organization to look outward for best practises and high performance and then measure business performance against these goals. Strengths of Benchmarking Benchmarking has the strength of allowing an organization to standardize its delivery of HR practises by checking how other firms are fulfilling their tasks and responsibilities (Camp, 1989). Through benchmarking, an organization will be able to learn from mistakes and successes of others. Besides, benchmarking develops an environment where active learning can take place. Often, benchmarking has been utilised when motivating people to adapt to change. This is possible given that benchmarking demonstrates other methods that can be used to solve problems by showing that such methods work for other companies. It also set direction and priorities for HR manager. Weakness of Benchmarking One of the weaknesses of benchmarking is its inability to measure overall effectiveness of operational metrics. This is apparent where benchmarking reveals standards attained by competitors but fails to take keen interest of the circumstance that led to attainment of such standards. In a situation where a competitor’s goals and vision has been hampered by certain factors, benchmarking against such standards may have a negative impact since an organization may end up aping the defective standards. The second weakness is the danger of complacency and arrogance associated with benchmarking. This is where organizations tend to relax after excelling thus creating a way for complacence. When a market leader realises that there is room for improvement, it soon creates an avenue for arrogance. Finally, benchmarking is only appropriate when used along with other tools. HR Audits This is the second tool used to evaluate HR service excellence. This tool will help in identifying HR programs that will lead to achieving organizational objectives. The benefits and challenges of HR Audits are represented in the following table: Benefits Challenges a. It ensures that human resources in an organization are utilised well b. It gives confidence to hr function and management that it is under good management c. It is a source of motivation for HR department d. Can deduce problems and solve them smoothly Often needs expertise knowledge, which will then increase organizational costs. Service Level Agreement (SLA) This is an accord drawn between two parties; one is a customer whilst the other is a service provider. SLAs provide an effective measure of services that will be delivered to customers and an approach to improve continuously those services. SLAs are indispensible when outsourcing services or range business deals and engagements simply because it forms a fundamental part of the contract. To develop an SLA that is manageable and that support successful long-term relationship with partners, it is essential to pay attention to risk and reward sharing, flexibility, and mutual benefits. The development process of SLAs takes the following steps: a. Identification of business needs and objectives b. drafting service level objectives c. setting the target metrics along with clear data elements d. setting standards of accountability for achieving service level objectives As enumerated earlier, the role of Service Level Agreement is to define company and client’s responsibility towards each other. The purpose of SLAs can therefore be seen to define benefits and services, quality, duration, delivery, monitoring, upgrade and update. To monitor service performance, service level reports are utilised. These reports are produced regularly and states expectations for reporting period in addition to how the organization can meet the expectations. Apart from monitoring performance of service, the metrics utilised in SLAs have the ability to highlight areas that needs improvement Assessment Activity 4 Change in Tesco The introduction of a self-checking machine in Tesco was one of the major changes experienced by the company. This machine was intended to accelerate the check out process thus reduce labour cost at the point of sales. The trigger of change at Tesco was the need to create a value for customer by making shopping experience exciting. The second trigger was the growing customer bases hence the need for self-checkout to ease congestion. Implementation of the new change meant that customers would not have to wait in lines but use an easy and fast self-checkout. Technological innovations, competition, and cost of labour were additional factors contributing to the reason for change in Tesco. Lewin's Change Management Model In the present globalised world, change is vital for any organization seeking to progress. The capacity to manage change varies with the type of organization, people in the organization, and the change involved. It is important to note that how people view change is critical for the success of change process. Kurt Lewin developed a model to aid in understanding change in 1950’s. This model assumes the stages of unfreezing, change, and refreezing (Robbins, 2003). The unfreezing stage demands a process of preparing an organization for change. This calls for breaking down status quo before building a new way of doing things. At this stage change managers communicates to the employees messages about the current system that calls for new way of doing business. It is easier to send such message when sales or other observable variables are declining. The essence of unfreezing is to change beliefs, attitude, and behaviours of the current workforce to create a mindset for new system. When unfreezing, overreaction from people is often registered. Management then takes the initiative to guide the organization to examine its core. This is a process of creating a controlled change. The second stage of lewin Model is change, which requires people to start doing things differently. It is essential to note that people spend a lot of time adapting to the new ways. For a change to be successful, people need to understand how they will benefit from the change. This is why people should be allowed enough time to analyse the change and understand it. Communication is also necessary to create a bond during change. By doing this, employees will feel as part of the organizational change. The last stage is refreezing which takes place when people begin to accept and assume the new way of doing business. The purpose of refreezing is to internalize change and ensure that it is used all the time. Refreezing will also aid in future change given that people are allowed to settle before progressing to other changes. Refreezing process also requires an organization to celebrate the success of the change. This will help employee feel appreciated for enduring painful change and help them visualise the value of future change. Key aspects of refreezing are leadership support, reward, feedback mechanism, training, and celebrate success. Role of HR in Change Management Change management mainly involves preparation for major changes both in the present and future. The intention of change management is to strengthen agility, internal flexibility, and organizational vision. Ulrich (2008) presented model of HR role that included strategic partner, change champion, employee champion, and administrative expert. Ulrich further reiterates the need for the participation of both line managers and HR team. The role of HR in management of change can be categorised into planning phase and implementation. At the planning phase, HR evaluates viewpoint and give a strategic forecast of initiatives and direction. HR goes ahead to develop business strategy for initiatives and directions. This involves the task of analysing, synthesising, and reviewing forecasts by use of SWOT analysis or stakeholder analysis. More so, the HR determines action points and identifies performance targets for these action points. Finally, HR establishes a communication plan. At the phase of implementation, the role of HR is clearly illustrated by Lewin’s model, Kotter’s Model, Lippitt, Watson and Westley model, and Prochaska and DiClemente models. Works Cited Becker, B., Huselid M., & Ulrich D., 2001. The HR scorecard: Linking people, strategy, and performance. Boston: Harvard Business School. Camp, R., 1989. Benchmarking: The Search for Industry Best Practices That Lead to Superior Performance. Milwaukee: ASQC Quality Press Greer, C., 2001. Strategic Human Resource Management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Kaplan, R., & Norton, D., 1996. Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic measurement system. Boston: Harvard Business School Press Robbins, S., 2003. Organizational Behavior. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Ulrich, D., 2008. HR Competencies. Colorado: The Society for Human Resource Management. Read More