Human Resources Management

Emma martin Kimberley Stace

Human Resources Management

“Human resources are the employees or personnel in a business that help it to achieve its goal” (Dave Hall 1999)

“Human resources management is defined as an integrated approach which ensures the efficient management of human resources. It is part of the overall business plan”(Dave Hall 1999)

One of the most important tasks that involve the personnel department in a business is human resource management. A business is only likely to achieve its objectives if its employees are used effectively. Planning properly how to use human resources will help a business to achieve its objectives. Human resource management (HRM) has strategic implications. HRM must be integrated into the strategic planning of a business. It means constantly looking for better ways of using employees to benefit the Organisation.

Throughout this essay I will be analysing the company TGI Fridays (which is owned by Whitelodging) human resource management policies. To do this I will be looking at ways in which they can, reduce absenteeism, increase staff retention, train and develop their staff in line with their goals and their practice on equal opportunities.

Absenteeism can be very damaging for a company. High levels of staff absence may lead to output and productivity of the business falling. There are still the costs involved of paying absence staff even though there are not working. If there is a constant trend of staff absenteeism this can effect the morale and motivation of other workers in the business. The reputation of an Organisation may fall if the continued absenteeism means orders are unfulfilled and are delivered late or not at all. A fall in the level of absent staff may be an indication that the human resource management is effective.

The Human Resource Management of an Organisation can reduce absenteeism in many ways firstly by Recruitment. If when recruiting the HRM department looks at the future of the Organisation they will undoubtedly recruit individuals who will help fulfil their goals. In other words if the recruitment process is carried out correctly the business will employee the right staff for the job in the first place e.g. staff who wont want to leave. “Much of the interest in human resource strategies has been stimulated by consideration of the ways recruitment, selection, induction, appraisal, development and reward of employees could be conducted so as to achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives” (Paul Illes/Christopher Mabey 1992) Rosemary Harrison believes that to recruit the human resource management needs to use job analysis to identify the kind of personal characteristics needed to perform adequately. These characteristics are described in a personal specification, which is dependent upon the requirements of the job, which are identified in a job description. These three profiles are important to have when recruiting. How you recruit is also important, whether a business decides to recruit externally or internally from within the business. Internally, signs can be put on notice boards in staff rooms or announcements can be made, externally the business can advertise through papers, agencies etc.

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Other ways of reducing staff absenteeism is to make sure staff are motivated by what they are doing and are happy with the working conditions. Individuals are not the same, it is important that a business realises this and tries to fulfil all the different ways in which people are motivated. For example Maslow’s Hierachy (Appendix A) of needs put peoples needs in order of importance as each stage is passed it becomes less important to an employee. Abraham Maslows message is clear, an employer needs to no which stage their employee is at to be able to find suitable rewards to motivate them. The Hawthorn effect also shows that people may be motivated by recognition given to them as a group. Douglas Mcgregor in 1960 developed the Theory X and Theory Y(Appendix A) this being that Theory X were people motivated by money and Theory Y were people that had different needs and wants that motivated them. All these theories show that it is important to know how staff are motivated, if you can motivate them they will be happy in their job and not be absent, therefore if human resource management can carry this out effectively they may be a fall in absenteeism.

TGI Fridays human resource department believes that their recruitment process is of a high standard and they hire the right individuals from the beginning that gives them a good skilled team of employees who are right for the job, therefore there is little absenteeism. All absenteeism is noted in a record and if an employee is absent three times in a month they have a meeting with the manager. They have a descriptive personal specification and job description. They make sure that any applicants fulfil all the businesses wants and needs before giving them a thorough interview. They have a list of desired wants and essential wants, for example they desire that they have worked in a restaurant before, but they will hire without, but its essential that they have had experience of customer service. They need their staff to be personable and polite to meet there high standard of customer service that they give. When recruiting TGI Fridays only recruits internally but they do have notices in other TGI restaurants and with Whitelodging companies. They also like to keep there staff motivated and happy so that they feel satisfied in there job and are not tempted to be absent for illegitimate reasons. For the employees they motivate them by bonuses, if they achieve plan and take money, also they give them employee of the week. Managers have manager days were all managers meet up and do tasks as groups etc.

The Human Resource Management at TGI is very effective there is little absenteeism, which is a good sign that the HRM is working well in this area. Their recruitment policy is very thorough and well carried out to ensure that individuals are right for the business. However I feel they could benefit from advertising externally because there are many advantages to this, e.g. bringing new people in that will fill the personal specification and job description and that will also bring new ideas to the business. I also feel that the business demonstrates the Theory X approach towards its employees by giving them bonuses, assuming that they are motivated by money, maybe more things could be arrange outside work to get the staff working as a team and socialising and fulfilling more needs then just money. They do give out employee of the week that will generate awareness and appreciation to that employee which may be beneficial to them, but its only beneficial if you get employee of the week. Managers are motivated well when they have their team meetings; they get reconition as a team, the Hawthorn effect. All together I feel the human resources management practices to reduced staff absenteeism is very effective at TGI Fridays.

Increasing staff retention is important for the Human Resource Management. Chris Hendry believes that the HRM department should keep an eye on general matters, for example how many staff are leaving. These matters are likely to receive closer attention when there are specific plans to grow a business and there is a gap between requirements and existing skills and numbers of employees. Working out labour turnover e.g. dividing the number of leavers per period by the average number employed during that period and times it by a hundred, can give a business the idea of how many staff are leaving and staying. To increase staff retention a business can look at planning recruitment and training to renew skills and experience; the HRM can also develop policies and practices to minimise the loss of valuable staff and by motivation. As you can see motivation is an important factor when it comes to managing human resources. People need to be motivated and satisfied to be productive to a business.

TGI Fridays Human Resources Management keeps a close eye on staff turnover, there is a high level of staff retention in general employees but a low level in employee managers. Many mangers find it hard to stay in the Organisation for long. Human resources management has tried to find the reason behind this and find a way to change it and find incentives to make managers stay. Many managers find the stress of the job the main cause for their resignation. TGI has introduced a scheme of letting the employer giving each employee a different responsibility each week, this has increased staff retention a bit by taking a little of the burden of the manager and on to the employee and it has helped increase staff retention in general employees more.

I feel that TGI, while they are handling the staff retention in general employees effectively; the human resource management needs to pay a lot closer attention to the managers. I feel that they would benefit more and improve the amount of people staying in the business, if they motivated them more in other ways, e.g. pay rises, team days out, days of, more holidays, e.g. by giving them incentives that will fulfil their needs and wants closer. Maybe even by giving them more recognition on their achievements and letting them know that they are valuable to the company and appreciated.

Training and developing staff is a very important aspect of human resource management. Training can not be separated from other aspects of the human resource system for example, Chris Hendry believes that one of the inputs from HRM to training would be recruitment, are the right staff being recruited in the first place to train. Training and developing involves employees being taught new skills or improving skills they already have. By doing this the business is making its staff more skilful to meet the businesses objectives. Method of training are, “Sitting next to Nellie” approach, an experiences worker “Nellie” shows the trainee what to do, the Coaching approach this is where someone, a coach, will guide an employee. Also Mentoring, this involves the trainee being paired with someone and working with them, and job rotation, moving staff around different departments to gain experience at different aspects of the job.

The Human Resources Department for TGI don’t really have a training system that the use all the time, all staff when they first start are trained by the “sitting next to Nellie” approach, for the first week they follow and watch an experienced member of the team. After that every 4 weeks staff are rotated through different jobs e.g. serving, bar, host, cashier. Many of the staff just learns as they go along. They have training books that if they fill in quickly they will get a pay rise. TGI Fridays main objective is to have an extending reputation in customer service, this is also something employers have explained enormously to employees, but learn as they go along.

I feel that TGI Fridays Human Resource Management policy on training can do with some improvement, while staff seem happy in their work through other incentives, they are not really trained to a high standard. The well-trained productive staff are the ones who have been there a long time. I think that more time needs to be taken to go through every aspect of the job and what’s expected of staff. Maybe have a training day on good customer service and show new staff techniques they can use and maybe existing staff new and different ways of carrying out a high quality service.

For Human Resource Management to have a good Equal opportunities Policy and to carry out good ethics is important for an Organisation. Equal opportunities can be defined as “ where everyone has the same chance. In business this can mean the same chance of seletion, promotion etc.”(Dave Hall 1999)

Certain businesses operate an equal opportunities policy. This means giving all applicants an equal chance of, say, selection, no matter what their sex is, sexuality, race, age, marital status, religion, or disability. There is UK and EU laws and legislation that help promote this e.g. The Equal Pay Act 1970 amended in 1983 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 Equal opportunities helps put a stop to discrimination.

TGI Fridays Human Resource Management have a policy on Equal Opportunities that helps it align with EU and UK laws. (Appendix B) A policy from the human resource manager.

TGI Fridays has a very clear policy on equal opportunities they comply with all UK and EU laws and do not allow discrimination and regard discrimination of any kind a very serious matter. TGI employ a mixture of age, race, gender employees and I feel they have a very appropriate equal opportunities policy and follow it correctly.

Human resource management is about being able to organise and manage human resources correctly, effectively, and efficiently to help the business meet its goal. From this essay I hope you can see the different areas of a business that human resource management deal with and how the human resource management of TGI Fridays manage aspects such as staff retention, absentessism, trainings and equal opportunities and from the theory make decisions on how effectively you feel they are managed. Analysing these areas can show how effective human resource management is. I feel that it is important that human resource management does exist, without it human resources would not be used to there full advantage for the company. People are important in the running of the company, and managing them correctly reflects positively on an Organisation and helps the Organisation in its strategic planning and goals for the future.