Human resource management in Carrefour
-Moray College-
Human Resource Management
In
Carrefour
Student : Mihaela Tistu
Department : HNC Business Administration
Date : 12. 12. 2005
-2005-
Table of contents
Introduction in Human Resource Management
Theory
Aims and objectives
Personnel activities
Role of personnel function
Manual system and computerised information system
Statutory requirements
Evaluation the effectiveness of the Personnel Department
Carrefour Personnel Department
Aims and objectives
Personnel activities
Role of personnel function
Manual system and computerised information system
Statutory requirements
Evaluation the effectiveness of the Personnel Department
Conclusions
Bibliography
Appendixes
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
I. Introduction
My role of Human Resource Consultant , is to analyse the function and the purpose of the Personnel Department within the Carrefour organisation .
Usually , the life of a company is described by results, figures , indicators ,forgetting one of the most important aspect: The Human Resource aspect of the company. The people within the company are valuable assets witch influence and helps the development of the organisation , and because of that , the Human Resource Management is very important . How well an organisation obtains, maintains and retains its human resources determines its success or failure.
William Werther and Keits Davis (1993:10) suggest that:" The purpose of Human Resource management is to improve the productive contribution of people of the organisation in an ethical and socially responsible way". In practice, human resource management achieve its purpose by meeting objectives.
II. Theory
Aims and Objectives
The objectives are benchmarks against witch actions are evaluated. There are four types of objectives that are common to human resource management:
a) Societal objectives -its about meeting social and legal responsibilities within the employment field. Being one of the PEST factors , social environment influence any company's activity. Any firm is recruiting its human resources from society ,so the organisation must be ethically and socially responsible to the needs and challenges of society . The failure of the organisation to use their resources for society's benefit in ethical ways, may result in restrictions. The most common societal concerns are about discrimination , safety etc.
b) Organisational objectives - to recognise that human resource management exists to contribute to organisational effectiveness and to assist the organisation with its primary objectives. The personnel department exists to serve the rest of the organisation and its duty is to obtain, utilise and develop human resources to achieve this objective. Obtaining involves recruitment and selections, utilising- manpower planning and developing -appraising, training and promoting.
c) Functional objectives - the personnel department needs to contribute to organisational goals and also to help in the management of change through its specific activities(training , recruitment/selection , appraisal) and through consultation , participation and education ,enabling the organisation to change.
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
d) Personal objectives- to create and maintain effective relationships within organisation by offering to the employees assistance in achieving their personal goals. Personal objectives of employees must be met if workers are to be
maintained , retained and motivated. Otherwise , employee performance and satisfaction may decline and employees may leave the organisation.
Personnel Department Activities
To achieve its purpose and objectives , the personnel department obtains, develops utilises, evaluates , maintains and retains the right numbers and types of workers to provide an appropriate workforce. Werther and Davis (1993:13) say in their descriptions of Human Resources and Personnel Management " Human Resource activities are those actions to provide and maintain an appropriate workforce for the organisation ". The human resource activities are different from one organisation from another , because of the size of the organisation. Large personnel departments are usually "full-service". This means that activity is very complex and includes:
Employee relations - human resource departments are establishing policies and assisting managers to ensure employee retention, satisfaction and performance.
Here we can meet
- Industrial relations: developing communication systems designed to promote co-operation between employees and employers.
-Participation : Jointly involving management and employees in making decisions on matters of mutual interest
-Communications: Promoting organisation effectiveness through the design of informational channels that ensure that the right information is available to the right people at the right time.
Discipline/ grievance - there are numerous incidents or situation that can ...
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Employee relations - human resource departments are establishing policies and assisting managers to ensure employee retention, satisfaction and performance.
Here we can meet
- Industrial relations: developing communication systems designed to promote co-operation between employees and employers.
-Participation : Jointly involving management and employees in making decisions on matters of mutual interest
-Communications: Promoting organisation effectiveness through the design of informational channels that ensure that the right information is available to the right people at the right time.
Discipline/ grievance - there are numerous incidents or situation that can lead to an employee to holding a grievance (sex assault, safety hazards, dealing with conflict); internal rules and legislation and writing grievance and discipline procedures are required
Health and Safety/Welfare - health and safety policies aim to protect people against the hazards arising from their employment. Occupational health programmes are concerned with the prevention of ill-health arising from work
Safety programmes deal with the prevention of accidents ensuring the safety of everyone within the workplace. Welfare is about providing leisure, counselling and other support services for employees(medical insurance
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
,vision, dental insurances, disability insurance, employment income security, holiday and vacations benefits, child care etc. )
Reward management
-Job evaluation: establishing the relative value of jobs in the pay structure
-Salary administration: developing and administrating pay structures
-Employee benefits : non- monetary rewards e.g. subsidised canteen, vouchers, free travel
Human resource development
-Performance Management :setting performance standards, providing information about the performance levels
-Training :is the systematic development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required by an individual to perform adequately a given task or job
-Career development: a systematic process that identifies each employee's potential and provides employees with advice, guidance and training
Recruitment and selections-obtaining the number and type of employees required to fulfil the human resource plan
Organisational Development- It's a complex activity that includes organisation design(Integrating the human and technical parts of the organisation) , job design(determines the content of each job, its duties and responsibilities)and how to manage change (implementing management strategies for changing different aspects of the organisation )
Personnel Records- Manual and computerised records that document information relating to the organisations human resource.
Role of personnel function
"The role of the personnel function is to provide advice, functional guidance and services witch will enable the management to deal effectively with all matters concerning the employment of people(Michael Armstrong-Case Studies in Personnel Management /1979:17 )"
The Personnel Department enables the organisation to reach its goals and objective supports the managers and subordinates with help and advice and sometimes when is necessary is intervening between them in cases of redundancy, discipline and grievance. Another function of Personnel Department is empowering individuals to make decisions on their own, and also guides in work legislation.
Manual systems and computerised information systems
Organisations have a choice of manual system, computerised system or a combination of both. Nowadays computers are very important in day-to-day work because they facilitate the organisation activity.
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
Manual System
Here are some characteristics of the manual system:
the maintenance and the updating of manual records systems is a labour intensive and costly process.
is not recommended for standardized documentation : letter of appointments, contracts of employments etc.
the manual transfer of data from one record to another increases the chance of error
the information about employees are held in different files-without giving a single, comprehensive picture of an employee on one record
difficulty of analysis
time consuming
duplication-the employee information are necessary in different departments
Computerised personnel system
cost effectiveness
effective human resource information-information is the power
enables data to be readily manipulated
increasing the efficiency of the administrative operations of the P.D.
providing a more comprehensive human resource information service to the rest of the organisation, quickly and flexibly
enhancing the influence of the personnel function on key decisions
Statutory requirements
Data Protection Act
Since 11 of November 1984, all data users holding data about individuals on computer have been required to register certain particulars of the data held with the Data Protection Registrar , and to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act witch regulates the way data are gathered held and disclosed.
The Data Protection Principles
The Act establishes a set of 8 Data Protection Principles witch data users must comply. Personal data must:
be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully
be held for one or more specified and lawful purposes
not be used or disclosed in any manner incompatible with these purposes
be relevant and not excessive for their purpose
be accurate and, where necessary , kept up to date
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
not to be kept for longer than is necessary for their purpose
be disclosed on request to the data subject at reasonable intervals
be kept secure against unauthorized access, alteration, destruction , disclosure or accidental loss
Requirements of the Department of Health, Employment and Social Security &Inland Revenue
The legally required benefits and services are imposed upon an organisation by government. They include social security, unemployment compensation, extended medical insurance, workers' compensation, and occupational safety and health.
Since governments further societal objectives through laws, employers must comply or face legal sanctions. These laws help employees after work-related hardships and protect them from future workplace hazards.
Legally required benefits and services are important to human resource department for four reasons.
Top management holds the department responsible for meeting legal obligations. If the department is to meet this responsibility, it must keep the firm in compliance.
If the obligations are improperly handled , the result can be severe hardship for employees, along with fines, more taxes, or higher insurance premiums for the company
Effective management of these legal requirements can help the department contribute to the organisation's objectives.
For international companies, good treatment of employees creates a favourable impressions of the company, even though foreign-controlled firms are not always welcomed by local residents.
6.Evaluation the effectiveness of the Personnel Department
The evaluation of the Personnel Department is an overall quality control check on human resources activities in a division or company and on how those activities support the organisation strategy.
Several benefits result from a human resource audit:
Identifies the contributions of the personnel department to the organisation
Improves the professional image of the personnel department
Encourages grater responsibility and professionalism among members of the personnel department
Clarifies the personnel department's duties and responsibilities
Stimulates uniformity of personnel policies and practices
Finds critical personnel problems
Ensures timely compliance with legal requirements
Ensures timely compliance with legal requirements
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
Reduces human resources costs through more effective personnel procedures
Creates increased acceptance of needed changes in the personnel department
Requires a thorough review of the department's information system.
III. Carrefour Personnel Department
. Introduction
The Carrefour Group is a French company which is Europe biggest food retailer and the second largest in the world. Its presence in the world is made through a wide range of brands : Dia Discount stores, Champion supermarkets , Carrefour hypermarkets , 8 a huit, Cash and Carry ,ED , Marche Plus , oopshop.com , Prodirest , Promocash ,Proxi and Shopi.
The Carrefour Group operates in 30 countries worldwide: Belgium , Spain, USA, Portugal , Brazil , France , Greece , Italy , Romania , Poland, Czech Republic , Slovakia. Etc. and extends each day aiming to become the benchmark for modern retailing in every area , in especially in relation to human resources.
International and domestic competition , executive expectations and the growing diversity of commercial concepts, brands, services are challenging the role of human resources management within the Group.
For Carrefour Group , human resources function is critical to business success.
2. Aims &Objective
The main objectives of the Carrefour Personnel Department is to become an employer of reference in the modern distribution. Carrefour is doing that by thinking new training projects. Carrefour is aiming to stimulate intercultural communication facilitate new employee exchange between collaborators from different countries , sending employees abroad through exchange programs which can share experiences with others. Carrefour also believes in teenage power. In 1999 a group of 20 young Romanian graduates was trained for 9 months in French Carrefour stores and in the same time at the Professional Institute from Clermont Ferrand . There , they learned about the business management and now they are managers in different departments in the first hypermarket in Bucharest .The investment in such training programs costs the French Group about 3 million FF.
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
Other aims and objective:
To develop human resource methods to attract the employee loyalty
To have the best employees at the best level in organisation
To analyse the trades
To ensure the employee satisfaction
To anticipate new competences
To lay down formation and training policies
To improve quality in managerial behaviours
To develop the decentralisation of the responsibilities
To encourage the evolution of the employee and internal promotion
To listen to and support the dialogue
With already 5 hypermarkets in Romania , the P.D. is also aiming for Romanian subsidiaries to have 99% Romanian employees and managers.
3.Personnel Department Activities
Like in many other companies , The Carrefour P.D. has to write policies and procedures on recruitment and selection , designing jobs etc.
In Romania when the first hypermarket was opened in Brasov, the selection and the Group interview were very complex. Each new applicant has to pass a lot of stages. First all people must complete some application forms very complex and suggestive. It's a company presentation included also. The second stage , only the people with the right profile for the job that they applied, are chosen . Next, the applicants need to pass psychological, performance ,attitudes ,medical, and graphic response tests. After that is the basic interview. All these stages took place in 10 hours each day , for 2 days. It's a difficult activity to interview 300-500 hundreds of applicants in the same time, but reduces costs.
Employee relations and help in manage change
The group started since 2002 the progressive reorganisation of the cashier department with the installation of management by small islands. The small cash desk island is a system of cashier schedules management which seeks to reconcile the wishes of paid in term of working time, with the needs related to the activity for the store. A small island is composed of 20 or 30 hostesses of cash desk with different or complementary working time wishes, sociological profiles, different ages. Each employee integrates in his organisation the module, in order to hold account of his personal constraints , of the constraints of his colleagues and those of the store.
This activity makes it possible to answer to triple objective: to improve the organisation image near the customer(speed, kindness), to optimize the working hours, to consider the needs and the constraints of the personal life of each employee.
Payment administration and employee benefits
The motivation is ensured by a policy of remuneration and profit sharing. The P.D. is involved in managing 2 investment funds and saving plans. The wage is organised within a legal and tax framework . The benefits for the employee includes
Human Resource Management-Carrefour
Holiday bonuses ,subsidised canteen, vouchers ,luncheon voucher schemes etc. Also is a monthly competition between employees called "The employee of the month". They must respect all the job duties and responsibilities very strictly.
Training
In Romania Carrefour initiated a local training program four Romanian young people ,in collaboration with other Romanian companies. This project is initiated for providing future employee in the companies involved.
Also exist programs like "Euromanager Tournament" or "Le Hive" to support the employee involvement in the organisation.
Meet social and legal responsibilities within the employment field
The Carrefour Group respects all the legal duties and the International Labour Legislation and is involved in different charity events. Each store has its own organisation structure with medical department, separate place for the employee where the employees can take lunch.
4.Role of the personnel function
The role of P.D. is to enable, to facilitate different activities, to guide, to support, to empower the employee from the organisation. It also offer consulting for all the employees and managers also.
Manual systems and computerised systems
Carrefour is a big company and is essential to have an information system that works out with effectiveness and agility, providing relevant information at the right time.
6. Statutory requirements
All the legal responsibilities are fulfil. The Group is subject to different types of audit so , the statutory requirements are an important part from the company life. Being a company orientated on people needs, Carrefour designs its policies on employee and customers needs obeying the work legislation.
7.Evaluation the effectiveness of the Personnel Department
The Personnel Department cannot assume that everything it does is correct .Error happen. Policies and practices become outdated. Carrefour Personnel Department use self-audits for evaluate their effectiveness. But more information about this ,there will be in the presentation paper.
8.Conclusion
The Carrefour Group comprises a highly successful group of retail brands . The Group's success depends greatly on its employees. Recruits to the business are given high quality training and the opportunity to progress in their careers. Working at Carrefour provides the opportunity for a highly challenging and rewarding career for young people.
Appendices
Evolution of manpower on the last three exercises is as follows:
Manpower 31 déc.
2001
2002
2003
France
3 340
3 384
3 362
Italy
610
592
-
Romania (50 %)
339
415
782
Total
4 283
4 391
4 144
Human resources
Average manpower
2001
2002
2003
France
3 190
3 284
3 371
Italy
699
596
-
Romania (50 %)
228
349
559
Total
4 117
4 229
3 930
Distribution of manpower by function:
Manpower 31 déc.
2001
2002
2003
Frameworks
480
521
568
Controls
22
15
41
Employees
3 681
3 755
3 535
Total
4 283
4 391
4 144
Human resources
Thousands of euros
2001
2002
2003
Participation
055
2 931
2 835
Profit-sharing
551
707
426
Total
606
3 638
3 261
Bibliography
* Case Studies in Personnel Management-Michel Armstrong, Kogan Page -1979
* Computerizing Personnel Systems-A basic guide-Alastair Evans, Institute of Personnel Management 1986
* Managing People -Roger Binnett ,Effective Supervisory Management Series 1989
* www.carrefour.com
* www.carrefour.ro
* Human resources and Personnel Management-William B. Werther, JR. and Keith Davis
Executive Summary
Through this report, I hope to provide a clear image of what it means the human side of a company, what implies and what are the tasks of a Personnel Department in an international organisation like Carrefour Group.
This report is divided in 2 main parts: Theory and Practice .
In the first part are included general aspects of the Personnel Department like aims and objectives of a Personnel Department, the main activities, the role of the department, the system used, the legal aspects that must be fallowed . The second part is about Carrefour Personnel Department and theory applied. Also are some information about manpower planning and a job require leaflet , all at the appendices.
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