Human Resource department of Thorpe Park.

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                Aman Mutneja

To:      Catriona Johnston

From:  Aman Mutneja

Reff:    Human Resource Manager (Thorpe park.)

Introduction:

This report written on the 16th of October 2002 is to give a detailed report about the Human Resource department of a company. For this purpose, Thorpe Park has been selected as the study company.

Task 1-Human Resource function:

Introduction:

‘Human Resource means using people as an asset to achieve the company’s goals and objectives.’

The main concerns of the human resource department are:

  • Planning a successful campaign
  • Equal opportunities to all
  • The contract terms and conditions
  • Training and investing in training
  • Personal records and its protection
  • Grievance and disciplinary procedures
  • Management of the employees
  • Rewards for work
  • Welfare of the employees

Findings:

  1. The Human Resource department

The human resources department at Thorpe Park has three different managers. Their structure and main functions are as follows:

  1. Recruitment manager

The recruitment manager at Thorpe Park is responsible for recruiting permanent and seasonal staff. The manager has to advertise the jobs on the local press and other appropriate places. The manager at Thorpe Park is also responsible for deciding work experience positions and other recruiting responsibilities.

  1. Training manager

The training manager at Thorpe Park is responsible for employees and their training. The major activities of the training manager at Thorpe Park are as follows:

  • Park structure – this is helpful for the staff as it gets them to know each other and their responsibilities.
  • Health and safety – to make sure that all employees know what to do and how to handle things in an emergency
  • Rules and regulations – all employees must know the company rules and regulations as it is required by law and helps the business achieve the objectives.
  • Role-play situation – helps employees to be able to do team work and support their team mates
  • Fire safety – show fire exits and fire extinguishers and where to meet and who to call if a fire alarm sounds
  • Emergency procedures – shows the employees what to do in case of emergency

  1. Human resource manager

H.R. manager at Thorpe Park is responsible for:

  • Employee relations – involves everything regarding relation and communication between the employees
  • Disciplinary procedures – if employees do not behave H.R. manager will provide them with a verbal warning and if repeated that will be followed by the written and then the final warning.
  • Contracts of employment – making sure all the employees are provided with this legal document
  • Pensions – paying pension to people that are entitle to it
  • Other sections this manager is responsible for are: administration, cast welfare, benefits incentives.

The above stated managers are very essential to the management of Thorpe Park in the following ways:

  1. Recruitment

Recruitment responsibility at Thorpe Park is important because if there is not enough staff recruited then the business may have to some of its rides and that will lint to unhappy customers and less profit for the business.

As we know staffs is the most expensive asset for all businesses, at Thorpe Park the recruitment managers have to make sure that the staff that they employ are well qualified and fit to the requirements that are necessary for the particular job.

  1. Training

Because of the nature of the business at Thorpe Park, training is a part and parcel of the new employed staff. The business has to make sure that the employees do know as to what they are doing and what are the necessary precautions to be taken while performing that job. Apart from this, they also have to take care of the health and safety of the people who come to enjoy there. The training manager therefore has to make sure that the money spent on the training of the staff is worth it.

  1. Human resources

Task 2

Introduction:

Human resources planning used to be called manpower planning. However recently it has been defined as ‘the activity of management which is aimed at co-ordinating the requirements for the availability of different types of employees’.

The reasons for human resource planning are as follows:

  • To encourage employers to develop clear links between their business plans and their HR plans so that they can integrate the two more effectively, for all concerned.
  • Organisations can control staff costs and numbers employed far more effectively.
  • Employers can build up a skill profile for each of their employees. This makes it easier to give them work where they are most value to the organisation.
  • It creates a profile of staff, which is necessary for the operation of an equal opportunities policy.

The process of human resource planning:

  • Stocktaking: This could be job analysis or skills audit. That is like a survey of the skills of employees. Performance reviews as if a 6 months review which tells employees about the progress in their work area.
  • Forecasting supply: This is as if estimating how many employees to have in the future. Many organizations use a technique called labour turnover. There are three ways to calculate this
  1. Annual labour turnover index,
  2. Stability index  
  3. Bowey’s stability index.
  • Forecasting the demand for labour: This is usually determined by predicating factors like, demand for products, product diversification and capital investment plans.
  • Implementation and review: This is as if accessing the situation e.g. they have the new recruitment plan been successful.

Findings:

2.1.1.        Employment Trends:

Employment trends depend on the supply and demand of labour. The supply of labour depends on statistics like the population of the country. The total population of the UK depends on factors such as birth and death rates and the ease of migration. In addition, the size of the working population affects employment trends. The size of the working population is contributed by the birth and death rates and the age structure. The supply of labour also depends on the working populations preferences for leisure. As people become wealthy, they prefer leisure for work.

The demand for labour levels can change with differences in demand for goods and services. An example of this is the leisure and cleaning industry has gone up but the service and manufacturing demand has gone down. Here is an example of this in the economic market. In a boom we spend more on goods and services, although our interest is a lot lower and therefore demand increases and unemployment is low, but in an economic slump interest rates rise therefore people have less income to spend and wages go down. In addition, the cost of borrowing is higher this all contributes to demand falling and high unemployment. Total wage bills rise in a boom and fall in a slump.

Another factor that affects employment trends is women’s participation rate in employment. The rise of the tertiary sector has meant a change in employment and employment patterns. The tertiary sector is now more important than the secondary sector which traditionally employed man in say manufacturing. These industries are now being replaced and their place has been taken by the service industries, for example banking, insurance and retailing. The service industries are now major employers of women.

What are the employment trends at Thorpe Park? 

Most employees are recruited from the local area but also from colleges and universities around the country these are student placements and some seasonal; cast come from aboard.

What have been the trends in the local area of Thorpe Park over the last 5 years in terms of employment trends? 

There has been low unemployment Thorpe Park has tackled this by increasing hourly rates.

What factors will affect Thorpe Park in the future?

Most probably, national trends an example of this there might be a recession and unemployment might increase.

Statistics on employment trends external To Thorpe Park

Length of service of employees:

  • Since 1986 the length of service of people at a particular place for 2 years – 20 years was 62%. This figure kept decreasing and in the year 2001 it reached to 56%.
  • On the other hand people working in a particular place for more than 20 years in 1986 was 9%. Surprisingly this figure increased to 11% in the year 2001.

On observing the above stated figure it shows that the latest unemployment numbers for November 2002 to January 2003 continue to suggest that, having been rising for around a year, unemployment is now falling. The unemployment rate at 5.0 per cent is down 0.2 percentage points on the quarter. The latest figure for the level of unemployment is down 73,000 on the quarter to stand at 1.459 million

Similarly, on observing the above figure it can be seen that the employment rate continues on an upward trend. Having been rising marginally over the past year, there are low signs that unemployment may be falling, though the decline in the numbers claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance appears to be levelling off. The rate of earnings growth remains subdued. Generally, data are consistent with the output growth shown in gross domestic product (GDP) data in 2002. Overall, the labour market remains largely flat.

The rate of GDP growth picked up in the second quarter of 2002 after a weak first quarter, and this stronger growth appears to have continued into the third. The fourth quarter experienced slower growth but was still healthy. The number of people in employment continued to grow steadily throughout the period. Nevertheless, while employment continued to grow, through most of last year the rate of increase was no more than in line with population growth, leaving the trend in employment largely flat from May-July 2001 until recent months. However, the stronger GDP growth seen in the second and third quarters does now appear to be showing up in the employment data. Underlying this is the fact that the labour market tends to lag output: output slows or accelerates first; employment levels adjust later. The latest employment figures for November to January show the working-age employment rate up 0.1-percentage point on the quarter at 74.6 per cent. The 16 and over employment level is up 57,000 on the quarter (compared with a 271,000 increase on the year). As a result, the latest trend in the employment rate appears to be upward.

2.1.2                Skills shortages

Skills shortage at Thorpe Park:

  • It seems to be that the entire United Kingdom has a shortage of specialist engineers.
  • This type of shortage has hit Thorpe Park very hard.
  • Electrical and mechanical engineers are in short supply and Thorpe Park is looking out by various means to find some.
  • Thorpe Park reckons that this problem could be resolved because large companies like the airlines make their employees redundant quickly.
  • Thorpe Park always keeps an eye on the national statistics at a monthly basis to see the latest local labour trends.
  • They cannot afford to miss out ant potential engineers because engineers are the heart and soul of the company. As they are the ones who form the rides and maintain them for our safety.  
  • But they do find it difficult to recruit staff and at times they have to recruit unsuitable staff and train them.
  • The company gets highly affected by this, as it has to face many cost implications such as advertising and re-advertising of vacancies.
  • They then have to train them or send them on apprenticeships to become better and much efficient engineers.
  • At times they even have to increase their pays to attract them and retain them.
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2.1.3 Statistics on Competition for employees external To Thorpe Park

Unemployment rates for males and females in the UK

Here are some statistics on the unemployment rate for females and males in the UK from the period of 1992 to 2001

A higher proportion of young people than older people are unemployed, and a higher proportion of men are employed than women. 16-17 year olds men who were economically active were 13% unemployed. If you look at a male and female unemployment graph, you can see that 16 – 17 year old males are more out ...

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