Human Resources

The human resources department of a business is used to recruit the best employee’s and to make sure that they work effectively and safely. Also the human resources department within a company deals with the businesses management of new and current employee’s, this involves such tasks as looking after employee’s well being to their working conditions, this is to ensure that employee’s are working effectively and are being treated fairly.

As a key department within any company human resources could cover;

The recruitment, retention and dismissal of employees
Working conditions
Health and safety
Training, development and promotion
Dealing with/working with employee organisations and trade unions

Typical jobs titles involved within the human resources department which help in the running of the human resources department are;

Human resources manager(s)
Training officer(s)
Health and safety officer(s)
Personnel assistants

Recruitment

A major task of the human resources department is to ensure that the business or company has the right employees for the successful running of the business/company this could involve from recruiting, retention and dismissing employees.

The recruiting process usually works like this;

Notification of vacancy

Constructing a job description, listing the tasks that will be key in the job. This is usually done through consultation of the candidate

Writing a person description, the identification of personal attributes, qualifications, skills and previous experience

Finding candidates, advertisement of the opening

Sending out application forms and job details, the distribution of forms to those candidates interested

Considering applications, the processing and assessment of applications received

Short listing, usually done if a large number of applications are received and the most suitable candidates are chosen for further selection

Interviewing short listed candidates, this is the process to ensure that the most suitable candidate is selected for the position, usually done through interviews with company managers or tests

Selection of the candidate, a candidate is selected after the interview usually in a selection meeting

Notifying the selected candidate, the candidate chosen is usually told on the spot they have been selected, telephoned, or mailed to notify them that they have been selected for the job

Issuing a contract to the candidate, this shows the selected candidate the terms and conditions of accepting this job; hours they’ll be working, rate of pay and entitlements. Also this is a legally binding document.

The recruiting process overall is to ensure that the most suitable candidate is selected for the job so that the company can run effectively. At all times all candidates must be treated fairly during the selection process meaning, no discrimination against race, sex or disability.

Also the recruitment process can be carried out by a recruitment company which is hired by the company to search out suitable candidates, a short list of candidates which the recruitment company chooses itself is given to the company to make the final selection.

Retention

When a business has a good employee usually they want to keep them. Some of the ways this is done is:

Giving the employee new incentives to stay with the company
Pay rise
Promotion
Employment opportunities elsewhere in the company e.g. international assignments

To ensure that the retention is legally binding, a new contract is usually drawn up or the old one is renewed with all the new relevant details.

Dismissal

Dismissal usually occurs when an employer feels that the actions of an employee is inappropriate or breaks the terms in his/hers contract, in this situation it may be necessary for the employer to deploy company or disciplinary procedures or take other action, which could lead to the dismissal (sacking) of that employee.

The disciplinary process has 3 stages. The 1st stage is informal discussion with the employee under scrutiny, where the employer tries to resolve the situation with the employee. If this situation is resolved no further action will be needed. If not, a formal procedure will ...

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Dismissal

A official verbal warning to the employee which has offended, where he/she will be notified that their behaviour is inappropriate, if this is ignored there will be a certain amount of time the company will give the employee before they take any further action

An official written warning, where the employee is notified through a letter of their offences and also explaining what further action will be taken if they do not stop. There may be a first and a final written warning in some cases.

The 3rd stage is disciplinary action, if the employee has continued to commit the offence, despite receiving the warning; the employer may be forced to take action such as, dismissal, suspension, transfer or demotion.

Laws and legislations

Employers have a responsibility to their employees to fulfil certain expectations such as;

Employees have the right

To be paid at an agreed rate
To be treated fairly
To be provided with a workplace that is healthy and safe
To receive appropriate training

As an employer they have a certain responsibility to fulfil these to a certain degree. But also employers have a right to expect their employees to;

Work in accordance to their contract
Maintain standards of good quality work
Cooperate in trying to achieve the objectives of the business
Follow set procedures
Comply with the healthy and safety regulations set

As a company or employer you must be able to recognise that there are certain laws and legislations in place to ensure that employees or potential employees are treated fairly. Some of the laws and legislations a company must recognise are;

The equal pay act 1970, stating that women performing comparable tasks to men should be treated equally, including the same rates of pay as them

The sex discrimination acts 1975 and 1986 rule against discrimination on the basis of sex and marital status

The race relations act 1976 makes it illegal to discriminate against employees or potential employees on the grounds of their race or ethnic origin

The disability discrimination act 1995 gives additional rights to disabled people and provides a code of practise for employers to end discrimination against employee’s or potential employee’s disability

The employment rights act 1996 confirms the rights of employees and covers the contract of employment, payslips, guarantee payments, Sunday workings, time off work, suspension from work, maternity rights, termination of employment, unfair dismissal and remedies for unfair dismissal, redundancy, lay-offs and short time working, sick pay, holidays, and the insolvency of an employer.

Motivation

In order for the employees to contribute fully to their work and to the success of their employer, employees must be motivated in order to do this. People are motivated when they have an interest, a drive that makes them want to do something or a target they’re working towards, a motivator is something that gives them that. Businesses use 2 types of motivators;

Financial, such as wages and salaries, overtime, bonuses and pay rises
Non-financial, such as holidays, opportunities for promotion, sense of achievement or gifts

Also companies can launch schemes to motivate the employees, such as company bonding outings, office parties etc.

Working conditions

Employees working conditions stated in their employment contract or requests laid down from their trade union, include from pay to their working environment. Working conditions vary from different businesses depending on what the job is for example, construction.

Here are some of the most important needs of good working conditions;

The working environment, often connected depending on the type of job, factors of this could include, cleanliness, warmth and security.

Hours of work, usually agreed upon already within the employees contract, but they can work overtime for extra pay.

Pay, employees are normally paid weekly, in the form of wages, or monthly, in the form of a salary. Extra payments such as overtime, bonuses or commission (extra pay determined by the number of units/products you sell), may also be made. Rates of pay vary between different jobs and businesses, the rate is usually agreed within the employment contract.

Job security, this is to ensure employees have a peace of mind where the company helps employees plan for the future or commit themselves financially through a company pension.

Also within working conditions, healthy and safety is a key matter within any business.

The healthy and safety at work act 1974 was put into action to ensure employers take responsibility for the following;

Provide a work place that is safe and healthy
Carry out safety procedures, such as fires drills and notices to inform people what to do during an emergency
Providing safe machinery and equipment
Provide trained safety staff
Follow health and safety procedures accordingly
Use machinery safely

Also depending on the type of business they may need to use or consider, the control of substances hazardous to health regulations 1988, this covers the safe use of hazardous substances or chemicals. Businesses such as chemical factories and laboratories may need to consider the control of substances hazardous to health regulations 1988.

Training, development and promotion

Training allows employees to get skills necessary to do their job and perform to the best of their ability. Most businesses provide some sort of induction training for new employees, this is to help new employees settle in and know how the company work.

The availability of training can be important and work as some sort of motivation for them. Training by an employer can either be internal or external.

Internal training is provided within the business. This could possibly where an employ is given a supervisor and they help train them while they’re on the job.

External training is where employs receive training elsewhere outside of the business, usually this sort of training is paid for by the company, and examples of external training is a business trip.

Human Resources, McDonalds

Employment practises

Policy

To recruit people who have a positive attitude towards customers, themselves and other employees and who are capable of delivering the highest standards of quality, service cleanliness to our customers
To employ local people wherever possible
To ensure that employees and job applicants are selected trained, promoted and treated on the basis of their relevant skills, talents and performance and without reference to gender, marital status, disability, race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin
To provide a clean, safe, healthy, and enjoyable working environment
To provide training and development for all employees to enable them to achieve the highest level of skills possible
To provide career opportunities which allow employees to develop to their full potential
To provide challenging and rewarding work
To pay for performance
To communicate effectively with all employees via staff meetings, one-to-one discussions, publications and regular employee satisfaction surveys
To encourage the educational pursuits of employees through the McDonald’s Scholarship Programme which provides financial support to qualifying employee’s

(Take from the McDonald’s information pack)

Background

Within the restaurant structure, there are two main levels of recruitment at McDonald’s: hourly paid employees and trainee business managers.

Hourly paid employees are offered the benefits of flexible working arrangements to suit the individual’s specific requirements.

Diversity Development

The McDonalds diversity policy promotes a good working environment for all its employees. McDonalds regards all of its employees as members of a team where everyone is heard and treated equally. The company also understands and respects the uniqueness of every individual who works for them.

They also aim to make sure that no job applicant or existing employee is treated less fairly on the grounds of their gender, marital status, disability, race, colour nationality or ethnic origin.

The person responsible for this policy is the human resources and training director, but it is also the responsibility of employees, particularly managers and area management, to challenge questionable behaviour and practises.

Also the human resources department monitors the effectiveness of the policy at regular intervals and takes corrective action as necessary to ensure that it is being complied with.

Employees who feel they are not being treated fairly are encourage speaking out and taking according action as shown in the company’s handbooks, which are given to all employees.

(most of the information above has been taken from the McDonalds student information pack)

Human Resources,

Cadbury Schweppes

Cadburys Schweppes’ success rate has mainly been due to their dependable and efficient workforce, which they have. They are 80% based on their human resources and 20% based on their business strategies. Cadbury Schweppes has a strong heritage in the way it respects its people and its social responsibilities along with that. Here are some facts and figures about Cadbury’s employment details. Cadburys Schweppes has always had long heritage of looking after the well being of its employees.

Cadbury Schweppes believes that working in teams is better for the employees than working in isolation; this allows the company to develop a better working atmosphere because it gives employees a better chance to get to know their fellow colleagues. They also encourage employees to speak out about what they feel about the business, this they feel will allow the company to create a better working environment for employees. They also believe in equal opportunities, they try to employ people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Employees meet their managers/employers regularly to assess their performance and see how well they are doing. In order for each employee to reach his/hers targets they can be giving individual training plans. Cadbury Schweppes would benefit hugely from their employees if they had extra skills, skills such as being able to speak another language. Cadbury Schweppes think that training is a great way of developing a close partnership between its employees and the company allowing them to feel moved involved in the running of the company instead of just employees.

Here are some of the most current employment figures and facts, which Cadbury Schweppes has released;

Cadbury Schweppes employs over fifty thousand people in over 5 dozen countries worldwide
Near 200 people globally in their executive management team.
Women make up just over a third of their global workforce, a quarter of their managers and 11 percent of their executives.

Rewards

Cadburys Schweppes are committed to praising and rewarding their employees according to their skills, performance. They have a global reward system, which provides guidelines, which other businesses can develop with their own variations. Cadburys actively encourage share ownership. Employees the countries Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands Portugal, Spain, UK and USA are offered shares with discount compared to market value. Share plans are promoted to employees every year. Cadbury wish to extend employee share plans worldwide.

Cadburys expect their employees work reasonable hours as to not overstress them thus affecting their performance in the work place; they encourage local businesses to develop their own strategies to this rule, which affect their particular needs of their business activities.

Cadbury Schweppes’ purpose of its company Policy

Cadburys Schweppes’ company policy supports them in:

Scouting and hiring diverse candidates.
Selecting the best and most appropriate candidate for the position, based on their overall performance.
Making effective use of the talents and experience of the people in the business
Acting fairly and respectfully towards each employee, and to possible employees individually
Ensuring legal compliance, locally and internationally.
Operating in line with the whole company’s framework of internal Minimum Standards, and Human Rights and Ethical Trading policy, while taking account of local societal and cultural variations
Educating and training employees on the value of diversity.

Health and Safety

Being such a large international manufacturing company, Cadbury Schweppes have realised they have a responsibility to ensure their employees health and safety needs. To ensure this Cadbury Schweppes has written up health and safety standards procedure to make sure that they the health and safety of employee’s at mind. In the role of Cadburys business activities, Cadbury Schweppes wishes to:

Minimise their impact on the environment around the world, working towards the objective of long-term sustainability.
Look after the health and safety of their employees.
Find opportunities to improve the environment in the communities that Cadburys operates.

Development and training

Cadbury Schweppes’ aim is to provide a leading edge employment experience, which also enhances the abilities of individuals and the running of company as a whole.

Part of Cadbury Schweppes' commitment to helping employees realise their full potential is the open option of access to further job opportunities elsewhere and within the company. Cadburys also encourages international experience, where individual can send there expertise’s and experience to another part of the company elsewhere in the world or country. In 2003 Cadburys had 150 managers on international assignments across the world.

(Information above has been taken from but interpreted into my own words)