Answer :

Human Resource Department

Introduction:

For increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the organisation, management of the human resource is very much important because it provides organisational sustainability. Hiring and retaining the right amount of human resources in the organisation always increases the productivity. For avoiding the problem in the organisation, it is important to avoid less or over the amount of staff because it decreases the productivity. Human resource department of any organisation is mainly associated with the hiring employee, providing training and development opportunities to the employees, setting the remuneration and deciding the employee reward strategy. This assignment is intended to describe the effectiveness of human resource department of Barclays which is one of the famous organisation in the Canary Wharf

Task 1:

P1: Function as well as the purpose of the HRM that is applicable in the workforce resourcing as well as workplace planning:

Human resource management of any organisation mainly includes three different areas such as hiring, retaining, and train staff, deciding employee compensation and maximising the employee and organisational benefits. In order to facilitate the long-term performance of any organisation, it is important to make a different managerial decision that mainly includes the environmental scanning, formulation and implementation of the strategy along with emphasises the monitoring process (Bratton and Gold, 2012).  Strategic HRM identifies different threats and opportunities that affect the human resource department of any organisation. Along with that, it also formulates different strategies that can match the strength as well as weaknesses along with the external threats as well as opportunities. After that, it helps to formulate strategy and then it controls the activities. Therefore, during the workforce planning all of this factor need to be considered so that the human resource department of the organisation less affected by different potential environmental factors (Jiang et al. 2012). Therefore, effective human resource management of the Barclays that is one of the leading firms of Canary Wharf that allows the organisation to identify priorities and exploit different opportunities, provide an effective view regarding the problem associated with the organisation. Along with that, it also helps the organisation to make a different major decision with the minimised level of resources. Effective workforce planning generally helps any organisation to get the exact number of employees that have the sufficient amount of skills that can help the organisation to achieve effective performances.

In order to facilitate an effective workforce planning for Barclay, hard HRM is highly important because this kind of human resource has the effective link with the resources that are required, how this resources can be achieved and the costs of the resources (Jiang et al. 2012). Therefore, hard HRM simply threats employee as the business resources. On the other hand, soft HRM treats the business as one of the important resources. Soft HRM mainly considers the need of the employees so that effective strategy can be implemented to make them motivated. Therefore, with the help of effective soft HRM, the organisation can motivate employees and achieve more productivity that affects the workforce planning because for this HRM less number of human resources is required for the organisation.  

P2: Strength, as well as weaknesses for different recruitment and selection, approach:

Barclays can hire the potential human resource for their organisation from different sources such as third party, external and internal sourcing. Recruiting employees with the help of third party organisation mainly include the recruitment of the staff by those organisations. There are enormous advantages of this recruitment process that is this kind of recruitment helps the main organisation to use their precious time in only their organisational work and helps them to provide less concentration on this addition unit. Therefore, this kind of recruitment process helps the core sector of the organisation to grow. However, the disadvantage includes the hiring inappropriate staffs if the main criteria would not be effectively understood.

According to Budhwar and Debrah (2013), external recruitment of any organisation mainly includes hiring employees from outside the organisation. In this case, the organisation can advertise their vacant position in different job portal, newspaper and television so that they can hire their potential staff for their organisation. The prime advantage of this recruitment process mainly includes getting the right talent in the right position. However, this kind of recruitment process is mainly effective for the bottom line staff and the organisation generally prefers to hire their internal staff for their higher position. This recruitment process has one of the disadvantages that are hiring staff for some managerial position through this recruitment process mainly generates huge dissatisfaction among the existing staff that may result in the conflicts. Moreover, the training costs for this kind of recruitment process are generally high.

On the other hand, recruiting employees from internal source involves recruiting employees from the existing employees. In this case, Barclays mainly advertise their jobs in their employee portals so that only employees may know about the recruitment process and apply for this position (Anderson, 2013). There is a range of benefits of this recruitment process that is it does not require almost any costs for training. Employees generally have some pre-existing knowledge regarding the organisational culture that helps them to perform their new job responsibility with more expertise. Along with that, the organization does not require to invest in the background checks for the employees. Moreover, it requires almost no costs for advertisement. However, this kind of recruitment process may include huge conflicts among the existing staff (Buller and McEvoy, 2012).

On the other hand, for hiring their employees, Barclays mainly depends upon the preliminary screening, technical screening, HR interview and then managerial interview. 

M1: Assessment of how HRM can provide appropriate skills as well as talents:

Hiring and retaining the appropriate talents as well as skills are one of the objectives of the effective HRM. By applying effective human resource management strategy, the organisation Barclays can access the right candidates that can help them to fulfil their requirements. By providing advertisements in different media, especially in the internet media, the organisation can get the access to those candidates that have the required skills and expertise (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011). Effective HRM satisfies employees by promoting the personal development, providing effective remuneration to the employees as the valuable organisational resources so that the employees can sustain in the organisation. With the help of four different activities such as acquisition, compensation, development and maintenance, Barclays can hire and then maintain them so that they can achieve the competitive advantage. 

M2: Strength as well as the weakness of different recruitment and selection approach:

Main strength related to the external recruitment process is organisation can get their required entry-level staff by this recruitment process. On the other hand, it can help the organization to fulfil their exact requirement related to staffing but the disadvantage of this recruitment process mainly includes huge expenses regarding training. Moreover, enormous effort is required to make the employee understand the organisational culture. Third party recruitment helps the Barclays to develop their core business area. The disadvantage includes ineffective hiring in the case of miscommunication (Mathis and Jackson, 2011). Internal sourcing can provide several benefits to the firms such as it helps the organisation to get the talent who have effective knowledge regarding the organisational culture so that by conducting this recruitment process, the organization may save the costs regarding the induction training. Moreover, this kind of sourcing reduces the costs related to advertising for the recruitment drive in different traditional media. The main disadvantage of this recruitment and selection process is it increases bias and creates the possibility of sabotage in the organisation (Mathis and Jackson, 2011). Moreover, it can generate group culture inside the organisation that can decrease the organisational productivity.

M3: Critically evaluate the pros and cons of selection and recruitment approaches:

Internal sourcing helps the company to achieve the workforce that is already accustomed to the organisational culture. This kind of recruitment and selection process is mainly effective for internal promotion. For example, if any employee is holding the junior accountant position in Barclays, then the employee became a senior accountant by this recruitment process. The disadvantage of this recruitment and selection include conflict among different employees that is holding the same position (Brewster et al. 2016). On the other hand, the external sourcing mainly effective hiring the sales staff or trainee, therefore, this recruitment and selection process can help the company to get the adequate number of employees with basic skills. These kinds of employees are new to the organisation so that they may not have any idea regarding the organisational culture and cost regarding training is high. On the other hand, third party recruitment process is effective to hire the bulk amount of employees (Choi, 2011). In that case, this kind of recruitment process is important because it helps the firm to concentrate on their core business.

Task 2:

P3: Benefits of HRM for both the employee and employer:

Table 1: Benefits of HRM to employer and employee

(Source: Jabbour et al. 2013)

P4: Effectiveness of HRM practice in raising the organizational productivity:

Different organization implements different HR practices, which are essential for the development of the employees. The present section would discuss the effectiveness of different HR practices within organization. 

In several organization, there are scope for learning, development and training practices for the employees. This is essential as it help the employees to gain sufficient knowledge and instil the required skill that can be directed towards the betterment of the company. With the improvement in the performance of the employees, the profitability of the organization increases. Moreover, the employees would develop a sense of belongingness towards the company and would remain motivated to improve the performance of the organization.  Effective learning encourages the employees to improve their performance towards the organization. Their motivation obtained from learning and development encourages them to do so (Jabbour et al. 2013). Hence, proper training and learning enable the employees to work as per their convenience and give their best performance. Training and development practices have become popular developed countries as it has created positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the individuals. 

Learning, development and training practices are also significant for motivating the employees and encouraging them to give their best performance towards the organization. The performance of the employees would decide their payment and reward. This would help in motivating the employees and encourage them to improve further. This practice would help the employees to realize that more they would work and improve the more would their payment and rewards increase. The effectiveness of the above HR practices would direct the organization towards success. When the employees are motivated and focused, they would give their best to the organization.  

M3: Different methods that are utilised in the HRM practices:

HRM is mainly associated with recruitment, selection and management of employees. However, according to Hayton (2012), along with recruitment and selection, HRM department also has the task of career management of employees. For example, in Barclays, newly joined employees are provided with rigorous on the job and off the job training in order to make them accounted with the work environment. Further, the HR department within the organisation makes it sure that all the employees are made understand their roles and responsibilities. This eventually helps the employees to work better and improve the productivity of the company. In Barclays, internal training is helping the employees to improve their skill and productivity, which is resulting in their increase of salary.  Employee feedback survey is conducted very often to make improvements in HRM practices like recruitment and selection, reward and performance appraisal, career management and so on. 

Task 3:

P5: Analyse the importance of the employee relations in decision-making:

An employee cannot work alone without having people around him. All of them need to talk to each other and sharing ideas for working comfortably and effectively. It is the responsibility of the managers to foster an effective relationship with all the employees by carrying out an active communication. Healthy employee relation helps an organisation in various ways for taking appropriate decisions (Alagaraja, 2012). Therefore, for the following importance, the leading firm of Canary Wharf must maintain an appropriate employee relation. 

• A number of situations come in the business where it becomes difficult for the manager to take an effective decision alone. Here, he needs, suggestions and innovative ideas that can be obtained from the employees by encouraging them to participate in the decision making and sharing the problem and information with them. Taking opinions from the staffs before the final implementation of a plan helps to identify the pros and cons of the plan that need further consideration (Aguinis and Lengnick-Hall, 2012). 
• According to Bach and Edwards (2013), an effective relationship with the co-workers releases the workload and enhances the overall productivity. Dividing roles and responsibilities among staffs helps to achieve the organisational goals at a faster rate.

Therefore, to reduce the workload and find out the best solutions to organisational problems, the leading organisation of Canary Wharf must be focused on improving employee engagement in the decision-making process. The firm uses the bottom-up strategy, as the employees are the bedrock of a company. It uses an employee opinion survey and when the results come out a formal or informal meeting is held, where the common issues are discussed with the employees and their opinions are taken to solve them. It improves the employee relation positively (Collings, 2012). 

The Trade Union in the UK protects the rights of employees by negotiating with employers about the working conditions and pay rise. Further, it also discusses the big changes within the workplace like huge scale joblessness. It also provides financial and legal advice to the members during their concerns. The Trade Union imposes new rights for employees and thus, protect their interests (Marchington, 2015).

P6: Identification of the key elements regarding employment legislations and its impact of decision-making:

There are a number of employment legislations those must be followed by the leading organisation of Canary Wharf for ensuring effective management of human resource. The organisation must take all the HR related decisions considering the guidelines and regulations of these acts so that the business operations can be carried out smoothly.

The Employment Rights Act is revised by the Employment Relations Act 1999 and 2003 that contains a range of pledged rights for the employees. As per this Act, employees are entitled to obtain a recorded pay statement. They are allowed to get the national minimum wage. Following this act, employers must not carry out unfair sacking of employees.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 impose the legal framework to encourage, and stimulate great standards of health and safety in the workplaces. It aims at protecting workers from work activities. Employers are accountable to offer and maintain safety instruments and systems of work. The materials used in the workplace must be stored, used, transported and handled safely so that it cannot harm any employee (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017).  

The Equal Pay Act 1970 sets out guidelines for employers to provide equal remuneration to the male and female employees, who are in the same posts or do the same types of works. Women should not be treated less favourably in terms of working conditions and payment.

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 is imposed by the European Union, which sets and changes the minimum wage for all the employees. Every year, the wages are increased with the increased cost of living. The current minimum wage for workers of over 25 years old is £7.50 for every hour. Workers belong to the age group of 21 to 24 years old are paid £7.05 per hour and the workers of 18 to 20 years old get £5.60 for each hour (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017). 

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 sets guidelines for protecting employees from discrimination on the basis of their gender. It protects employees in all the aspects of employment such as, during recruitment, selection, job advertisements, promotion of employees, providing them career development opportunities and training (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017). 

The Race Relation Act 1976 protects employees against discrimination during their employment on the ground of their races. This Act works similarly as the sex discrimination act 1975 (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017). 

Figure 1: Employment legislations

(Source: Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017)

M4: Different key aspects of the employee relations management and the employment legislations that can affect the decision-making in HRM:

Maintaining and fostering an optimistic employee relation is key to organisational success. Employees are the base of any organisation that must be strong enough to maintain the competitive position of the firm (Roche, and Teague, 2012).

Stone and Deadrick (2015) stated that positive employee relation decreases nonattendance at work, as the workers become more concerned with their job roles and responsibilities. Hence, they feel like arriving office on time daily. It makes them feel enjoying their works and not taking numerous leaves. It also increases employee motivation and decreases conflicts in the workplace.

Therefore, to foster employee relationships within the organisations, Trade Union provides guidelines for employers to comply. Employers, who identify the rights of a specific union to exemplify its employees, negotiate about the condition and pay to the union, which is called collective bargaining. Thus, it ensures that all the employees are receiving all the benefits, they deserve (Hayton, 2012).

Moreover, the employment legislations related to health and safety, equality, diversity, discrimination also aim to protect employees from discrimination or any kind of harm within the workplace. For example, the Health and Safety Act stipulates that employers must provide adequate training, information, supervision and instruction to ensure that all the workers are well-informed about the information provided by the suppliers of instruments and manufacturers. It ensures that employees are working in a safe working environment by talking to the safety representatives. The Equal Pay Act 1970and the Equality Act 2010  prevents the inequality in pay between men and women, performing the same duties. Here, the pay refers to the employment terms and conditions and other benefits such as working hours, basic pay, overtime allowance, annual leaves, bonuses, sick pay, performance-related increments, promotions, redundancy pay, company cars and pension schemes. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relation Act 1976 protect the employee from discrimination on the basis of their gender and races (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2017).  

Task 4:

P7: Application of the HRM practices in a work-related contexts:

Different HRM practices are applied in different work-related contexts based on the requirements. Here, the job specification for a Nurse position is developed. Nurses provide nursing and medical care to the patients in care homes or hospitals. They take care of the patients suffering from mental or physical health issues.

Duties and responsibilities:

Nurses work with a team of medical staffs, professionals, including, doctors, therapists and social workers. Hence, a nurse fulfils the following duties (Wilson, 2014):

• Evaluating and initiating requirement of nursing care
• Providing care before and after operation
• Observing and managing medication and venous distillation
• Recording patients’ samples like temperature, pulses and blood pressures
• Writing records
• Supervising junior medical staffs
• Managing workloads
• Providing emotional assistant to the service users and their family members
• Teaching student nurses 

Key skills (Werkmann et al. 2010):

• Excellent people skill and teamwork
• Compassionate and caring in nature
• Observational skills
• Capability to use plans
• Flexibility and endurances
• Ability to deal with pressured and emotionally charged situations
• Effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills

Qualification (Wilson, 2014):

• A three to four-year nursing degree course
• Graduation with a relevant degree, such as social or biological science, health, life can be qualified by completing two-year post-graduation diploma course
• Candidates with experience of working in a hospital or care home are preferable

Interview questions for a nurse:

1. What according to you is the most difficult thing to encounter for a nurse?

2. Do you like to work with a team or alone?

3. How do you deal with a patient, who is complaining of constant pain?

 4. Why did you choose to nurse as a job or career?

5. How would you deal with a rude doctor?

M5: Rationale for the applications of specific HRM practices in a work related context:

Preparing an appropriate job specification and interview questions, make the selection process easier and refined. Creating a job specification helps job seekers evaluate themselves before applying for the job and understand the way in which they can fit the business and the job role. It helps them to match themselves as per the suitability. As stated by Kramar (2011), job specification elucidates the precise personal qualification are crucial to the employer in two kinds vital and desirable. It enables employers to be overt in what they want and how the applicant fit the criteria. Thus, it makes the shortlisting process much efficient and easier. Without person specification and appropriate interview question, it is not possible to assess the behaviour, attitude and abilities of the person to whether he is fit for the job role.  

According to Thacker(2012), this ensures that the recruitment and selection are done fairly without breaching the regulations set by the government. It also certifies that all the candidates are selected based on their ability and qualification and no partiality or unfair means are conducted. 

Conclusion:

Human resource management is a wide concept that includes a number of aspects to be considered. Managing human resource effectively is essential for ensuring organisational effectiveness and productivity. In organisations, where effective employee relation is maintained, employees become responsible and try to adjust with others instead of finding out their flaws. They strive to be successful in their job rather than wasting their time in worthless conflicts.