Human Resource Management Review of College

Content

Introduction…………………………………………………..2

What is HRM…………………………………………………2

HRM Practices……………………………………………….2

Performance Management………………………………….3

Benefits of performance management…………………….4

Performance Appraisal………………………………………4

Benefit of performance appraisal…………………………..6

Learning and Development………………………………….6

Benefits of learning and development………………………7

Importance of employee relations…………………………..8

Legislation impacting decision-making……………………..8

Bibliography……………………………………………………9

Introduction

Over the last year Monmouth College has gone from strength to strength as the application to study has continued to grow and expand, resulting in the college hiring extra workforce in order to meet business demand. The college success comes from having a strong HR department that is up to date with current affairs. When it comes to HRM, good practices are involved in achieving departmental objectives as well as improving efficiency. This allows Monmouth College to move forward while getting the best out of their employees. This report will outline the benefits of the HRM practises to the Senior Management Team here at Monmouth College.

What is HRM?

As previously explained in the employee engagement handbook, HRM is a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to the employment, development, and wellbeing of the people working in organisations (Armstrong, 2016:7). Human Resource Management (HRM) is a way of overseeing individuals adequately for performance. Monmouth College aims to create a management style that is more open, adaptable and minding order to motivate and develop its employees so that they can contribute towards the company’s objective. The College has strong Human Resource Management team and combined with good practices it is able to achieve the target objectives set for the year. The practices this report is going to cover are:

• Performance management
• Performance appraisal
• Learning and development

HRM practices

It is very important that a company HR team engages in good HR practices as they are essentially laying down the foundation that will set the tone for the future to come. Monmouth College understands this and ensures that the HR team follows good practice.

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Performance Management – Performance Management is a method for achieving better results by providing ways for people to perform concurred objectives. It is a combination of many principles that allows the practice of good people management. It involves building up a mutual understanding in regards to what is to be accomplished and how to accomplish it. The intention is to build up individual’s capability so expectations and needs are met and exceeded. This will subsequently allow them to achieve their maximum proficiency that’s advantageous to them as well as the company. Further aim is to elucidate on how people are required to contribute to the accomplishments of the organisation by aligning individual goals to match with the strategic objective of the company.                                                                            

Furthermore, performance management provides basis for self-development ensuring support and guidance that people need to develop is readily available. Moreover it plays an important role in rewarding employees. Not only does it provide feedback but it also enables employees to be recognized for their achievements. Effective performance management relies both on formal and informal processes. And it aims to establish a culture where people learn the importance of taking responsibility for the unremitting improvements of business procedures. Often seen as a natural process, performance management involves three stages and these are:

1. Setting Objectives and Motivation- carried out in the early stages of the session
2. Encouraging Stage – at this stage the employee progresses with the pursuit of the assigned task.
3. Stage of Rewards and Consequences – this is applied upon completion of tasks

As performance management is ceaseless and not an isolated event, it integrates a range of HR activities that are overarching. Framework is needed for the different parts to be complimentary. It is very likely that performance management is similar across a range of organisations however, no single approach is considered best. Businesses aim to develop practices to match their business context and their actual/desired organisational culture. As well as the above, companies implement flexibility within the system as it accounts for the various ways teams or functions operate within a single function.

Benefits of Performance Management

Performance management benefits companies by improving organizational performance. By setting out objectives for employees to achieve the overall statement of purpose, a guide with the most immediate course is drafted to get everybody within the association from one point to the other. When objectives are defined as such, it becomes less demanding to decide the workforce and related costs required in order to accomplish the general mission allowing money to be saved in the process. So to determine the organisations monetary gain, sales and cost forecasts are implemented. This aspect allows managers to remain on track, avoid high rates and time overruns. In addition it enables the organization to reassess its position internally should the present performance management plan end up being wasteful. The general objective of performance management plan is to adjust the workers to senior management. This enables senior management with the ability to get rid of workers who constantly fail to achieve their singular targets. They’re weeded out in order to save money and get the overall plan back in motion. This saves time and effort in the long run trying to figure out why the organisation is not meeting its objective. Furthermore conflict is reduced ensuring competence and regularity in performance. However it can be quite time consuming having to write up numerous appraisals depending on the number or workers being reviewed. The process also has the ability to discourage staff so it’s important to ensure that there’s plenty of encouragement, positive reinforcement as well as celebrating achievements.Performance management for employees enables clarity. When they have an understanding, without question of what is anticipated from them, employees can undoubtedly decide whether that job matches their overall career goals. A self- assessment opportunity also elucidates job accountabilities and adds to a bettered performance supporting job satisfaction. Receiving feedback once the plan has been set in motion and acted upon is likely to increase motivation amongst employees. It pushes them to keep performing better in the future. The knowledge about ones success sets a tone for future accomplishments. Motivated staffs are also less inclined to feel miserable and take days of work sick.

Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal or performance review is a vital element in the broader set of processes that make up performance management. It is a systematic evaluation of employee performance that enables the understanding of abilities for further growth and development. Employee performance is measured against factors such as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output, leadership ability, communication and support. Records are maintained in order to determine things such as compensation packages, wage structures, promotions and much more. Additionally strength and weaknesses of employees are identified in order to place the right person in the right position. Nevertheless it serves as basis for influencing the working habit of employees thus providing feedback regarding performance and related status. Performance appraisal is carried out in the following way:

• Employee pay is measured, compared with targets and plan by supervisor
• Factors regarding the employee and performance are analysed
• Opportunity rises to drive employee toward better performance

Broadly all method of appraisals can be divided into two different categories; past and future oriented methods.

Past Oriented Methods

Rating Scales – This consists out of several numerical scales that represents job related performance criteria such as dependability, initiative, output, attendance attitude and so on. The scale ranges from excellent to poor. Total scores are computed and final conclusion derived. The advantages of rating scales are:

• Adaptability
• Easy to use
• Low cost
• Every job can be evaluated covering large number of employees
• Nor formal training required

Disadvantage: rating scale can be quite a biased method.

Checklist – With this method, checklist of statement of traits of employee in the form or yes/no question is preferred. With this method the rater reports or checks only thus leave the HR department to carry out the actual evaluation. Advantages:

• Easy to apply
• Training required is limited

Disadvantages:

• Rater can be biased
• Use of improper ways by HR
• Does not allow relative ratings

Future Oriented Methods

Management By Objective – management by objective and performance is appraised against the achievement of goals set by management. The process of MBO goes as followed:

• Establish goals.
• Set performance standard.
• Compare actual objective with those achieved.
• Establish new goals and strategies to accomplish targets missed in the previous year.

Advantage: it is very useful for management

Disadvantage: cannot be applied to all job roles and it’s more suitable for short – term goals rather than long term.

360 – degree feedback – this technique is a systematic collection of performance data on individual, group derived forms, a number of stakeholders like immediate supervisors, team members, customers, peers and self. Moreover anyone who has helpful information on how an employee does a job can be one of the appraisers. This is highly useful in terms of broader perspective, greater self – development and multisource feedback is always useful. 360- degree feedbacks are useful to measure interpersonal skills, customer satisfaction and teambuilding skills.

Advantages:

• Increases self awareness
• Encourages personal development
• Improves working relationship

Disadvantages:

• Multisource feedback tends to be intimidating/threatening.
• Poor leadership

Benefits of Performance Appraisal

Detailed information on employee performance enables easy decision-making. Recruiting from within will strengthen the organisation promoting loyalty amongst its employees. Having a good indication of what quality each worker is able to contribute to a role allows tasks to be assigned proficiently. Similarly appraisals provide an outline when it comes to decisions regarding reward and or dismissals. Should a company be subjected to a lawsuit, appraisals can negate or back up claims. As a result, organisations are able to run efficiently with single-mindedness. Appraisal systems assist the managers with the comprehension of employee skill sets and proficiency levels. Through frequent observation, the process will allow managers the opportunity to provide feedback regarding employee performance and discuss how well the employee objectives were achieved. Additionally it gives managers a chance to discuss employee development opportunities. Though performance appraisals are very time consuming. This can cause the manager to feel overwhelmed overseeing many employees. This can also lead to biases resulting in rater errors.

Learning & Development – Learning and development, also known as training and development intends to develop group and individual performance by increasing and refining skills and knowledge. Usually incorporated within the HR department, training and development includes these three core activities:

• Training: in. The content – based intervention is intended to guide skills or behaviour change. This activity is both focused upon, and evaluated against, the job that an individual currently holds.
• Learning: This activity focuses upon the jobs that an individual may potentially hold in the future, and is evaluated against those jobs.
• Development: This activity focuses upon the activities that the organization employing the individual, or that the individual is part of, may partake in the future, and is almost impossible to evaluate.

In vast changing business environment, employees should be able to keep learning and adjust their abilities n order to support business strategy. There are a variety of L&D methods that can be implemented and these are workplace- based and non-work based methods.

Workplace based learning

• On the job – done through observing/assisting a more experienced colleague.
• In-house development programme – this covers a diverse scope of learning interventions that are long-term, more extensive and more than a basic on-the-job training
• Coaching and mentoring- based on one-to-one dialogs to improve a person’s abilities, knowledge or work performance. This often related to the current position, but also to help with career changes.
• Job rotation, secondment and shadowing – Secondment is when an employee is temporarily loaned out to another department or externally to another organisation. This technique is broadly perceived as significant for both employee improvement and business advancement. Job rotation and shadowing are also valuable types of improvement, especially in supporting workers in building up skills and capabilities required for moves to new or high- level positions.

Non – workplace based learning

• Courses/classroom training – learning carried out in class
• Formal education/qualifications – A range of formal courses, vocational and management education are valuable methods for addressing learning needs while enabling students to acquire qualifications.
• Action learning/learning project –this is a way of collaborative learning where a small group of learners meet consistently to think about real work matters. 
• Distance/digital learning– this includes the use of learning material that has come through the post or electronically.

Benefits of learning and development

When organisations choose to invest in enhancing employee skills and knowledge, the investment is returned as increasingly beneficial and effective workers. L&D impacts the organisation through performance enhancements and the scattering of data, ideas and networking. It increases innovation in strategies and products thus reducing employee turnover, resulting in increased efficacies and monetary gain. Training improves essential skills in employees and empowers them to work independently therefore needing less supervision. This is beneficial to the managers as it frees up more time allowing them to place their focus on another tasks.Through learning and development new skills and knowledge can be assimilated. Workers feel backed and enabled in their work. This has an impact on employee confidence, capability and the competence to complete a task. Furthermore employees are likely to be satisfied with their assigned role within the company. However the time that it take to train employee can be seen as a negative point as manager may not have enough time to complete other tasks due to training employees. It is also important to be able to judge staff loyalty before investing in training, as there’s a likelihood they’ll pass on once they’ve gained valuable skills.

Importance of employee relations

Maintaining healthy employee relations in an organisation is essential for organisational achievements. Effective communication in the workplace is vital when it comes to good employee relations. This includes:

• Focusing on positive actions and results, avoiding and resolving issues concerning people, which may emerge out of or impact the work situation.
• Seeking proactive, problem-solving methods
• Recommending solutions.

Employee relations rely on sound and safe workplace, with contributions from all employees, incentives for employee motivation, and effective communication system within the company. Monmouth College appreciates and values all its employees as employee relations play a vital role in influencing decisions. As trade unions continue to decline, Monmouth College tries to figure out ways to keep staff happy and grounded. It ensures that there are high levels of employee engagement, with support available for managers to establish trust-based relations with employees. Strong employee relations lead to effective and gainful employees, which lead to increment in sales level.

Legislation impacting decision- making

Employment law directs the relationship amongst employers and employees. It oversees what employers can anticipate from workers, what employers can request employees to do, and representatives’ rights at work. Just like any other organisations Monmouth College have to comply with current legislation in order to continue to operate as an educational establishment. The following legislations have an effect on how Monmouth College makes decisions.

The Employment Rights Acts – This act is concerned with the rights granted to the employee, including sensible notice before a just dismissal, parental leave, redundancy and unfair dismissal. This act impacts Monmouth College as it will have to consider hinders that may occur in the staff’s personal life. Moreover, the college have ensure that staff are treated fairly, are given plenty notice in case of a redundancies. If the college does not adhere they may taken to a tribunal by an employee.

Data Protection Act 2018 – The Data Protection Act also known as GDPR is a law that regulates how companies use and protects EU citizens’ personal data. Monmouth College has to make sure that all information stored is used accordingly. For example, applications, they contain sensitive personal information that could, if ended up in the wrong hands be exploited. It is Monmouth College’s duty to ensure it complies with the act by dispersing old files that no longer serve purpose. If Monmouth College fails to comply, it could have negative impact such as receiving a fine.

Equality Act 2010 – This act is intended to protect people and prevent discrimination in the workplace and the wider society. It ensures that Monmouth College does not discriminate against its employees and that people from all walks of life are able to apply and work for the college. Furthermore it makes sure that staff are well advised to familiarise themselves with the legislation in order to meet legislative requirements. Failure to comply will make it illegal, as companies are not allowed to discriminate.

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