Human Resource Practices and Policy Shortcomings - Essay Example

People Resourcing Introduction Organisational objectives are mostly satisfied through the support of effective people resourcing policy and practice. The organisational objectives include a wide range of activities ranging from securing the most productive services to attaining the long term strategic business objectives, such as achieving the required level of net profit, retaining productive and committed employees and so on. In other words, an effective people resourcing practices and policies are highly essential for satisfying the ever changing and ever growing needs of business and human resource management. Selfridge is a London-based retailer. Recently, some reports mention that the retailer is planning to inject £300 million into Oxford Street flagship store for appropriately and professionally serving more than 20 million local and international visitors annually and it is expected that this expansion will increase the visitors by 10 percent (Fashion United, n.d.). At the same time, it has also been highlighted that this single development expansion investment represents one of the biggest single project investment in the world (Fashion United, n.d.). Based on this situation, it can be deduced that the organisation is going to experience a sudden increase in its personnel and staffing requirement in the coming days. And this tendency can also be authenticated by the fact that currently on the official carrier’s page of the organisation, 28 vacancies are vacant and 11 out of 28 are related to sales associates in different categories (Selfridge Careers, 2012). In terms of percentage, around 40 % of total available vacancies are related to the sales associates. Based on this situation, it can be deduced that the current people resourcing policy is not satisfying the human resource management objectives of the organisation. Although the organisation has put in place some effective methods for people resourcing, the current personnel shortage clearly marks the inherent limitations to the people resourcing policies and strategies. In the following parts of this paper, first literature on people resourcing and people resourcing strategies and approaches have been elucidated and critically assessed as well. After this theoretical description of people resourcing, the subsequent part highlights the application of this theory on Selfridge, a well-known retail organisation mainly established in the United Kingdom. In this segment, the prime focus is to highlight its people resourcing policy and strategies. Subsequently, a specific business context has been included so as to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organisation’s people resourcing strategies. Consequently, this critical evaluation will pinpoint the existing loopholes that are disallowing the organisation to attain its business and human resource objectives. After this part, Selfridges’ business context and its current people resourcing policy have been critically analysed. In this analysis, the current human resource practices and policy shortcomings have been critically assessed. And before the conclusion and the recommendations parts, Selfridge’s equality and diversity policy has also been assessed. People Resourcing Definition The definition of people resourcing includes a number of activities. “People resourcing is concerned with ensuring that the organisation obtains and retains the human capital needs and employs them productively. It is also about those aspects of employment practices that are concerned with welcoming people to organisation and, if there is no alternative, releasing them” (Armstrong 2007 p.359). This definition highlights important aspects relating to people resourcing. First, it primarily focuses on organisation’s human capital requirements and subsequently it requires the effective and productive use of employees. In this regard, it is pertinent to highlight that this part of definition looks ambiguous as it does not further describe the productivity of employees. Consequently, this situation leads to consequent unclear application of definition. In the next part of definition, the definition author has attempted to elucidate hiring and firing perspective as an inbuilt part of people resourcing. However, it is still relevant to highlight that this definition points out the importance of human capital. For example, the definition author insists that human capital, such as natural talent, ability to satisfy job description and job role as expected by employer, remains a central focal point of the definition. At the same time, the author argues that selection of competent professional remains the first step for satisfying the organisational objectives. and this step is not an end in itself instead it is a beginning of a long term process in which the retention of the human capital has also been highlighted as well, indicating that people resourcing is not restricted to hiring the human capital but also ensuring retention is also achieved. At the same time, the definition also insists that after satiating the first two requirements of the definition, it is essential to work for the third requirement (productive utilisation) of the hired personnel. People resourcing’s fundamental objective is to ensure organisational success by hiring right person at the right time and at the right place (Erasmus and Schenk 2008 ). In comparison to the previous people resourcing definition, this definition is more accurate and sufficient enough to satiate the requirements of people resourcing. For example, this definition mentions the prime objective (organisational success) behind the process of people resourcing. Subsequently, the central crux of this definition is timing relating to hiring and selection process. Generally, it has been observed that timing of hiring and selection process is of central importance as this decision has a considerable effect on the business success. For example, during the holiday season, such as Christmas, many retail organisations hire part-time workers so as to meet the requirements of customers. For this purpose, the retail organisations start hiring process from the second week of November to the end of the third week of December. This timing is essential as it has serious ramifications for the organisations. For example, sufficient availability of customer support staff enables organisations to manage the influx of customers in a professional manner. At the same time, this also gives an opportunity to hear and address the queries and complaints of the customers. As a result, this will enable the organisation to obtain the organisational success. On the contrary, if the organisation’s management does not take the seasonal hiring decision, this will increase chances for reduced sale, a growing number of unaddressed customer complaints and that would subsequently lead to underperformance. In other words, organisation’s success largely relies on such personal resourcing decisions. Till this point of time, the scope of people resourcing and its actual application and its understandable difference with other related terms in the human resource has not been fully elucidated. Taylor (2005) contends that the concept of people resourcing has not been meaningfully defined by the human resource experts. Under this situation, it can be easily deduced that people resourcing’s potential benefits have not been properly identified and they have not been availed till this point of time as well. However, resourcing function has been identified to satisfy the four fundamental objectives: Staffing, performance, administration and change management (Taylor 2005 ). For example, the staffing objective is to hire adequate number of employees so as to satiate the organisational need of human capital. Performance objectives are mainly related with the attainment of staffing objectives (Taylor 2005). In this regard, it is pertinent to highlight that the staffing remains the main organisational objective and has more significance than other mentioned objectives as performance objectives, change management and administration are those objectives which are mainly developed and applied to the hired employees. In other words, it would not be incorrect to say that these four organisational objectives follow and retain specific sequence which individually and collectively ensures the attainment of organisational objectives. Approaches to people resourcing Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has developed three approaches to people resourcing: The traditional paradigm, the contingency-based paradigm and new paradigm (Taylor, 2005). The traditional paradigm is based on certain assumptions: (1) the size of organisations either medium or large and apply conventional management hierarchy along with well-elaborated roles and accountability patter; (2) organisations’ have ability to control their business environment; (3) employees work on contract basis and they have sense of attachment with an organisation; (4) both private or public organisations work in a competitive business environment (Taylor 2005). Based on these assumptions, it can be easily extracted that the traditional paradigm is purely based on certain assumptions and these assumptions may or may not be applicable to all organisations. For example, small organisations also exist in today’s business environment in which a single owner along with two or three support staff manages the human resource and business affairs of the small organisation. Consequently, the first assumption has failed to exist. At the same time, in various medium and large organisations, numerous employees work as a full-time worker and they receive all rewards, benefits, incentives which are always given to full-time permanent staff members. The contingency-based paradigm demonstrates that it is appropriate to accept that there are and should be numerous approaches to people resourcing in different types of situations (Taylor 2005). Based on this situation, it can be easily deduced that all medium or large organisations do not follow the same people resourcing policy as they operate in different countries, in different business climates, in different business types and in different situations. This indicates that each organisation is required to follow its own people resourcing policy suitable to attain and retain the business and organisational objectives. Innovation and out of box approach appropriately represent the new paradigm (Taylor 2005). This perspective highlights that the new paradigm exists along with the conventional paradigm as various organisations have proved that the conventional thinking can be challenged with the support of innovation. For example, in the recent people resourcing history, it has been observed that many organisations do not even use the conventional hiring or recruitment process for satisfying the organisation’s objectives instead they have developed the concept of home-based employment. In this concept, human resource managers are not required to observe the attendance of employees, which is a part of conventional paradigm instead project based employment is offered to the interested individuals. In this type of interaction, organisations do not follow the conventional methods instead they are only interested to timely submission of project. As a result, this situation appropriately represents the emergence of new paradigm. Selfridge: Diversity and Equality Both diversity and equality are important aspects in the human resource development. Diversity refers to identify value and respect for differences where equality refers to treating individuals fairly and equally and discouraging discrimination against race, disability, gender, belief, age and religion (Edinburgh, 2015). Based on this definition, it can be easily deduced that both terms are closely related to each other. More specifically, diversity promotes healthy competition within a workplace culture where employees are given an opportunity to use their best talent and difference of opinion and difference of perspective for obtaining their individual and organisational objectives. in this regard, it is relevant to emphasise that diversity has become an important factor in today’s people resourcing as it encourages organisations to understand the fact that today’s social values, norms and even legal requirements fully encourage and support the inclusive society where biases should not be allowed to clear social divisions within the different shades of society. At the same time, organisations are not allowed to apply or imply that they do not hire some individuals relating to colour or creed as this would not only bring legal action against them but also make it hard for the organisation to attain her commercial and organisational objectives as well. Similarly, equality is of central importance as it protects organisations from any legal battle but it also provides them an opportunity to avoid any bias against potential employees. “Selfridges is an equal opportunity employer. So whatever your age, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, race or family circumstances we ensure you’re treated with fairness and respect” (Selfridges Careers, 2012). This Selfridges direct quotation indicates that the organisation understands the value and significance of equality and diversity. At the same time, this statement also proves that the organisation has put in place effective human resource practices that have enabled the organisation to retain the organisational objectives. Among various organisational objectives, corporate annual profit remains the prime and fundamental objective for various organisations as it is also seen as a barometer for the success of current human resource policies and other strategic business policies. For example, Selfridges & Co. reports astounding annual profit by posting operating profit of £155 million for year ending January 2015 (Fletcher, 2015). This shows that the organisation’s top senior management has put in place effective strategic and human resource policies that have resulted in the higher profit in the current year. However, it is still relevant to highlight that there are certain issues that are currently challenging the paradigm of existing personal resourcing policy. For example, Maria Stanford, who is the human resources director, points out that staff turnover remains the major problem for Selfridges (Cooper, 2007). Based on this situation, it can be easily deduced the organisation has not been able to figure out the reasons behind the high staff turnover. At the same time, the high staff turnover also indicates that the current human resource policy has failed to satisfy the expectations of the staff. When this perspective is compared with the stated human resource policy statement, it can be easily extracted that the colossal difference exists between the stated and actual human resourcing policy. Additionally, high staff turnover also indicates that many employees do not agree with the actual policies of the organisation and they prefer to leave the organisation and look for other opportunities. Moreover, high staff turnover also points out that there is a disconnection between the senior management, who is assigned to determine and develop the human resource policy, and the middle or operating staff members. And this disconnection has also been supported by the statement of Maria Standard which indicates that the line managers have not been able to figure out the reasons behind the increasing rate of turnover (Cooper, 2007). This situation points out that the actual implementation of training and development policy is different from the stated policy and the scope of this situation is not only limited to the operational staff but the line managers are also affected by this weak human resource policy. In this regard, it is relevant to mention that line managers are strategically important personnel for the retail organisation as they mainly look after operating staff member issues and some customer issues as well. Sales associates and people resourcing policy Selfridges plans to inject £300 million into its retail business and this expansion will facilitate an increase of additional 10 percent customers (Fashion United, n.d). In order to satisfy the growth requirements, Selfridges has announced various vacancies, such as sales associates, managerial posts in various departments. Currently, Selfridges carrier webpage displays 28 positions. Out of which 11 are about sales associates for various departments. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that this situation indicates that the current recruitment and selection policy is not in agreement with the organisational objectives and this can be authenticated by the number of unfilled sales associates positions. Furthermore, the sales associate’ position is centrally important especially for the retail business as they are the one responsible for obtaining sales objectives. at the same time, the month of December is highly lucrative for the retail organisations, such as Selfridges, as it brings holidays in which people are more willing and interested to increase their spending on different products. under this situation, unfilled sales associates positions highlights a clear disconnection between the resourcing policy and the organisational objectives, such as impressive sales performance. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that the retail organisations, such as Selfridges, primarily rely on the holiday season because it brings more customers, more sales which subsequently affects profit as well. At the same time, it has been observed that the United Kingdom’s retail sector has been very competitive as the retail competitors always try to attract and retain customers through different discount and coupon offers. Keeping these fundamental factors in mind, Selfridges’ current resourcing policy and its implementation has failed to consider the impact of vacant sales associate positions and this situation becomes worse in the holiday season when the customer flow is unusual and substantial as well. Challenges for market competition and for people and skills Selfridges faces the problem of appropriate and qualified sales associates. The retail industry is highly competitive as it requires more polished and qualified staff every year especially in the holiday period. And this shortage of skilled sales associates is also being faced by Selfridges. In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that the sales associate vacant positions of Selfridges clearly indicate that the retail market is not immune to the effects of shortage of such positions. And the same time, the related skills are also short in supply but are great in demand. Under this situation, the competitors are offering lucrative incentives, offers and fringe benefits so as to attract and retain highly qualified and experienced sales associates. However, this deduction should be taken as reflecting that the people resourcing policies in the retail sector are highly attractive from the perspective of potential candidates and from their expectations as well. And this perspective is also applicable to Selfridges and its people resourcing policy because high turnover at Selfridges is clearly indicating that the existing people resourcing policy is ineffective and unattractive not only for the potential employees but also for the existing employees as well. It is highly recommended that the senior human resource management must review the existing people resourcing policy of the organisation. For this purpose, the senior management should take immediate measures to reduce the high turnover in the organisation. The measures can be determined through distributing a questionnaire. This questionnaire must have both close-ended and open-ended questions. For example, the close-ended questions will enable the human resource team to pinpoint those reasons which provide cause and reason to staff turnover. At the same time, the open-ended questions will highlight those recommendations and methods which can be useful for reducing the current staff turnover rate. In this regard, it is pertinent to highlight that the questionnaire results must not be taken for granted but they should be given a serious deliberation. Subsequently, those measures will be commonly found in most of the filled questionnaires must be further processed for the purpose of implementation. Increase training and development programmes should be developed and implemented as well. Currently, 11 sales associate positions are still vacant. In other words, the human resource department is not putting maximum efforts for filling out those positions. And this lack of seriousness has serious implications for the organisation. In order to avoid this situation, it is highly recommended that the human resource personnel, responsible for the selection and recruitment of sales associates, must attend training and development sessions. In such sessions, the developed programmes should focus on the new and better ways for selecting and recruiting the professional staff especially the sales associates because they have important place and value in the retail industry. And this training and development programme will enable the human resource department to expedite the hiring process of sales associates. Additionally, such training and development programmes are also important and have future implications for Selfridges. For example, it has been mentioned that the organisation is going to spend £300 million for developing additional facility which will accommodate additional 10 percent customers of the organisation. Under this situation, if the current resourcing policy is not updated, this would put negative effect on the organisational objectives because the availability of qualified and professional staff is highly necessary for satisfying the long term business and human resource objectives. Conclusion People resourcing has been identified as a way to obtain organisational success through hiring and retaining employees at the right time, at the right place. at the same time some approaches have been highlighted to describe different approaches to people resourcing and they include conventional paradigm, the contingency-based paradigm and new paradigm. Each one has different applications for different organisations. Selfridge remains an important retailer player in the UK’s retail industry. Currently, the organisation plans to invest £300 million for developing facilities. However, this organisational objective has not been satisfied by the current people resourcing policy of the organisation as some indicators indicate that the people resourcing policy has certain inherent limitations which make it hard for the organisation to attain these long-term objectives. for example, some reports highlight that the organisation faces the growing problem of high staff turnover in the recent history. At the same time, it has also been observed that out of 28 vacant positions, 11 positions, which are related to sales associates, have not been filled out till this point of time. This clearly indicates that the people resourcing and organisational objectives of Selfridges are not supporting each other. In order to improve this situation, it has been recommended that the organisation should conduct survey for identifying reasons behind high staff turnover. References Armstrong, M. (2007). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London: Kogan Page. Cooper, N. (2007). Selfridges’ human resources director Maria Stanford reforms the retailer’s HR brand. Personnel Today. Available: http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/selfridges-human-resources-director-maria-stanford-reforms-the-retailers-hr-brand/ Accessed: 4 December, 2015. Fashion United, (n.d.). Selfridges injects 300 million pounds into Oxford Street Flagship. Available: https://www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/fashion/selfridges-injects-300-million-pounds-into-oxford-street-flagship-store-2014052621224 Accessed: 4 December, 2015 Fletcher, N. (2015). Selfridges reports record annual profits. The Guardian. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/01/selfridges-reports-record-annual-profit-department-store Accessed: 4 December, 2015 Selfridges Careers, (2012). Customer Service at Selfridges is About Meeting the Highest Standards. Available: http://selfridgescareers.com/retail/trafford-centre-manchester/what-we-look-for Accessed: 4 December, 2015 Erasums, B., & Schenk, H. (2008). South African Human Resource Management: Theory & Practice. 4th ed. Cape Town: Juta & Co. Taylor, S. (2005). People Resourcing. 3rd ed. London: CIPD. Read More