Role of Human Resource Management in the Company - Case Study Example

A Human Resource Management Problem that is having an Adverse Effect on the Organisation’s Effectiveness Table of Contents 0. Introduction 3 2.0 Critical Assessment of HRM in the Organisation 4 2.1 Brief Overview of the Company 4 2.2 Role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the Company 5 2.2. a. Headcount 6 2.2. b. Employee Engagement 7 2.2. c. Investment in People 7 2.2. d. Compensation and Reward 8 3. Demonstration of a Clear Understanding of the Issue 9 4.0 Influence of HRM on organisational Effectiveness 11 4.1 Enhance Productivity Skills and Competencies 12 4.2 Recruitment and Selection Procedures 13 4.3 Recruitment Policy 14 4.4 Determination of Required Workforce 15 4.5 Workload Management and Job Allocation Strategy 15 5.0 Influence of Change and Organisational Culture on HRM 16 5.1 Issues Associated with Pay or Wage Structure 16 5.2 Issues relating to Workforce Diversification 17 6.0 Conclusions and Recommendations 19 References 21 1.0. Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) has long been considered as one of the most essential elements critical for organisations to achieve desired level of success. According to the modern strategic practices in the global business environment, organisations are likely to encourage continuous development of the HRM policies and standards in order to gain full potential of the workforce in alignment with its strategic goals. With due regard to the unconventional business mechanism of the organisations, a holistic HRM approach entails a particular area that often plays a crucial role to develop solutions in response to different workplace related problems or issues. The policies and guidelines, associated with a competent HRM practice, are altogether appraised as a major determinant to execute leadership practices towards employee satisfaction, lowering the numbers of turnovers within the organisation (Shah & et. al., 2011). In addition, building strategic partnership with the organisations’ vision and values is also regarded as one of the major objectives of HRM while developing appropriate solution guidelines for the operation. The solution guidelines of HRM, in response to various issues have also been recognised to emphasise adequate compliance with the state and national employment law that further helps organisations to satisfy workforce and maintain productive competencies at the desired extent (Rose & Kumar, 2011). With due consideration to the notion of HRM principles and policies, the study tends to critically discuss the issue of heavy and unbalanced workload on the employees and provide effective solutions to the organisation. In this regard, the discussion will address the current issue of heavy and unbalanced workload on the employees faced by the HRM department of Atkins Group, a renowned engineering consultant organisation in the UK. In relation to the prevailing HRM issues in the group, the discussion of the study also attempts to explain the ways in which, the effectiveness of organisations can be influenced by human resource management. Moreover, the discussion also focuses on understanding the nature of corporate culture and the way it develops in organisations and evaluate the current operational issues in Atkins. The demonstration of a clear understanding about the problem faced by Atkins will be evaluated with a relevant academic model in practice. Finally, the study will critically highlight the primary causes implying strong influences on the operational process of Atkins and provide effective HRM solutions for mitigating future conflicts. 2.0 Critical Assessment of HRM in the Organisation 2.1 Brief Overview of the Company Founded in the year 1938 by Sir Williams Atkins, WS Atkins is one of the largest and widely renowned engineering consultation firms, operational in the UK and North America. At the initial stage, the company was established as WS Atkins and Partners in London and was specialised in civil as well as structural engineering design process of the governmental projects and institutions. Throughout the emergence of the company across the European markets, Atkins has extended its specialised services in various sectors including engineering sciences, planning along with architectural designing and project management functions, retaining its sustainability and competitiveness. During the financial years of 1990s, Atkins has undergone various significant acquisitions and capitalised its strong sustainability. Notably, the acquisition of Faithful+Gould in the year 1996 was one of the major strategic shifts of the company in the global emerging structural design, construction along with engineering and business service industry sectors as well. In the subsequent years, the company was also listed in the London Stock Exchange of the same year due to its rapid pace in terms of acquiring a strong financial position in the UK and North America along with the newly emerging Middle-East and Asian business markets (Atkins Group plc., 2014). According to the current financial highlights, the organisation has achieved remarkable financial growth throughout the last fiscal years. In relation to the recent financial report, the financial performance of the company was recorded at a total of £1,750.1 million revenue in 2014, which was relatively 2.6% higher than its financial performance in the year 2013. The operating profit of the company is also observed to gain a remarkable growth of £113.7 million in 2014, whereby the company marked a growth of 9.3% as compared to that of 2013 (WS Atkins plc, 2014). 2.2 Role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the Company The human resource department of Atkins can be duly considered as one of the integrated parts that helped the organisation to meet its desired business objectives, satisfying work-life balance of the employees. The HRM policies of the Atkins are aligned with the strategic vision along with its value and business concepts. The primary aim of the HRM department of Atkins is therefore identified to emphasise talent of each individual employee and help the organisation to exceed expectations of the clients and meet the key strategic objectives through the collective expertise team. The human resource activities of the organisation impose significant impacts on the overall delivery, when concerning the strategic direction of Atkins. In this regard, the human resource activities of the company align its potential and valuable activities through a structured and well-defined process. This further helps the organisation to critically evaluate its key human capital metrics including headcount, engagement, reward, investment in people and diversity of the employees irrespective of operational or strategic departments operational under its leadership (WS Atkins plc, 2014). 2.2. a. Headcount The fundamental headcount of the people working in Atkins has been counted at approximately 800 fully qualified employees, until the year ended as on March 31st 2014. During the first half of the same year, the overall headcount of Atkins h surmounted up to 17,489 employees, which was considered as one of the major growth drivers of the company. It is worth mentioning in this context that in the recent past, the growth in annual headcount has increased due to a significant rise in the recruitment activities of the emerging Asian, Middle-Eastern and UK business markets. In accordance with this trend, the recruitment and selection department of the organisation has been mainly focused on acquiring fresh talents in each financial year, which would assure it with enhanced competency level of its workforce to comply with the changing trends of the global market. Accordingly, in the year 2013, the HRM department of the organisation was observed to have hired 500 fresh graduates from its domestic and global operating markets. The following figure hereby depicts the headcount growth of Atkins that was achieved by the company during the last financial year (WS Atkins plc, 2014). Fig.1: Headcount Figure of the company during 2013-2014 (WS Atkins plc, 2014) 2.2. b. Employee Engagement The employee engagement function of HRM in Atkins generally includes three major activities, i.e. alignment, involvement and measuring employee loyalty. The alignment activities of the HRM department generally includes a process of identifying relation between objectives, goals, values and aspirations of the employees with the core business principles of the organisation. According to the performance record for the year 2013, the alignment score of HRM practice in the company was recorded at 68, which determined that the employees are strongly aligned with the strategic values and goals of Atkins, further offering its internal strengths to obtain competitive advantages with flexibility. With regard to the aspect of involvement, it fundamentally represents the level of motivation, job satisfaction and personal fulfilment of the employees in the organisation. The involvement ratio of the employee in Atkins has therefore scored 70 as on the year 2013. Correspondingly, the measurement of employee loyalty in the organisation is also observed to score 70 in 2013, which also determines the strong attachment of the employees with the vision, goals and objectives of Atkins indicating towards its competencies in adjusting with the changing business scenario (WS Atkins plc, 2014; 2013). 2.2. c. Investment in People Steadily increasing the investment portfolio for developing operational and decision making capabilities of the employees is also a major set of HRM practices implemented in Atkins. In this context, during the financial year 2013, the overall spending of the organisation, in providing training and developmental assistance for the employees was recorded up to £18.5 million. This further also indicated a strong positive influence on the organisational performance management along with production and sales excellence, and personal development initiatives of the employees. In addition, the career development initiatives of employees in different strategic and operational sectors of the company can also be regarded as a major facet of investment strategies in Atkins (WS Atkins plc, 2014). 2.2. d. Compensation and Reward Besides the above mentioned determinants and variables, employee reward and compensation also refer to a major component of HRM practices, as implemented in Atkins. Correspondingly, factors involved in this particular domain include a process of providing additional benefits in the form of financial, operational and working-hours related advantages to a specific group of employees. In relation to the current HRM practice in Atkins, resolution of increasing 4% in average salary of the employees involved across the Group’s in different global regions can be regarded as one of the major initiatives for the company. In order to represent the salary review as well as reward decisions of the company, the HRM department of Atkins can be witnessed to invest substantial labour as well as resources in comprehensively conducting annual benchmarking studies of its subsidiaries located in European, North American, Middle-Eastern and Asia Pacific regions. The Executive Bonus Scheme of Atkins is also a major aspect of its rewards and compensation programs that adds to its benefits altogether. According to the recent strategic report, it has been observed that the company has obtained significant growth of total 1000 senior executive staff members within the scheme, which has not only assured the company with effective manpower retention but also with increased productivity as well as employee sustainability. In addition, it also implied stability in the organisation’s leadership practices, which in turn helps maintaining employee satisfaction as well as operational betterment at a more consistent extent (WS Atkins plc, 2014). 3. Demonstration of a Clear Understanding of the Issue Atkins has been recognised as one of the leading consultancies in engineering and structural designing with an extensively broader service and sector portfolio. According to the modern business phenomenon, HRM is a major integrated part of the organisation when concerning the aspects of streamlining and increasing capabilities of the organisation’s production process. In order to increase the level of job satisfaction as well as performance of the employees, the HRM system of Atkins is designed with a ‘well-being centred methodology’, wherein their fundamental needs both at personal and interpersonal levels are regarded vital. The approach also helps the HRM system of the organisation to substantially reduce the annual attrition rate by minimising the level of stress of the employees, wherein the stable leadership practices also proves to be a major determinant factor. Moreover, the well-being centred approach of the HRM system also provides a major support to the organisation to increase productivity with streamlined quality and emphasises staff engagement for enhancing satisfaction within the workforce (Roberson Cooper, 2012). The subsequent effects of these practices can be observed with regard to better employee retention and increasing headcounts for the company on a consistent manner. However, the approach within the HRM system in Atkins has also been recognised to involve major problems for the organisation to effectively manage each segment of the HRM practices. According to the underlying understanding of the well-being approach in the HRM system of Atkins, it has been critically identified that the methodology had substantially increased unbalanced workload on the employees, owing to lacunas in the implementation process. The approach has further resulted in causing relationship strains for the employees due to the complex matric structure in the working environment, wherein chances of conflicts at the interpersonal levels are also not completely ignorable (WS Atkins plc, 2012). With reference to the challenge that was witnessed by Atkins, the major initiatives were taken by the company with the aim of improving employee well-being as well as resilience for retaining productive employees, especially during their growth and when implementing change models in the organisation. The program of developing well-being and resilience of the employees was initially conducted across the Defence, Aerospace and Communications (DAC) divisions. In this context, the problems were identified with a few shared issues associated with experienced workload across each division of DAC. The divisions have further been undergoing specific challenges relating to employees’ increasing unbalanced workload as well as their relationship strains within the organisation, raising conflicts within the interpersonal levels (Robertson Cooper, 2012). In relation to the problem in the project of developing well-being and resilience of the employees, the implementation of 6 Essentials of Workplace Well-Being model by Robertson Cooper has evidently facilitated the organisation to effectively deal with the issue. According to the solution model developed in the customised manner for the company, the pilot program of the model included 20 employees as the participant of the experiment, who were further studied with the help of questionnaire and personal interview process. According to the results obtained, the workplace well-being model has provided a clear understanding about the existing HRM systems and practices in the organisation. The group that evaluated the issue has further been identified as a crucial requirement for continuing development of the HRM policies and practices in Atkins (Robertson Cooper, 2012). According to the results of the evaluation process, the well-being model implemented by Robertson Cooper claimed that the managers, clients and other areas of the organisation have clear understanding about the reward system motivational initiatives at Atkins. It is worth mentioning in this context that they are not just dependent on their base payment structure, but also obtain incentives and allowance benefits that further motivate them to perform better and in alignment with the organisational goals. The other elements associated with the reward packages are also essential for the employees to emphasise their well-being while working in different departments within the organisation. In addition, majority of the employees from different operational levels have been observed as adequately familiar with the sound relationship amidst the productivity performance, workload along with their individual morale and resilience capabilities that has in turn facilitated their intrinsic motivational needs and steered their performance towards betterment. Majority of employees have also admitted their agreement and confidence about the communication process while conversing regarding any workload with their superior leaders, adding to the leadership efficiency within the organisation. It is worth mentioning in this context that the results obtained thereafter also reveal that the managers and superior leaders in Atkins are familiar with the significance of motivational activities, which they implement by considering the personal motivational needs and its impact on the performance of the employees (Robertson Cooper, 2012). In this regard, the HRM system and practice guidelines in Atkins conserve an effective environment that enables employees to mitigate issues that might relate with their well-being in the workplace both at the individual and at the interpersonal basis. 4.0 Influence of HRM on organisational Effectiveness In relation to rapidly growing policies and standards, the organisations of the present business world tend to face different challenges due to their dissimilar ways of aligning HRM policies with the overall business goals and objectives. In order to avert the risks of potential HRM issues arising due to limitations in their alignment and structural progression, the organisations must therefore need to develop or improve its principles concerning HRM policies by managing and controlling performances at the group dynamics as well as morale and resilience of employees with the operations at their individual levels. Moreover, taking into account the personal issues or situations and reducing barriers to improve work-life balance of the employees have also been recognised as one of the major set of HRM practices applicable within the modern organisations that would reward greater benefits to the same. Moreover, the aim of managing workforce effectively and attaining long-term sustainability has also been recognised as a few common HRM practices of the organisation in the recent business phenomenon (Bal & et. al., 2014). In relation to the current competitive sensation observable in the global business environment, the significance of HRM policies and practices has become crucial for organisations to sustain with their long-term business positioning (Burke & Cooper, 2008). Emphasising this phenomenon, a few of the major effective factors of HRM contributing towards the success of the organisations, such as Atkins, have been detailed below. 4.1 Enhance Productivity Skills and Competencies Enhancing productivity of each individual employee and improving their level of competencies can be duly accepted as a common set of HRM practices that empower organisations to accumulate business goals and objectives. From an academic perspective, it can thus be argued that an effective set of HRM practices includes activities such as recruitment and selection along with training and development initiatives that significantly enables organisations to acquire the scope of accomplishing operational objectives within the postulated time and budget (Jiang & et. al., 2012). It is in this context that by evaluating of the current HRM practices in Atkins, the organisation has been recognised as highly complaint with its business values by taking into account the process of enhancing skills and productivity capabilities of the employees in both group as well as individual levels. In this regard, the HRM department of the organisation is likely to analyse and discuss the recruitment requirements. Moreover, the department also tends to consider effective set of planning measures regarding cost, workforce establishment along with workforce planning required for different engineering and structural designing operations while acquiring valuable workforce from various geographic locations (Ws Atkins, 2014). 4.2 Recruitment and Selection Procedures Recruitment and selection can be referred as the major aspects related with an effective and all-inclusive HRM system having major influence on the organisation to achieve the predetermined business objectives. In relation to the rapidly increasing competitive pace of the current phenomenon, organisations are frequently identified as centrally focused on developing strategic measures with respect to their recruitment and selection processes (Chhabra, n.d.). In the context of Atkins, recruitment and selection is regarded as one of those primary activities of its HRM functions that enable the leaders and managers to engage competent workforce for its range of healthcare department. In relation to the current HRM policies, the recruitment process of the organisation also involves strong principles by providing equal opportunity to the qualified individuals, regardless of their age, gender, colour, ethnicity, religious backgrounds and disability based differences. The fair employment policy of Atkins also incorporate strong provisions regarding various discriminatory acts and practices that are highly associated with demographic variances including gender, income level and cultural aspects. These norms are also observed as implemented while making them a part of the organisation’s quality based operations and services (WS Atkins plc, 2013). 4.3 Recruitment Policy The recruitment policy of Atkins incorporates an all-inclusive framework, which promotes equal opportunity, respect along with dignity and understanding of each potential individual within its workforce. The organisation also clearly illuminates its vision, value along with operational and managerial standards. The recruitment policies of Atkins have been accordingly observed to have encouraged and valued individual endeavours as well as diversity, apart from providing wider opportunity to the candidate regarding their career developmental goals (WS Atkins, 2014). In addition to the recruitment policy of the organisation, it is often observed that Atkins recruits from diverse cultures based on the individual skills, aptitudes along with the abilities and experiences of the potential employees in different operational and managerial areas of the organisation. This equal opportunity can also be considered as one of the major and primary aspects of the recruitment policy of Atkins. In this regard, the organisation tends to comply with strong regulations against employment discrimination on different grounds, including race, age, gender, national origin, religion and cultural beliefs and sexual orientation among other unlawful conducts (Condrey, 2010). In this regard, the existing recruitment policies of the organisation can also be regarded as one of the effective set in the company’s HRM system that is crucial for Atkins to successfully acquire large number of employees with potential talents in relevance to its operational and service functions. 4.4 Determination of Required Workforce The identification of required workforce is one of the preliminary approaches of the HRM department of the organisations in the modern business environment, especially due to the changing trend of demand in the markets. Moreover, the appropriate identification of required workforce is also essential for the organisations to deliver goods and/or services to the final customers within the committed time (Condrey, 2010). In relation to the current HRM practices in Atkins, the organisation includes an extensive range of operations and strategic management areas that require qualified and talented workforce. Additionally, the structure designing and consulting different engineering works also face different constraints relating to the number of workforce due to the changing rate of attritions across its different global subsidiaries. In this context, a continuous process of searching for talented individuals can be regarded as one of the major HRM tactics followed in Atkins to address the complex employment trends in the global markets. Additionally, the workforce retention strategy as well as different motivational and reward system is often identified to enable Atkins, acquiring required number of workforce for its different business operations (Condrey, 2010). 4.5 Workload Management and Job Allocation Strategy The issue of workload management can further be regarded as one of the major concerns of the HRM department of modern organisations, as it is substantially linked with the attrition rate of employees. According to the recent empirical research studies relating to the concern, an effective management of organisational workload as well as job allocation strategy often help organisations to avert the severe risks of employment attrition (Aycan & et. al., 2000). In relation to the current business functions in Atkins, the HRM system of the organisation also plays a crucial role, fundamentally in appropriate allocation of its different structure design, engineering as well as consulting activities that substantially reduce the increasing workload on its employees at both the group and the individual levels. The job allocation processes of different operational activities in Atkins takes into account the skills and capabilities of the employees along with their familiarities with the specific function. The strategy further helps the organisation to emphasise the production capability of the employees and enable them to keep satisfy with their assigned roles in different operational levels. Moreover, the process also facilitates the company to streamline quality of its products and services. On the other hand, conducting continuous training and development initiatives for employees from different operational segments also help Atkins to substantially increase the capability of its employees to deal with the changing workload in its operations (WS Atkins, 2013). 5.0 Influence of Change and Organisational Culture on HRM Change in business operations and/or strategic measures along with changing organisational cultures have long been witnessed to create major constraints on the HRM system. According to the recent competitive pace in the global business environment, the HRM system and strategic measures often involve major hurdles due to the competitive business objectives and operational goals of the organisations (Burke & Cooper, 2008). In this regard, few of the major factors associated with organisational change and culture that substantially lower the strategic capability in HRM have been discussed in the following section. 5.1 Issues Associated with Pay or Wage Structure It is one of the major decisions for the multinationals to develop a generic structure when focused on managing their workforce, especially while performing business operations in the overseas countries. In this context, maintaining adequate wage structure of the employees is one of the major strategic facets for the global organisations, especially in terms of expanding their business units into any other foreign country. An ineffective integration of wage structure can significantly influence the organisation to attain competitive success in the growing business world. Moreover, an inadequate pay structure can also cause loss of employee performance and in various competitive scenario, it further results to loss in its productive employees. Additionally, the aspect can also hinder organisational brand image, which further cause a major constraint to attain long-term competitiveness in the fiercely growing global market (Brynningsen, 2009). In relation to the current business operation of Atkins, the organisation has extended its number of subsidiaries across different emerging markets in European, Middle-Eastern, North Americas and Asia Pacific regions. In this regard, the diversified national policies relating to employment wage benefit and structure can be regarded as a major concern for Atkins. However, the well-built HRM policies for aligning business values and commitments with the host countries often help the organisation to avert the risk of pay and employment wage related issues (WS Atkins, 2013). 5.2 Issues relating to Workforce Diversification In relation to the changing pace of globalisation, the issue associated with workforce diversification has emerged as one of the major concerns for the HRM system while the organisations perform business operations globally. The HRM functions of the organisations have also been observed to face major challenges due to the extensive differences of national culture on the workforce (Meyer, 1997). In the context of current HRM practices in Atkins, the continuous emphasis on ensuring equal priority of employees, irrespective of their national culture can significantly help the organisation to reduce negative impacts associated with workforce diversification. Nevertheless, continuous training and development programs for each group of employees also help Atkins to minimise the issue that might be derived from cultural differences of the workforce in the organisation (WS Atkins plc, 2014). 6.0 Conclusions and Recommendations In relation to the present competitive scenario, adequate strategic measures in the HRM policies and practices have been observed to facilitate organisations in achieving major success in the global business environment. In order to maintain its long-term dominant position, organisations are more likely to adopt effective strategic measures relating to each HRM factors towards enhancing the shared goals and objectives along with long-term commitment with their employees. In relation to the current business practices in Atkins, the HRM policies and guiding principles of the company include a holistic set of policies and practice guidelines in order to enhance the satisfaction level of the employees. Moreover, the organisation has also been recognised to suffice the desires and expectation levels of its global workforce by aligning their needs with the organisational goals and objectives. Although the issue relating to increasing and imbalanced workload on the workers have implied to bring major hurdles, the well-built HRM policies and practice guidelines have substantially enabled Atkins to preserve its competitive positioning in the global structural design, engineering and consultancy business industry. In order to avert various issues associated with its HRM practices, the company should also need to critically examine the ultimate satisfaction of its workers across its different domestic and global subsidiaries. In this context, the process of job allocation and providing adequate training and development functions within the workplaces can be regarded as one of the most essential requisite areas for Atkins to avert any type of future HRM issues. It is thus arguable in this context that the job allocation process of the HRM department should highly prioritise the skill, capability and experience levels of the employees when allocating operational activities so as to ensure controllable amount of stress on the members at both interpersonal and individual levels. Moreover, a significant focus on considering personal situation of the employees in response to their job roles in the organisation can also streamline HRM functions in Atkins. Correspondingly, acquiring experienced individuals across the different geographic regions, by considering their operational, technical and managerial skills can also help Atkins to avoid any type of issues associated with increasing imbalances in workload related issues. On the other hand, improving training and development programs in accordance with the complexities of the operational areas can also be considered to help Atkins in avoiding different challenges relating to employee workload. In this regard, conducting frequent process of educating new employees with regard the operation or monitoring and evaluating performance of the workforce can also help them to lower the risk of employment workload. References Atkins Group plc., 2014. About the Group. Our History. [Online] Available at: http://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-GB/about-the-group/our-history [Accessed January 03, 2014]. Aycan, Z. & et. al., 2000. Impact of Culture on Human Resource Management Practices: A 10-Country Comparison. Applied Psychology: An International Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 192-221. Bal, Y. & et. al., 2014. Determining The Influence Of Hrm Practices On Increasing Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Research From Turkey. Human Resource Capital without Borders: Management, Knowledge & Learning for Quality of Life, pp. 1025-1033. Chhabra, V., No Date. Current Trends in Employee Retention Strategies. International Journal of New Practices in Management and Engineering, Vol. 4, No.1, pp. 20-27. 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