HRM-Organizational Performance Link - Assignment Example

Human Resource Management Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Task one The area am familiar with is the sales and marketing department. McDonald is one of the best performing restaurants in the world supplying fast foods like hamburger. The purposes of the workers in this area are to ensure the products are marketed well in the market. The workers are also supposed to uphold the business ethics by improving the services they offer to customers (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006). The main purpose of this unit is to ensure the company gains competitive advantage through effective promotions and also improve the sales in each financial year. In order to achieve an increase in sales, the human resource skills should be improved by hiring qualified skills, developing the skills of the employees, conducting follow up to know the customers’ issues and improve on them. In order to achieve better results from the sales team members and to realise the set target, the team members should be motivated through rewards due to their good performance. There should be a continues process to get feedback from the customers on what they think about McDonald products, training the team members to improve their skills when accomplishing tasks and counselling the team members so as to avoid conflicts and help them to avoid delaying in achieving tasks (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006). Considering the above facts, the team members will be motivated and come up with better strategies on how to market the company and its products. Task 2 Equal opportunity laws are the laws which discourage discrimination of any kind to any individual. These laws are greatly advocated by the human rights commission in Australia. Equal opportunity rights include age discrimination law (Human Rights Commission 2008). This is the law which was established in the year 2004 under the age discrimination act. This law states that there should be no any discrimination in the public life on the ground of age differences. For instance, there should be no discrimination during employment, when providing goods and service and education programs. The act also acts on the positive side when assisting elderly people to live a comfortable life. There is also the law of discrimination act. This act provides equal opportunities for all and there should be no discrimination against people with disabilities. All people should be treated equally. It helps to promote equal chances to all people in the society and finally the law ensures that there people with disabilities have equal rights like all people (Human Rights Commission 2008). There is also the law against racial discrimination (Human Rights Commission 2008). This Law states that all people are equal despite their race, colour, nationality or the origin of the ethnic background. It discourages any form of discrimination. There is also the law against sex discrimination. The International labour organisation advocates for equal opportunities for all people. Sex discrimination should be discouraged with all means and equality should be promoted among men and women at workplaces and any other forums (Human Rights Commission 2008). There should be no sexual harassment anywhere. Task 3 The following is the process of making a pot of tea; the first step is to ensure availability of water in the kettle, the next step is to turn on the kettle through the plug in, wait for the water to boil, heat the cup and put the tea bag in the cup and add water. The next step is to let the tea steep and add water, stir thoroughly to ensure the tea bag mixes evenly and use a tea spoon to remove the tea bag. The next step is to serve the tea into the table and serve it. The last step is to enjoy the flavour of the tea. Task 4 The job am familiar with is human resource management. The job descriptions for this job include the following; the job identification- the job title and it should be selected carefully as it shows the importance of the job, location of the job, span of control, department, code of the job purpose and objectives of the job (Fleetwood & Hesketh 2009). In addition,contents of the jiob include the time allowed to make personal decisions on behalf of the orgabnisation and the resoyurces under the control of under the employee. Working conditions of the job include the environmental conditions, job safety and machine requirements. Person specifications on the other side include education and qualifications - the candidate should posses at least a bachelor’s degree in human resources management. Training and experience is another person specification (Fleetwood & Hesketh 2009). The candidate should posses at least four years experience in the same line of management and should have undergone some refresher training courses. Person specification also include personal attributes which include state of health, aptitude which will show the ability of the person to make timely decisions, interests of the person for instance playing football and personal circumstances which include the ability to work in shifts. The person must meet these requirements in order to be selected for the job. Task 5 Internal recruitment is where an organisation finds potential employees within the organisation while external recruitment is recruiting employees from outside the organisation. The advantages of internal recruitment include retention of skills which have already been nurtured in the organisation, it improves the loyalty of employees within the organisation which improves their productivity, it provides job security as positions are filled internally and it helps to save the training costs which could be occurred when hiring from outside then organisation (Dickmann et al 2008). The disadvantages of internal recruitment include limited source to recruit from as the candidates are only recruited from within the organisation, leads to lack of new skills in the organisation, not suitable for expanding the business and it does not promote corporate social responsibility (Dickmann et al 2008). On the other hand, the advantages of external recruitment include a large pool of qualified candidates, there is a flow of new skills to the organisation, provides ready market for recruiting the employees and it promotes corporate social responsibility because it helps communities to improve their living standards through external recruitment (Dickmann et al 2008). Another advantage is that external recruitment helps to bring in new blood to the organisation due to large recruitment base. It also provides competent skills because only the best candidates are selected for the job. The disadvantages of external recruitment include it is expensive as the employees have to undergo some training to familiarize themselves with the organisation. It is also time consuming because the recruitment and selection procedure has to be followed. It is uncertain because at some point there will be shortage of labour and finally it demoralises the existing employees as it threatens their jobs. Task 6 The following is the job advertisement for a legal assistant position; JOB ADVERTSIEMENT: LEGAL ASSISTANT Job requirements: Young energetic, ability to solve problems, self motivated, capacity to work with our terms and conditions, ability to take instructions and ability to manage time. Other Required Qualifications: Good communications skills, computer literate in Microsoft office, accuracy in doing tasks, ability to participate in teamwork and the candidate should be able to multitask. All qualified candidates are invited to apply. The main duty of the job is to assist the legal manager in providing legal services to the company. In addition the duties of the position include: providing legal services on behalf of the company, communicate with clients, handling both incoming and outgoing mails, drafting letters, transcription and trial preparation. Academic and Working Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in law 4 years of working experience. Any other qualifications will be an added advantage. Task 7 Induction is the process of orienting a newly hired employee to the operations and policies of the organisation. Induction enables the new employees to understand how the organisation operates. Before starting any job, it is important to understand a few things (Brewster et al 2007). Aspects that need to be known by a new employee include; the mission and vision statements of the organisation, the personnel practises, rules for safety, expectations of the employee, job the employee is required to do, the routine for holidays, position of the notice board, where the canteen is place, the dressing code for the organisation and values of the organisation. On the values and philosophy of the organisation, the employee is supposed to be inducted on the position’s ethics, the integrity policies, ways of promoting corporate social responsibility and corporate policies of the organisation. Failure to conduct successful induction to new employees could have some effects which arise. The first effect is that the employees will not be motivated because it will take time for them to understand the core values of the organisation (Brewster et al 2007). The employees will not perform according to the expectations because they were not be introduced to know to what extent they were expected to perform. The new employee will develop a negative impression as an organisation which is not caring because the management did not do their responsibility to induct the new employee (Brewster et al 2007). Finally, the employee will violate the laws and policies of the organisation because he or she was not oriented to the policies like the dressing code. Task 9 Performance of any organisation is linked to various functions in the organisation which include the following; HR planning – human resource planning is the process of ensuring that the organisation has the right number of employees in the future to meet the requirements of the organisation. HR planning is important because it helps to improve performance because it ensures maximum utilization of labour (Hyde et al 2013). It also cuts down costs by reducing the number of extra employees; it helps to avoid overstaffing the organisation or understaffing which will inconvenience the performance of an organisation and it also helps to meet the needs of the organisation as it grows. Through HR planning, the management of the organisation is able to manage performance by eliminating unnecessary people and acquiring most qualified candidates. Job analysis is the process of collecting information about the responsibilities and qualifications a candidate should posses for a particular position. It is aimed at providing job description and person specification (Hyde et al 2013). Job analysis helps the management of the organisation to manage performance by developing person specifications which should be met by a candidate before being selected for the job. It helps organisations to get required skills which will help to improve their performance. Training and development on the other hand is another function which helps to manage performance. Development is a continues process for improving the skills of employees while training is the systematic acquisition of skills pin the relevant field (Hyde et al 2013). Training and development helps to manage the performance of the organisation. This function helps to improve the skills of the employees which will enable them to increase their productivity. Through training and development, the employees will be motivated thus will be innovative in the way they achieve their tasks. Remuneration is the compensation the employees get from their effort. When the employees are well remunerated, they will be satisfied with their jobs. This will improve their productivity and the productivity of the organisation as a whole (Hyde et al 2013). Good remuneration helps to attract and maintain best skills in the labour market. Through these best skills, the organisation will produce best quality products to meet the demands of the customers thus customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction will increase the purchasing power of the customers thus increasing the sales of the organisation as well as its competitive advantage. Task 10 There are various situations in the workplace which could lead to problems at work. One of the ways of solving these problems is through employee counselling. The situations in which counselling can help to solve problems at workplace include such as the situation where the performance of an employee is below the expectation. When an employee has performed poorly at his or her workplace, there could be blames put on the performance of the employee (Sparrow et al 2009). This situation will demoralise the employee. In this situation, counselling is needed to protect an employee from depression which could otherwise cause more problems in the performance of the employee rather than improvement in the performance. Another situation where counselling is needed to solve employee problems at work is when there are conflicts among the employees (Hyde et al 2013). Due to the diversity at workplaces, the chances of conflicts arising are very high. The only way to promote cooperation among the employees is through counselling. Counselling helps to settle disputes among employees and encourage them to learn appreciating the each other’s culture so as to avoid more conflicts. Another situation where counselling is needed in the workplace is when there is office romance. Through office romance, there will be some favours done on other employees (Hyde et al 2013). For instance, if the department manager is having an affair with a junior employee, he or she will tend to favour the employee which might cause complains from other employees. In this situation, the department manager needs counselling to avoid office romance as it will lead to lack of teamwork in the organisation. In addition, the employees need to be counselled during complains about their remunerations. When there is a pay rise, some employees can get more than others. This will bring up some complains and misunderstandings which could otherwise destruct the good relationship the employees had (Hyde et al 2013). In this situation, the employees need counselling so that they will understand why some employees get more than others. Without counselling the employees will develop a go slow in their operations which could lower the performance of the organisation. Task 11 (a) The job I am interested is the sales administrator. The job summary includes the following; Company Hi-tech Personnel A division of Hi-tech Group Australia Location Sydney, NSW 2000 Industries Accounting and Auditing Services Job Type Full Time Reference Code 6755908 Contact Information Hi-tech Personnel A division of Hi-tech Group Australia A global communication company is looking for sales administrator. Job description Financial management of her largest clients Act as the chief finance resource to the client Promote accuracy and integrity of any discrepancies Report managing Job specification Experience of 5 years in the area of financial audit Degree in accounting Computer literate in excel Excellent communication skills (b) Application letter Your address To the Human Resource Manager High Tech personnel A division of Hi Tech Group Australia Sydney, NSW 2000 Sydney Dear sir/madam, Ref: Job application letter, reference code 6755908 I am an Australian citizen aged 24. I saw your job advert in the newspaper and I am applying for that position. I am a hardworking citizen and willing to take the job on full time basis. Considering my qualifications I know I am qualified for the position. Kindly consider my request and I look forward for an interview. Hereby attached find my qualifications and the skills. Yours sincerely (c) Personal specifications, skills and qualities Qualification: degree in accounts and a diploma in sales and marketing Special skills: I have 6 years experience as a sales administrator Excellent in computer skills Excellent communication skills Special qualities: self motivated Can work under less supervision Ability to take instructions Ready to learn Can work better in teams Task 12 Training and development is the process of promoting and developing the skills of employees through trainings. Training and development are very essential to any organisation. The roles of training and development include, it helps the organisation to improve the productivity (Hyde et al 2013). This is because when the skills of the employees are developed, they will find better ways of accomplishing tasks which consumes fewer resources but more output. Training and development on the other hand helps employees to cope up with changes in technology (Hyde et al 2013). As technology changes, employees also need to change their techniques and they can only achieve this by refreshing their skills. This will enable the employees to cope up with technology changes. It helps employees to refresh their skills through refresher courses. This motivates the employees because they will develop a passion for their jobs (Hyde et al 2013). Through refresher courses the employees will improve their skills besides being motivated hence they can handle their tasks with less ease. Therefore, training and development enables the employees to refresh their skills. It helps to improve competitiveness of an organisation. This is because the organisation will produce competent products and services which will be unique from those of the competitors. This gives an opportunity to an organisation to attract and maintain many customers. Training and development have enabled Australia Motor Company to excel in the market. The objectives of training and development include; improving the services and products being manufactured, to enable the employees cope up with changes in technology, to develop positive culture in the organisation and attract and maintain best skills (Australian Motor Industries 2009). It also projects on improving the competitive edge of the organisation and it enables the employees to manage change effectively. The types of training programs that Australian Motor Company use include periodical training and continue programs. Periodical training is the training the company applies when improving the skills of the employees while continues training programs are the programs that ensure that the employees undergo training regularly for instance through seminars (Hyde et al 2013). The methods used by the company to train the employees include coaching, mentoring, job rotation, job instruction and case analysis. Other off job training methods used includes seminars and workshops. Task 13 There are various reasons why organisations offer training and development to their employees. The first reason is that it helps the employees to improve their skills and improve their productivity. This enables them to increase their productivity as well as the organisation as a whole (Hyde et al 2013). Training and development also enable the organisation to attract and maintain the best skills in the labour market. Every employee would want to work in an organisation which takes care of its employees and improves their skills (Hyde et al 2013). Through this, the organisation will be able to maintain the employees. It also helps to improve the reputation of the organisation. Through training and development, image of the organisation will be good because employees are good promoters of organisation (Hyde et al 2013). They will talk good of the organisation thus spread the good name of the organisation. There are various programmes which have been applied by various companies to train their employees. Some of the Australian companies which have successfully applied training and development are Toll Energy and Anson Australia limited. The type of training programme applied by Toll Energy is course training programmes (Toll Energy 2012). The company offers some classes especially to technical employees so that they can understand how to operate the more complex machines. Anzon Australian limited on the other hand applies special programs when training and developing their skills (Anzon Australia Limited 2013). For example, it provides middle management advance where the managers are trained to know how they can manage other employees better. The staff development program is another special programme that the company applies in training and developing the skills of their employees. This is the programme that develops the skills of the employees who do not meet the middle management advance programmes. The training methods used by these companies include induction and seminars. The advantage of induction is that it is cheaper to implement. This method does not require specialised facilitators to conduct the induction process. Another advantage is that it helps the employee to develop a clear picture of how the organisation operates (Dickmann et al 2008). The advantages of seminars include providing a wide variety of skills to choose from because of the various discussions that take place. The disadvantage is that it may be expensive because the organisation has to pay for the training. Part 2 Assessment 1 McDonald is among the best performing organisations in the world in providing fast foods such as hambugger. This organisation has been performing well in the market because of the effective HR planning. However, in order for this organisation to effectively manage its human resource skills, it needs to do better human resource planning (Thomas & Jay 2004). This will help the organisation to have the right number of employees and with the required skills. Because the organisation operates in more than 119 countries, the company needs to design clear strategies for hiring the employees. In future, the company has to conduct clear job analysis so that it will help them to hire the right skills required by the organisation. Job analysis will help McDonald to clearly state the kind of skills required when recruiting employees. In this regard, the company will be able to operate effectively and continue to effectively compete in the industry. This is the responsibility of the human resource department to ensure effective management of people. The desirable character for the position of human resource manager in order to perform as expected includes the following skills. The candidate should be knowledgeable in the way he or she can make decisions. This will enable the employee to make timely decisions and be able to plan better for the human resource of the company (Dickmann et al 2008). The position should be held by a person who has excellent communication skills and the ability to solve problems. This will help to mobilise other employees and promote teamwork within the organisation. The candidate should be qualified by holding a degree in human resource management and some skills in sales and marketing will be an added advantage. In order to improve the performance of the employees and be a desired character, the employees should undergo some training to improve the skills. All this effort is to ensure the employee improves his or her competitiveness. On the other hand, performance criterion for the position of the store manager is not of much difference. The responsibility of the store manager is to ensure effective coordination with other departments. Another responsibility of the manager is to ensure effective supply chain management by making sure the materials are available to their destinations at the right time (Dickmann et al 2008). The person who will best qualify for the should have more than 3 years experience in the same position, should be ready to work under less supervision and should have good intercommunication skills. Finally, the candidate should be computer literate as the store will use digital means to issues the inventories. Assessment 2 1. Selection process (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006) At the preliminary interviews the sorting process is conducted. After the sorting process, application forms are received and the next step is panel interview where shortlisted candidates are interviewed by a panel. At selection stage, the interviewed candidates are selected, and assessment of their skills is done in the next step. Then the employee undergoes medical check up before the formal employment offer is made (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006). 2. In the selection of the sales administrator, the criterion below is used to get the best candidate (Dickmann et al 2008). I. Drawing the job specifications/description II. Advertisement of the job III. Reception of the applications IV. Assessment of the application and do short listing V. Conducting interviews VI. Selection of the qualified candidates VII. Offering employment VIII. Induction The above selection procedure will ensure the candidate selected meet the job requirements. 3. The most common type of interview common in my work place is the panel interview. This is the interview where applicants are interviewed by a group of people (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006). It is commonly used interview because it ensures in depth assessment of the applicant and it also ensures there is no biasness when offering the job. 4. The interview strategy used by the McDonald Company is structured questions strategy. This strategy ensures that the interview only extracts the required information from the interviewee. The following is the interview process (Hesketh & Fleetwood 2006). I. Selection of the interview strategy II. Arrival of the candidates III. Arrival of the interview panel IV. Giving instructions to the applicants on how the interview will be conducted V. Conducting the interview VI. Closure of the interviews VII. Providing feedback to candidates 5. The following are the questions asked during the interview conducted using structured questions; Can you tell us what your strength is and the weakness? How could you manage stress and pressure? How could you evaluate success? Why are you abandoning your current job? Why do you think you need this job? What are your future goals? Why do you think you’re the best candidate for this job? Could you tell us more about yourself? The responses were different from each candidate and the best applicant was given the positions. References Australian Motor Industries. (2009). Retrieved on Oct 21st 2013 At http://china-himfr.blog.com/2009/05/15/australian-motor-industries/ Anzon Australia Limited (2013). Anzon Australia Limited. Retrieved on Oct 21st 2013 At http://www.subsea.org/company/listdetails.asp?companyid=2532 Brewster, C. Sparrow, P.R & Vernon, G. (2007). International human Resource management. 2nd Edition.  London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Dickmann, M. Brewster, C. & Sparrow, P.R. (2008). International human Resource management: a European perspective.  London: Routledge Fleetwood, S. & Hesketh, A. (2009). Understanding the Performance of Human Resources, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Human Rights Commission. (2008). Human Rights Commission. Retrieved on Oct 21st 2013 From http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/legal/legislation Hesketh, A.J. and Fleetwood, S. (2006). 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