The SNOW Mountain Hotel, Human Resource Management - Essay Example

CASE STUDY: The SNOW Mountain Hotel, Human Resource Management Introduction The human resource department in every organization is under a responsibility to recruit select and manage the workforce to achieve the goals of the organisation. As such the success of Snow Mountain Resort in its delivery of services to its customers depends on the manner in which the human resource is managed and coordinated. Over time, the use of competency theories and models in the creation and development of the human resource function has grown over the past decade (Price, 2011). There has been a certain shift from the otherwise traditional and conformist approach to allow for the use of the business partner competency models. This report will interrogate the practicality and reliability of the business partner model as an organisational human resource strategy. It will examine the advantages and shortcomings of the theory as a model in practice and as a ground for the evaluation of the use of shares centres and the removal of onsite human resource professionals. It will also examine the practicality of devolving human resource responsibilities to line managers as suggested by the competency theory. Business Partner Model The human resource business partnering model is a human resource strategy that allows for the cooperation and close operation between the management and the human resource department. The model suggests an inclusive approach that allows the human resource department to participate actively in the overall business strategy of the organisation. The human resource department therefore gets involved in the making of decisions affecting the present and future objectives of the company, as opposed to concentrating on the conventional duties such as remuneration, payroll and employee benefits and relations. Subsequently the human resource department is involved in value adding decisions of the organisation. (Foot and Hook 2008, p30) offer a detailed list of tasks and activities of the HR practitioner. Essentially the human resource builds on the company’s value by controlling the recruitment training, skill development, as well as placement of the various existing and new employees based on the overall business strategy. Internal and External Drivers of the Business Partner Model The models internal drivers are majorly cost control. The organisation makes great cost savings through a shared resource management base. It is also driven by the need to harmonise the various departments with the overall business strategy and goal. This ensures that the company maintains a steady trend of growth towards the present and future objectives of the organisation (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). The model is also is implemented as a solution to a business need and as such it helps in solving the human resource problem such as the fire fighting condition facing Snow Mountain Resort’s human resource department. The model operates as a solution to the problem of resource allocation. Form the external end, the model is driven by the need to provide uniformity in the level of quality accountability and professionalism in the delivery of services. Snow Mountain Resort is one among a stream of hotels of its nature and the customer associates the level of service of each of the hotels with the name. As such it important to ensure that the standard that is set by the company is maintained across all the hotels that affiliates with the name. The theory is also driven by modernisation especially in the face of technological development and the introduction of virtual management as an administrative option. This makes the reality of resource sharing more realistic. Value to the Business According to (Price, 2011), the adoption of the model presents certain value based issues that go to the approach and actual integral bottom line performance and productivity impact. Like the various other practical human resource models, the business partner model requires a particular set of skills from its proposed administrators. Subsequently the redefinition of the various job descriptions in order to ensure that the staff is well aware of their individual and group responsibilities to ensure that the level of performance is maintained and sustained. The model aims at lodging a hard value based approach to human resource management but enforcing a representative structure of management, as opposed to the rather soft autocratic strategy that gives the various departments in the human resource department to make their own decisions to ensure that they deliver as required. According to (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005) “...employers gain because employee is educated about the needs of the business and utilise their greater knowledge base to improve customer service or product quality, so helping to sustain competitive advantage.” The business partner model of human resource management will give Snow Mountain Resort an opportunity to exploit strategic advantage developed and created by the model. Potential Disadvantages of Implementing the Model The partner model presents a capacity advantage to the organisation by reducing the burden and pressure of the human resource department to perform by set standards. The new strategy ensures that the organisations goals are set according to a well thought of plan taking into account the capacity of the human resources available. The management of the employee data by the human resource department keeps track of the level of performance and ensures that training is issued to the areas of less effectiveness (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). It also allows the human resource department to effectively redistribute the employee base to ensure that the employees are most affective. It also allows the department to effectively execute disciplinary action against non performing employees and improve on those who lag behind. The model also presents certain concerns. To begin with the employees of Snow Mountain Resort are currently already overwhelmed by the existing responsibilities that are limited to performance alone. Adding more administrative duties defeats the practicality of the theory (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). The model also requires the human resource department to be involved in a series of other decisions such as the production statistics and the sales projections. The department may not have the right skill set to engage in these decisions and responsibilities. Further, the employee turnover at present will create a big problem since the responsibilities will increase. The Use of Centralised Shared Service Centres The shared centres are structures within the organisation that have specialised functions and are accessible to the whole of the organisation. This strategy recommends the separation of human resource functions between the administrative duties and the normal human resource functions and is often referred to as the back office option. The front office activities of the department are therefore administered differently as against the administrative duties of the department (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). Generally they are the services available to a number of individuals and unlike the conventional internal service provision option the shared service centre approach allows the customer to determine the level of service and which services to take up. The shared centres does not entirely mean centralised services but rather an end user based explanation that looks at common recipients of the services. Internal and External Drivers The internal drivers of the shared service centres are mainly cost, quality and organisational change. The approach is also motivated by technological advancement. Technology is a great facilitator of innovation in organisational structure approaches. It is common ground that shared services are cost cutters, and they certainly improve the quality of the final product due to the uniform manner of delivery and monitoring. Shared services are also driven by other factors such as knowledge management (Foot and Hook, 2011). The organisation will be looking to ensure that the best practice procedures are adopted and enforced across the organisation. The adoption of the shared services strategy is also driven by the need to maintain a consistent employee philosophy and the need to increase the level of credibility of their human resource department. Benefits and Drawbacks The adoption and use of shared services has certain benefits. It leads to reduced costs due to the reduction in the number of employees accommodated by the company. The resources available are also well utilised and distributed across the users in the organisation as the pool becomes bigger. The use of a common standard increases the level of service due to the harmony in requirement and therefore increasing the level of service in line with the consistency in the standards (Foot and Hook, 2011). This has a resultant implication on the level of consumer satisfaction ratings associated with the employee’s interpersonal skills. The reduction in the lack of fit between the consumer’s expectation and the level of service delivery increases consumer confidence and creates explicit contracting circumstances. The strategy also allows from a more wholesome approach to problem solving as opposed to station bases strategy that has numerous bureaucracy. It also created greater transparency in costs and allows the decisions made at the administrative level to bear greater consequence. The use of shared centres also presents certain challenges. The assumption that the sudden neglect of the already existing customer relations with the existing station based administrative managers will have no effect on performance is rather impractical. The strategy also runs the risk of deskilling certain positions in the department. The management of will also face the challenge of boundaries after having been used to the alternative as the traditional approach. Further, not all the staffs are qualified to assume the redefined positions in the department and the shared approach will require a redefinition of the job skills and descriptions. In case of outsourced services, the resort runs the risk of devolution of company secrets. Devolution of HR Responsibilities to the Line Managers This is a service quality initiative that is strategically driven to ensure that there is a smooth flow in duty and responsibility among the managers concerned. This is a traditionally problematic due to the sensitive nature of the devolution process in line with the relationships between the managers. Benefits and Drawbacks This has certain pertinent benefits. The human resource department operates in a more credible manner due to the proper allocation of responsibility. This has an impression on the employee’s morale and attitude towards work and increases their performance. It also allows the managers to understand the training and development issues that need to be addressed to increase the level of effectiveness in the organisation. It increased the level of trust among the managers as the boundaries of the responsibilities are clearly addressed. On the other hand the allocation presents certain pertinent challenges. The hotel industry deals with some rather short imperatives that often squeeze the line managers to redefined positions of responsibilities and constraining their resources. Snow Mountain Resort has experienced this concern first hand when its employee base was overworked during peak season and demotivated and bored during the low season. This presents a certain dilemma in the level of delegation. Further the level of qualification of the line managers may stop them from performing certain duties (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). Others will avoid coaching roles due to their discomfort on such a duty. If the delegation process is not properly followed it could lead to problems of trust among the managers in reference to the priorities of the resort as weighed over the priorities of the managers. In the alternative discontented managers could display hostile and aggressive aspects which have the wrong effect on the employees. Snow Mountain Resort should therefore establish strong links between the human resource department staff under the overall service quality initiative to require that all the managers adhere to the set guidelines of performance and ensure that they work as a team. Conclusion This report contributes to the improvement of the human resource strategy of Snow Mountain Resort in two main ways. It proposes the relevance of an alternative strategy of human resource management and development. It also provides a situational analysis of the practicality of the adoption of the theory and the implicit benefits and shortcomings. The resort should therefore consider the alternate strategy as a means to addressing the imminent philosophical and approach based concerns. References Foot, M. and Hook C., 2011, Introducing Human Resource Management, (6th Edition), FT Prentice Hall, Harlow. Marchington, M. Wilkinson, A., 2005, Human Resource Management at Work, CIPD, London. Price, A., 2011, Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, Learning EMEA, Cengage Read More