External Forces in Human Resource Management - Iceland Ltd.

TASK 1

Human resource policies and practices improve company's environment. Below are some policies that are implemented to communicate with the employees in a right way.

• Regulatory policies : these policies provide equal opportunity for employment, keeps time record, employment at will and sexual harassment policies.
• Policies for absence Leaves : for an employee it is better to inform before taking any leave in future so that confusion is created (Ibrahim and Zulkafli, 2016).
• Paid time off Policies : These policies help the organisation to handle paid time off practices and communicate and determine with these companies like vacation, holidays etc.
• Policies for smooth work : These policies help HRM of Arcadia Group and Iceland Ltd. To determine that what type of schedule is flexible and suitable for employees.
• Policies of Acceptable Use : Use policies are used in organisations computers, phones, cars, company property etc.
• Travel and business reimbursement : while travelling it should be made clear with employees that what they are paid and what not while travelling.

Similarly there are Human Resource practices that promote growth and culture in organisations.

These practices involve performing interviewing processes and providing tips regarding interviews (Kapoutsis, Papalexandris and Thanos, 2016). Then before employment full screening should be done i.e. criminal records and drug screening of employees should be done. Background should be checked properly. Integration strategy practices should be regular and new plans are needed for new recruitment of employees so that assimilation could be there in proper way. Planning for compensation which includes reviewing data of market, pay rates of employees are reviewed systematically(Kaufman, 2015). This clears the department that they are paying within range and annually inflation is adjusted. Surveys and practices boost up employees' pulse so that it is easy to measure and incorporate with the feedbacks into these companies.

High commitment HRM is a contribution or practices that is brings change in the performance of organisation. These practices are done to reduce absenteeism, labour turnover, bring improvisation in behaviour of employees and their attitude, improve customer service and quality(Kendall, 2018). High commitment as the name suggest incudes many best practices like working with team , hiring selective employees, cut-throat training and learning new things which develops their skills and personality. Providing good compensation contingent on fine performances, internal market of labour and employment and secured employment. These practices help in retaining selective employees and capture a bunch of talent which are suitable and perfect for their organisation. Besides this HRM have two more approaches i.e. Hard HRM and Soft HRM.

Hard HRM has its some different like communication with employees is not much. Their link with corporate business is very strong as they need resources on regular basis. For them employees are kind of resources of companies. They just do their work in stages. They hire employees for work. Then move on with other department and if they feel any employee is not working properly then fire accordingly(Marchington, 2015). Hard HRM has taller structure and here appraisal systems are emphasized by judgements that can be good or bad about staff. Hard HRM follows an bossy leadership style. While Soft HRM treats employees as part of their organisation or a source of any firm. Their needs are processed in a systematic. According to their performance they appraisals are set. Soft HRM follows democratic leadership style.

TASK2

Many external forces affect Human Resource Management. These are described as follows :

Government Regulations : Human Resource department of Iceland Ltd. And Arcadia Group are constantly under pressure of the rules and regulations of Government (Michael, 2017). These regulations affect HR department in various ways like recruitment process, employees' compensation, pay scale , benefits, termination etc. if the companies do not follow such rules and are not adhere to these rules then they can be charged a huge amount which results in company's failure and destroy its reputation (Tarba and Cooper, 2016). Companies have to follow these policies in a very generous manner

Economic situations : Present economy of the country also affect companies in very positive or negative way. They play the role of shaping organisational rules and various processes of HRM. It influences ability to recruit the candidates as well as it affects the complete talent of nation. So the best way to overcome these situations is to know and get knowledge regarding economy of the nation and create a planning process so that whenever a U- turn occurs economically companies can easily face the challenges(Park, 2017). Organisation are able to make a due in adverse situation and can plan for worse environment. Economic conditions are considered as largest external influence as company has to get prepared before any turns are there in economy.

Technological Advancements : This a another external force where HR department tries to save money through technological ways. HR department faces many challenges and opportunities in this technological world. So employees which are knowledgable and competent to technological world are only hired by HR department of these companies. Some employees are not required by some companies if they are not at all competent in this world and are not relevant or approach with the organisational needs and demands. Word processing program or any new digital software may require a talented HR.

Social & Cultural Environment : This is also a major external force to organisation. This involves working attitude of employees, ethics, employees' motivation and many more things. Some cultures value employees through monetary rewards while some some culture balance. Life balance with proper working is more important than monetary rewarding as it is motivating. Society's views, their ethics and roles will always affect HRM department (Russell, Steffensen, Bishoff and Ferris, 2018). For example child labour in earlier period was considered legal but now it is considered unethical.

Workforce Demographics : Human resource department find ways to attract new generation as they enter into the department of workforce. They don't admire so much older generation and gives preferences to younger ones.. their hiring processes are different with them. Different types of techniques are included with them and various compensation packages are offered too them. Simultaneously, work environment is also different which compile with this generation. Where there is large scale of unemployment then large firm operating in that area can't hire only qualified persons, firm has to compromise with other people by providing training programs. Societal reactions are faced HR managers before hand when HR cuts jobs in large scale. Culture has to ethical which comes under behaviour of an employee. Long term oriented firms can easily retain employees for long period of time (Tarique, Briscoe and Schuler, 2015). Their needs are achieved by department if the culture is suitable and is properly maintained by the department. People usually go for good feedbacks, already set goals, pursue moderate risks and improve their performance and finally get satisfied.

 TASK 3

HR has many functions which helps in the recruitment of talented employees. These functions are properly delivered by this department in both the companies. Companies follow Ulrich's Model properly for proper handling and improvement of the department. This department gives pensions and other related benefits to experienced employees. HR department of both the companies believe in facilitating training program regularly and development of organisational structure (Townsend and Kellner, 2015). It hires, and select skilled employees through which it can maintain familiar relations. It promotes inspirational and motivational environment among employees which further encourages learning ability for the development of business. The development and talent team which is a special part of HR function coordinates properly so that employees get development, learning and training opportunities from the companies. Ulrich's Model is explained for better recruitment process and strategies :

Ulrich categorises four roles which HR plays: administrative expert, employee champion, change agent and strategic partner. According to him, committed, responsible and competent champions are delivered by employee champions. While various HR policies and practices are delivered by administrative experts. There has been always a change in human behaviour and culture. So change experts deliver this concept of individual behaviour with capacity of adjusting in organisational environment. Lastly, business outcomes are viewed by strategic partners. According to Ulrich HRM is a human arm of any firm without which it can't function in a right way. Ulrich suggested it in large way and into four segments. The main aim of this model is to utilize effectively strategic management and shift to Human resource and administrative department. It is a major support to many business units and also shared services. Ulrich is called as 'Father of Human Resources'. It clears the each role of HR department and metrics of department. It is strong recognition and proves as a benchmark for an organisation. Other models of HR are Hard and Soft model, Contextual model and Matching Model.

There is an important role of a line manager in the department. Line manager has direct communication with employees and other operations of the department. Line manager is a direct manager. He/she carries different responsibilities and faces various challenges while delivering functions. Responsibilities of line manager includes hiring or recruiting positions of team. After hiring new employees major support and training is provided to them. Then cross training of the employees is done so that job is ensured and assignment of the coverage gaps is reduced. Proper coaching and feedbacks are taken on the basis of performance(Zhang, Zhu and Fan 2017). Major role of line manager is to ensure departmental goals, communicate functional goals. Targets are monitored and individual's performance and metrics s calculated. After evaluation reviews regarding performance of the employees and team are delivered. Line mangers are also engaged with other organisations. Final role of line manager is to provide productivity reports to management.

There are different challenges faced by line managers such as availability of resources are less as compared to the overall work of the department. So there is important responsibility on line manager to adjust with these limited resources. Another challenging part is to hire people for long working hours. This require disciplined environment (Van De Voorde, Beijer, 2015). Then line managers mostly have huge teams to manage so it becomes difficult for then to provide continuous training and support to them. Employees' turnover is frequently travelled. So many line managers are in a mode of regular hiring of employees which make it difficult to implement operational performance versus other targets. There is a constant force on line manager to maximise output and decrease expenses of organisation.

CONCLUSION:

So it is concluded that for both the companies HR department plays a major role. They have also adopted Ulrich Model for the development of organisation. It can be seen that how external forces influence HRM extensively. Other than this, line manager has his own roles and challenges. 

Other type of sample:- Strategic Human Resource Management

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