FREE ESSAY ON HR CONSUKTANCY

HR CONSUKTANCY

Explanation of the theoretical concept
The theoretical concept of Human resource management is based around the strategy of
initiating the composition and implementation of working practices that, as well as being
conducive to promoting the organisations business objectives, also seeks to plan in a
strategic manner for issues that may arise to affect the business. As opposed to being an
agent that reacts to internal and external changes after the fact, this is a defining
characteristic that separates it from the concept of personnel management.
Human resource management can also encompass the development and fostering of an
appropriate culture within the organisation and, ideally, examples of genuine HRM
strategies are both related to the organisations overall aims but are also systematically
integrated with each other as part of an overall plan. The concept of integration is the
core idea of HRM.
For example, Beer and Spector (1985) remark:
'A business enterprise has an external strategy...It also needs an internal strategy: a
strategy for how its internal forces are going to be developed, deployed, motivated and
controlled...the internal and external strategies must be linked'. 
In the longer term though the essence of Human Resources Strategy is the analysis of the
whole organisation and its needs and scope for development rather than a purely mundane
day to day management of people. Encompassing the whole sphere of employment issues from,
the organisations needs, skills required, amount of employees needed, type of contracts
given etceteras, to also, the training and future development of the staff team as well
as recruitment policies. With, consideration of these issues -always in line with a
consideration of the organisation objectives- a strategic plan can be drawn up. 
This plan however must also be flexible enough to respond to external factors such as,
changes in employment law, changes to demographics relating to the local labour market,
skills shortages, plus of course, competition and, increases/reductions in demand for the
organisations products/services.
Human resource Management achieves these strategic aims on a day to day basis through the
implementation of strategic policies related to training, recruitment, work practices and
discipline etceteras.
Analysis of issues.
The company is following a major organisational trend in instituting a model of
flexibility in its contractual arrangements with its employees.
Following a flexible recruitment policy can result in reduced employment costs, improved
flexibility and productivity.
Because Atkinsons model is so comprehensive in the range of employees that can be fitted
into it, and the work at Home Cosy distribution is so similar, it would seem to me, that
Home Cosy is more easily defined in relation to the permanent/temporary split, as the
main problem seems to be a contractual one, regarding only a specific section of its
employees.
While catering well for the companies' needs there are institutional problems related
with this practice which Home Cosy seem to be suffering from.
Firstly, the temporary or "periphery" staff, for Atkinson (1985) are commonly more
detached emotionally from the company than its full time "core" staff. They are less
willing to follow instructions comprehensively or give the same level of commitment and
quality of work as the full time members. For Home Cosy the easiest reference here is the
level of commitment from the majority of the Saturday staff employed. As the supervisors
in the case study have noted most of the student rump of the Saturday staff "do not take
their work seriously and are difficult to control".
Secondly, when managing a company that relies heavily on temporary staff, particularly
where there is a high turnover of employees, the core staff are involved in the initial
training, ongoing supervision and are also, often called on to help or rectify problems
caused by temps. Again the supervisors questioned mentioned this was a cause for
concern.
There can be difficulties in monitoring the quality and reliability of both the work
produced and safety standards when permanently hiring temporary staff.
There is also a problem at Home cosy regarding the monitoring of staff. There seems to be
no system to effectively monitor the composition of or trends existing within, their
workforce. The company can neither give accurate figures stating the companies gender mix
nor can they accurately analyse trends in hours worked because of the "lack of any formal
company statistics".
The companies' competitive advantage though is its 'speed of delivery'. As so far it has
successfully maintained its advantage through the application of this system, then
obviously it is working for the business, but does perhaps contain elements that make it
unnecessary negative. The most clearly restrictive aspect of maintaining this advantage
is that it necessitates a flexible mode of working. The company must cut the costs of
production in line with demand. This has institutionalised the permanent/temporary split
and caused a distinct difference in the treatment of permanent and temporary staff.
However, it could also be argued that in a sense it does not restrain the companies
retention policies for its permanent staff, only the temporary ones, who because of the
nature of the companies business can not be retained anyway. The nature of the work is
temporary, while the company seems to have a relatively healthy record of staff
satisfaction and retention amongst its 'core' staff and supervisors. In short the
companies' permanent staff seem open to the economic realities the company is faced with
and, accept them as far as flexibility is concerned. 
The company seems to be following a style of management more akin to traditional
personnel management rather than HRM. The company has demonstrated a lack of strategic
planning regarding the direction of its recruitment policies, however in a business that
seems to have a widely fluctuating demand it has successfully reconciled recruitment
policies with the commercial need to utilise fully, the potential (and also fluctuating)
resources at its disposal. 
The company also does not seem to consult regularly with workers although there was union
consultation on the introduction of Performance Related Pay.
Although the company appears to have instigated a study in the early 1990s regarding
future recruitment and retention, there seems to have been no real analysis or planning
resulting from the findings of that survey. 
The lack of this in conjunction with the characteristics described above also suggests
the lack of any real HR strategy.
Internal and External factors that affect HRM practice
External factors are;
1. Lack of similar alternative employment in the area. Members of staff that are
overskilled seem to prefer working at Home Cosy, in part you would assume because of the
healthy remuneration levels. So, although some staff members are overskilled for Home
Cosy a large rump would actually be underskilled for the newly developing companies in
the area and some staff actually prefer the simple work allied with healthy wages.
2. Also, supervisory staff claim to always have potential recruits. However the problems
the company is facing regarding temporary staff are due to the nature of demand, not
external factors such as being a high area of employment, skills shortage etceteras.
3. The company may have to reassess its policies in light of the European Working Time
Directive and other UK employment legislation.
4. The fluctuating nature of demand and the pressure from its competitors also restrict
the nature of the HR strategy.
Internal factors are;
1. The company seems to be in a positive leading position in its market and can be
reasonably supposed to be in a position to offer substantial employment in the region in
the future.
2. The menial, non-skilled nature of the business restricts HRM policies in a sense as
there is a limited scope for development and training.
3. Again, the menial nature of the work and its 'factory image' limits for many staff it
seems, their sense of pride in their work, workplace and the company as a whole.
Conclusions
The company does have a problem in that its business necessitates the use of temporary
staff and the current trend is for recruitment of this group to be slowly increasing in
difficulty. However, the company has implemented commendable policies relating to its
treatment of its temps. For instance, the equality with full time staff in using the
firms many social facilities and the equality in pay scales, the nature of the work they
do, hours worked etceteras, are all positive indicators not, that the company is
essentially a bad employer, but more that, it is a fair one that is constrained by the
nature of its business.
However, there are some recommendations to make that would have an effect on the
retention of its temporary staff. 
Recommendations
A) The company should implement a monitoring process on its commercial trends that would
help it perhaps, formulate a longer-term strategy and provision for recruitment.
B) The company should phase out completely the sector of permanent Saturday staff who
contribute the least towards the companies business and redistribute those hours amongst
its core (and recurring) temporary workers.
C) The company needs to investigate the potential of reducing its base of employees who
are recruited and let go (its revolving door policy) and establishing a committed core of
temporary staff who could be offered any extra work as overtime payments. Thus maximising
the number of hours per day that the employee can work in his temporary employment. These
staff could be placed on a bank system, similar to the type of arrangement between a
commercial employment agency and a full time temporary agency worker.
D) As the company seems to employ a significant percentage of people seeking to
supplement their income and women amongst its temporary staff it could encourage loyalty
to the company in the form of an unorthodox bonus scheme.
To encourage loyalty from the temporary workers staff could deposit part of their wages
in a bank where at the end of a fixed period "interest" is paid by the company to the
supplement the value of their wages. In the meantime the company could deposit the money
in a bank with high rates of interest and add a little on top. This is similar in form to
some of the "community savings schemes" that are in operation at present and would help
people save for special events.
E) The company has little scope to change its policies regarding its sickness and pension
schemes and is advised to leave them as they are.
F) The key for the company in retaining its temporary staff is the reduction of the base
of temporary workers and concentration on improving the lot of those remaining. In order
to do this it could also look into introducing a loyalty bonus, where, after the
completion of a qualifying period and then following on from that other time scales, the
company could offer rewards. These could be in the form of direct cash pay outs, or,
rewards that may foster a greater sense of community in the workplace such as outside
entertainment (movies, group meals with supervisors, management e.t.c), day trips, or
short breaks as a work team.
Wordcount; 1,913
Bibliography
Bibliography
Atkinson, J. (1985) Flexibility: Planning for an uncertain future. Manpower Policy and
Practice, 1 summer.
Beer, M and Spector, B. (1985) Human Resources Management: A General Managers
Perspective. New York, Free Press.
Mabey, C and Salaman, G. (1995) Strategic Human Resource Management. Oxford, Blackwell.
Warren, M and Crossman, A. (1996) Human Resource Management. London, Thames Valley
University.