5HRF - Managing and Co-ordinating the Human Resources Function

Assessment brief: Your CEO is considering outsourcing the HR function in your

organisation. You have been tasked with highlighting the value of the HR function to
the business. You are required to provide written answers to the questions below.

Question 1 (2.2)
Analyse how the HR function varies between organisations. Include a comparison of HR
delivery in different sectors and organisations of different sizes.

Paws & Claws (P&C) is a Veterinary Hospital. We are a dedicated team of 12 Vets and Therapists supported by
5 Veterinary Nurses and the admin team.

HR is at P&C follows the ‘Centralised HR’ model with some outsourcing too. HR is led by Dr Small who manages
staff performance, recruitment, employee engagement, L&D, and disciplines/ grievances. These duties must be
performed in between patient appointments and surgeries, meaning Dr Small often works overtime to catch up
on HR duties she is responsible for.

Some general HR duties have been outsourced to an ESS platform (sickness, payroll) the software also serves
as a central location for policy documents. This is beneficial to staff because the platform is accessible from any
location 24/7.

Combining Centralised HR with Outsourced HR model’s work for P&C because daily HR functions are performed
by the employed themselves on the ESS, while the strategic HR functions are managed by their colleague and
practice partner Dr Small on-site. We align with the ‘soft’ model of HR, with focus on supporting and developing
our staff with strong leadership. We believe our staff are our greatest assets, not resources to be squeezed to
maximum capacity.
Fig 1- Authors Own Lily Butters
Fig 1 shows a comparison of P&C vs. Vets4Pets and the RSPCA. P&C is a much smaller organisation (22 staff),
however even with the large size difference between P&C and the RSPCA both organisations use a centralised
‘soft’ HR model. This soft HR model used by the RSPCA is the opposite of the ‘hard’ model Vets4Pets uses
(based on Ulrich’s model), even though both have RSPCA and Vets4Pets have large numbers of employees.
Both P&C and Vets4Pets use an ESS platform, however this is not used at the RSPCA.

Question 2 (1.1 & 2.1)

a) Provide three examples of organisational objectives that the HR function is
responsible for delivering, and briefly explain how these have evolved over time. (1.1)
b) HR objectives can be delivered in many ways. Explain two significant methods. (2.1)

a) Performance Management: High performing employees are desirable to any business. HR are responsible
for ensuring employees are performing well, working alongside Managers, with the aim of improving performance
by setting goals aligned to the organisation’s strategic goals. Eg:
- Designing performance appraisals for Managers to conduct
- Conducting performance appraisals of Managers
- Acting as a mediator between Managers and their team members when reviewing performance
- Analysing sales reports to identity top/poor performers

(Fig 2 - Armstrong’s Handbook of Performance Management.)

20 years ago, Performance Management may only have considered the output an employee generates in a
quantitative way - e.g. sales figures - a high sales figure indicates good performance where a low figure shows
poor performance. However, this is black and white, and does not allow room for the human side of performance
management.

Today, HR use techniques to incorporate a people-centric method such as Armstrong’s in Fig 1. Here a Cycle is
devised by HR for each individual to track their current performance, but also set goals and aspirations in the
future which are reviewed by HR and Managers- support and coaching is provided with open communication to
ensure the employee is improving their performance. This is focused on continuous professional development of
the employee, not just how much they sell per year.
Employee Engagement: Engaged employees are essential for a business to run at maximum capacity. This can
be defined as “The positive emotional input with which employees are committed to an organisation and to their
work” (Human Resource Management: People and Organisations, Steven Taylor, 2016)

HR are responsible for delivering Employee Engagement and to ensure employees have a positive relationship
with work. This can be implemented by HR though:
- Use clear and open communication between all colleagues
- Invite feedback on the company’s actions/policies and act on this feedback where appropriate
- Ensure employees know what is expected of them, ensure job descriptions are kept updated.
- Lead by example, and instil strong leadership qualities in Management
- Recognise achievements and reward employees accordingly

Employee Engagement has involved, one key area is how staff are trained and upskilled to keep up with job
demands. Up until recently, employee training would involve lengthy seminars. These were often monotonous.
However, training evolved to take place online in a different format – instead of long full-day training staff can
now allocate small portions of their day to complete modular training courses online. Training has become
interactive and engaging, rather than a lecture, and employees can access the training videos and information at
their own pace.

Talent Sourcing and Recruitment: HR is responsible for recruiting talented individuals which will support the
organisations strategic goals. E.g. this goal could be to raise the brand awareness (Marketing Manager), or to
access a new market (native French speaker.)

It is HR’s responsibility to analyse a job’s requirements, write a job description, be aware of laws relating to
recruitment, and to plan and carry out a recruitment drive. HR must select candidates which have suitable
knowledge, skill sets, and goals that will be a good fit for the company’s values. It is also HR’s responsibility to
nurture these employees as they add value to the business by being talented/highly qualified in their line of work.

Recruitment changed in the last 20 years - jobs were advertised in newspapers where jobseekers knew to look,
to now where technology has turned the process upside down. Today a position for a company in London can be
posted on LinkedIn, available for all applicants worldwide to see. This means HR must sift through huge volumes
of candidates from many backgrounds/countries compared to 20 years ago when drastically fewer people would
see and apply for the position.
b)

Fig 3 - Ulrich’s 3 Leg Stool - CIPD 2020

Shared Services:

Ulrich’s model names Shared Services as one of the 3 legs of the ‘stool’ which solves daily, low-stake HR
objectives. This is then supported by the two other legs: Centres of Excellence and Strategic Business Partners.

Shared services usually incorporate the day-to-day administrative tasks of a HR department. General HR
objectives such as distributing policy documents to staff, logging staff absence, and payroll.

Tasks will be undertaken by the employees through ESS - here holiday requests /sickness / payslips are
accessible as well as the employee’s personal details. Each employee has their own account, and they see their
information.

When an employee submits a request through ESS, Senior Management is subsequently alerted, and they then
can approve/ deny the request. The ESS is accessed by all employees.

Alongside the ESS, company documents and policies are stored on the intranet - accessible to all staff.

Finally, if staff have a question or HR need that is not answerable on the ESS or intranet, there will be a call
centre where an HR advisor is available to answer specific queries. In this situation, the employee will simply
telephone or use live-chat function.

Shared Services is a cost-effective way of delivering HR objectives because it capitalises on technology - each
employee can manage most of their HR needs themselves - this means that the organization doesn't need to
spend money employing a dedicated HRM.
Another advantage is the ESS and intranet are accessible to staff 24/7, unlike a HR Manager who is only
available during working hours - if the company is international then time zones further complicate access to HR.

However, disadvantages of Shared Services are the inaccessibility of speaking to a colleague about sensitive HR
issues. This lack of interpersonal connection can make the employee feel alone and unsupported, therefore
causing a drop in morale with a sentiment that HR is there just to ‘tick a box’ rather than to truly support them.

Finally, ESS and Call Centre services are not cheap if the organisation chooses a well-designed system,
therefore there may still be a considerable expense when choosing this method of delivering HR - this could still
cost £25,000 per annum- similar to employing in-house HR.
Strategic HR Business Partner
Strategic HRBP’s are another way of delivering HR. These individuals are responsible for ensuring the HR
policies and procedures fit well with the needs, aims, and goals of a business, and to ensure the HR strategy
facilitates the business goals being achieved.

The HRBP acts as a link between managers & staff which use the ‘shared services’ and the ‘centres of expertise’
who write policy and procedures (in Ulrich’s model). HRBP’s may split their time between working with Managers
to design the organisation, plan recruitment strategies and plan changes, and then with the staff at a grass-roots
level to implement the design/strategies/plans. HRBP’s balance the interest of the staff with the interest of the
business by asking difficult questions and foreseeing any grievances/ problems which may arise. When a HRBP
requires additional knowledge on a key area, they access the centres of expertise to obtain the information.

HRBP’s are beneficial to relieve management of the responsibility of recruitment (allowing management to focus
on strategy). HRPS’s organise and run a recruitment drive consisting of many levels of interviews and candidate
activities in order to find the ideal employee, where management may not have time to conduct such specialised
recruitment drive.

HRBP’s are beneficial usually for larger businesses because a HRBP can be assigned to cover specific regions/
departments within a company. Therefore, using HRBP’s may be too expensive for a smaller company which has
a straightforward strategy and in which the HR can be administered centrally, because an additional employee is
being paid when they may not be essential. Similarly, another disadvantage is a HRBP may become ingrained in
a certain business unit which they support, and they may eventually work more closely with that group of
colleagues than with the HR Team -this could lead to inefficient delivery of strategy because the HRBP prioritises
the business unit over the strategic HR decisions.

Question 3 (1.3)
Evaluate the business case for managing HR in a professional, ethical and just manner.

CIPD states HR must lead by example by being personally credible and well-educated role model who takes an
objective and impartial view of their colleagues. HR Managers must have a clear understanding of right vs wrong
both ethically and morally, as well as adhering to legal policies such as ‘The Equality Act’ and the ‘Working Time
Directive’ which are in place to protect employees.

Professional: Avado states professionalism in HR is having “expertise and specialist knowledge is regularly
used and updated which is necessary to effectively perform the work” (Avado, 2020).
Therefore, to be professional the HRM must commit to excellence and combine their professional knowledge with
the responsibilities of their role. If an HRM is professional, they will be able to effectively manage the daily duties
of their role as well as drawing on specialist knowledge when needed. It also means the HRM will comply with all
laws and strive to achieve the highest level of service of service to their colleagues.

E.g. HR must accurately calculate an employee’s maternity leave, recruit a competent temporary replacement,
and organise a thorough handover of the workload when maternity leave begins - this must follow the UK’s
Statutory Maternity Pay and Leave as a minimum and ensured the company is operating within the legal
boundaries.

Ethical: SHRM states HRM’s are “ethically responsible for promoting and fostering fairness and justice for all
employees and their organizations” (SHRM 2020 https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/pages/code-of-ethics.aspx)

HR must place ethics and morals at the highest standard. Behaving ethically ensures aspects such as equality
and diversity of employees are observed, however other behaviours should also be embodied by HR including
treating employees with respect, dignity, confidentiality and safeguarding vulnerable members (although these
are not laws) to ensure there is a comfortable working environment.

Behaving ethically fosters a healthy company culture, it also protects the company against legal action from
employees/ applicants by avoiding discrimination. When recruiting, HR may stipulate personal details such as
age & gender are not included on the application. The purpose is to eliminate any conscious/unconscious bias or
discrimination when considering candidates for the role and to focus purely on their skillset and experience. If this
information is left on and a very talented, skilled and experienced candidate is denied the role because they are
approaching retirement age - then this candidate may raise an ‘ageist’ discrimination claim possibly resulting in
large fines for the company and bad PR. To protect the company and its people, it is imperative to manage HR
ethically.

Just: Managing HR in a just/fair way is important to foster a healthy company culture. To be just is to treat
people in a morally correct way.

All employees must adhere to company policy and regulation, from the groundskeepers to the CEO - this
ensures all staff are treated fairly and equally and know exactly what is expected. It is important HR does not
have favourite colleagues.

Eg. when recruiting, HR must ensure employees know nepotism is unacceptable. All candidates must be
considered justly and selected based on their own merits - not their relationships.

When combining professional, ethical and just working practices HR ensures the company is a secure and
healthy place for their employees. This builds a strong company culture, reduces staff turnover and the
associated costs, ensures laws are compiled with and promotes positive company image - this in turn attracts top
talent to join the company and encourages staff retention.

Without this, talented staff leave, and business may fail.

Question 4 (1.2)
Provide a short description of at least two major theories of change management. Briefly describe an
example of change management in the organisation and apply one of the theories, including some
evaluation of the process, outcome, and impact.

Lewin’s 3-Step Model.

Lewin’s classic Change Management Model is a popular and effective model. There are 3 steps:

1- Unfreezing (current method must be evidenced to be ineffective and can be improved by implementing a
change. HR must challenge current employee beliefs and persuade them that the new system will be an
improvement. Staff must ‘buy in’ to changes.
2- Transition (now move into the new way of working and implement changes suggested in step 1.
Communication is vital here to all staff know what is expected, HR must ensure management are trained and
have a clear understanding of new processes.

3- Refreezing (change has been fully implemented, and this is now applied as the new way of working by all staff.
The change is embedded in the organization)

Lewin’s Force-Field Analysis Model

This model analyses driving and restraining forces of implementing a change and provides a platform to help HR
overcome any obstacles/restraining factors by highlighting any issues before they arise. Driving force = a positive
outcome of the change, restraining force = an outcome hindering the implementation of the change.

The model revolves around a change e.g. Introducing an ESS system, and then forces HR to identify the driving
forces and restraining forces of this change are discussed - this model highlights what barriers HR must
overcome in order to implement a change but it doesn't offer a plan of how to actually put the change into effect.
Communicating the Driving forces with employees can be used to ensure they buy-in to the change when doing
step 1 of Lewin's 3-Step Model.

*
E.g. Office Hours changing from 09:00 - 17:00 Mon to Fri, to 08:00-17:00 Mon-Thurs & 8:00-12:00 Friday.

This strategy has been implemented to allow Friday afternoons to become a timeslot reserved for Director and
key stakeholder meetings.

1- Unfreezing:
Here HR will create a compelling argument in order to being employees on board with the changes. Yes, they will
begin work one hour earlier each day however in return they will receive:
2.5 days off (more time with family & friends, only require 4.5 days holiday to book full week off so annual leave
stretches further, improved work/life balance)
Complimentary breakfast food and drinks daily to encourage compliance

2- Moving/Transition:
Employees now arrive at 07:50 latest. HR will:
-Have close communication with employees about the office times
-Engage staff to support the changes and creating a smooth transition process
-Provide 6 weeks’ notice before change is enforced to allow for changes

3- Refreezing:
-Employee contracts updated by HR to reflect new hours
-HR enforce new hours and log any tardiness

Lewin’s 3-step model was straightforward and very effective in implementing this change, and the steps were
planned before the change went ahead to ensure there was a clear path forward. This was a relatively simple
change to company process, for a complex change the 3-Step model may be too simplistic and a more extensive
one like Kotter’s 8-Step Model could be used. However, for this change of working hours, Lewin’s was ideal as
it’s easy to use and understand.

Process: Full transparency given to staff about the reason for the change, 6 weeks’ notice before the change
implemented to allow adjustments, contracts updated to show new hours. HR ensured all staff know what is
expected of them after the change, communicated openly and often to ensure all questions were answered.

Outcome: Staff hours have changed from 09:00 - 17:00 Mon to Fri, to 08:00-17:00 Mon-Thurs & 8:00-12:00
Friday. This has a positive outcome as it allows Directors and Senior management to use Friday afternoons for
strategic planning and meetings.

Impact: Positive: Directors and SMT have dedicated weekly timeslot to discuss important strategic plans and
meet with key stakeholders. Staff now enjoy an early finish on Friday afternoons and have a better work/life
balance.
Negative: Staff with children have found the 8am start hard with as they must drop children off early at school
and pay for ‘breakfast club’.

Question 5 (3.1)
You are planning to produce an evidential report highlighting the HR functions contribution to
organisational success and development. Provide a brief summary of the criteria and organizational data
that could be included and how it would be analysed.

HR must be operated as efficiently (HR activities are as cost effective in terms of money and time) and effectively
(meeting HR objectives) as possible. Criteria which can be used to produce evidence HR is contributing to the
organisations success and development include:

- KPI’s: here Key Performance Indicators identify “aspects of HR performance which are critical to
business objectives often including a target for each activity, and then assessing the performance
against this target” (Studying Human Resource Management - Stephen Taylor).
KPI’s must be measurable in a quantitative way: time bound, achievable, and performance-relevant. If
the KPI’s are being hit, then HR is positively contributing to the organisation’s success.
 - Balanced Scorecard: here 4 perspectives are considered: customer, financial, internal process, and
learning and growth. Combined these 4 perspectives give an overview of what the company is trying to
achieve and can be used across all departments including HR - this ensures “all departments are
working to the same objectives” (Studying Human Resource Management - Stephen Taylor).

- HR Statistics include quantitative data on use of HR policies, trends in the below can show how much
HR is contributing to the organisation.

Staff retention: how many months/years do staff spend with the company on average? If staff
retention increased and turnover low, HR is working efficiently and effectively.

Recruitment: how much has the company paid recruitment services over last 12 months? If
recruitment spend decreased, HR is recruiting efficiently and effectively. This could be
achieved by only using recruitment agencies for very specific high-skilled job roles, and general
recruitment done in house.

Sickness: how often are staff unable to work due to sickness? If staff sickness is low, staff
health and wellbeing could be high.

- HR Metrics, Surveys: qualitative and quantitative feedback in the form of surveys allows staff to
anonymously evaluate the HR function, these can be conducted annually for example. Surveys
diagnose problems, monitor management and ensure staff feel their opinions matter. The results will
indicate whether HR is contributing to positive morale and employee engagement/happiness.

‘Employee engagement’ can be analysed within a company through surveys, and all staff must respond to the
survey within a certain timeframe.
Presentation: each employee receives the same survey where they can rate how strongly they agree with a
statement. Eg ”I feel my job is secure”. Employee answers on scale of 1 to 5. 1 strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly
agree”. The same scale is used for other questions, and an area to expand on the questions is included to gather
qualitative data.

Analysis: The answers would then be compiled by collating employee answers. Once collated HR can look for
trends - for example they may find a specific department has a particularly low score for “quality of management”.
Using this information, they could approach the Manager and stage an intervention: ensure the manager is
knowledgeable in their field and treating their team members fairly - HR can then send the Manager to complete
some further training.

When the next survey is completed, HR look for an improved score regarding the “quality of management”, if
improved HR can be content their intervention and has contributed to an improvement in employee engagement
and to the organisations success. If no improvement, further intervention needed. Surveys are effective in
uncovering staff sentiments because staff are anonymous, and therefore answer honestly - this information is
invaluable.

Question 6 (4.1 & 4.2)

A) Read the article provided: It identifies and evaluates research evidence linking HR practices with
positive organisational outcomes. Briefly summarise the findings and evaluate its validity,
reliability and persuasiveness.

This research focused on Korean businesses regarding high-performance working and its effect on HR practices
and improved outcomes for the company. It outlined 4 hypothesis and for each it asked how this will “enhance
the positive effect of a strategic HR function on firm performance?” (H. Kim, K. Sung-Choon, 2015). There
hypotheses investigated the impact of: involving trade unions, career development programs, pay-for-
performance programs and benefits of hiring temporary workers.

Career Development Plans:

When workers expanded their skill set and competencies, they became less included to resist changes because
they were exposed to a greater variety of perspectives on the business and saw the ‘bigger picture’. These had a
positive effect on HR outcomes because staff became more flexible and willing to take on changes to their
working life, allowing HR strategies to be quickly implemented. I agree with this hypothesis.

Pay-for-performance:
This provides an incentive for staff to willingly participate in training and career development programmes, as
they believe the more skilled they become the more money they will earn. This encourages staff to engage with
HR strategies and ensures the HR outcomes are reached. I disagree with this because I think there are other
tools that can motivate staff other than pay, including good work/life balance, CPD and strong leadership.

Temporary Workers:
Specialist and skilled workers can be hired on a temporary ad-hoc basis when needed, this compliments the
value of the permanent workers the company has. Workers are encouraged to collaborate, and when they do
both permanent and temp workers align their skills and in turn HR strategies can be implemented more easily. I
agree with this hypothesis, temporary high-skill consultants can improve business output by filling specific skill
gaps.

In summary, this article found no matter which hypothesis you want to prove, for HR strategies to be
implemented, all employees must be committed to the HR strategy. “For a strategic HR function to become more
effective, it must communicate information about the firm’s strategic decisions and operations. Researchers have
recently highlighted the possible discrepancy between intended and actual HR strategies during the
implementation phase.” (H. Kim, K. Sung-Choon, 2015)

Validity: I thought this was an interesting paper as it researched an area where there was a gap in knowledge
and formulated good hypotheses for the research. This paper focused on Korea and many of the sources used
were 10-15 years old, therefore the findings may be outdated and no longer valid/relevant for other countries or
in the present day. More recent data should be added to corroborate the findings, as this study was completed in
2011 and is almost 10 years old.
In order to back up his findings, the author compared their findings with other studies eg Deery & Iverson, 2005;
Kato et al., 2005, however these are still outdated now. In summary, I do not think this study is valid in the UK in
2020.

Reliability: The primary data was gathered through a survey with a 5 point scale inclusive of six questions, this
survey was sent to 203 enterprise with over 100 employees as it was assumed they have systematic HR in place
(Datta, Guthrie, & Wright, 2005). Government enterprises and non-unionised companies were not surveyed. The
author also used some secondary data in the form of another survey by the WPS at the Korea Labour Institute in
2005, this survey was administered to over 4,000 private and government enterprises. The survey was sent to
the HRM, for them to then administer the survey to staff.

The reason government enterprises were not surveyed by the Author is because their HR departments are only
concerned with compliance to laws and regulations and are very rigid. Incorporating these businesses would
have skewed the data, as they are not free to implement their own HR function.

I think the data of the two surveys combined is reliable and measures were taken to remove skewed data.
However, there is always the possibility of the survey being answered incorrectly, and they are not robust or
reliable enough to use as a sole source of data. One downfall was no writing space was given for staff to expand
on answers, no qualitative data or detailed answers were obtained to add context to an employee’s score. If this
had been added, the reliability would have improved in my opinion.

Persuasiveness:
I find the author to be not entirely persuasive and including the table in the main body of text was abrupt and
stopped the flow of the text. I found the conclusion does not entirely agree with the findings of the report. Eg. “To
obtain employee support for and commitment to HR strategic function, firms should establish appropriate
involvement-oriented management systems.” however in the report it was suggested employee commitment to
HR strategies could be purchased using “pay-for-performance.”
 B) Explain how high-performance working and investment in human capital can impact on
organisational success and performance. Does the article support this?

HPW is defined as “HR’s ability to attract, retain and motivate the employees in a business.” (Messer et al.,
2010). Human Capital is defined as the knowledge and skills an employee has which can be used by a business
to advance the businesses goals.

When highly-skilled staff are supported by HR, and are working at the best of their ability in order to reach
company goals, then the company is likely to succeed. This is because the skilled employee is engaged, feels
valued and is supported by HR and in turn employing them is a good ROI for the company, because they are
skilled and perform their role well. Therefore, HPW ensures the business gets the most out of their Human
Capital (employees) and is valuable to an organisation with a positive impact on output– improving success and
performance.

The article supports HWP as it encourages the following ways to support staff: career development/upskilling,
pay proportionate to performance, alliance with unions and employing temporary skilled worked to fill skill gaps.
The article understands that Human Capital is essential to the organisation and by investing in staff their work
and skills improve – making that member of staff a continuously improving and asset to the company.

P Tamkin 2004 agrees and stated when HPW is implemented then it will “always result in superior business
performance”. (employment-studies.co.uk)
References:

Avado 2020 - www.avadolearning.com

CIPD 2020 https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/what-we-do/professional-standards/code)

(Datta, Guthrie, & Wright, 2005).

Deery & Iverson, 2005; Kato et al., 2005.

H. Kim, K. Sung-Choon, 2015) employment-studies.co.uk)

(Human Resource Management: People and Organisations, Steven Taylor, 2016)

(Messer et al., 2010

(Studying Human Resource Management - Lizard Book)

(Datta, Guthrie, & Wright,2005).