The idea of human resource management largely depends on the cultural pattern of a country. Moreover, the legal boundaries are also influential in shaping the human resource management style of the organizations in a certain economy. As discussed by Shapiro and Varian (2013), the design of human resource management essentially includes the factors like recruitment, professional development, employee benefits, their bargaining power, their rights regarding redundancy and many more. However, these factors may vary depending on the legal rights and cultural codes of various countries. As discussed by Rieucau (2015), the demography and the decision-making pattern, influences the labor relation and the concept of the effective human resource management in a country.
In this essay, there is a comparison and contrast between the human resource management practices in the US and Britain. Depending on the work culture and the legal regulations, the employee management patterns of both the countries have similarities and distinctive dissimilarities among them. The various aspects of staffing, training, rewards, performance management and labor relation of each of the countries are being discussed along with a comparison between the two.
According to Shapiro and Varian (2013),the cultural analysis of Hofstede states that the cultural analysis and its comparison between the UK and the US shows that both the countries hold same pattern of individualistic and private approach towards life and a high degree of uncertainty and risk. Hence, the work culture is more likely to be the same in these countries.
As mentioned by Rieucau (2015), in most of the UK firms the process of using walk-in interviews are utilized. The organizations use newspapers, magazines to publish advertisements of vacancies. Moreover, as discussed by Shapiro and Varian (2013), the information technology is also the most utilized way of advertising the vacancies. The companies use the web sources for advertising the vacancies and collecting the applications. On the other hand, as mentioned by Laumer, Maier and Eckhardt (2014), the strategy of “split free recruitment” is concerned with the revenue sharing model in which the staffing agencies engaging into subcontracting the particular work to various independent recruiters. The staffing agencies use split fee if the latter is successful in bringing qualified candidates for particular job vacancies. In the UK eligibility for work should be proved before actually starting the work (Davenport, 2013).
On the other hand, in the US, the companies also use the technological tools to support the recruiters. As opined by Gupta (2016), recruitment is a “global recruiting paradigm now”. Moreover, the US based organizations publish their vacancies in their websites and call for applications. In the context of split free recruitment, like the UK, most of the recruiters do not want to engage it in the recruitment procedure and some consider it as the last resort (Davenport 2013). n the other hand, in the context of eligibility to work, The US based organizations maintain a different strategy. As opined by Stone (2013), the employees need to prove their eligibility to work within the first three days of recruitment. As discussed by Jepsen and Grob (2015), the US recruiters concentrate on the reference check.
Training and Development in the US:
As discussed by Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013), the US based organizations put concentrate on the requirement of professional training of the employees. Training and development services are provided according to the needs of the employees and requirement of the specific post. The importance put by the recruiters on the need of training and development can be proved by the organizations’ membership in “Association for Talent Development (ASTD) (McFarland,2015).However, as mentioned by Noe et al. (2014), in the US, the companies do not experience any institutional pressure for providing training to the employees.
The British managers believe on spending less time and resource upon the employee training programs, unlike their US counterparts. As opined by Stone (2013), this attitude of the British managers serves as the cause of lower productivity (opposite to that of US and other economies). However, more like the US, the UK based companies do not have any institutional pressure for providing employee trainings. As mentioned by Korschun,Bhattacharyaa and Swain (2014), most of the British companies follow a company based volunteerism as far as employee development is concerned.
Compensation in the UK:
In the context of employee compensation, the UK has its separate law of national minimum wages. As discussed by Card and Krueger (2015), all the workers are entitled to be paid a minimum wage per hour, and it is regardless of any job responsibility or the size or type of the organization.
In the UK based companies, the employees are allowed to take leaves for family care; however, they can take leaves to take care “for any dependent that an employee can show is genuinely dependent upon them”, which is much relaxed in the US based companies (Noe et al., 2014). In the context of medical information, the UK employees are allowed to ask the medical information during the interview process (Jepsen &Grob, 2015).As mentioned by Spradley (2016), the British culture of “elitism” essentially reflects upon the workplace relation. The holiday entitlements, pension schemes, bonus, share-options etc. are disproportionately greater for the managers than the shop floor employees.
However, as mentioned by Spradley (2016), in the UK the workers are at liberty to have 52 weeks of maternity leave. 39 of which are paid at 90% of previous earnings and remaining are at “£140” a week. However, paternity leave is not much popular in the UK. In the case of general parental leave, the UK employees get some unpaid leave as well. The employees are also entitled to eight public holidays (Card &Krueger 2015). Regarding the sick leaves, the companies provide “28 weeks, paid at a flat rate of around £88 a week” in the UK (Korschun, Bhattacharyaa& Swain, 2014).
On the other hand, in the US, the issue of parental leave is much strict than that of the UK. As discussed by Weiss (2013), the “FMLA” announces that “new parents” are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. In the US, the working mothers can take disability benefits in various states. In the US, there is no mandatory paternity leave, however, various companies offer such leaves to the new fathers to draw and keepthe talent within the organization. In addition to this, Ray, Sanes and Schmitt (2013), has mentioned that the US doesn’t offer any mandatory annual leave entitlement. Hence, in the US the average number of paid vacation days is 10 days. In the context of sick pay and leaves, the paid sick leaves are offered as a part of the compensation package negotiated between the two parties. However, the flexible work culture does not believe in the elitism in workplace hence, there is lesser difference in the pay structure than that of the UK.
Performance Management in the US:
As opined by Wilton (2016), in the practices of human resource management, the idea of performance management holds great place for ensuring employee motivation and attainment of job expectations. In US, Rose et al. (2015), has stated that an employer can impose their own mandate on the overtime policyand the performance of the employees is the basic scale of the performance management system.
In the US, the basic of the performance management system, i.e. the reward management is completely performance oriented. As mentioned by Armstrong (2016) status in based on how well the people are performing their job responsibilities. In the US, qualifications are the prime determinant of promotion of the employees. The companies do not have any restrictions to promotion between hierarchal grades. As discussed by Rose et al. (2015), the US based companies use the balance sheet approach for performance management. With this approach, the companies provide mobility premium, allowance etc. to the employees.
In the context of the UK, Caruso (2014), has mentioned that there is no compulsion that the worker has to work for more than 48 hours within a typical week, which is almost contrasting than that of the US idea of “overtime”. However, the UK based companies also believe on the strategy of performance appraisal for evaluating and monitoring the status of performance of the employees (Mone& London 2014). Most of the UK based companies conduct their appraisal annually. Here, the performance of the employees is measured on the basis of the competency and accomplishment against Job related goals. As discussed by Jackson, Schuler and Jiang (2014), most of the companies believe on the self-appraisal system in the UK. Result of the performance appraisal can be reflected in the increase of salary, bonus and promotion.
Employment Relations in UK:
As mentioned by Armstrong (2016), the work culture of a country is largely influential to the human resource management pattern of a country. Hence, the idea of individualism appears to be influential in managing the relationship between the employees and the managers. As discussed by Ray, Sanes and Schmitt (2013), in the UK, the employees’ attitude towards their senior managers are significantly negative than the countries like the US.
In the UK, the employees are much more protected by the governmental laws and those tend to favor the employees in a greater degree than the US. In the context of at will employment, the employers must acquire the employee’s or his representative’s accord while bringing any alterations in the employment agreement. As mentioned by Mone and London 2014, at once the changes in agreement are made, then the employer should “once agreement changes is accorded upon, the owner must then inform the conditions in letters and report the employee in writing within a month to specifythe exact changes”.
In the context of lay off, the UK employers need to be much careful regarding the state laws. As mentioned by Mone and London 2014, while intending to discharge twenty or more workers an owner must discuss with the “Employees’ trade union” or a representative. In the absence of employee representative, elections needs to be conducted to obtain one and then further proceedings need to be made. In addition to this, as discussed by Armstrong (2016) in such a case, the employers must inform the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) at least 30 days before the first dismissal (or at least minimum 45 days when there is dismissal of 100 workers or more) and any breach to this norm is subjected to fine. As mentioned by Caruso (2014), in the workplace, the trade unions in UK have a great importance in maintaining the rights of the employees.
According to Rose et al. (2015), there is a greater level of trust between the employer and the employees in the US. Here, the employers may change the terms of employment agreement at any time devoid ofdiscussing with the employees (at-will employment), which is strictly prohibited in the UK. In the context of layoff, the US also has some protections for the employees. However, they are not as strict and inclusive as that of the UK. The “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)”, serves the layoff related rights of the US employees. As discussed by Samhouri et al. (2013), it states that US employers having 100 or more workers should provideannouncementof at least 60 days before the plant shuts downand mass dismissal is being carried out. American states have similar kind ofregulations whichcompels theemployers to formulate further policies as far as dismissals are concerned. As opined by Clegg (2014), in the US the culture of capitalism has created an anti-trade unionism in the workplace.
Conclusion:
In conclusion it can be said that both of the countries concentrate on the human resource management factors for advanced employee management. Both of the countries have almost same pattern of work and organizational culture. Hence, a great level of similarity in the ways of managing the employee relation can be identified. In the context of recruitment and selection both the countries largely believe on the technological sources. Being developed in that particular sector, both UK and the USA utilizes this web platform for the successful recruitment. In addition to this, the new trend of split free recruitment is also being avoided in both of the countries. On the other hand, in the context of employee training the USA puts more importance than that of the UK. With a capitalistic view the USA based organizations concentrates on the development of the productivity of the employees and hence, provides a good level of employee training. The lack of employee development program in the UK serves as the cause of low productivity level in Britain. UK has a more liner approach to providing employee benefits to the workers. The US on the other hand, is also open to providing varied conveniences to the employees. The UK has the highest number of leave provision for the mothers as maternal leave, which is much less in the USA. Moreover, while discussing the practice of performance management in these selected countries, it can be noted that both the countries follow the strategy of evaluating the performance and attainment of the occupational goals for reward management.
However, this discussion has recognized that Britain has amore employee oriented approach than that of the USA. The national regulations put a huge importance on the involvement of the trade unions and the employee representatives in the issues of labor relations. According to the above discussed study, the UK has a culture of preferring the employees and protecting their rights over that of the employers. From the laws to the organizational cultures, the human resource management system of Britain can be identified as better and more inclined towards achieving employee satisfaction. On the other hand, the USA has a negative approach towards the involvement of the trade unions in the workplace relations. The capitalistic view is largely responsible in this regard.
In spite of the mentioned information regarding the human resource management practices in both the countries, it cannot be ignored that the study has faced the issue of lack of information in this regard. The unavailability of prior research work on a comparative study or a structured patter of literature on the human resource management practices of each of the counties made it tough for the author to collect authentic information. Hence, the major limitation that the above mentioned study is experiencing is the lack of an inclusive nature of the information.
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