Kingfisher plc is among the most prolific retailers in Europe ranging from general merchandise, electrical and DIY. This company recruits more than 130,000 workers in over 2,900 stores in 15 countries. Also, it owns well known retail brands across Europe from Darty, Castorama, BUT, Superdrug, Woolsworth, Comet, and B&Q. The company is classified as the third largest electrical business and the leading DIY retailer in Europe. Kingfisher plc has a new section for e-commerce opportunities known as e-Kingfisher. This study looks into the concept of employees as the company’s assets that require continuous growth and development. Kingfisher plc has a new management scheme known as Kingfisher Management Scheme (KMDS) the company is looking forward to producing managers with pride and loyalty in the organization and also be able to sustain the different business cultures.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the duty that looks into the workforce of the organization including management, recruitment and organizing employees in the organization. It is the body that is concerned with the issues affecting the workforce such as employee wellness, work training, reimbursement, motivation, hiring and recruitment, organizational communication ,work safety,administration ,employee benefits, performance management and promotions.
According to Anon (2018), Human Resources Departments in Kingfisher plc coordinate the recruitment process, in cooperation with other departments, in order to fill open positions and ensure that the organization’s procedures and rules for hiring are followed. Human Resources Departments play a central role in creating and updating job descriptions, posting job announcements both internally and externally, and reviewing submitted application materials. Human Resources also makes arrangements for interviewing and testing candidates, as well as conducting background checks, drug tests, and verifying employee credentials. They also develop plans for training for both new and existing employees. They also ensure the necessary licenses for the company are maintained and updated within the required time.
The Human Resources Department is drawing the process of negotiating contracts with employee unions. They ensure the guidelines and provisions for contracts are strictly adhered to. In times of labour negotiations, HR Departments work with labour attorneys, affected departments, and the organization’s chief executive. They are also responsible for presenting proposed labour contracts to legislative bodies for their consideration. They also play the role of labour relations by processing union grievances.
The human resource department is also responsible for administering payroll and employee benefits including disability insurance, life insurance, health covers and retirement benefits. Payroll and benefits administration also entails tracking employee use of leave time, including sick, vacation, and personal leave, and determining employee eligibility for various benefits.
Best practice and best-fit approach of HRM have over many years had a lot of controversies in the HRM area. They possess practical managerial importance. They well explained below using a case study of Kingfisher plc Company.
Best practice method
According to Redman and Wilkinson (2012), the best practice approach claims that there exist various HR activities universally that focus on assisting organizations to reach a competitive advantage despite their organizational structure. The best HR practice models portray a close interrelation between HR practices and work performance. Additionally, these practices are associated with a high level of employee commitment to the organization.
Kingfisher plc applies the best practice method when hiring its workforce to attract skilled personnel and ensure quality work and high-performance culture of the organization. It also applies this strategy to its training activities to enhance employee skills, technical and business facts through major practices recognized internationally (Marchington & Grugulis, 2010). Expectancy theory put forward by Vroom & Lawler (2014) states that the best HR practices lead to increased levels of productivity and quality as well as reduced levels of absenteeism and employee turnover.
Best fit approach
According to Sparrow and Hiltrop (2006) HRM strategies used in an organization with the purpose of strengthening the corporate strategy. These scholars often refer to it as the matching model for HRM. The best-fit approach focuses on the concept of universality hypothesis in determining the best practice in each organization. This approach focuses on the possible fit between HR practices and the organization’s environment, its structures and its stages of development (Redman and Wilkinson, 2009). Kingfisher plc adapts the best-fit approach to get access to other labour markets by bringing forth and looking for potential employees through higher management which helps to find personnel best fit to the company’s high performance and produce quality work.
Recruitment is whereby the organization sets out to search for prospective employees and encourages them to apply for the vacant positions (Flippo,2016). The HR department estimates the available vacancies and then makes necessary plans for selection, recruitment, and hiring. The vacant positions are widely publicized encouraging more candidates to apply in order to get suitable candidates during the scientific.In the process of hiring, relevant data is gathered from the most interested candidates. Its the first contact between the company and the potential employees. Some of the methods of recruitment include networking, advertising, posting, referring, waiting list and study aids.
Selection involves pinpointing the most qualified and suitable candidates among the interested candidates.It involves picking the best and leaving out others. During the process, the interested candidates are sorted and classified according to the best capabilities in accordance with the skills required for the job. Then, the best candidates are chosen and hired by the organization. The selection process is based on the concept of the right person for the correct position.
The Kingfisher plc company applies various approaches in the recruitment and selection processes. These processes include:
Job analysis
Job analysis involves reviewing a job and the collection of information that pertains the responsibilities, operations, and skills of a particular job.
Some of its benefits are: it enhances good advertisement for jobs, ensures purposeful interviews, and it also promotes appropriate selection of psychological tests. Job analysis has its cons. The process of job analysis is time-consuming, personal biases may be involved in the job analyst is from the same organization thus hinderance of genuine and accurate data. A lot of individual effort is involved in the process of job analysis due to lack of particular pattern for the job.
Networking
It is a type of selection process that involves being referred and recommended by bodies such as associations and agencies. They provide opportunities to their members to be placed in jobs through referral. Some of its advantages are: it is not costly and consumes less time. It gives one direct connection between their areas of specialization. On the other hand, it has its cons: fairness and equal opportunity can be a challenge; information must be within the organization for the candidate to be considered.
Internal and external sources of recruitment
Recruitment and selection go hand in hand. They are the gateway through which qualified candidates for a job are accessible. The Kingfisher Company applies these internal and external sources to select and recruit its potential employees. Internal sources refer to the selection that is within the company. These include promotions, internal notification, retirements, recalls and formal employees.
External sources of selection and recruitment involve sourcing outside the company. It includes press releases, administration consultancy services and private pay exchanges, management training schemes, walk-ins and talk-ins and deputation of personnel.
Some of the activities for HRM within Kingfisher plc are learning, training and development, job and workplace design, types of payment and reward system.
Training and development
According to Flippo (2014), training is the process of enhancing the skills and know-how of an employee in performing a specific task. Training is giving information, wisdom, and learning to acquire technical, social skills and administrative skills within the workers.
The Types of Training
There are various kinds of training, including refresher, induction, job, promotion training and training for supervision development
Induction training seeks to introduce a fresh worker who has been appointed by the organization. It is a training that is subject just after being a member of the organization. It aims at giving an overview of the employer for the organization.The purpose of job training involves giving instructions and providing the way forward to an employee in regards to the specific job advertised. This is to ensure that the employee has the skills, and they know how to carry out tasks, diligently, efficiently and effectively in the organization, while at the same time, ensuring time discipline.
Promotional training performed in the case of an employee moving to a higher post in the organization. The main aim is to equity the worker with necessary skills to handle the top position. Refresher training focusses on updating and enriching the experiences, knowledge and professional skills of employees in higher managerial positions.Finally, training for supervision development is performed to top leaders to enrich their efficiency skills preparing them for higher positions. Kingfisher plc makes provisions before assigning any type of training to its employees.
Objectives of Training
Training increases productivity and effectiveness of its workers and the entire organization and helps combat challenges that come with the invention in the science and technology sector. It also creates a good place for skilled, loyal and employees which are capable of doing a particular work to actualize the vision and mission of the organization. Training ensures employee job security and ensuring motivation for employees and morale boost to enhance growth and development. Additionally, training reduces accidents in the workplace and any unbiased moods for workers in terms of health and safety
significance of Training (to employer/management)
According to Kingfisher plc Company, training has a variety of benefits to the management or employer. Due to a boost in morale and motivation, the performance at the workplace improves thus raising productivity and efficiency of managers. It results in improvement in production by reducing the volume of wastage; the general production cost is lowered. Accidents are minimized as employees work in a systematic manner to avoid any errors in the area of work.
Training lowers the rate of expenditure for the organization because trained employees require less supervision as they work because employees have high morale for work. It reduces the turnover for management positions thus enhancing stability. Training ensures an efficient workforce which is an important asset to the organization and it natures employee attitude towards work and creates good company relations. Due to the interesting job, managers want to be at work all the time thus reducing absenteeism.
The significance of training to employees
Training plays an important role in the employees. Employees are an important asset to the organization thus given the priority for training. Training builds employee courage at the workplace as they are fully secured from risks which raise job interests among employees in work thus higher productivity is enhanced
Training acts as an asset to the employees through gaining relevant skills creating a gateway to higher promotions. It enumerates a lot of benefits to employees monetary and remuneration and develops flexibility among employees. It refreshes the mental look of employees by updating their skills and knowledge.
The Kingfisher Company adapts the managerial development programme whose role is to train the managers apart from the operative staff. Managerial talent is the most valuable talent in an organization.
Importance of management development
Management development has become a necessity for organizations today. Technology developments have had a great impact in influencing management development making it easier to incorporate into the workplace. The value of management development is as outlined below.
Appointing new managers in an organization can lead to slow growth and low productivity before he peaks up the pace. Management development has now made it easier to train talented employees in the organization to take up the managerial positions and create a rich team of managers within the organization.
In every organization, the managerial position can be risky and a challenge thus requiring more skill improvement. Management development ensures that the talented personnel in the organization is often trained and the skills strengthened to make work easier to handle(Chen and Huang, 2009). Management development is important in offering self-development programs to the managers to ensure that management obsolescence is well taken of. It is important for an organization to have a sharp executive team to enhance the organization’s growth
The business world is receiving rapid changes in the social and technological changes thus organizational managers should be well trained to ensure they keep up with the developments in the business arena. Mangement development ensures that an organisation has well trained and professional managers who are able to keep up with market competition, government rules, consumers sanity and social pressures. The business world today needs a focused manager ,who is well trained to handle all the issues facing the organization.
Employee salary and wage administration
The concept of salary and wage administration involves the development and implementation of reasonable practices and right policies of employee compensation. It is characterised by a survey of employee salary and wages, wage adjustments, job evaluation, supplementary payments and allowances,analysis of organizational problems, payment incentives, establishment and maintenance of wage structure,control of compensation costs, profit sharing and making rules for administrating wages (Beach,2016).
Objectives of Wage and Salary Administration
Kingfisher plc has a salary administration strategy that stipulates to meet the following outlined objectives. One of the objectives is to establish a clear, impartial and reasonable payment for every task performed, retaining employees in the organization by ensuring wages levels are at per with competitive elements. Additionally, it’s the company’s objective to raise interest among legit and skilled personnel and improve on motivating employees to keep them in the organisation. Ensuring that labour, as well as organizational costs, is in alignment with the organization’s ability to pay and keep up with legal rules and regulations regarding employee compensation in the verge of ensuring good reputation maintenance is another vital objective of the company.
A well-enabled salary and wage administration program is created to arrive at the following objectives in Kingfisher plc company: Equitability in pay, Competition externally, Protection Against Excessive Compensation, Allowance and rewards for good workers, quick management and Reliability of employment rules.
Employee relations involves the process of building and maintaining positive relations between the management and the employees in the organization to ensure good communication, build morale and increase productivity. It mainly involves dealing with issues that affect the organization of the workforce. Townley, B., (2014)
Kingfisher plc company ensures and maintains good employee relations which in the result of quality work hence high productivity. Employee relations in the organization ensures that all problems affecting the organization are solved, and a smooth work environment is established. Kingfisher plc company uses several techniques to maintain good employer and employee benefits. This include services for employees and services for managers and supervisors.
Services for Kingfisher company range from ensuring proper guidance is given on the workforce on how to deal with other employees, the management, co-workers, customers, and supervisors, elaborating and creating a clear picture of rights and responsibilities of every worker, establishing a clear understanding of the organisation culture, establishing the cause of problems, and solving employees’ complaints and developing advocacy teams to assist.
Roles of supervisors and managers as investigated is offering advice and guidelines to the junior employees, developing training programs on how to solve problems in the organisation training, administering as well as fostering policies and offering mediation, face to face coaching and coaching to the employees on relations and conflict resolution.
Improving Employee relations and engagement
Employee satisfaction is key to the development and growth of the organisation. Ensuring a happy working environment within the organization goes a long way in ensuring that employees have positive relations (Bratton and Gold, 2017). When creating an employee relations strategy , it is good to include the mission statement so as to ensure that every employee understands the goal of the organisation. When employees understand what the organisation is about, they tend to relate better and work towards the positives of the organisation.
The Kingfisher plc organization is always striving to ensure the engagement between the employees and employers is at its best. Improving employee relations involves making employees part of organization’s teams, ensuring that employees have platforms in which they can freely participate and interact with other employees as well as with the management. Employee relations program should involve teams and platforms where employees freely link to the organization by being a major contributor. When employees are involved in the organization, they seem to get more free and interactive.
The recommendations brought forward to improve employee relations in Kingfisher PLC Company stemmed from various concerns. To improve employees relations, there is need to conduct employee opinion surveys to understand if the employees are happy, the issues facing them, complaints and grievances they may have and their opinions on the organization. Improving employee relations involves taking opinions and concerns from employees. This creates a sense of belonging to the employees.
Improving employee relations may also involve rewarding the employees and ensure to raise the morale of employees in the organization. Employees tend to feel closer to the organization if their efforts are noticed and rewarded. There should be a program that includes a method to appreciate and reward employees for performances, and this will create a spirit of working together.
Employees appreciate a company that dwells in competition. Valuing the skills and abilities of workers in the organization goes a long way in ensuring that there are more relations. Create a relations plan that includes a part of competitive salaries to ensure that employees are paid right paid on time and received a competitive compensation unit.
Creating communication forums in the organization creates a family environment where communication is smooth and possible for anyone in the organization. Employees want to be able to communicate with the management freely without barriers. This is an important aspect of ensuring employee relations is improved
Employee relations can be improved by proving employees with challenging tasks to take on. Forming competition teams in the organization helps to ensure that employees constantly participate in the challenges and share more with the organization encouraging positive communication.Challenges make work more interesting and make a communication to be more clear and frequent.
Ensuring management that cares about the performance of employees, creates a feeling of appreciation in employees enhancing the relationship between the management and employees in the organization.
When creating an employee relations program including a part that caters to the family needs and outside work needs of your employees. Including, maternity and certainty leaves as well as monthly leaves and a sick day off. Happy employees result in higher productivity, closer relations and a good working environment.
Employee human rights
Kingfisher as a leading retail company, it is responsible for ensuring that all employees’ rights are protected and employees treated fairly. In addition, this organization should ensure that human rights are maintained when working with partners and the shareholders in all the stores. Maintaining human rights and protecting all workers in the factories is key to ensuring that the organization runs smoothing and performance are efficient. These human rights help to protect all employees in carrying out their duties every day and their safety is ensured by Kingfisher plc.
Employee health and safety
Kingfisher PLC Company is governed by health and safety act which stipulates on the protection of the health as well as the welfare of all employees in the organization. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health protects the health of employees in the workplace through ensuring that they work in a safe environment free of any dangers or diseases (Briscoe et al., 2009). It also stipulates how workers should be treated and compensated in the case of health accidents in the organization or if their health is compromised in the process of working.
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