The Evolving Role Of HR In The Contemporary Business World

Learning outcomes

The management of human resource (HR) management is imperative for streamline the operation of business (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In this regard, the HR manager extract important information related to labor market trends, government rules and organizational policies for employees’ skills improvement and retention (Taylor and Woodhams, 2016). In this context, the UK based InterContinental Hotels (IHG) Group has been selected which also operated in the United States (US) and extends a variety of hospitality services. By considering the role of HRM, labor market trend has been analyzed along with explaining the significance of tight and loose labor market conditions. Furthermore, the career development plan has been created for employee development and the role of government, union and employers have been evaluated for meeting future skills. Apart from this, legal requirements related to recruitment and selection have been explained with its different methods. Moreover, different approaches used for talent retention have also been explained.

In a multinational company, management of human resources is the most difficult operation because in different countries the labor trends vary which affects the regular business operation to a great extent (Bernaciak, 2010). In this context, the InterContinental hotel is a UK based hospitality firm operates its business in around 100 countries. It is hard for management to operate in many countries effectively and maintaining the brand reputation by offering superior service with the help of employees. In relation to this, the management of IHG faces many complications in business operation in the UK because of different labor trends in both countries. In this context, the flowing table represents the comparison of labor market trends of UK and US for the hospitality sector.

Table 1: Comparison of labor market trends

 

Supply of Labor Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Low skilled migrant worker (Staff Wanted initiative, 2016)	Shortage of labor (Kostuch Media Ltd, 2017)
Unemployment	4%,1.47 million public are jobless (Partington, 2018)	4%
Labor demand	Tight labor market	Tight labor market high
Skilled labor	Low	High
Employee turnover	31%	70%

• Supply of labor-UK has a great supply of labor; yet, the labor is migrant and semi-skilled because many workers are from other EU countries (Devies, 2017). However, after Brexit, the supply of labor can negatively affect the availability of labor in the UK because of changes in the immigration process (KPMG, 2017). In this regard, the IHG operate its business in many cities of UK; thus, the management of IHG train its staff member and avoids the shortcoming of semi-skilled employees. On the other hand, the USA hospitality sector has a shortage of labor (refer table 1). In this regard, different labor supply in both countries creates a difficult situation for the management of IHG to build different strategies for both countries.
• Unemployment-Due to Brexit, the unemployment is rising in the UK and leads the availability of labor (Kottasova, 2018). In this regard, the hospitality sector of UK has high availability of migrant workers; thus, availability of labor in labor market of UK which is helpful for IHG at a certain limit. On the contrary, the unemployment in the USA is same as the UK. But the hospitality industry of USA has a shortage of workers because of the high employee turnover rate. In this context, Yang, Wan & Fu (2012) asserted that the approach of management to focus on employee retention strategies is imperative to retain the employee for a long time. Owing to this, the managers of IHG build different employee retention strategies such as reward policy for enhancing the employee satisfaction towards the organization and deal with the employee turnover effectively (IHG, 2018).
• Labor demand-The labor demand in UK and US is high because of a tight labor market in the hospitality sector. In the UK, the demand for the skilled worker is high and in the US, high employee turnover creates a high labor demand. High labor demand means the job vacancies are available to a great extent. In this context, the US hospitality industry gives employment to around 15.5 million public. For minimizing the impact of tightening labor market, the IHG provides the learning of hospitality by providing a training program and improves the skills of the employee for hospitality job (IHG, 2014).

In the present era, the focus on the development of employees’future skills is significant to ensure the success of businesses (Lussier, 2011). For this purpose, government, trade union and employers play different roles which are explained as follows-

• Employer role-It is the responsibility of an employer to ensure the development of an organization’s employees to meet the future business requirement (Houtenville and Kalargyrou, 2012). In this regard, the employer of the organization provides training to employees to enhance their capabilities by gratifying employees’ learning in training activities. In this context, Nolan, Conway, Farrell and Monks (2010) stated that the development strategies of employer for employees’ skill development are helpful for the effective handling of a competitive labor market. Owing to this, by considering employee development, the employer of an organization enhances the likelihood of business success in future.
• Government role-The interest of the government in the development of individuals is most important for enhancing the readiness of the public to meet the future requirement. For example, the public policy of UK government develops the skills of individual at the education sector. In this context, the government provides the vocational education and training to the public of UK to enhance their capabilities for the utilization of skills at the workplace (Green and Hogarth, 2016).  Apart from this, the UK government also gives attention for enhancing the teaching of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and computer science at the school level for engaging the future generation with technology (Gov.UK, 2011). Therefore, the government enhances the skills of individuals at the country level.
• Trade union role-If the organization and government show their unconcern in the development of employees then the trade union can demand the employees learning activity and forced them to give their attention in employee skill development (Bernaciak, 2010). Apart from this, the trade union directly contact with employees and inform the employees for the government skill development program. Thus, this interaction of trade union and employees enhance the employees’ awareness for government facilities. For instance, the British trade unions promote the learning of employees at the workplace and improve the quality standard at the workplace (Kar and Datta, 2015).

In order to enhance the productivity of a business, it is essential for managers to focus on the management of workforce at the workplace through which the achievement of business goal gets easier (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In this context, Ward and Tripp (2012) asserted that the effective planning of workforce is done by considering, the key principles of the effective strategic planning tool in workforce management which are mentioned below-

                                            

                                                                Figure 1: Strategic workforce planning process

Assessment brief/activity

                                                             (Source: Report to Congressional Requesters, 2003)

• Involvement of stakeholder-By involving the key stakeholder of the organization, the HR managers of organizations like IHGsets the goal of workforce planning and builds future workforce strategies for ensuring the continuity of development at the workplace and also defines the communication strategies to effectively communicates with all level of employees effectively and enhance the transparency in the communication.
• Critical thinking for competencies-It is necessary to think critically for determining the competencies which are essential in future workforce planning(Guion, 2011). For this purpose, the HR manager identifying the lacks in the present workforce and address the competencies requirement which is helpful in the effective workforce planning.
• Strategies for filling competencies gap-In order to plan an effective workforce at the workplace, the HR manager fills the gap between the actual competencies and required competencies (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly. and Kynighou, 2016).In this regard, the HR manager creates strategies which are effectively addressing those competencies which required improvement. It is done with the help of an internal analysis of the workforce so that future requirement can be met by hiring more skilled personnel.
• Enhancement in competencies-After identifying the competencies requirement, the HR manager of an organization educates the other managers and employee for establishing equity and transparencies in employee recruitment process (Bratton and Gold, 2017). By this, the mangers of organization recruit highly competent employees and enhance the competencies of existing employees. In this context, the performance potential matrix is helpful for the HR manager to manage the employees easily because this matrix categorized the employees according to their competencies (Cotten, 2007). With the help of categorized employees, the HR manager builds strategies to push up at the workplace.

                                  

                                                                                      Figure 2: Performance matrix

                                                                                          (Source: Vulpen, 2018)

• Regular monitoring-Every business planning needs regular monitoring (Guion, 2011). In this regard, the HR manager of IHG evaluates the progress of the workforce in the organization and monitors the effort of the employee for achieving the organizational goal (Refer to figure 1). On the basis of evaluation results, the business makes changes in the existing plan and maintain the workforce continuity.

Succession planning is the process of assigning new leaders on the place of retired leaders (Rothwell, 2010). The IHG hotel also focuses on the resourcing and talent planning for the development of organization through leaders. Further, in career planning, HR manager of IHG hotel assigns the right people on the right position and provide the required training for the completion of the purpose of appointment of resources. In this context, a basic succession and career development plan have been prepared for the IHG hotel of UK as follows-

                                                                   

                                                                      Figure 3: Procedure of succession planning

                                                                             (Source: Durst and Wilhelm, 2012)

• Identifying the key positions- The HR manager of IHG hotel would identify the requirement for the post of skilled leader to lead the employees for the effectiveness of hotel services. In this context, the job would be defined to the leader that development of services in comparison to competitors.
• Identifying the capabilities of key areas- For the position of leadership, the leader would possess competitive skills and adequate knowledge regarding hospitality services so that leader can be able to motivate the employees to perform better.
• Recognizing capable and interested employees- At this stage, the capabilities and current potential of a candidate is assessed so as to manage the future performance of the business. For this purpose, an experienced and knowledgeable workforce are assessed against the future vacant position.
• Implementation of a succession plan- After the identification of skills of employees, succession plan would be communicated to all identified employees and finally the plan of appointment of a leader would be implemented by the HR manager of IHG hotel.
• Evaluation of effectiveness- At the end, the plan would be evaluated on the basis of requirements that the employees are selected for the position of leaders are fitted on not. Further, it would be identified that new employed candidates are performing better or not as a leader for future success.  

The HR manager of IHG has adopted several steps to reduce the number of employees in the organization such as retrenchment of unskilled employees, an appointment of the existing employees for the position of leaders, offering training, reducing the salary which causes the employee turnover. In this regard, the HR manager can effectively select the potential candidate who can effectively manage the business activities in the right manner.

Table 2: Job description for the post of leaders in IHG

 

Job Holder	Joseph
Job title	Team leader
Job duration	Full time
Job location	England
Pay scale	3000-4000 £
Purpose of the position	Lead the team and influence member to accomplish the given targets

• Person specifications- HR manager of IHG has described that for the post of leaders, employees should possess the analytical and leadership skills, MBA in HR, creative skills and attractive personality to motivate the team.
• Competency frameworks- The leader for IHG in HR department would possess the following competitive qualities-

Table 3: Competency framework for IHG leader

 

	· Understandable · Quality of team working · Communication skills · Responsible and focused
	· Technical experience · Flexible in nature · Ability to make a plan

The following legal requirement is imposed by the government of UK which should be considered by companies for recruitment and selection-

• Equality Act 2010-With the help of this act, the government of UK ensures equality among employees in the organization. In this regard, the equality act 2010 protects employees from any sort of inequality in term of sexual orientation, race, religion, marriage, pregnancy and maternity (The University of Sheffield, 2018). This act prevents discrimination, harassment and victimization of employees (Corner-I, 2018). Owing to this, it is the responsibility of the HR manager to follow this government rule in the recruitment & selection process and avoid any type of action which fosters inequality in the process.
• Child Employment-According to this Act, if the employer employs the children and young person in the organization then they will consider the government restriction on child employment related to working hour, health and education of children (Gov.UK, 2018). If an organization does not follow this rule in the recruitment and selection process, then it will subject to monitoring.
• TheImmigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006-In the UK, many industries faces tighten labor market because of the high availability of illegal migrant worker. This act imposes the 10,000 £ penalties for every illegal worker in the UK (The University of Sheffield, 2018). Thus, it is necessary to focus on the authenticity of the worker in the recruitment and selection process. By following this regulation in the recruitment process the HR manager helps for avoiding unnecessary financial expenditure in government penalties.
• Data Protection Act 2003-In order to enhance the security of employees, the confidentiality of employees’ data is imperative. In this context, the government of UK restrict the management of every organization to avoid the disclosure of employees’ personal data to the third party(Corner-I, 2018). This ensures the safety of employees at the workplace and third party cannot take the wrong advantage of the personal information of the workforce(The University of Sheffield, 2018). Therefore, it is the responsibility of the HR manager to manage the confidentiality of employees’ data.   

There are several methods of recruitment and selection including internal and external. In this regard, some of the methods are explained as follows-

• Press advertisement- In this method, the management of organization publishes press advertisement with the specific requirement of the job; thus, it is helpful to recruit right people at the right position (Nikolaou and Oostrom, 2015). Apart from this, this method is helpful for creating brand awareness in the public. However, the press advertisements need the financial investment; still does guarantee success in recruitment even also required a large amount of time for recruitment right people (Newell brown, 2011). On the other hand, the press advertising is limited only those people who read the newspaper.  
• Recruitment agencies- Recruitment through recruitment agencies is helpful for reducing the time of selection process because the establishment of connection with several media group and overcome the lacks of press advertisement(Nikolaou and Oostrom, 2015). Apart from this, recruitment agencies decline the workload of the recruitment process on the administration of the organization because many recruitment tasks are held at the agencies. However, this type of recruitment process is costly because the recruitment agencies charge the fee. Hereby, this recruitment process creates the uncertainty among the public for recruiting organization because of less interaction with the potential employer (Newell brown and Swain, 2012).

There are several reasons which foster an employee to remain in the organization are described as follows-

• Effective working conditions-The condition of workplace plays a major role in the employee retention as it boosts their morale to work with the motivation (Allen and Bryant, 2012). In this regard, by ensuring the employees’ safety at the workplace the management of IHG enhances the well-being of the firm in employees and elevates the employee retention rate. However, the unsecured workplace negatively affects the working capabilities of employees and resulted in poor job performance. The poor job performance is one of the main reasons for employee turnover.
• Communication-The communication in organization important for enhancing the collaboration in the employees (Gberevbie, 2010). Through effective communication, the employees easily understand their job task and achieve targets in minimum time. It enhances the employee satisfaction for the job and satisfied employees’ wants to remain with the organization. In this regard, the management of IHG builds several communication strategies for effectively communicating with employees such as open communication.
• Supportive management-The support of management is significant for reducing the employees’ turnover because through supportive management, the manager enhances the interaction with the employee and leads them in the job task (Gberevbie, 2010). The supportive management prevents the employees to go off the track. However, the less supportive and aggressive management leads the employees’ dissatisfaction and foster the employee to leave the organization. In this context, for enhancing employee satisfaction, the manager of IHG appreciates the employees through reward and elevates their satisfaction towards the organization which reduces the employee turnover.
• Pay structure-The basic need of employees is monetary income. In this regard, the pay structure of an organization is potential for an employee to remain at the workplace or leave it. The inappropriate pay structure creates the cause for inequality in organization and forced many employees to leave the organization (Das and Baruah, 2013). Apart from this, inappropriate pay structure also promotes the dysfunctional employee turnover and the business loses the best performer employees. This type of turnover adversely influences the productivity of organization because if a well-established employee leaves the organization then it takes much time of organization to recruit new employee and enhance the employee’s competencies to the level of excluded employee.
• Organizational policies-The organizational policies for employee plays a vital role the employee retention because the liberal policies shape the positive behaviour of the workforce as they feel comfortable(Yang, Wan and Fu, 2012). In this regard, the HR manager of IHG build effective and attractive policies for employee through the employee tendency is gratified. These liberalizing policies minimize employee turnover.  

The lawful practices related to dismissal, retirement and redundancies are explained and advised in the following manner-

• Managing dismissal-In the termination process, the HR manager of IHG should follow the fair procedure because this can be helpful for resolving the problem which fosters the dismissal. In this regard, it is the responsibility of HR manager to investigate of the situation carefully before the dismissal of any employee because poor investigation misleads the whole dismissal process and resulted in the loss of an important employee. After the investigation, the employer of IHG should communicate with terminating the employee and warn about the current issue in the performance and behaviour in the organization.Then the HR manager should re-evaluate the issues on the basis of post warning scenario and even if the situation is not managed then notice of termination should be provided. For example, the HR manager should conduct the exit interview for terminating employees so as to understand the views of the workforce and apply the standard practices for the completion of the remaining business activities.
• Managing retirement-In order to manage retirement of the employee, the employer should create a flexible retirement policy for organization’s employee. Also, the fixed retirement policy should also be there in the option so that the workforce can select the same on the basis of their convenience. At the same time, retired employees can also be provided with an employment opportunity for managing the progress of the business. Also, the remaining dues of the workforce should be managed within the set time frame so as to complete the retirement procedure in a lawful manner. In this regard, for retirement the HR manager, IHG should consider the appropriate age of retirement and also focus on the volunteer retirement through which any employee take retirement by providing a justifiable reason. Also, the HR manager should pay for all due amount of leaves and other monetary retirement benefits.  
• Managing redundancies-For managing the redundancies in the organization, the HR manager of IHG should warn the employees for changes in organizational need and describe the new competencies requirement. In this regard, the employer should give prior written notice to employee and arrange the meeting with the affected employee. If the single employer going through the procedure of redundancies then the HR manager of IHG should arrange a personal meeting with that employee else arrange a group meeting with those employees. The employer should identify the alternative for avoiding redundancies through which the employer can enhance the competencies of existing employees. If the employer finds the alternative then the redundancies will be avoided otherwise the HR manager clear all the dues of affected employees.     

Conclusion

On the basis of the above report, it can be concluded the management of labor market trends of different countries in the organizational workforce is imperative for improving the productivity of the organization. In this context, by considering the effective workforce planning, the local government, organization and trade unions improve the future skills of worker and can build effective labor market trends in the country. Apart from this, according to the analysis of legal requirement for selection and recruitment process the succession and career development plan foster the growth and development of the business. In this regard, it can also be concluded that the recruit of employees and their retirement should be done on the basis of the set standard and legal requirement.

1: Labour market trend and UK and US

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