Lightline Plc - Human Resources in Business

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Section I: Table of Contents

Part 1: The Strategic Significance of Human Resource Management 3

Part 2: The Advantages of a ’High Performance Working’ Human Resource Management Strategy 6

Section 3: Human Resources/Workforce Planning 7 Task 4: Reward and Recognition Strategy Approach 10 Fox’s Typology Task 5 12 Task 6: Employer Branding Idea 14 Bibliographies 18

Business Human Resources - Lightline Plc

This project is based on a Lightline PLC scenario, and your role as an HR consultant is to advise the owner on current human resource management concerns. The paper is broken into six sections.

The first part uses a model of HRM to explain the strategic importance of human resource at Lightline. The second part explains the benefits that can be derived by the company when they adopt an approach to HRM based on ’high performance working.’ Thirdly, the paper details how an effective approach to workforce or HR planning can be introduced in the organization and fourthly, the paper explain how a strategic approach to reward and recognition might help Lightline. Task five of the paper uses Fox’s typology to discuss the current approach to employee relations in the organization. Finally, section six of the paper explains how the concept of employer branding can help Lightline address the reputational issues that it might be experiencing. Human resource management is a critical function in today’s organization and should be given priority because it largely influences on employee performance and productivity.

Part 1: Strategic Importance of HRM

Human Resource Management helps to understand the best strategy that can be used to apply strategic business solutions (Zupan 2009, p.89). It is important to note that Human Resource Management (HRM) concentrates on hiring and recruiting resourceful employees and offering benefits, development, training, and compensation that they require to perform their best in an organization. Therefore, HRM aligns these responsibilities with goals of every department as well as the goals that the organization has overall.

In this case, the Havard Model of HRM is comprehensive because it comprises of important components of HRM. Some of the dimensions that are entailed in the model are the situational factors, stakeholders, HRM policy choices, long-term consequences, and interests. This means that the output flows directly into an organization that eventually reaches the stakeholders. The Harvard model implies that Lightline PLC as a business can be able to solve its past problems through focusing on personnel management. Hence, the general managers of the Lightline Company need to establish a viewpoint in terms of how they view the employees that take part in developing their enterprise. HRM practices and policies may attain such goals.

The Harvard model suggests that there are two main features in HRM and they include line managers that have to undertake more responsibility so that they can ensure alignment of personnel policies and competitive strategy and the personnel’s mission when it comes to setting policies that overlook implementation and development of personnel activities so that they can be mutually reinforced. Based on the viewpoint of the model, Lightline should realize that HRM incorporates recognition of the various interests of the stakeholders and this is important to the success of Lightline PLC.

The model acknowledges the significance of ’trade-offs’ implicitly or explicitly between the employees and owners interests. This means that it is important for Lightline PLC to consider the employees’ needs instead of demeaning them so that the company can gain more profits. Moreover, the model expands on the HRM concept to include the influence of the employee, the company itself, as well as their supervisory style. In this case, Lightline PLC applies the authoritarian style and this has made employees feel demoralized and unable to work their best for the company. The managerial strategy is also a focus of the model and this suggests that an organization has to combine socio-cultural logics with product-market logics. Therefore, the managerial strategy of the company should not be driven by environmental of situational determinism.

Businesses are regularly faced with making a complex choice between the extent to which their foreign subsidiaries adapt their overall HR practices and policies to suit local needs and blend as a local firm and to make subsidiaries adapt the parent company’s HR policies and practices (Machado and Davim 2014, p. 89). Concerning this context, there has been a serious debate in the International Management literature regarding the extent by which businesses manage and transfer their HRM policies and practices globally. Essentially, that is the need for local adaptation versus global standardization, which asks the fundamental question of whether businesses should adopt HR policies and practices or transfer these policies and practices from other successful companies. The Harvard model promotes the practice and theory of HRM especially because it emphasizes on HRM being the main drive of company management rather than functions of the personnel.

Lightline’s productivity will improve immensely through high performance working because it will develop, attract, and motivate a workforce that will have the ability to achieve the higher performance levels. Lightline will manage to become one of the best companies to work at, because it will keep its employees sufficiently motivated which will lead to high performance working. Moreover, employees will take on additional roles because of the increased workload and it may trigger organizational change that will involve the balance of power. High working performance will help the company keep its employees happy and motivated, ensuring that they are positively contributing towards meeting the organization objectives, and thus making the company efficient.

Part 2: Benefits of a ’High Performance Working’ HRM Approach

High performance working is mainly described by emphasis on empowered or engaged workforces. This mostly requires companies to adapt to decreased hierarchical structure in which teamwork is at the core of the company’s functions especially based on the increased communication and trust levels (Machado and Davim 2014, p.87). In order to support this assessment, there are different measures that were taken with regards to human resource practices which proved to enhance employee effectiveness as well as expect higher organizational performance levels. The measures entail high-commitment, high-performance, and high-involvement work systems. However, these systems may differ depending on the approach of improving employee effectiveness. This means that organizations may attain high performance through adopting practices that leverage and recognize the ability of the employees to create value. In addition, to establish maximum impact the practices may be increasingly effective if they are implemented gradually due to the mutual effects it may have on performance.

It has been proven that one of the benefits of high performance working is that it makes organizations increasingly effective and flexible. Furthermore, applying effective structures of HRM may improve high performance working which means that the company will be able to retain and attract quality employees (Ferligoj et al. 2014, p. 10). Moreover, high performance working has the ability to incorporate innovative capabilities that will enhance the ability of a firm to change and adapt. Hitherto, high performance working increases innovation through decentralizing management so that employees can have the chance to apply their knowledge and discover new ideas, engage in team practices that enables a chance to learn new information through the multi-disciplinary knowledge, and incorporating the knowledge into their work roles. High performance work systems may increase labor productivity in Lightline PLC as compared to other competitors. This is because the employees will possess the power to implement their decisions in relation to their performance; they will access information on the organization’s revenues and costs which will provide them with the necessary knowledge, development and training to perform their roles at work.

High performance working is majorly enabled through a combination of different HRM systems so that immense improvements can be realized (Price 2015). For instance, performance measurement systems assist underperforming firms to improve their performance. Therefore, through high performance working, Lightline will move its decision-making structures to involve the employees; this will ensure better firm performance due to the effectiveness of HRM in focusing on establishing improved production and service-delivery systems (Domsch & Hristozova 2013, p. 21). Companies that perform highly usually invest in sophisticated HRM practices that improve performance.

Furthermore, the attitudes of the employees are bound to improve because they will ensure that they take responsibility over enhancing the functions of the company. This means that they will take more initiative especially when the innovation levels increase within the company. The employees will have better cooperation especially with the top managers which may lead to better customer services. This is because high performance working initiates dialogues between the employees and managers as well as inter-departmental communication.

Part 3: Workforce/HR Planning

Collaborative practices are tools that enable people to effectively interact in a virtual environment such as discussion forums and messaging, video, and audio conferencing, business directories, web cams and knowledge portals. Collaboration technologies are deeply embedded in the workplace today, and tools that aid in the development of different forms of collaboration are rapidly evolving. As such, collaboration technologies have become highly significant because they make communication clearer, easier, more productive, and persuasive (Machado and Davim 2014, p.87). Furthermore, they minimize, for example, travel cost, and allow for various expertise and perspectives in a single discussion. Therefore, collaboration technology is more than just a way of digitizing old ways of doing tasks; it makes new ways of doing things possible.

In many businesses today, tasks are becoming less about the places people go to and about what they do. The most recent development in technology has helped to create a more distributed workforce, from the cloud to ubiquitous internet to a variety of new devices. This development has given the workforce plenty of flexibility to work wherever and whenever they want and can (Price 2015). By embracing these innovations, organizations can improve their efficiency and alter the way employees turn information into action. Moreover, collaboration technologies keep employees of an organization connected regardless of their distance or location, which not only improves workflow but also increases productivity across the entire organization (Martin 2013, p. 104).

Collaboration technologies functions by connecting the right talent in different locations, which enables businesses to attract and retain the talented employees by supporting new compute experience that accommodates mobility and the level of flexibility that the modern employees expects. In the past, collaborating meant scheduling face-to-face meeting in conference rooms and offices. However, this is no longer a common occurrence, since under the current global workplace workers are often dispersed making it harder to schedule face-to-face meetings and manage the subsequent travel expenses. Because of the workplace becoming less dependent on physical location, organizations are incorporating collaboration technologies to conduct their business.

Based on various researches focusing on organizational culture and employee engagement, Lightline PLC should resolve its problems by forming an engaging culture. The main aim of every organization is to ensure that it attains its set objectives and goals. Ensuring that managers always engage with the employees is essential to the success of the company. This may be achieved by enhancing the employee engagement within the company like hiring staff that are highly qualified and professional, improving issuing of rewards in terms of promotions and so on. Rewards are considered as the main cause of issues when it comes to establishing strong values in which employees have to follow (Pyman et al. 2014, p.56). In addition, Lightline PLC must amend its problems using an approach that starts with the establishment of data dictionary, identifying needed data needed to modify human resource procedures and programs, as well as finding the gaps in existing information. (Pyman et al. 2014, p. 102).

It has been noted that an individual’s actions and cognitions are led by the different limitation of culture as well as the availability of resources; this means that a lot of care has to be taken when attempting to resolve Lightline PLC’s issues. Behavior and attitude are part of the resources that are needed in this case. Hence, more resources must be availed so that the aspect of the workers is dealt with. An employee views resources as a process in which the organization becomes supportive of the efforts that they make. Additionally, availability of this important element encourages employee innovativeness that will eventually reflect positively to the company. Provision of resources ensures that the employee has the ability to discover that the efforts they make are appreciated and their special abilities are recognized. As a result, increased dedication will be realized from the workers that will increase the company’s productivity. Collaboration among employees is deeply embedded in the workplace today, and tools that aid in the development of different forms of collaboration are rapidly evolving. As such, collaboration has become highly significant because it makes communication clearer, easier, more productive, and persuasive (Machado and Davim 2014, p.87). It is important to note that employees that are increasingly involved in designing, conceiving, and implementing the workplace processes may become more engaged and this may help them to perform better.

Task 4: Strategic Approach to Reward and Recognition

A strategic approach to reward and recognition might be helpful at Lightline at this time because of a number of aspects that face the company. The admission by the company that it has been breaking the law by withholding employees’ wages is also a confirmation that there were serious health and safety breaches, treatment of workers as commodities, and the use of unreasonable and excessive powers to dismiss or discipline workers. A combination of these issues shows that the employees working in the company lack job satisfaction, employee motivation or commitment to achieve the organizational goals. The open revelation means that the employees will be de-motivated to work for the organization and many might result in looking for other organizations to work for. Moreover, competitors of the company will take advantage of the situation and try to lure the most skilled and experienced employees to leave Lightline. Therefore, failure to adopt a strategic approach to reward and recognition, the company will experience high employee turnover and it will be difficult to attract new employees because of the damaged reputation. However, a strategic approach to reward and recognition might be a step towards convincing employees that the company is committed towards a new start where it values and appreciates its workforce.

A strategic approach to reward and recognition is an essential tool that Lightline can use in engaging and retaining its workforce. The admission by the company is one of its lowest and critical moments in history and cannot afford to have the key employees leave the organization. Introduction of reward and recognition strategy in such a way that it connects employees with the objectives and goals of the organization will help in convincing them of the new approach to operations in the company. The future success of Lightline will depend on how it recognizes and rewards all its employees. Recognition and rewards are critical components that contribute towards employee satisfaction and motivation. Importantly will be to ensure that the approach is aligned to the company’s objectives and goals.

An effective strategic approach to reward and recognition should appreciate individual employees for their skills and talent, create a new environment which fosters good relationship between workers as well as workers and the management, recognize accomplishments with recognition that is timely, listen to the suggestion of employees, offer competitive compensations and finally share successes and achievements (Öztoprak, and Lundmark 2007). Lightline will benefit from creating a culture of recognition where varieties of rewards are available to match the preferences of employees and recognize not only because of quantity of effort but increased quality in performance. A careful execution of this strategy will enhance the company’s engagement levels and eventually improve the productivity levels in addition to reducing employee turnover. When developing the strategy on reward and recognition Lightline should do a benchmark from some of its competitors as this will help in coming up with an effective strategy. A good strategy will incorporate performance management, base salary, pay increment, promotions and performance rating, bonuses and other incentive programs, special recognition, feedback and communication as well as teamwork.

Nonetheless, the approach to be taken by Lightline will be influenced by numerous factors. First, the internal and external environment of the business will affect the strategic approach. The internal environment consists of the culture of the company and its business, people, and technology. On the other hand, the external environment includes features such as competitive pressure, changes in employment and demographics, and globalization. Apart from this, the company’s strategic management will influence the strategic approach on rewards and recognition. Another factor that will influence on the approach will be human capital management that is concerned with obtaining, making analysis and data reporting informing the company’s direction on how to add value to people. Other influencing factors will include those that affect the level of pay such as pay reviews and market rates. Finally, the strategic approach to be developed will be largely influenced by the budget that the management apportions to towards satisfying this particular need.

Task 5: Fox’s Typology

In the workplace, conflicts arise because of many reasons. A frame of reference has been referred to as an individual’s interpretations and perceptions of events which involve making assumptions about attitudes, reality towards the possibilities and conventions of the behavior that is right (Buchanan, and Andrzej 2010). Fox (1966) defined the different frames of reference according to his understanding. According to him, there was no wrong or right frame of reference but adoption of differing views. Fox (1966) frames of reference included unitarist frame, pluralist, interactionist, and radical frames. Using these frames by Fox, the current approach to employee relations at Lightline can be considered radical frame. Generally, using this approach conflict is seen as inevitable aspect of capitalism that is mainly driven by the inherent capital contradictions. The radical frame views the workplace as a having inherent bias towards conflict between the workers and the management. Managers are seen in their roles as being agents who own capital in addition to being the ones controlling the means of production in the organization. In this approach, managers seek to increase exploitation and productivity as well as driving down the wages and salaries of workers. This frame holds that the profit maximization logic involves managers having a relentless drive to have the production costs lowered in addition to controlling the process of manufacturing to the advantage of the company without considering the employees effort. Under this approach, there are no management techniques which can resolve the conflicts arising from the employment relations. Moreover, trade unions are seen as a natural response of employees because of the capital exploitation.

The current approach to employee relations at Lightline reflects the features of a radical frame of reference. Since the company’s establishment, it has expanded in terms of the products it deals with to the revenue earned to the number of employees it directly employees. However, the way the managers of the organization treated the employees proves the lack of good relations between them and the workers. The managers are more into having the organization increase its production units while increasingly exploiting the employees. The management heavily fines staff that arrived late, does not pay overtime hours and the management using unreasonable reasons and excessive powers dismisses many workers. It is clear that the managers of Lightline control the means of production. One way that they do this is through using all manner of tricks to drive the wages of the employees down. The company did not pay the minimum wage as required by the laws in the United Kingdom. The admission that it broke the law by withholding wages totaling to approximately £ 1m to the employees affected shows how the management of the company exploited their workforce by demanding more productivity with less wages. The current approach to employee relations at the company reflects the radical frame of reference as depicted by Fox.

The management practices mentioned in the case study have a negative impact on the psychological contract between the employer and the employee. Psychological contract refers to expectations that are unwritten governing the employment relationship different from the codified formal contract. The management practices for instance treating employees as commodities negatively affected the psychological contract and made the employer-employee relationship weak. Due to this, the employer and the employee had bad perceptions about each other. Largely, the breaches in the psychological contract damaged the relationship between the two parties, reduced productivity, high employee turnover, led to disengagement and sometimes it could lead to deviance in the workplace. A significant aspect that holds the psychological contract together is fairness where employees in the organization get the perception that the management treats them in a good manner without discrimination.

Task 6: Concept of Employer Branding

The revelation by Lightline that it had been unlawfully withholding wages for employees would come with harsh consequences one of them being damage to the company’s reputation. A continued decline in the company’s reputation will severely affect the already reducing sales and investors might reconsider pulling out of the company for fear that the company might not be able to recover from this incident. Nonetheless, the company can adopt the concept of employer branding to help it mend the already damaged reputation.

Employer branding is a term which is commonly used in describing the reputation of a firm as an employer as well as its value proposition to the workforce as opposed to the general value proposition to customers and corporate brand reputation (Barrow, and Mosley 2011). It has also been referred to as the process of promoting an organization as the desired employer of choice that is targeted by a specific group of individuals that a firm wants and needs to recruit and retain (Barrow, and Mosley 2011). The reputation of the company means that it cannot be able to attract the right kind of employees. Thus, the process of employer branding can help address the reputation issues by facilitating the ability of Lightline in attracting, recruitment, and retaining employees who are ideal to its future success. Through adopting this concept, the company will have an opportunity to secure achievement of its business plan. To become an employer brand, Lightline will need to invest in extensive research and development to ensure it understands the specific reputation issues that prospect employees have and through this they can design effective programs to get hold of the right talent. By becoming an employer brand, Lightline will get a good image and reputation on its capability to consistently engage, attract and retain talented employees and candidates as well as deliver a positive value proposition to its employees.

Employer branding will help the organization promote a healthy internal culture both in and out of the firm something whose reputation has already been damaged. Through employer brand management, the organization will expand the scope of the brand intervention to incorporate every component of the job experience, as well as the people management practices and processes that shape the perceptions of the prospective and existing employees. This will help in supporting the company’s external recruitment by attracting the right kind of talent that will help the company achieve its goals and the subsequent need to having an effective employee retention and engagement. Thus, being an employer Lightline will experience the problem of attracting skilled and experienced employees, but using the concept of employer branding this challenge will be resolved. Another issue associated with reputation and Lightline can rely on this concept to address it is an overall damage of its brands. The company faces not only a difficulty in attracting good employees but also customers will not prefer purchasing the brands of the company. However, using this concept, specifically, employer brand proposition, Lightline can be able to define what it wants to be associated with moving into the future as an employer. This will help in highlighting those attributes which will differentiate it with other employers (Budhwar, and Bhatnagar, 2008). Lightline will have an opportunity to develop a strong and unique psychological contract with its employees promoting increased motivation and satisfaction which will equate into improved productivity. Rectifying the internal reputation will provide an opportunity to mend the external reputation that has caused a decline in sales and revenue. Additionally, this concept on employer branding can help the organization from preventing high employee turnover. Many employees will seek to leave the organization and competitors will be glad to accept them. Through employee branding, Lightline can convince its employees of the efforts to have the organization strategies towards valuing their employees in terms of meeting their needs and wants as well as listening to their grievances.

Conclusion

In conclusion, currently Lightline faces an uphill task of ensuring that it rectifies the damaged reputation of it’s’ brand as an employer. The revelation of employee mistreatment and withholding wages would discourage any skilled and experienced employee from seeking an employment opportunity in the company. The company will expect to experience high employee turnover. However, adopting a concept such as employer branding can help the company turnaround its recent misfortunes and forge a new path to success. Having an effective published HRM strategy and HRM employee responsible for dealing with the issues of employees will be critical to the company’s future sustainability and improved productivity and performance. Many of the problems that the company faced such as poor wages and poor working conditions can be attributed to the lack of a functioning human resource department. HRM strategies will serve to be critical in the turnaround of the company. HRM personnel will help in structuring policies and strategies that will help the company’s management avoid scenarios where the rights of the employees are disregarded for the benefit of the company in terms of increased production. While Lightline faces a nightmare, it is also an opportunity to reconsider its actions towards employees and learn how to appreciate employees who push the agenda of the organization. A strong HRM approach will help the company incorporate the various recommendations provided in this paper.

References

Barrow, S., & Mosley, R. (2011). The employer brand: Bringing the best of brand management to people at work. John Wiley & Sons.

Budhwar, P. S., & Bhatnagar, J. (Eds.). (2008). The changing face of people management in India. Routledge.

Domsch, M., & Hristozova, E. (2013). Human resource management in consulting firms. Springer E-Books. Berlin, Springer.

Ferligoj, A., Prašnikar, J., & Jordan, V. (1997). Competitive advantage and human resource management in SMEs in a transitional economy. Small Business Economics, 9(6), 503-514.

Fox, A. (1966). Industrial Sociology and Industrial Relations, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. A. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Machado, C., & Davim, J. P. (2014). Work Organization and Human Resource Management. Cham, Springer International Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06376-8.

Martin, J. (2013). Human resource management. Los Angeles, SAGE. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10420157.

Öztoprak, T., & Lundmark, R. (2007). Reward & Recognition Strategies: A case study of GE Healthcare in Umeå. [Online] Available at: