The human resource management systems in organisations are responsible for managing employee related issues such as training and development, performance and reward management, employee relations, health and safety policies, etc. The line managers support human resource management (HRM) system in design and development of HR policies. This is an essay analysing the HRM in UK organisations and a critical analysis of roles of line manager and HR manager in four of the activities of HRM. Introduction Business organisations execute their strategic objectives through their employees.
The success of a company in implementing business strategies and meeting the objectives depends on the employee throughput. So it is important to have a human resource management system that values employee satisfaction without compensating on business strategies. According to Armstrong1, human resource management is a strategic approach to managing all employee related issues. Lado and Wilson (1994)2 describe HRM as “a set of distinct but interrelated activities, functions and processes that are directed at attracting, developing and maintaining (or disposing of) a firm’s human resources”.
Objective I have chosen IT industry to carry out four of the HRM activities analysis and Accenture5 as an example organisation to compare and contrast roles and activities of line manager and human resource manager in those activities. Industry – Information Technology Organisation – Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company with more than 204,000 employees in more than 120 countries. The company generated net revenue of US$21. 58 billion in 2009 fiscal year.
Business organisations adopt various management systems in line with their area of operations to increase their market share. So it is important to have in depth knowledge about the company’s internal factors and the external environment that affect management decisions. Context The PEST analysis of IT industry and SWOT analysis of Accenture is shown in Appendix A. The PEST analysis shows the implications of external factors in IT industry. It is apparent from the PEST analysis that IT industry is stable and secure with a healthy score of +38.
In regard to the SWOT analysis of Accenture, over all score of (+12) means Accenture is in a good position but can be improved in various areas to beat the competition arising in the future mainly in improving employee relations. In Fortune magazine’s best companies to work for list Accenture climbed up to 84 in 2010 from 97 in 2009 showing a changed employee satisfaction from Accenture workforce. Activity 1-Reward Management Reward management adopts and maintains a reward strategy system to reward people for their services fairly and consistently in accordance with the organisation’s policies.
It is apparent in the PEST analysis that it is important to follow the market trend and standards in rewarding employees to motivate and making them feel valued. Some of the key concepts in reward management are reward procedures, job evaluation, competence, market rate and employee benefit. The human capital theory in reward management explains that the skills of employees generate a productive capital for the organization making it important to invest in human capital. The return on human capital investment should be fair on both employees and employers.
The reward management model by Armstrong in Appendix B shows the reward system that consists of numerous elements and their relationships in deriving the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for employees. The total reward takes into account both transactional (tangible) and relational (intangible) benefits from rewards. The table in Appendix a shows the elements that form the total reward system. Reward strategy is a long term approach in developing and managing reward policies. The human resource management develops reward strategies which are based on employee performance and market trends.
The line manager gives inputs from employees and trade unions to the HRM in developing the reward strategy. The reward strategy cab be either specific or an outline of the direction to follow to achieve a proper balance between financial and non financial rewards. A replacement of the existing system or the introduction of a new reward system can be initiated through reward strategies. The reward system should take employee suggestions to determine reward guiding principles.
