Human Resource – Escape to the Wild

FINDINGS 1. 4 HR Activities Employee Relations When good employee relations are in place they can help to maintain a happy and motivated workforce. This function will be responsible for putting company policies and procedures in place regarding grievance/discipline, recruitment and selection, employee welfare, training and development, absence management/reporting and negotiating terms and conditions. Doing this will minimise conflict, ensure staff are treated fairly and creates rules that everyone is aware of. At Escape to the Wild there are no policies and procedures in place, there are inconsistencies in terms and conditions, inconsistencies in matters relating to recruitment and selection practises and staff are also overworked. Putting good employee relations in place will minimise/avoid all of these problems within the company. Recruitment and Selection Having a proficient recruitment and selection function within a company can help to select the right people for the job. To implement this the company should look to analyse what jobs need to be filled, what the job description should be, what qualifications the candidates should posses and an idea of the characteristics of the individual. Once this has been decided then the search for staff can begin, this can be done by looking to fill the position internally, use a recruitment agency or by advertising the position. Once all successful applicants have been chosen then appointments should be scheduled for interview and possible aptitude testing. A candidate will then be selected and any references or qualifications should be checked. Letters should be sent out to unsuccessful candidates an offer of employment letter to the successful candidate. Any qualifications and references should also be checked. At Escape to the Wild there are no recruitment and selection processes in place and this has caused problems as there is not enough staff, managers are currently responsible for recruitment so taking up time that could be spent on doing their job and by putting a proper recruitment and selection function in place it will alleviate this problem. Training and Development By making sure employees are properly trained and developed means a company will continue to thrive and make profits. Properly trained staff will improve their attitude and knowledge and help staff meet and perform given tasks properly, by doing this it will help motivate them to undertake higher-grade tasks. When putting this into place the company should be looking at what skills an employee already has, what skills they will require in the future and how to implement the training i. e. if it can be carried out by someone already proficient in the task within the company or if the training will have to be outsourced. An evaluation of the training will have to be done to see if it has been cost effective and whether the training possibly needs modifying. At Escape to the Wild they are having problems with the training being mostly ad hoc which means staff are leaving the company. If a proper training and development system was in place then this would minimise this. Pay and Reward To help motivate and retain good staff an appropriate pay and reward structure should be in place. Rewards should be meaningful and vary with the performance. To implement this a pay structure should be set up against job roles, administration of salaries be done, employee benefits should be implemented i. e. company canteen, creche facilities, free health care. Short-term and long-term incentives should be in place i. e. performance related pay rises each year, extra holidays after so many years service, option to join company pension scheme after so many years. At Escape to the Wild salary administration is outsourced, the Finance Director is having to deal with implementing salary increases. Implementing this function will stop these problems. 2. Diagram of recommended HR Department . Roles of HR Department HR Director The role of the Human Resource Director guides and manages the overall provision of HR services. The HR department and staff members are advocates for both the company and the people who work in the company and the HR Director will make sure this is being achieved. They will implement policies and programs for the whole c ompany, be responsible for performance management and improvement systems, organisational planning and development, policy development and documentation, employee relations, compensation and benefits administration, employee safety, welfare and health. The HR Director will report to the Board of Directors. Recruitment & Selection Officer The Recruitment and Selection Officer is responsible for delivering all operations of recruiting throughout the company. The need to keep up-to-date with recruitment practises and are responsible for making sure the company employ the best possible candidates. Their objectives should be to develop and execute recruitment plans, implement new recruiting ideas, create job descriptions, construct and implement good recruiting and interviewing techniques, fill positions efficiently, keep up-to-date with managers regarding recruitment effectiveness. They will also look to make sure proper induction procedures are in place for when new recruits join the company. They will report to the HR Director. Administrator to the Recruitment & Selection Officer They will maintain records of all applicant and interviewing information. Will assist in reference checking, writing letters of rejection, prepare and send offers of employment, deal with enquiries, keep up-to-date with media advertising costs and perform other duties as required. They will report to the Recruitment & Selection Officer. Training & Development Officer The Training & Development Officer will be responsible for conducting and supervising training and development programs for employees. They will look to seek measures in which to improve employee skills and look to prepare them for jobs within the company requiring greater skill, possibly for people that may be retiring. They will liaise with Line Managers to see what levels of skills employees already have and agree what they are looking to achieve from them. If technological changes are taking place then they will need to make sure employees get the proper training for any new programs/systems. They will need to evaluate training effectiveness and implement any changes if the outcome has not been affective. They are reportable to the HR Director Generalist Officer The Human Resource Generalist Officer manages the day-to-day operations of the HR Team. They will deal with the administration of policies, procedures and programs. They assist in advising managers about any Human Resource issues. They will be concerned with the Health & Safety of the workforce and the development of the workforce. This role will be responsible for staff records and any discipline and grievance issues. They will prepare and analyse reports that are necessary to carry out the functions of the department and company, prepare reports for management and they will assist in the implementation of the performance management system (PDP’s). They will report to the HR Director. Administrator for Generalist Officer and Training & Development Officer They will assist the Generalist Officer in all administration duties involved in their position. If any policies require changing, then once implemented they will have new documents printed for distribution. Keeping up-to-date administration of employee records will be essential. They will report to the Generalist Officer. The Administrator will be responsible for organisation of training, contacting outsourced companies for times, dates, costing information and then book as required. They will need to inform employees of any training taking place and deal with follow-up paperwork getting employees to evaluate what they learnt from the course to give to the Training & Development Officer. If internal training is being carried out then they will look to find out availability of space where training can be carried out and again book relevant dates, times. They will be responsible for making sure paperwork for any employee training is kept up-to-date in employee files. They are reportable to the Training & Development Officer. 4. Line Managers responsibilities The Human Resource responsibilities that will be carried out by the Line Managers will be to conduct Performance Development Plan/Appraisal interviews with the staff in their team. The managers have direct contact with their team so will know them better and it also lets the employee feel more at ease. They will evaluate the team in terms of what training needs they require and discuss with the Training & Development Officer, again as they work with their team on a day-to-day basis they have a better knowledge of what their team requires. They will approve holidays and submit paperwork to the Generalist Administrator to keep staff records up-to-date, along with any absenteeism, this means they can control when staff will be off so that there is no loss of productivity due to too many people being off at the same time. They will hold regular meetings with their team regarding any issues/concerns they may have and have regular meetings with all HR Advisors to report any issues/concerns. This helps to maintain good communication between employees and the company. 5. The Psychological Contract In any company there is a Psychological Contract, this is the mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between the employer and the employee. It is different from the formal written contract which only identifies mutual duties and responsibilities in a generalized form. Implementing a good psychological contract by introducing a HR Team within Escape to the Wild will be of benefit to the employees as at the moment there is lack of trust within the company as jobs like training and development are not being carried out correctly, there is not enough staff so employees are overworked and not being appropriately compensated. There are no clear policies and procedures so staff don’t know what they are supposed to be doing and are feeling let down. Implementing good practises and communication will help motivate them.