SHRM Assignment: Strategic Human Resource Management Strategy For EasiClean Plc

Question

Task: This SHRM assignment provides you with the opportunity to further develop your knowledge and understanding of strategic human resource management and its critical importance to the achievement of organisational objectives.

You are a manager in the HR department of an established multi-national manufacturing company EasiClean plc., which produces soaps and detergents. You report directly to the Head of HRM. The organisation has been in existence for almost 100 years and has seen significant change during this period. This has been in terms of the product range, the investment in research and technology and the diversification to paper-based products such as tissues and baby wipes. In addition, the company has embraced the sustainability agenda and managed global expansion so that it now operates in 15 countries. It has also acquired subsidiaries, which focus on beauty products.

This is a challenging business environment with keen competition from organisations such as Procter and Gamble and Unilever. In his letter to shareholders at the time of the last annual report, the CEO made it clear that the company needs to do better and will have to streamline and strengthen the product portfolio. Productivity will need to improve but with a focus on managing costs and operating to budgetary constraints. There needs to be a general raising of performance to consistently deliver balanced growth.

The Human Resources Department will play a key role in delivering this efficiency agenda and a strategic human resource management strategy will need to be created. Your line manager has called a meeting of the managers in the department to discuss the implications for this strategy. In preparation for the meeting he has allocated certain tasks to individual managers.

Task 1
You need to produce 2 discussion papers for the meeting which:
1. analyse the effect of the structure and culture of organisations on human resource management strategies
2. assess the importance of financial resources in the creation of a human resource management strategy.

Extension activities:
To gain a distinction grade you must produce another discussion paper which:
• evaluates the factors affecting human resource management in a named organisation.
This can be an organisation of your choice; your colleagues will use it as an exemplar and it will facilitate discussion.

Task 2 (extension activity for merit)
The meeting was productive but one key omission was identified; namely the impact of government legislation on the future HR strategy. Produce a paper for circulation to colleagues which:

• analyses the impact of government legislation on human resource management strategies.

Task 3
It is clear that given the potential developments in the organisation, it is important to involve other staff at an early stage in the change and development process. You have been asked to work with more junior staff in HR, so they understand how the department will contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s strategic plans.

Produce materials for a training event which:
• analyse the different models of strategic human resource management
• explain how human resource management contributes to the achievement of the organisation’s strategic plans.

Extension activities:
To gain a merit grade you must also include:
• an evaluation of the different models of preparing strategic human resource management plans for an organisation such as EasiClean.

Task 4
You have decided that to support the workshop, you will produce a reference guide for staff in the department to use as the organisation’s human resource strategy is prepared and disseminated. Your line manager believes this is an excellent initiative. The reference guide must:

• assess the factors to be considered when preparing human resource management strategies
• evaluate the key elements of a human resource management strategy.

Extension activities:
To gain a merit grade you must produce a further section for the reference guide which:

• discusses how internal and external factors impact on the elements of human resources management strategies. To gain a distinction grade you must:
• evaluate the model used by an organisation in the development of its HR strategy
You may use an organisation of your choice as this will be used as a working example.

Task 5
Your line manager wishes to model the strategic human resource management strategy for EasiClean and plans to use exemplar materials. He has asked you to complete the following tasks:
• Develop a strategic human resource management strategy for an organisation of your choice.
• Explain how the proposed human resources management strategy will support achievement of the business objectives for this organisation.

Extension activities:
To gain a distinction grade you must also include in an assessment of:
• the potential barriers to the implementation of a human resource management strategy.

Answer

SHRM Assignment Task 1:
LO1 AC 1.1 Analyse the effect of organisational structure and culture on human resource management strategies in organisations

1. The organizational structure is crucial in every organization as it defines the path to be followed by the working community to relate with each other and coordinate their works to achieve the same goal (Gaspary, 2020). The organizational structure would be conducive to the Human Resource department to effectively intake the freshers who would be working in coordination to achieve the organization's goal. By providing a framework, the organizational structure would help the company understand its employees' objectives to work towards organizational goals. Also, the properly formulated structural framework would allure the new talents to be a part of this company and mitigate the works of the existing employees (Stverkova & Pohludka, 2018).

In addition to that, the organization's culture also plays a vital role in affecting the strategies of human resource management since it provides a frame

work to order the resources according to the priorities explained by the business strategy (Al-Shammari, 2018). It generally focuses on the common beliefs and values inside the organization. The organizational culture affects the HR departments' hiring decisions as it can identify the selective employees required and suitable for the company. The organizational culture would also help the HRM provide the necessary skills training rather than widening the learning area. This way, the organizational culture could help the human resource management implement its strategies.

LO1 AC 1.2 Assess the importance of financial resources in creating a human resource management strategy
2. Finance is pivotal in every aspect of the business. The human resource strategies generally comprise the recruitment process, educating and development process, reviewing the employee's contributions and performances, identifying compensations, and finally keeping the wheels rotating through succession planning (Lopez-Cabrales & Valle-Cabrera, 2020). It is inevitable and unpropitious for any company to truncate the costs in any of these processes, as they are crucial for the betterment of the organization. As discussed above, effective recruitment could be achieved with the help of a proper organizational structure framework. For drafting such frameworks, many professionals and resources are required, which would be attained with the help of finance. Also, the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) has helped the HR departments swiftly and easily collect and pass the data to the employees to hasten the recruitment process (Masum et al., 2018). Implementing information services and technologies would require lots of money, and this is where HR must seek the help of financial resources. Along with this, the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workforce is booming. AI is used to evaluate the employee's performances and contributions to completing a project. Also, it evaluates the fresh employees' experience and would help in estimating their work potential for achieving the company's goal (Robert et al., 2020). Surprisingly, the results of AI have proven to be much more effective than the ones formulated by manual evaluation. With little AI and related technologies, this would cost a lot. So, creating an effective evaluation process needs the help of financial resources.

Educating and developing requires lots of money since the organization has to call for an outside expert to teach. Along with this, HR must also focus on the money they need to pay for the resources to be provided to every employee taking part in the training to make the process productive. In such situations, financial resources are required.

1D1 Evaluate the factors affecting human resource management in a named organisation
3. The organization we are about to discuss here is Netflix. The primary strategy of the HR department of Netflix is to hire and keep only "A" people. No matter how valuable they were in the past, if they do not fit with the company's goals, they would be removed. It is the main reason why even after the 9/11 attacks and the dot-com bubble burst, Netflix was fine with letting go third of its employees and still was strong enough to compete with the other market products. The primary thing affecting the human resource management strategy would be the thought in employees that there is a lack of job security. However, the strategy might be helpful for the organization to develop. The employees would not feel safe working with the organization (Ziegler, 2021). So, this might curtail the number of fresh people opting for the job. The next one is job circulation. Removing the redundant employee would make that position vacant. It would increase the pressure on Human Resources to replace someone efficient with the required talents to fit that vacant position. It could affect the integration within the working community, which would again be the responsibility of Human Resource Management to handle. So, our company Netflix would need a strategy to provide the employees' security. We should be careful in providing our employees some safety and assurance in working with our company since this would wax their loyalty and credibility to the organization (Hur & Perry, 2020). It would help us make them more productive, confident, and responsible rather than constantly fearing the removal process. This way, even the conflicts have risen inside the working community with the delineation of “A” players and “B” players (Hussain, 2020).

Task 2:
1M1 Analyse the impact of government legislation on human resource management strategies
Just like financial resources and the organization, the government legislation and the company’s success are inseparable. The company complies with the rules and regulations of the government to carry out the smooth path for success (Hoffman, 2018). The first one government is careful every company must comply with the regulations against the employee’s discrimination. The communities such as Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) and the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be monitoring whether the company provides equal opportunity for all the employees irrespective of their race or color, their national origin, gender, language, and religion (Barrett, 2019). Our company has branches 15 other countries since our global expansion strategies executed in past years. There is growing pressure for our company to comprehend the local and national rules and regulations of the particular country's government and act accordingly. For instance, countries like Switzerland and Japan provide the lowest chances of losing jobs since the rules provide mandatory job security for most employees (Imdorf et al., 2017).

Similarly, countries like Canada offer triple-protected jobs to their employees (Watson & Osberg, 2018). In these regions, the strategies used by Netflix would be ineffective and unpropitious. This might even cause various troubles and lawsuits from the employees' side. So, the best way is to go by the rules and regulations of the government. Not following the equality rules will make the HR department face legitimate lawsuits that could cost a lot for the company. So, in the recruitment process, employee evaluation, and other Human Resource Management strategies, the company must practice with equal grounds, no bias, and discrimination.

The second will be providing workplace safety for the employees. Since our company is primarily focused on producing chemical products, it would be required to provide some safety measures to our employees irrespective of their job title and position. It is the responsibility of Human Resource Management to monitor whether the safety of all the employees is provided. This way, the recruitment process could be mitigated, and confidence that the organization they are about to work in really cares about them. It will help to engender the bond between the company and the employee that could be propitious in achieving the organization's goals (Larijani, 2018).

Task 3:
LO2 AC 2.1 Analyse different models of strategic human resource management
There are four important Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) models available, and they are:

• Organizational Strategic Human Resource Management content models.
• Functional Strategic Human Resource Management Content models.
• Organizational Strategic Human Resource Management process models.
• Functional Strategic Human Resource Management process models.

Firstly, the organizational Strategic Human Resource Management content models include the models formulated by Labelle and Wils. Labelle’s model identifies the company’s strategy as the primary determining factor for the organizational Human Resource strategy's contents. Labelle's model also determined the correlation between the company strategies and the Human Resource strategies, along with their effects due to the influence of both external and internal environmental factors. Even though Labelle's model identified different types of Human Resource Management practices and objectives to place the company strategies, the model was created to consider only 11 companies. Wils also identified the correlation between the contents of the company strategy and organizational Human Resource strategy; however, this model curbed its research within a single company with 21 business units.

Secondly, the functional Strategic Human Resource Management content models comprise of multiple models in it such as Baird and Meshoulam’s model, Miles and Snow model, Smith’s model, and Stybel’s model. Next would be the Organizational Strategic Human Resource Management process, models. The primary reason for their failure was bypassing the comprehensive view of correlating the functions of Human Resource Management to either strategic or organizational conditions. The final one is functional Strategic Human Resource Management process models, such as Odiorne’s model. This model helps identify how personnel functions would help determine their strategies. Odiorne classified the process of evaluation of Human resources, namely "stars," "Problem children," "cash cows," and "dogs." Since this model is short-term, it would be unsuccessful for future-oriented business processes.

LO2 AC2.2 Explain how human resource management contributes to the achievement of strategic plans
Since Human Capital is the primary aspect in the strategic planning of any organization and effective human capital is the outcome of effective Human Resource Management (Hamadamin & Atan, 2019). The first way to improve the organization's strategic planning would be by educating and training the employees inside the organization. HR requires a trained person to mitigate implementing new strategies to the organization. For this implementation, employees need to be trained to get accompanied with the new strategies and would consequently make the strategies effective (Nagy et al., 2018). The HR would first determine the employees' abilities, and accordingly, the training in the form of lectures or workshops must be conducted. It is also the role of HR to evaluate and monitor the knowledge and expertise of the cohorts of employees before and after the training sessions to check whether the employees are ready to assess the new strategies.

In addition to that, monitoring the external factors such as the economy, changes in technology, issues related to politics, and prevailing trends in the HRM people's crucial role. It is the responsibility of the HRM people to check for the trends and developments in the products and services of P&G and Unilever, as they are in apex position. With the help of reverse engineering, the effectiveness of these companies' products could be identified along with the methods to uniquely incorporate such products in the line of our company products (Simolowo & Sulola, 2018). It also helps understand their working and organizational frameworks (Fyrbiak et al., 2017). The HR must incorporate effective reverse engineers to achieve this and help the organization attain its objectives in the strategic plans. Finally, recruiting new talents would help engender new ideas for growth and development. Strategic planning usually includes ensuring the succession plans are in effect, so the position of the employees after retirement or any tragic accidents would not affect the process of achievement and should not prolongate the time to attain the objectives. In such cases, HR helps readily maintain the next suitable candidate for that position (Ballaro, 2017).

2M1 Evaluate different models of preparing strategic human resource management plans for an organisation such as EasiClean
The best model for preparing SHRM plans for companies such as EasiClean plc. It would be Odiorne’s model since it helps the organization delineate the entire working force community into four categories. It would help the organization create the plan according to the existence of the employees. Since EasiClean plc. is a global company, this segregation would help the company easily focus on its employees' health.

Task 4:
LO3 AC 3.1 Assess the factors to be considered when preparing human resource management strategies
Every HRM activity begins with human resource planning, as it could provide effective eyesight for the company to know and comprehend what to work on next. This way, the company's priorities would be aligned constructively (Malik, 2018). SO, some key factors affect this human resource planning and must require more concentration on them to create an effective plan. These factors include:

• Employment opportunity – HR planning is dramatically dependent on the employment opportunities available in the country (Chen, 2021). Taking an example such as EasiClean plc. it has branches in 15 other countries, then the HR plans engendered in one country would be abortive.
• Changes in technology – Since the world is booming with new technologies every day, the work changes inside the organization. So, the HR plan must include ways to either teach the existing employees about incorporating new technologies or methods to hire new and skilled employees (Moghe, 2020).
• Changes in the organization – As with our company, we have diversified from producing cleaning products to paper-based products. The change would have required many new minds to produce such products effectively. Similarly, future changes and diversification would require similar considerations before creating a plan to make the diversification or changing process fruitful.
• Economic factors – Both internal and external economy plays a vital role in creating the plan. The plan must meticulously consider the availability of the cash inside the organization and the financial resources required for providing salaries, training, and other resources along with the external factors such as the inflation rates of the country, the existing economic level of the customers, and so (Athamneh, 2018).
• Social factors – It is important for the plans to be created considering the various social groups and communities present in the company. The plan must be implemented to everyone equally.
• Legitimate factors – The plans must consider the Employment law before formulating it into effect.
• Environmental factors – This includes considering the safety of employees coming to the workplace and working inside the workplace.
• Labor market – Finally, the labor market affects the planning process, as with ineffective labor in the market, the company could hardly find a way to develop. So, the plans must consider creating more skilled laborers available in the market. Also, overestimating the effectiveness of the branch in a certain country where the labor market is inadequate would create some detrimental effects on our company.

So, the plans must consider all these factors before being finally drafted and executed.
LO3 AC 3.2 Evaluate the key elements of a human resource management strategy.
The key elements of HRM include performance management, retention and selection process of the employees, talent planning, values and culture, engagement of the employees, rewards, and benefits, development and learning, organization design, people and performance, and finally, business goals. These are the elements that would make Human Resource Management an effective one. Two factors affect the elements of human resource management strategies – internal and external. The internal influences include corporate objectives (such as minimization of costs of the product), operational strategies (executing new technology or procedure that could affect the operations of the working community), marketing strategies (involves processes such as entering into new markets or satisfying new set of customers), and financial strategies (reducing the cost by educating new methods to manufacture). Similarly, the external influences include market changes, changes in the economy, new developments of technology, social changes, and alterations in the political and legalities.

3D1 Evaluate the model used by an organisation (Apple) in the development of its HR strategy
The model used by Apple in developing its HR strategy would be to make its employees innovative and creative (Vatousios, 2021). Apple is careful in providing proper training for all the employees before entering the company. It also monitors whether the employees are involved in the self-training exercises to burgeon the tolls of novelty inside their organization. Apple selects people who have innovative thinking skills and are willing to commit themselves to its success. A brainstorming session is always mandatory inside the premises of Apple's building to share and bring out the innovative ideas inside the employees. Along with this, the company's incentives and "Apple Fellow Program" stimulate the employees to work further. So, the primary goal of Apple’s HR would be to evaluate and select proper and suitable employees with various methods.

SHRM Assignment Task 5:
LO4 AC4.1 Develop a strategic human resource management strategy for an organisation of your choice.
The organization I have chosen would be Netflix again. First of all, in creating a strategy, it is essential to understand the future needs of HR in Netflix. The future HR needs of Netflix include: to develop novel technologies or to comprehend the existing technologies, and also to deal with the backlog HR elements as observed, say due to the office culture, perks and benefits, and finally professional development (Comparably, 2021).

Netflix Human Resource Strategies
• Employment opportunity – Netflix set up many offices globally with its headquarters in California. As part of its strategy to be cost effective, HR planning will leverage on the employment opportunities available in the countries to source appropriate talents, and grow them into highly productive workforce.
• Changes in technology – Netflix, as a technology and entertainment giant will have to embrace new technologies or to grow R&D further annually for products innovation, and servicing offering, there’s a lot work changes inside the organization. So, the HR plan will strategically involve either to have a powerful training program to teach the existing employees about incorporating new technologies or a robust talent acquisition method to hire new and skilled employees (Moghe, 2020).
• Changes in the organization – The evolving nature of business changes would have required a low attrition rate of high performing talents that are capable to handle transformations, whether is to produce next generation streaming technologies, to deploy award winning media products effectively or to establish sophisticated marketing/subscription plans that caters to local market demands. Netflix’s HR Policy would be revamped with the attractive “retention planning”. Elements such as being transparent with performance management, and selection process of the employees for promotion, clear employees’ values and culture, robust engagement of the employees, attractive rewards, and benefits, robust development and learning plans, and excellent people and performance management, etc. In addition, being agile in Human Resource management plans to meet changes and diversification would require similar considerations.
• Economic factors –Netflix, having operated globally will face internal and external economy issues. The HR management plan will consider the internal business growth, and financial means such as availability of the financial resources required for providing salaries, bonuses, training, and other performance-based compensations along with the external factors such as the salary and consumption tax (GST), economy conditions, and the respective employment salaries markets.
• Social and labor market – Netflix’S HR plans will consider the equal social groups and communities present in the company. Similarly, to labor market, to follow fair hiring process in accordance to local labor laws and regulations. For example, to limit bringing in foreign talents into the countries. LOC4 AC 4.2 Explain how the proposed human resources management strategy will support achievement of the business objectives for this organisation. By considering the future in mind, the Netflix’s Human resource strategies will put in place the best talents, and management to help achieve the Netflix’s business objective such as to always stay ahead of competitors in the market with its best talents, and state-of-the-art media products and technologies from its R&D team. The present competitive advantage Netflix has over other numerous online streaming platforms like Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video, will not only keep Netflix unique from other prevailing companies, but its vision in innovation and novelty in the industry. The diversity, leadership, and CEO rating of Netflix will also noticeably trend up, and helps to power the Netflix into role model case studies. 4D1 Assess the potential barriers to the implementation of a human resource management strategy The present predicament due to pandemics has opened a door for the growth of Netflix market share, and so does it have opened for many other companies. So, the market is having a talent war. Netflix will face unprecedented challenge to acquire talents to meet its growth, and make its HR management strategies work.

And also, Netflix culture of the removal of employees considered "B" players would be harmful to the company in the long term (Vatousiois, & Happonen, 2021). Since the present employing opportunity is much more reliable on comfort and security, this will worsen present situation for the recruitment and also to drive up the attrition rate. The competitors will continue to poach existing talents from Netflix alongside providing security. In addition, the impediment Netflix faces will be the disintegration of existing successful operational strategies. It is one of the major barriers to implementing this strategy. However, job security seems a viable solution compared to rigorous job circulation (Lu et al., 2017).