People management issues and proactive management by HR department
The report gives an overview on the introduction of human resource for a company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). GTR is the busiest rail operator of UK that holds accountability of around 35% for passenger related rail journeys. The report consists of four tasks. The first task focuses on the functions of human resource (HR) in contemporary business ambience. The second task however gives an overview of the HR planning process in an abusive environment that helps in the effective management of issues related to the staffs in the present environment. Task 3 focuses on effective HR practice and management in an organization along with discussion on one developmental activity that the human resource department of GTR can implement within for effective improvement of the employee performance. Task 4 is a discussion on the influence of the employee legislation on the HR practices of organizations. In this section, there is discussion on the industry relevant employee legislation on GTR stance about current strike within the areas of payment and wages and contracted work times.
Discussion on How HR Department can Proactively Manage People Issues in GTR
The contemporary business world is influencing organizations to survive in dynamic market environment. This has necessitated the need for a human resource management for effectively dealing with the business world scenario. Human resource thus, acts as a powerful tool in determining organizational success (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013).
Thus, human resource department plays an instrumental role in ensuring compliance with labor law, maintaining employee records, hiring and training of employees, ensuring compensation, relational assistance and in handling performance issues (Bratton and Gold 2012). These functions are important because without them a company would not be able to meet the staff needs.
There is an increasing tension in Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) between the employees and the operators. However, two of the issues leading to tension include increasing the physical employee strength and issues related to the contracted times of employment. These issues can be resolved with proactive management of the HR department. For increasing the employee strength, the human resource department of GTR needs proactive undertaking of hiring programs through employee interview and advertisements for open positions. While hiring, the HR should also make ensure they do so in compliance with the labor laws that will enable them to specify the working hours, break times and the contract times of the employment. This will help in avoiding tensions related to the contract times of employment. The HR also has upper hand in managing employee relations through resolving of disputes. Therefore, the HR department in GTR can proactively manage issues of people by adopting the following functions (Aswathappa 2013).
One of the primary duties of human resource (HR) in GTR would be to ensure that the operation of the business takes place in compliance with labor laws (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). This includes the number of breaks allotted to the employees based on the working hours, mentioning the number of work hours and the ideal age for recruitment, the employee contract time.
Successful implementation of sustainable HR planning process
Training and recruitment of the new employees is one of the primary responsibilities of HR department in GTR. This will include hiring and interviewing of employees, advertising for open positions and ensuring dedicated hours for recruitment and training of the employees (Flamholtz 2012). Sometimes the HR department must undertake the responsibility of publishing the training materials that details the aspects of the job.
The human resource department of GTR can proactively act through the maintenance of business records (Bratton and Gold 2012). This should include records related to income, expenses, summary of business transaction and purchases. The HR should also maintain records on individual tax forms, insurance records, business license and inventory statistics.
The payroll dispensation also falls under one of the proactive responsibilities of human resource department at GTR. The human resource must also hold the responsibility of ensuring health care benefits to the employees.
The HR at GTR must hold the responsibility for maintenance of employee relations. This will enable the HR in playing a proactive role in resolving a misunderstanding or dispute between the managers and the employees.
The human resource at GTR must play a key role in setting up the performance improvement plans in an organization. These plans must be available in the form of written proposals designed for aiding the struggling employees for improving their present situation.
Implementing Sustainable HR Planning for Management of Current Staffing Related Issues
Sustainable practices did not form a part of the core business strategy until recently. The increasing societal and customer demands for social, economic and environmental responsibility have brought in issues of sustainability to the forefront (Fox and Cowan 2015). The present scenario is such that there are an increasing number of organizations that identifies sustainable HR planning to play a key role for gaining competitive advantage. Sustainable HR planning helps in acknowledging the reputation and brand values, ensuring stakeholder and public trust, attract more capital, increase competitiveness, drive innovation, retain and attract talent and at the same time drive the company towards long term profitability.
The HR department ensures the success of an organization through implementation of sustainable business planning that also helps in dealing with any issues related to present staffing (McGregor and Simon 2012). Therefore, in order to manage the current issues related staffing, the HR department of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) needs to follow the following steps.
In order to create a sustainable mission and vision, the human resource department of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) must ensure that the sustainable business practices are espoused in the philosophy and ethos of the company (Ehnert and Harry 2012). Therefore, the company needs to define its mission and vision keeping in mind the sustainable business practices.
The HR department must ensure that GTR aligns the leadership of the company for driving the sustainability agenda. This is because leadership is responsible for the creation of strategy and sustainability agenda. Leaders are important as they will act as role models for other employees and thereby play a vital role in setting the right direction for GTR (11). Moreover, the creation of a pipeline of leadership must get aligned with the philosophy of sustainability that helps in carrying forward the mission and vision in future.
Developmental activity for employee performance improvement
The HR department must make sure that there should be appropriate structural changes in GTR for the creation of coordination and strong governance mechanisms for ensuring that there is establishment of clear accountability and adequate power for driving the agenda for sustainability (Buller and McEvoy 2012). The HR department of GTR must also make sure that there is a need for identification of goals and objectives, tracking the progress and reporting outcomes for ensuring that the agenda for sustainability maintained.
The HR department plays a critical role in driving the sustainable business practice at every level thereby leading to the creation of sustainable human resource processes and systems. In spite of the fact, the HR department fails to win the trust of business as in the case of GTR (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016). Therefore, the HR professionals must create sustainable HR process and systems and at the same time develop functional capabilities so as to resolve issues and drive the company towards sustainability.
The HR department of GTR must not only try to resolve the staff related issues but also at the same time motivate employees (Gatewood, Field and Barrick 2015). This is important because the sustainability agenda is realized only when the company is able to retain and attract taken for the fulfillment of the organizational targets and goals in addition to carrying the agenda forward.
The HR department at GTR must also make sure that there is a need for constant ability for learning, adapting and managing changes. Therefore, through sustainable planning process, the HR department must share and replicate the best practices of other organizations so that GTR is not only able to resolve the staff issues but also learn and improve the methods of organizational mindset (Kavanagh and Johnson 2017). Therefore, mechanisms for effective change management and continuous learning implemented within an organization.
One Developmental Activity of HR department for Improving Employee Performance
The underperformance of even a single employee can hinder the company’s potential towards its growth. Therefore, the HR department of GTR should play a crucial role in the identification and correction of the underperformance of the employees and implement ways for its improvement (Kramar 2014). Thus, the developmental activities that HR department of an organization can undertake for improving the performance of the employees are as follows:
The first and foremost step that the HR department should undertake is the identification of the reason for underperformance that might be due to the lack of proper resources or inadequate training. The HR department should also identify that whether there is any outside influences acting as an influence (Kehoe and Wright 2013). The HR department should also make sure that there exists no conflict amongst the employees regarding the goals of the company. They should identify the reasons for loss of motivation in fulfilling company’s mission and thereby adopt means for fixing them.
The HR department should make sure that they communicate the messages of underperformance and allow the underperforming employees in articulating the barriers leading to such performance. Improvement in performance is only possible when there is an understanding between the employee and the manager regarding where they actually are, where they actually need to be and the ways meant for reaching there(Haines. and St-Onge, 2012). The HR department should ensure that communication between employees and managers should involve information related to deadlines, expectations, progress and resources. This helps in opening up opportunities for collaboration and improvement in performance.
Significance of industry-relevant employment legislation on GTR stance
It is also important for the HR department to review the work environment. The HR professionals should make sure that the work environment should be such where their superiors do not intimate employees. Therefore, the organization should have a work culture where employees not only can voice their opinion but also reinforce the opinions heard. Ensuring a happy and healthy work environment will help in fostering better results. When the employees realize that their hard work is recognized, they will automatically concentrate and work harder.
The HR department should ensure providing proper training to all the new employees. The employees not only guided on what they need to do but also at the same time guided about the most efficient ways of achieving it. Thus, once the process of getting a job done becomes a routine, employees will not only be able to contribute unique ideas but at the same time becomes effective in doing things. The HR department should also make sure that training should be an ongoing process where employees are able to develop their skills continuously and improve their performance.
Thus, in order to improve the performance of the employees, the HR department must make work enjoyable for the employees. Therefore, a particular workday should not only be broken into leisurely strolls, fresh air and small breaks. The HR should also encourage activities undertaking fun activities between works and also ensure providing bonuses and extra vacation time. This also helps in improving the performance levels of the employees.
However, for boosting up the employee morale and contribution, the HR department must recognize the individual accomplishments and contributions. This will help the employees become more creative and express their eagerness towards work.
There has been at undergoing tension between the operator and employee population of GoviaThameslink Railway (GTR) due to various issues linked to pay, number of times of contract employment and the enhancing the number of staffs required for operational train. The company undergoing prolonged disputed regarding the fact that some drivers stopped working overtime and the replacement of the conductors with on board supervisors (Jiang et.al 2012). This has resulted in employee unrest thereby leading to their underperformance. The HR department at GTR can however overcome this by creating a positive working environment within the organization where employees will not only be motivated to work but they will enjoy certain benefits.
Industry Relevant Employment Legislation on GTR Stance within:
The employer at GTR must choose a pay structure for their employee that is higher than National Minimum Wage that also requires a mention in the employment contract. However, the mode of payment is up to the employer, as the law does not mention the mode in which the employees receive payment. Nevertheless, the contract must include how often the wages paid to the employees (Linde Leonard, Stanley and Doucouliagos 2014). The employer however needs to make a payment that is higher than the National Minimum Wage otherwise; it becomes difficult to decide on wages.
The HR in GTR should also ensure that the employees receive itemized pay slip that should have the details of the gross and net salary amount, mention the purpose of deductions and the amount of money deducted. Further, the pay slip should also have complete details of any split wages and the mode of payment.
The HR department should make sure that any kind of deductions not permitted by law must have the approval of the employees first. Although there are certain deductions mentioned in the employee contract, however employees must receive a written explanation about any further deductions.
There should be legislations on the HR practices that would ensure that that the employees still paid even when they are sick and are on paternity leave. The employees should also be eligible for some paid holidays over the year (Storey 2016). According to the law, there are accommodation offset provided to the employees. This means that if the employees provided accommodation then there will be an offset of £5.35 per day and £37.45 per week.
Further, the HR department of GTR must pay bonuses for overtime work. This will encourage workers to not only enhance their performance but also work overtime. These bonuses can be in the form of either short-term bonus or long-term bonus. The short-term schemes driven by incentives offered through the bonus payments or commission. Since these include varying amount of incentive designed for enhancing the performance of the staffs. However, through the long-term scheme offer other reward options to the employees in the form of share so that they are encouraged in meeting the goals of the company.
According to the Employment Rights Act of 1996, all employees of GTR must have a contract of employment based on the employment relationship. All employees of GTR must therefore have written statement of the key terms of the contract (Noon, Blyton, and Morrell 2013). The contract provided to the employees must include job title and job description, name of the employers and the employees, place of work, date of beginning of the employment along with the address of the employer. The contract should also mention the interval between the payments and amount of pay, entitlements for sick pay, holiday pay and work, pension arrangements, notice period, arrangement of appeal and grievance, procedures for dismissal and disciplinary rules.
There has been a wide range of statutory rights that the employees of GTR must be entitled. Thus, the employees must be entitled for equal payments, being a part of the trade union activities, apply for working arrangements that are flexible and ensure parental leave (O’Leary 2017). Moreover, the HR practices of GTR must also ensure that the employees are not discriminated and unfairly dismissed.
Thus, with the mention of the details in the contract the employers will be able to get a clear idea about the number of times the employee is contracted for the purpose of work which will also help in resolving the present scenario of GTR to certain extent.
Conclusion
The report ends with a discussion on the employment legislation in relevance to pay and wages and contracted working time of GTR. There is also discussion on developmental activity that helps in improving the performance of the employees. The report also discusses about the implementation of sustainable HR planning for effectively managing the issues related to the staff. The report also gives an overview on how the human resource department can proactively manage people related issues in GTR.
The GoviaThameslink Railway (GTR) should focus more on its employees and its passengers. The Southern rail operator must not only listen to the employees in resolving the issues through pay increment, paying bonus for overtime and increased pay structure of the drivers, This will entail smooth running of the railways and will also save 300, 000 regular passengers from getting effected. To improve the quality of the service the Sothern rail can also publish the rail timings.
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