Human Resource Management And Job Analysis Process In New Zealand Companies Essay.

Using a service organisation in New Zealand as an example:

• Explain two major differences between personnel management and human resource management.

• Examine the influences of two external business environment factors on specific human resource management functionsin the company.

• Given the challenges that you analysed in Question 1 (b), above, suggest an effective human resource planning process and methodsthat the company can use in determining its manpower needs.

Using one of the positions in a manufacturing company in New Zealand as an example, suggest the job analysis process and methods that the company can use to design the job description, person specification and competency profile for this position.

Include in each job analysis step:

• relevant methods/techniques,

• specific types of data to be collected for this position, and

• relevant examples.

Suggest, with justification, FOUR best job designs to be used for the position you discussed in Question 2, above. Justify your answer with rationales and relevant examples.

Use a position in a retail company in New Zealand as an example:

• suggest FOUR BEST recruitment methodsthe company can use to attract qualified candidates for the position. Justify your answer with ONE advantage for EACH recruitment method and relevant example.
• TWO New Zealand legislative requirements that would affect these recruitment methods

Based on your answer in Question 4, above:

• suggest FOUR BEST selection methodsthe company can use to choose the most qualified applicants to fill in the position. Justify your answer with ONE advantage for EACH selection method and relevant example.

• TWO New Zealand legislative requirements that would affect these selection methods.

Select a training programme in a service company in New Zealand as an example, explain how you would use the training process model discussed in this course to prepare, organise, implement, and evaluate the training programme for the employees in the organisation. Invent details as appropriate.

Assume you are the management trainee in a selected department in the organisation you discussed in Question 6, propose a Personal Learning and Development Plan (PLDP) that would meet your individual and organisational needs by:

• Completing the General Competency Questionnairestated on page 73 in your 610 Course Book. Attach this completed questionnaire as Appendix A at the end of this assignment and briefly explain FOUR major areas that you need to develop based on your scores.

• Completing a Personal Learning and Development Plan (PLDP) Table(see Figure 28 on page 74 in your 610 Course Book) to improve the FOUR major areas that you discussed in Question 7(a), above. Attach this completed table as Appendix B at the end of this assignment and explain the following aspects identified in your PLDP:

• Learning needs analysis

• Learning methods

• Learning outcomes

• Evaluation of learning outcomes

a. Human resource management is a new type of personnel management. There are however slight differences between the two concepts (Edwards & Bach, 2013). TSB Bank is a New Zealand bank that was founded in 1850. The bank has grown rapidly to become one of the top banks in New Zealand in terms of customer service. Part of this can be attributed to having an effective human resource department, which leads to choosing the right employees and ensuring that they have the right skills through training and development hence enabling efficient service and high productivity.

Personnel management deals with administration of personnel, the welfare of employees and labour relations (Storey, 2014). Personnel management is, therefore, focusing on following of laid rules to manage staff without really looking at whether they are motivated or not. Staffs are expected to work as per laid down policies and procedures without voicing their concerns and training and development is not a priority. Human resources, on the other hand, deals with the acquisition of staff, developing of staff, motivating and retaining them in the organization. In Human resources, employees are considered as assets, and the organization takes care of them, as they know their value.

Personnel management assumes that people are part of the inputs required to achieve results. Organizations that carry out personnel management are mainly concerned about the results in terms of products or services given and expect staff to deliver without really looking at what fuels the staff to be able to deliver better (Marchington, 2015). Human resource management takes people as important and valuable resources for achieving the desired output. Organizations that practice human resource management invest in their staff and make sure they have the required skills and motivation to deliver desired output.

TSB Bank in New Zealand carries out human resource management. The bank values its employees and does everything necessary to make sure that employees are motivated. The selection process is done carefully, and the bank has continuous training programs that ensure employees have the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out their tasks. The bank also has various motivation mechanisms like employee recognition and award schemes that encourage staff to work hard. Communication is also encouraged, and employees are able to share ideas and feedback freely. Due to effective human resource management, TSB Bank is one of the leading banks in New Zealand.

b. The external environment is made up of factors outside an organization that affects business, but the company has no control over them. Organizations have to identify factors, which affect operations so that they are able to manage them and hence succeed in their business (Stone 2013). External factors that can influence an organization like TSB Bank New Zealand are political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental.

Job Analysis Process and Methods

The major factors influencing the human resource functions at TSB Bank New Zealand are Technological and Environmental (Stone,2013). Technological factors affect human resources as when new technologies are introduced it can lead to downsizing or skills upgrade requirements. Over the years, technological changes have affected the banking sector globally. TSB Bank New Zealand’s human resource department have had to continuously train staff due to the bank system being upgraded and the launch of concepts like mobile banking. The rise of social media has also seen the human resource department have to hire digital marketers to enable the bank to enhance its presence on these platforms.

Environmental factors affect human resources, as there is a requirement that businesses are run sustainably (Stone,2013). The human resources department of TNB Bank New Zealand has to make sure that all employees understand what sustainability is and that all business practices are done according to sustainability rules. Employees of the Bank are also involved in sustainability initiatives, which happen in the communities around them.

The external environment has to be taken seriously by any organization as it greatly affects the way human resources carry out their functions. TSB Bank New Zealand has considered these factors and has been able to grow in its industry continuously.

c. Human Resource Planning is the process of organizing how an organization can achieve optimal use of its staff (Purce, 2014). The aim is to make sure there is the best fit between employees and their jobs. The planning of human resources is done in four steps namely doing an analysis of current labor supply, forecasting the demand for labor, balancing projected labor demand with supply and supporting the goals of the organization.

TNB Bank New Zealand analyzes its human resources needs by first identifying its strengths and weaknesses as a company concerning its human resources. The bank does an audit on demographics, qualifications, experience and compensation of the bank employees and determines if they fit with the company goals (Purce, 2014). The bank then does demand forecasting by looking at its strategic goals. The Human resource managers of TNB Bank look at current market trends, analysis of the banking industry and technological improvements to determine how to meet the bank’s goals.

TNB Bank then seeks to strike a balance between supply and demand of human resources. This helps the bank determine its human resource gaps. The bank then determines how to proceed based on the identified gaps (Purce, 2014). The main aim of planning is to have the optimal amount of staff that will make the most amount of money for TNB Bank New Zealand. The overall goal of HR planning is to have the optimal amount of staff to make the most money for the company. Because of the goals and strategies of the company change over time, human resource planning is a regular occurrence. Depending on the gaps, TNB Bank recruits new staff, develops and trains existing staff or retains its current human resource model. 

Best Job Designs and External Factors

Job Analysis is the process that an organization uses to collect information about duties, responsibilities, skills, outcomes and the work environment of a particular job (Smith, 2015).

The job analysis process of ANZCO Foods Limited, based in New Zealand will be looked at. The position of marketing manager will be analyzed as follows.

1. Sourcing of data

The Human Resource Department of ANZCO Foods will get information about the requirement of a marketing manager through a job analyst, supervisor or identify a gap if the marketing manager either resigned or was sacked. 

2. Collection of Data

The Human Resource Department will collect data through primary and secondary methods. They can do this through interviews, observations, questionnaires and previous employee records.

3. Job Data

Through the data collected, ANZCO Foods HR department will come up with tasks for the marketing manager, performance standards, responsibilities, required knowledge, skills, and experience needed, job context, duties and equipment or systems used (Woods & Hintom, 2017).

4. Job Description of Marketing Manager at ANZCO Foods LimitedD

The human resource department will then come up with a job description, which gives the task requirements of the marketing manager role, which include the following.

• Working within definite budgets
• Overseeing all marketing initiatives for the various products of ANZCO Foods
• Liaising with packaging designers, sales staff, and advertisers for ANZCO Marketing
• Meeting ANZCO customers and organizing focus groups to test new products and strategies
• Monitoring Strategies and sales figures for ANZCO
• Evaluating success of marketing programs
• Coming up with marketing activations for ANZCO Foods
• Developing New strategies based on consumer needs
• Getting consumer feedback
• Monitoring market trends

5. Job Specifications

This is an outline of the person requirements for the Marketing Manager Position at ANZCO (Landau & Rohmert, 2017). It includes knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics, which are required to perform the job. The Job specification is outlined as follows.

• The job requires a highly responsible person who can withstand high pressure and interact positively with fellow employees
• The person has to have an eye for detail, be a creative thinker and well organized
• The person has to be good in communication as they will deal with a large number of people
• The job requires a good listener who will listen to customers and identify trends
• The person must be a multi-tasker
• The job requires a person who is competitive in nature

Once all the above is done, ANZCO Foods can proceed to attract candidates through an internal or external application, carry out the selection and choose the appropriate candidate, make an appointment and orientate the new marketing manager into their role.

The aim of job design is to outline and organize tasks, duties, and responsibilities for a role. It also gives methods and relationships, which are important to ensure that a certain job is a success (Oldham & Fried, 2016). It assists an organization to attract the right candidates for the right job. The job design for the Marketing Manager position at ANZCO Foods can be done through different methods.

Job Simplification-Here, the role of marketing manager, can be designed to have only a small number of activities so that the tasks can be performed effectively and efficiently. The major tasks for this role can, therefore, be coming up with marketing strategies, organizing marketing activations, a collection of customer feedback and advertising. 

Job Rotation-Job Rotation can be done if the company moves workers through a set of jobs. In the Marketing Manager example, the rotation can be with the brand manager or sales manager at ANZCO Foods. The Marketing Manager can be trained on other roles so that more skills are gained, and this will enhance loyalty. 

Human Resource Planning

Job Enlargement-Job design can also be done by job enlargement. This is the allocation of tasks to increase challenges of a particular job (Talk, 2016). In the position of Marketing Manager, tasks that can be added are the branding of products and giving sales targets. 

Job Enrichment-Job Enrichment is the process of upgrading tasks so that potential for growth and responsibility is increased. The role of Marketing Manager can be enriched if he or she is allowed to sit in executive board decisions and participate in key decision-making or if they are allowed to sit in for the marketing director when they are absent. This will lead to the motivation of the staff. 

Various Job Designs -The Company can set up alternative working schedules for the marketing manager to allow working with a schedule that suits them best. The company can also have flexi-time where core working hours are set, but there are flexible starting and finishing hours. This boosts employee morale and leads to higher productivity (Truss et al., 2014).The Company can have compressed working weeks for its marketing manager. This allows for adequate off-days ad boosts morale hence enabling efficiency in work.ANZCO Foods can also implement job sharing. The Marketing Manager can share roles with the marketing assistant or brand manager hence enabling flexibility in their schedules. ANZCO  can have a workplace flexibility program which can include working from home. This will be good for the Marketing Manager position as a lot of time is spent in the field. The marketing manager can be reporting for some hours to the office, and the rest of the work can be done from home. 

a. Recruitment is the means by which a company searches and finds the right candidates for the right position at the right time (Shackleton, 2015). ANZCO Limited can carry out internal or external recruitment. Internal recruitment will involve sourcing for candidates inside the organization while external will mean sourcing for candidates outside the company.

In Internal recruitment, ANZCO can fill the position of Marketing Manager through Promotion or Employee Referral. The company can advertise for the positions internally, or short-list candidates it thinks are suitable. Promotion is vertically advancing an employee in the organization’s hierarchy (Taylor, 2014). It involves succession planning. It is a great source of motivation. Employee referral will involve supervisors nominating the best employees for a post. The supervisors will recommend their best performers. Internal recruitment will be advantageous to ANZCO as the company will incur fewer costs, qualified candidates will be selected, employees will be motivated, and the employees are well known to the organization. Less time will also be spent in the recruitment process.

Training Process Model

In External recruitment, ANZCO can fill the Marketing Manager position through professional associations or recruitment agencies. Recruitment agencies will facilitate the acquisition of a suitable candidate, as they will bear the responsibility of collecting information about candidates and even train them (Chaneta, 2014). Professional Associations like the Marketing Society of New Zealand will have a pool of potential candidates from its membership base. The advantages of external recruitment are that the company will have a wide selection of candidates to choose from, biasness will be reduced, and the company can get fresh and new ideas from the new candidates.

ANZCO can employ all of the above methods to get a suitable candidate for Marketing Manager Position. The company will weigh the pros and cons of each and make a decision about the most suitable method.

b. New Zealand’s legislative requirements that would affect the recruitment methods are the immigration act and the privacy act 1993. The immigration act prohibits employment of anyone without a work permit, and this will mostly affect external recruitment at ANZCO. The company has to make sure that it only employs someone who has valid work permits or else they will be in breach of the law.

The privacy act gives rules for dealing with information collected from employees or job applicants. All information must be treated with confidentiality. ANZCO must, therefore, ensure it treats all the information collected from candidates applying for the Marketing Manager position is treated with confidentiality.

a. Selection is the process by which an organization chooses the most suitable candidates for the job. It results in the elimination of candidates who are not suitable (Alonso, 2016). ANZCO can use various methods to select a suitable candidate for the marketing manager position.

Qualifications and Experience-They can look at the qualifications and experience of the pool of candidates. They will look at the candidates that have the most relevant marketing experience and relevant qualifications, for example being a member of a professional marketing body in New Zealand. They will look at the bio-data and shortlist the suitable candidate. The advantage of this is that the company will get a candidate with rich experience.

Work Proficiency Method-They can look at the work proficiency for the required Marketing Manager role (Thompson 2014). The interview can be hands on where candidates can be required to make a marketing pitch or come up with suitable product advertisements for the company and based on this, ANZCO Food Company will pick a suitable candidate for the marketing manager position. This is advantageous because the organization will view the technical skills of the candidates before selection.

Personal Learning and Development Plan

Written Test Method-This will help the company to judge the theoretical knowledge of its candidates. The candidates for the marketing manager position will, therefore, be subjected to a written test, which can be subjective or objective, and those who rank top can be selected.

Interview Method-ANZCO Food Company can use direct interviews to get a suitable candidate for the marketing manager position (Kundu, 2015). The interview can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured and best candidates will be selected based on the evaluation of interviewers.

b. The Immigration Act and Employment Act 2000 can affect the selection process. The Immigration Act gives advice to organizations on carrying out due diligence before selection. ANZCO Food Company will, therefore, carry out due diligence before selecting a marketing manager so that they make sure that all the employment papers are in order. The Employment Act 2000 stipulates that an employer should give an employee 90days trial period before taking any action. ANZCO Food Company will, therefore, ensure that it has a contract with the incoming marketing manager concerning the 90-day trial period before he or she is fully employed.

Select a training program in a service company in New Zealand as an example, explain how you would use the training process model discussed in this course to prepare, organize, implement, and evaluate the training program for the employees in the organization. Invent details as appropriate.

Training can be defined as a need that people meet because they are obligated to. Learning, however, is individual, and people respond to it because they are interested.

The training model usually occurs in four processes, and this is discussed with reference to TSB Bank New Zealand. 

The first stage that the bank usually takes is to conduct a training needs analysis. TSB Bank does an assessment of the bank, its people, and the tasks, which are required to be done by its employees. The bank does this process annually. Training needs analysis done Branch wise at the beginning of the year after the bank has assessed and come up with organizational and people needs (Sung & Choi, 2014). A list of courses that the bank intends to carry training on is circulated to branches and employees choose depending on what areas they feel they need training. The final list is compiled, and employees allocated training dates depending on courses they have chosen. The bank also has compulsory training, and this is automatically allocated to all employees.

The second stage is usually to design and develop the training program including learning outcomes for the learners to achieve. TSB Bank has a training school in New Zealand where training are carried out. Before employees attend training, they get an email invitation, which outlines the course details and learning objectives, and expected outcomes. All resources and training material are provided for at the training school (Tahir et al., 2014). Compulsory courses, which have to be done by all employees, for example, system change training, are carried out at the branches by specialized trainers that the bank organizes.

TSB Bank then carries out a selection of the most suitable training methods. Mostly the bank uses lectures, discussions, coaching and in some cases role-play. The bank has established a program called ‘in –your-shoes’ where employees are encouraged to visit other units and departments for a few days and feel how it is to work there so that they can appreciate the diversity and complexity of different jobs.

TSB Bank then does an evaluation of the effectiveness of its training. Employees fill in feedback forms after each training where they rate the course and the course instructor. There is a form also filled by employees and signed by their immediate supervisors after a few weeks so that the supervisors can evaluate if the training has assisted the employees (Bhatia & Kaur, 2014). These feedback forms are used to assess whether the training done by the bank have been effective or not and they form a basis for all the future training that will be carried out. 

Training and development are keys to an organization as they determine how productive the human resources will be. Continuous training is important for organizations to be able to keep up with industry trends and to keep employees motivated. Organizations must strive to ensure training needs are met. 

Assume you are the management trainee in a selected department in the organization you discussed in Question six, propose a Personal Learning and Development Plan (PLDP) that would meet your individual and organizational needs by:

(a)  

Base on my scores when answering the questionnaire, my weakest areas are managing stress and conflict in the workplace, working with fellow employees as a team, financial understanding and presenting to groups. I realized that I had a weakness in managing stress and conflict as it would affect my productivity at work greatly. I also realized that there were some situations where I preferred doing tasks myself yet it would be better done as a team. Financial management was a key issue for me as sometimes I had a challenge in saving for the future. I was also very shy when it came to presenting to groups at the workplace hence needed improvement on the same. 

(b)

• Learning needs analysis-In the learning needs analysis I identified my areas of weakness once I had filled in the questionnaire. These were managing stress and conflict, teamwork, Financial Understanding and presenting to groups.
• Learning methods-The learning methods were for me to attend training that had been organized by the bank. Courses had been organized by the bank, which would help me to tackle my areas of weakness.
• Learning outcomes-The learning outcomes were based on the courses I had chosen.I was to learn how to manage stress and conflict at the workplace better, how to work better in a team setting, how to understand and manage finances better and how to gain presentation skills.
• Evaluation of learning outcomes –At the end of each course I will fill in a questionnaire, and my supervisor will have a look and evaluate me to see if I had achieved the learning objectives.

References

Alonso, J. (2016). Recruitment and Selection in Organisations 14 (5), 28 p, University of Southern California, 2014. Retrieved January, 10.

Bhatia, A., & Kaur, L. (2014). Global Training & Development Trends & Practices: An Overview. International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology ISSN: 2278, 9359(3), 8.

Chaneta, I. (2014). Recruitment and Selection. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 4(2), 289.

Edwards, M. R., & Bach, S. (2013). Human Resource Management in Transition. Managing Human Resources: Human Resource Management in Transition, 1-17.

Kundu, S. (2015). Recruitment and Selection Process. International Journal of Research, 2(11), 976-977.

Landau, K., & Rohmert, W. (Eds.). (2017). Recent developments in job analysis. Routledge.

Marchington, M. (2015). Human resource management (HRM): Too busy looking up to see where it is going longer term?. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 176-187.

Oldham, G. R., & Fried, Y. (2016). Job design research and theory: The Past, present, and future. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136, 20-35.

Shackleton, V. (2015). Recruitment and Selection. Elements of Applied Psychology, 153.

Smith, K. J. (2015). Conducting Thorough Job Analyses and Drafting Lawful Job Descriptions. Employment Relations Today, 41(4), 95-99.

Stone, R. J. (2013). Managing human resources. John Wiley and Sons.

Storey, J. (2014). New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Sung, S. Y., & Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 393-412.

Tahir, N., Yousafzai, I. K., Jan, S., & Hashim, M. (2014). The Impact of Training and Development on Employees Performance and Productivity A case study of United Bank Limited Peshawar City, KPK, Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(4), 86.

Talk, O. M. (2016). Operations management.

Taylor, S. (2014). Recruitment and selection. Strategic Human Resource Management: An International Perspective, 10(6), 139-14.

Thompson, K. L. (2014). Recruitment and selection of immigrant professionals in Canada: A case study.

Truss, Katie, Angela Baron, Doug Crawford, Tom Debenham, Mike Emmott, Stephen Harding, Matthew Longman, Eti Murray, and Peter Totterdill. "Job design and employee engagement." (2014).

Woods, S. A., & Hinton, D. P. (2017). Do at Work? Job Analysis and design. An Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology: An International Perspective, 1.