Human Resource Development Strategies For Jaguar Land Rover: A Systematic Approach

Write a report for the CEO of JLR in which you address the following issues:

1. Analyse and evaluate how a systematic approach to Human Resource Development might ensure JLR are able to maintain high standards of productivity and quality across their global operation despite their extremely rapid expansion plans over the next 10 years. 

2. Given how large the JLR operation is likely to become by 2027, and its international footprint, compare and contrast three different designs for the company’s Human Resource Development function, and evaluate which of these options, or combination of options, would be most effective. 

3. Provide a concise and precise set of final recommendations and a conclusion, in which you summarise and justify your main findings.  

The importance of Human Resource Development in Jaguar Land Rover

The purpose of this report is to provide brief information about the process of human resource development that the company Jaguar Land Rover should adopt to maintain the productivity of the company. The report explains the expansion plan of the company JLR to set up a new plant in Whitley for the purpose of which the management requires around 750 more employees to effectively operate the functions in the company (Mullen 2017). Apart from expanding the business, it is important for the companies to understand the human resource development functions and initiate them effectively. The report also evaluates a systematic approach that the company should use to maintain productivity and comparison and evaluation of human resource development designs as well. In the latter part, recommendations are given to justify the HR practices of the company. More details about the report are discussed below:

Human resource development refers to a systematic set of planned activities that are defined by the organization to help the employees of the company to meet the requirements of their job. Harbison and Myers, as the process of growing knowledge, skills and capabilities of the employees working in different parts of the world, defined the concept of human resource development. While focusing on the expansion strategies of the company JLR, it is very significant for the human resource department of the company apply a systematic approach to maintain high quality standards and productivity of the company in different parts of the world. Although both the activities of the company are connected to each other, however it should not affect the growth chart of the company negatively (Paillé, et. al., 2014). There is presence need of HRD approach in the company JLR because many times, the employees loses their focus on interim goal while completing the strategic targets which results in loss for the company. So, the systematic approach will successfully help the company in effectively operating the global level functions of the company (Ma, et. al., 2017).

Furthermore there are two important concepts of human resource development that helps the organizations in effectively operating the activities for the success of the organization. These concepts are discussed below:

Strategic Planning: Strategic planning is an exercise helps the administration to determine the current and actual position of the company and the position where they want to reach in near future. The aspect of strategic planning is not same for all companies, instead it depends upon the companies their objectives of growth. Some companies follow the top down approach while other concentrates the planning process to the senior level authority only. The process of strategic planning create a vision for the employees on the basis of which the employees to have organize their activities (Ketchen et. al., 2017).

The Process of Human Resource Development

Strategic Training: The training process starts after the completion of the strategic planning process of the company. This is considered as the most important aspect of the process of human resource development as it helps the employees to expand their skill set and effectively work for the organization. Under this process, the management assesses training needs, designing of the program, implementing, and evaluating the training process (Gutierrez-Gutierrez, Barrales-Molina, and Kaynak 2018).

The company JLR should concentrate on these two aspects in order to strategically initiate a systematic approach for the company. Further, the systematic approach of HRD that the company should use to maintain the productivity is discussed below:

Workplace evaluation: prior to decide the human resource development strategies for the company, the management should effectively analyse the internal environment of the company The human resource department should understand the goals, current position, strengths, vision and weakness of the company. They should understand the opinion of the employees of JLR and problems faced by them (Kianto, Sáenz, and Aramburu 2017).

Preparation of HRD strategies: After identifying the internal capabilities of the company, the human resource development should develop a strategic plan on the basis of which they should train the employees. The HRD strategies of the company should fulfill the vision of the company.

Resource Analysis: Implementation of HRD strategies of the company involves the use of adequate resources. It is important for the company to evaluate the current and required resources of the company. The HR manager should compare and check the deviations and procure resources accordingly (Mullen 2017).

Implementation: Resources and strategies formed by the company will not hold its effectiveness if they are not taken into action. Implementation of the strategies using resources is the most important part of the HRM process.

Follow Up : Under this process of human resource development, the management keeps a tract on the activities initiated by the company and check for changes made by the employees. The aim of this process is to find out the reason of deviation and evaluate the root cause as well.

Corrective Actions: Under this process, the management should rectify the issues in the process and create a backup plan to ensure that the result matches to the expectations of the company (Taylor 2017).

The above mentioned is the systematic approach that the company JLR should implement for the purpose of human resource development. Further, the importance and effectiveness of this approach in maintaining the productivity and growth of the company is discussed below:

Approach for Human Resource Development in Jaguar Land Rover

Transformation in Management: As the process of human resource development plans and initiate programs to develop the entire process of growth in an organization, which result in transformation changes at workplace. Transformation occurs when the management focuses on the activities done by human resource; similarly, this systematic approach of human resource development helps the organization to focus on the activities of the employees and aim to maintain the productivity and growth of the employees (Appendices 2). Further, the process of human resource development also develops the organizational health, environment, and culture as well which leads to the process of effective change management (Analoui 2017).

Evaluation of mistakes: As discussed above, that the process of human resource development helps the management to focus on the human resource and its functions due to which the top-level management also get to the mistakes performed by them. Evaluation of one’s own mistake is the biggest for any organization and its employees, as with such acknowledgement the company need not fear from the competitors that the will get to know their issues before them. So, the follow up process helps the human resource management of the company helps the organization in identifying the mistakes and rectifying them so as to maintain the flow of work and productivity as well (Radwan 2017).

Opportunities for training and development: With the acknowledgement of the mistakes and challenges faced by the employees while working in organization, the management realizes need to implement training to adequately develop the employees for the better understanding of work. Training and development process identifies and increases the capabilities of the employees to work more effectively. Such training will also help the employees in not losing their focus in expansion strategies and working for their respective targets only. Training and development is the best way to increase productivity of the company by training the employees according to their required need in business (Brewster 2017).

Management Commitment: In the current, the company has two main objective in which one is constant and the other one will diminish itself post completion. The permanent objective is the maintenance of growth and productivity of company and the temporary one is expansion strategies organized by the company. The management has segregated the employees only the basis of work provided to them; in this case, it is important for the company to gain commitment from the employees (Appendices 1). So, the human resource development practices ensure that the employees comply with their responsibilities and successfully complete the work. In this way, the management successfully aims for productivity even after the split in growth objectives (Shodhganga 2018).

Benefits of a Systematic Approach

Good workplace environment: Good working environment is the key to growth and success in any organization. While working in a positive environment, the employees themselves feel motivated and confident to work on the objectives that ultimately result in success for any organization. Similarly, the process of human resource development creates a positive workplace environment for the employees which results in growth of the company (Banfield, Kay, and Royles 2018).

Flow of work: The systematic approach used by JLR in initiation of human resource development helps the company to maintain flow of work.  The HRD approach used in the company will monitor the activities of the employees and help them to maintain high standards of productivity and quality across their global operations as well despite of their expansion activities (Purce 2014).

As mentioned in the case study, the JLR Company is expanding its scope of business by 2027 as the company wants to create an international footprint in the market by employing people and creating differentiation. The company wants to move towards electric powered vehicles by employing more professionally developed people. In response to which it is important for the company make use of efficient human resource development to help the employees to strictly focus on the objectives of the company (Brewster, et. al., 2016). As discussed above, there are two different objectives proposed by the company in the current era, so the management needs to segregate the employees based on their requirements in the projects. The management needs to help the employees to focus on their tasks and complete it successfully for the completion of organizational objective. In response to which, three designs of human resource development process are compared and contrasted to help the management to choose the best-suited option (Carley, and Christie 2017). The designs are discussed below:

Work System: In the work planning system of the human resource development process, the management ensures that the management utilizes the employees of the organization working in a project in the best possible way. The work planning process structure is related to the plan, do, study, act cycles organized in companies, this process the company initial identifies the role, and then plan activities according. Afterwards, the management performs the actions according to the plan, later they study the actions, check them, and lastly act accordingly (Shields, et. al., 2015). Various sub-systems are used in the implementation of this process, these activities are discussed below:

• Reward
• Role analysis
• Performance Plan
• Performance Appraisal
• Promotion
• Performance Feedback and guidance
• Job rotation
• Role efficacy

Conclusion

This is an innovative approach as it only focuses on the work that is to be accomplished by employees during a course of time. Under this process, the management identifies the type of employees and the quality of work that is to be given to them so that they can perform actions successfully.

Development System: The environmental situation along with the businesses is changing fast due to which it is becoming the need of the management to change the business structure and activities accordingly. In response to which the development system of the human resource development process makes sure that the employees constantly work in a way to achieve better for their and the organization as well (Appendices 3). This system is formed to meet the emerging needs of the company and the employees as well (Kavanagh, and Johnson 2017). There are various sub-system formed in this process which are discussed below:

• Training Job enrichment
• Induction
• Counseling
• Self-learning mechanism
• Potential appraisal
• Succession development
• Mentor system

The development system is the best- suited system for the companies thriving aim for innovation and expansion in their business.

Career System: The career system of human resource development process is a human resource development design that is used to attract and retain the human resource with the help of following sub-systems:

• Succession Planning
• Manpower planning
• Career Planning
• Retention
• Recruitment

The career planning system is used by the human resource management of a company to attract and retain the employees so that they can grow and help the organization to work as well. As manpower is the most important asset of the company so this process helps the management to satisfy the employees so that they can work for the growth and betterment of the organization (Brewster, Chung, and Sparrow 2016).

Further, summarizing the evaluation of all the three approaches that JLR for the purpose of human resource development, it should be noted that the first system that is work system, majorly focus on the work and aim to get it done by the right person. The work system does not focus on training the employee to attain a better position; instead, this design is only concerned about getting things done. Whereas, the development system talks about use of human resource development to meet the changing innovative needs of the environment. The development process ensures the development of the human resource by meeting all their requirements and training them appropriately. And lastly, the career system explains the human resource development process of attracting and retaining the employees in the organization (Albrecht, et. al., 2015).

Not one or two, but the combination of all the three designs discussed above will help the human resource department of JLR to successfully implement the defined objectives of the company. The HRD design that the company should use is a combination of work, development and career system. Taking the features of the work system, the human resource management should focus on the work and hire the right people according to the given job description. The management should analyze the role of the employees at workplace, and they should provide them feedback to get things done easily. The work system will help the organization to successfully keep the employees on right track so that they can work for the purpose of fulfilling the objective of productivity in the company (Bailey, et. al., 2018). The work system will help the employees to provide quality work to the customers. Coming up to the development system, this type of system will help the organization to meet the fast growing and changing requirements of the business. The development system will help the management to develop the employees by training them and introducing them to new aspects of the business process. In the given case, the management of JLR is aiming high to expand the scope of business and creating international footprint. So, the development system used in the company will help the management to securely manage the productivity of the company and initiate the expansion activities as well (Bratton, and Gold 2017).

The development system of human resource development process includes induction, potential appraisal, counseling, mentoring etc. All these activities will help the management to promote the interest of employees in the company and develop them to develop the business as well. Lastly, career system will help the management to develop the interest of employees in the system. This system will help the organization to involve the interest of employees in the company. Career planning, retention, recruitment etc. are some of the ways with the help which the management involve the employees in the company. It should be noted that all the designs have some distinctive features within them that are required by JLR to initiate the business operations successfully (Armstrong, and Taylor 2014). Comprising all the designs it should be noted that the work system will helps in successfully completing the work by right person, the development system would help in successfully completing the challenging objectives available to the employees and the career system will help the organization to keep the employees interested in the activities of the company.

Recommendation and Conclusion

Below-mentioned are some of the recommendations for the company JLR to successfully initiate the human resource development activities in the business:

• The objectives of the company are complicated as one side, the JLR management wants to expand the scope of business where on the other side, they want to maintain the productivity and growth of business as well. In response to which the management should initiate segregate the employees on the basis of functions performed by them and their personal qualities as well.
• The expansion function should be kept separate with maintenance of productivity function; otherwise it will confuse the employees with the role that they have to follow.
• The organization should keep divide the experienced employees equally in both the process so that there is proper surveillance of top management on both the objectives.
• Apart from that, the management should also create short-term SMART objective to complete the long term objectives of the company.

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, it should be noted that the human resource development function is very important for the business. This process plays a huge role in helping the company to grow and expand as well. The human resource development function helps the organization to improve the skills and capabilities of the employees so that they can satisfy the organization. The above mentioned report successfully explained importance of human resource development approach used in the company JLR and the best effective design that the organization can further use to manage the objectives of the company.

Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.

Analoui, F., 2017. The changing patterns of human resource management. UK: Routledge.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. UK: Palgrave.

Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy. In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). UK: Routledge.

Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. UK: Routledge.

Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G., 2016. International human resource management. UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Carley, M. and Christie, I., 2017. Managing sustainable development. UK: Routledge.

Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L.J., Barrales-Molina, V. and Kaynak, H., 2018. The role of human resource-related quality management practices in new product development: A dynamic capability perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 38(1), pp.43-66.

Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics, applications, and future directions. US: Sage Publications.

Ketchen Jr, D.J., Crook, T.R., Todd, S.Y., Combs, J.G. and Woehr, D.J., 2017. Managing human capital. The Oxford Handbook of Strategy Implementation, p.283.

Kianto, A., Sáenz, J. and Aramburu, N., 2017. Knowledge-based human resource management practices, intellectual capital and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 81, pp.11-20.

Ma, Z., Long, L., Zhang, Y., Zhang, J. and Lam, C.K., 2017. Why do high-performance human resource practices matter for team creativity? The mediating role of collective efficacy and knowledge sharing. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 34(3), pp.565-586.

Mullen, E., 2017. "World ambitions" - Jaguar Land Rover gets green light for engine development plant in Coventry [online].  Available from: < https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/motoring/motoring-news/world-ambitions-jaguar-land-rover-12479554> [Accessed on 19 July 2018].

Mullen, E., 2017. Jaguar Land Rover massive Coventry expansion plan decision expected this week [online]. Available from: < https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/jaguar-land-rover-massive-coventry-12468157> [Accessed on 19 July 2018].

Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3), pp.451-466.

Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Radwan, M., 2017. The impact of leadership on Employees’ Productivity in Jaguar Land Rover Saudi Arabia service center.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O'Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Shodhganga., 2018. Chapter-II: Human Resource Development- A Conceptual Exposition [online]. Available from https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/11268/11/11_chapter%202.pdf 

Shodhganga., 2018. Chapter-III: Human Resource Development- A Conceptual Exposition [online]. Available from < https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/93508/13/13_chapter%203.pdf>

Taylor, S., 2017. Contemporary issues in human resource management. US: Kogan Page Publishers.