Human resource practices and policies at Vitamond France
Introduction
This report seeks to make recommendations to the management with regards to the best practices and human resource policies that will have to be adopted at the company’s new plant in France. France and Britain are two different countries with different human resource practices and policies. This report intends to draw attention to the differences that exist between the human resource practices of the two countries. It is taking into account that the CEO of the newly established plant in France may not be acquainted with the policies and best practices of the country.
Background information
Vitamond is a growing UK based company that manufactures a range of non-alcoholic drinks that are promoted as contributing to a healthy life-style. It manufactures innocent drink and vitamin water as one of its two main products. All these products are made to a secret formula, and their popularity has given Vitamond a good share of a competitive market. The products are exported to Europe and North America. Vitamond recently purchased a facility in France and turned it into a manufacturing plant and a warehouse. When this plant operates at its maximum capacity, it has the potential to provide employment opportunities for around 250 employees. This will include the management, the administration, and personnel in the production line. The company seeks to recruit local staff to fill all the position available for the new facility in France; except for the position of Chief executive officer and quality management officer.
In this organization, the welfare and performance of employees have to be managed. The human resource manager is responsible for the task of coming up with policies and program that affect the employees and anyone else associated with the company.
Analysis and justification of the issue
In France, the need to manage people is because employees are resources that can be used along with other non human resources to produce goods and services. When resources are managed in a proper manner it makes a significant difference to organizational performance.
There are several issues involved when working for an organization as an employee. The employees have to sign a work contract with the employers. Some organizations engage the services of people who are self employed, agency workers, and employees of a sub contractor. The employers offer opportunities for work to the employees and they reward them as a compensation for work done. With the position of the employers, they have to specify other terms of employments that may be necessary. After which the employees are left to accept the offers and dedicate their time and energy working for the employer. According legal requirements of employment, the employer has clearly state all the terms of employment in writing; even though some of the terms may be implicit in nature. Some of the explicit issues with regards to terms of employment include: job titles and the duties accompanying each title, payment and benefit, hours of work, leave entitlements, rules and disciplinary procedures, and raising grievances.
The managers are also faced with another important aspect of managing people; this is coming up with the organizational policies and procedures that relate to management of persons. For instance, some of the policies that have to be clearly determined include policies on sick leave, policies on bereavement, and policies on vacation among others. I addition the managers are required to draft handbook for all the employees within the organization. Before being issued, the handbook has to be compared to all the legal guidelines concerning issues such as dress code, disciplinary procedures, commendation, and requirements of employment .
Managing people in the work place has to also take account of their emotional welfare. It is a common understanding for any manager that when the employees are happy and motivated, they become a huge asset to the organization. This is why most organizations allow their employees to have scheduled sessions for counseling to deal with emotional issues that the employees might be facing . Providing such an opportunity may imply additional cost to the organization however its impact can be seen as cost effective in the long run .
Managing employees may not be an easy task and there are several approaches that have been established to help in proper management of human resource. One such approach is the paternalistic welfare. This approach was developed in the 19th century by a group of employers. It is based on the belief that showing concern for the employees is a moral duty that comes with economic benefit. The other approach for worker management is human relations. This approach is based on behavioral theorists and research studies done in the area of behavioral science. The performance of employees is affected by the way in which they are treated by the managers. The employees will be motivated in their various areas of work if their needs are satisfied .
Therefore, according to this approach, the best style for managing workers is participatory management style rather than control or command style of management. Human resource management is also one of the modern approaches used in management of employees in the work places. This approach emphasizes more on having professional personnel to manage the work force. The manager therefore must have professional qualification in order to manage the employees . The professionals are trained in human resource best practices and professional standards. In human resource management, there are also other areas such as high commitment HRM, where a lot of emphasis is focused on strategizing the management practices. According to this approach, the employees become highly committed with increased capabilities when the HR best practices are integrated.
Having a job description is good for personnel managers because the descriptions provide an interview guide. They also provide a guide where both the employers and the employees understand the duties and responsibilities that they are supposed to do. In addition, they provide accountability to the employees. The employees become aware of their duties and strive to achieve them based on the descriptions. Personnel managers are faced with the duty of hiring. This one of the important aspects as earlier described in this paper . When it comes to hiring, the personnel managers are required to consider the skills of the applicants. However, the most important thing to consider is the behavior of the applicants. Employees can have all the desirable skills that employers would want to make use of in their organizations, however, when the behavior is not desirable, then worker may also become a liability to the organization.
Basically skills can be trained, but behaviors cannot be trained. Therefore, the most important consideration for personnel managers when it comes to hiring is behaviors. But this does not rule out skills as it can come in next after considering behaviors. Obviously, no one would want hire an honest person with no skills at all. Some of the behaviors that personnel managers have to look out for in the job applicants include thing like: someone who pays attention to details, someone who is highly motivated, someone who completes assignments on time, someone who is responsible and well organized, and someone who can communicate thoughts effectively .
The law requires that personnel managers conduct themselves in a certain professional manner when hiring employees. The managers have to be sensitive to issues such as age discrimination, race, and gender. For instance, a manager may not be allowed to ask questions that seem to discriminate an applicant as a result of their age, race, gender, or orientation during the interview process . The applicants can easily raise charges against the manager. Managers are also required to be very sensitive to disability issues and physically challenged applicants. If an applicant does not have the physical capabilities to effectively perform a job, then this may clearly be mentioned during the interview . Otherwise managers may not touch on such topical issues when hiring employees. Health screening may also be an issue that would raise concerns for discrimination . Depending on the provisions of law concerning such issues, a manager may not discriminate based on health condition .
Human resource planning or personnel planning is an essential component of management. The planning is done to establish the demands or the future human resource needs of the organization. It also seeks to analyze the supply or the internal and external availability of human resource. At the same time, organization may have potential problems that have not fully manifested . Through human resource planning, the organization can be able to notice such potential problems come up with appropriate course of action. The planning process provides a guideline for the actions that will have to be undertaken in order for the organization to meet its human resource requirements and demands at a time needed .
The process of human resource planning begins by the organization determining the positions that have to be filled through personnel planning and forecasting. Then the organization will identify the qualified candidates through recruitments within and outside the company. Making internal recruitments may be cheap for the company however there are specific qualifications that candidates have to meet in order to be appointed for a position . Therefore, whether it is an internal candidate or an external candidate, the qualification requirements have to be established . The qualified candidates once selected, will have to undergo what is called the selection process. Selection process seeks to pt the right candidates for the job. The qualifications and skills of the candidates are matched with the requirements of the organization. Therefore when the matching is effective, the selection will be effective .
Basically, personnel managers have to ensure that they get the right person for a position . This is because problems such as absenteeism and turnover may not be a major concern for the organization once it has employees with the right behaviors, skills and qualifications. Selection and recruitments processes are two distinct processes. The latter only gets to attract a pool of applicants and also serves as a source of data that the company might need in future depending on their demands for human resource. Selection however, is more negative as all the unqualified candidates are eliminated until the human resource managers come up with the exact number of candidates to hire for a position. Once the process of selection is complete, the company is left to review all the candidates before making an offer to the ones they need .
A specific form of personnel planning is called succession planning. In succession planning, organizations look at how they can best replace the top management. Succession however, will only occur when the need arises. The key issue in planning for succession is determining the future managerial needs and personnel needs of the organization . When forecasting, the personnel managers have to come up with an estimate of the staff size that they will need in order to meet all the strategic organizational goals . There two main type of organizational forecasting analysis. The managers can either use trend analysis to come up with a forecast or they can use ration analysis .
Managing people in the work place has to also take account of their emotional welfare. It is a common understanding for any manager that when the employees are happy and motivated, they become a huge asset to the organization. This is why most organizations allow their employees to have scheduled sessions for counseling to deal with emotional issues that the employees might be facing. Providing such an opportunity may imply additional cost to the organization however its impact can be seen as cost effective in the long run .
The managers are also faced with another important aspect of managing people; this is coming up with the organizational policies and procedures that relate to management of persons. For instance, some of the policies that have to be clearly determined include policies on sick leave, policies on bereavement, and policies on vacation among others. I addition the managers are required to draft handbook for all the employees within the organization. Before being issued, the handbook has to be compared to all the legal guidelines concerning issues such as dress code, disciplinary procedures, commendation, and requirements of employment .
Conclusion and recommendation
Based on the information presented in this paper, it can be concluded that personnel management is an important component of any organization. There is need to manage people, along with other resources within an organization. When resources are managed in a proper manner it makes a significant difference to organizational performance. Many organization face problems such as absenteeism, and worker turnover. This is mainly as a result of having employees with low worker morale. In effect the organizations struggle to achieve their goals and objectives. However, a lot of emphasis needs to be placed on the important role that personnel managers play in an organization. If this is done, the work place will have the right people for the right positions who have the right attitude and qualification to help the organization achieve its goals. A lot of researches have been done regarding the impact of having highly motivated employees within the workforce. Motivated employees translate to successful organization. Research studies have also been focused on the impact of human resource management and the best practices for motivating employees. It is therefore not sufficient hiring motivated people for a job, but there is also the need to maintain and sustain employee morale. This would save organization from incurring unnecessary cost when turnover is high. Personnel managers and human resource managers have to perform their duty to sustain high levels of morale within the work force.
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