CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

Introduction:
The study is made to assess the feasibility of changing from the traditional hard approach
to the human resource management and give more preference for the soft approach of
HRM in organisation. This is done with the literature review and then further making the
case study analysis in the construction sector as to how the company is shifting from their
hard to the soft approach. The feasibility study, the merits and the demerits is described and
further the recommendations and conclusions are provided.
Literature review:
The analysis shows that there is an argument about the difference that exits with the human
resource and the traditional personnel management. The difference is stated as follows,
where the traditional personnel management takes care of the pay roll, the complying with
the law of the employment and other related tasks.

They are determined to be more

administrative in nature. The human resource is said to be managing the workforce which is
the primary resource which bequeath for the success of the firm. (Chukwunonso, 2012)
The difference shows that while personnel management has fewer tasks the human resource
(HR) has the much wider scope. The HR must incorporate and develop the more teams of the
workers for the merits they provide for the organisation. The main aim is to enable the
employees to work with their maximum level of their efficiency with their complete
satisfaction. (European Council, 2005) The personnel management on the other hand is
considered to be very much traditional and routine in nature. They are considered to be rather
reactive so that they provide the response for their demands and concerns that they have. The
HR also involve the ongoing strategies which helps in management and development of the
organisations workforce which is absent in the personnel management. (Flemming, 2010)
The personnel management is considered to be independent function in the organisation.
The human resource management on the other hand is integral of all functions in the
organisation. The personnel department sole responsibility is in taking care of the personnel
department in the organisation, while the chief goal will be to have the managers to get
involved in some manner so that the different departments will be able to develop the
required skills necessary for the handling of the personnel related tasks. (Gill, 2012)

Implementation and development of the HRM responsibilities:

Though many of the firms develop the HRM practices the main responsibility lies with the
managers and also the HR professionals. This will make them to consider the performance
appraisals and the success of the firm depends on the ability that is displayed by both the
parties to make their jobs done correctly. HR professionals will help in the development of
the system and the managers will be able to provide the actual and the performance
evaluations that are made. (Markwick, 2011) The HR professionals assume that the four
areas where they have the responsibility are the establishment of the HRM policies and
procedures, the development of the HRM methods and evaluating them with the HR related
matters. The HR professionals decide the procedures that are to be followed while they
implement the HRM practice. The HR professionals will decide the section process which
makes the candidates to complete their application, make the employment test and then
interviewed by the HR professional and also the line manager. (Price, 2010)
The HR professionals will help in the development and choosing of certain methods which
will help in the implementation of HRM practices. The HR professionals make sure that the
HRM practices that are followed in the firm will be implemented properly.

The HR

professionals will be able to evaluate the usefulness in their employment test and the success
in their training programs so that the cost effectiveness in the outcomes like the selection,
recruitment and the turnover can be assessed. The records can also be monitored so that the
performance appraisals could be completed properly. (Pullins, 2011)
Hard and the soft approaches to the HRM:
The human resources are the strategy that they apply for the acquisition, using, improvement
and also in safeguarding the organisation. The human aspect is the one that is not considered
when the staffs are managed and this results in the high turnover of the staff so that this will
affect the performance of the organisation. (Chukwunonso, 2012)Thus the most importance
need to be given for the people opposed to the needs of the employees and how they are
managed as per the requirement if the quality and efficiency in the organisation. In many
organisations the espoused or the soft version of HRM is considered and they focus on
treating the employees who are the valued assets and vital source of the competitive
advantage. But in the reality the approach of the organisation appears to be hard where they
give more emphasis on eh quantitative, calculative and the strategic aspects for the
management of the head count. (Gill, 2012)

The dichotomy that is present with the hard and the soft HRM shows the gap with the
rhetoric and the reality. The rhetoric which is adopted by the companies will make them
frequently to embrace the different tenets of soft and the commitment model so that the
reality which is experienced with the employees is more concerned with the strategic control
is more similar to the hard model. (Markwick, 2011)It is a must for the company to expose
the gap which is present between the rhetoric and the reality so that the efficacy of the human
resource strategies, their functions are very clearly identified with their role and also the
needs of the employee are met clearly. There are many organisations where the rhetoric of the
organisation is soft but in the reality it is hard. The initiatives in the organisation will appear
to be soft but when they are examined very closely they appear to be hard. (Price, 2010)
The practices of empowerment, communication, involvement and the training which is more
restricted for the bottom- line performance. The research is also required for the examination
of the consequences and the antecedents of the gap for the organisation and also the
employees. It is said that the treating of the employees as the valued assets is not advantage
for all types of the organisation since this cannot be practiced in an organisation where they
are competing for cost. (Chukwunonso, 2012)

The soft model focuses more on the

employees and are treated and the valued assets which is a source of competitive lead with
the commitment, high quality, adaptability and the performance that they have. The
employees are more proactive than their passive inputs to the productive process and they are
capable of their development. (Price, 2010)
Analysis:
The Hansen group is one of the largest construction groups in UK. The company is
traditionally involved in the civil engineering and they had begun to diversify recently with
the acquiring of the local government contracts. Example: the maintenance of the street, the
cleaning and the facilities management of the buildings that are publicly owned like the
Universities. Thus the company is now involved with the wide range of diverse activities so
that they employ an increase in the workforce which includes from the street cleaners till the
highly qualified engineers. (Chukwunonso, 2012)
The three years after the credit crunch which is faced in the UK after the 2008 incident it has
been extremely difficult for the construction industry in UK. This as the result of the
economic downturn with many of the construction firms had decreased in their spending on
their learning and development. The Hansen construction however made an increase in their

investment in these activities mainly by introducing an apprenticeship scheme for

construction team leaders so that they expand with online provision and this will continue
with their recruitment and development of the vital number of the graduates. The Hansen
thus recognises the talented individuals as the lifeblood of the firm and thus considered the
workforce development as the vital dimension for their employee proposition. This approach
is felt to be in line with their commitment that they have with the sustainability with their
corporate activity. (Markwick, 2011)
The learning and the development team in the Hansen is driving the innovations at the
learning and the development which will provide the analysis of the business learning
requirements and helps in the management of the delivery and the cost effective learning
solutions for supporting the achievement in their business goals. The learning solutions
which are at the Hansen will include the traditional off-the-job classroom programmes, the
online interventions, short courses, mentoring and the workbooks. They recruited the new
team members who are specifically designed for in-house learning solutions so that they
upgrade the companys learning management system.
The learning and the development team is located at the headquarter of the company so that
they will employ further 12 learning and the development professionals so that they could be
located throughout the country and they work directly with the business units and the clients
who had the diverse needs with respect to the development of the employee. The training
needs with the Hansen staff are identified centrally with the basis of employee group. This is
considered consistent with their traditional approach so that there is training for the large
groups in the classroom settings. The increase in the work force as well as the increase in the
diversity made the company to introduce the new performance management system which
will focus on the individual performance and also with the competencies that is present with
the performance.
In the year 2010 the learning and the development team made to supplement their traditional
classroom training programmes with their series of interactive learning modules for the
construction site staff so that they are linked with the meaningful programme activities. They
are widely known as the toolbox talks and are delivered by the site managers by making use
of materials so that they are developed by supporting them in the central team. The talks are
mainly devoted for the site management and also the health and the safety issues. In addition
the vital part is revised and they will approach the learning and the development for the

increase in the amount and on- the job coaching employees what they receive so that they
create a culture of coaching with their management community.
The evaluation of the learning and the development in the Hansen is focused more with the
initial reactions of the employees by asking them to complete and make the evaluation of
their forms which they had received after attended their training programme. There are wider
changes in the wider part of the learning and the development in the company which makes
the long term evaluation and their interventions now in place. This will involve the learning
and the development so that the manager will sponsor new programme for definition and
identifying the positive outcome which will determine the important metric for their
assessment like the employee engagement and also their productivity which will involve the
contracting the recipients of training them three to six months so that they complete the
programme by asking them whether they will do anything differently as the result of their
learning. (European Council, 2005)
Conclusion:
The analysis gives the information that the hard and the soft approaches are the system of the
approaches that is followed in the companies. Though the companies are rhetoric and say
that they follow the soft approach there are many companies which follow the hard approach
in the reality. The analysis of the case study of the Hansen Company shows that they do
transform themselves from the hard approach to the soft approach. The company makes the
huge investment in the learning and the development programmes and also in the other
activities to make sure that they are using their soft approaches. They had the diverse group
of the workforce ranging from the street cleaners to the highly qualified engineers and this
made them to have the broad range of the HR activities so that the employees are satisfied
with the work that they do.
Recommendation:
The soft HRM is the notion where the workers in the organisation will respond in a better
way and recognise the individual needs and addresses them by focusing on the overall
business objectives. The Maslow hierarchy of needs is an insight which shows that they will
exert the considerable energy which will help them in achieving and addressing the needs
which will have a more happier, more loyal, more fulfilled and more productive workforce.
(European Council, 2005) The way for the success is with the empathy of other people so that

they observe how to have the best connect with the others in their workplace and motivate
them as a result of this. The soft HRM as the result can be balanced with the hard HRM. The
main notion is that the organisation which is successful is the one which is able to
successfully employ their human resource in the way in which they can organize the other
resource (Gill, 2012).
The hard HRM sees the people as the mere human resource (Markwick, 2011). The
employees who are held in the similar manner with the business resource could be obtained
as easily as possible and thus they are used more sparingly, developed and they are exploited
as far as possible. The control of the HRM is more with the performance system so that the
performance management is very tight and the control that they have over their individual
activities will be the ultimate goal which will secure the competitive advantage in the
organisation (Gill, 2012). The hard HRM is thus the primary concern for the promotion of the
human resource and having an alignment with the business strategy. They include the
sourcing, the performance management, flexibility thus the downsizing and work
intensification will see the workers as yet another resource which can be exploited and they
operate against the interest of the workers (Markwick, 2011).
The Harvard model sees the employee as the resource the human managers are responsible
for making the decisions in the organisation and maintain the employee relation (Flemming,
2010). The employment relation is considered as the blending of the business and the
societal explanations since they can recognise the societal roles in the play and argues this as
the basis for the comparative analysis that is made. The model thus makes cover of four
HRM policy areas where the human resource flows, the influence of the employee, the
rewards system, the commitment of employee and the goals of the employees along with
their cost effectiveness of HRM. This is argued to have an enhancement for all the four Cs so
that they lead constructive consequence for the well being of the individuals and the
effectiveness in the organisation in the long term consequences (Pullins, 2011). The HRM
strategies are thus inclusive of both the hard and the soft approaches.

Referencing:

Chukwunonso, F. (2012). The development of the Human resource management from

a historical perspective and its implications for the human resource manager. Federal
University Technology , 12 - 20.

European Council. (2005). Human Resources management strategies to support

organizational changes. Ministre de la Fonction publique et de la Rforme
administrative (pp. 12 - 34). Luxembourg: PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Flemming, S. (2010). From Personnel Management to HRM: Key Issues and

Challenges. Journal of human resource management , 34 - 56.

Gill, C. (2012). Use of Hard and Soft Models of HRM to illustrate the gap between
Rhetoric and Reality in Workforce Management. Journal of Business Management ,
12 - 34.

Markwick,

C.

(2011).

Employee

Engagement

Maximizing

Organizational

Performance. Journal of Human Resources , 39 - 45.

Price, A. (2010). Human Resource Management in a Business Context. London:

Cengage Learning.

Pullins, M. (2011). Employee Engagement. Journal of Human Resources , 55 - 67.