HNC Business

Student Name: Claire Broughton

Student Number: 30272054

Unit Title: Managing Human Resources

Assessor: Mary Lindsay

Claire Broughton 30272054

The aim of this essay is to explore various aspects of human resource management,
taking into consideration the different approaches businesses take to this area of
management. The essay will relate strategies and techniques to Virgin Media, in
order to demonstrate the impact upon businesses in the real world.

Guest (1987, in Torrington et el 2011) emphasised the differences between the terms
personnel management and human resource management. He explained that the
former referred to the needs of the employees while the latter put more emphasis on
the needs of the business. Guest explained that Human resource management
focusses on the planning, monitoring and control. His model concentrated on six
dimensions; HRM strategy, HRM practices, HRM outcomes, Behaviour outcomes,
Performance outcomes and Financial outcomes. One of the major differences that
Guest highlights is that from a time and planning perspective, personnel
management tends to be more short-term and reactive whereas human resource
management looks towards the long-term in a more strategic, proactive manner. The
roles in the personnel department tend to be specialist however in comparison, in the
human resource part of the business the roles are more closely linked with the
businesses aim and objectives. Approaches to HRM as broadly explained as Soft
and Hard. Soft HRM places its focus upon the employees of the business; their
roles, motivation etc. Employees are treated as individuals with emphasis on longterm planning. This soft approach tends to feature in flatter organisational structures
with a democratic leadership style. Training and development needs are the focus of
appraisals along with performance related rewards. Hard HRM looks upon the
employs as a resource of the business and is strongly linked with corporate strategy
and planning. Employees may be on minimum wage with little empowerment. Hard
HRM tends to happen in business with tall organisational structures.
Virgin Media is likely to find that rather than utilising only one type of human resource
management, elements of each are beneficial in helping to guide the business in a
strategic manner.
The differences between the practices and definitions of Human Resource
Management, personnel and industrial relations are very well illustrated by Storey
(2007). Storey talks about how there has been a shift from personnel and IR
Claire Broughton 30272054

practices towards a more HRM style. He called this a model of the shift to human
resource management. Twenty-seven differences between personnel and HRM are
highlighted by Storey, which he has grouped into Beliefs and Assumptions, Strategic
Aspect, Line Management and Key Levers.
Personnel and IR aim to adhere to contracts and to procedures whereas from a
Human Resource Management point of view the aim is to go beyond the contract
and steer business the procedures into the needs of the business. From a behaviour
point of view, HRM focusses on the values and mission of the business. In
comparison, Personnel and IR emphasises customs and practice i.e. the norms for
the organisation. Decision making within HRM tends to faster than Personnel with
the corporate planning being rather more central in HRM. Within line management,
personnel and IR use a more indirect communication style with a transactional style
of leadership. HRMs leadership style is seem as transformational with facilitation
seen as a prized management skill. From a Personnel point of view, negotiation is
the prized management skill with emphasis placed upon indirect communication
methods. There tends to be many grades of job within a Personnel set-up, with much
fewer in HRM. Another noticeable difference between these two approaches is that
employees pay is based on job-evaluation within Personnel whereas it is
performance-related within HRM. Virgin Media are likely to find it beneficial to
employ various aspects of a strategic approach to HRM. For example, they may set
goals and have regular reviews of these goals with the employee. This would give
the employee a clear vision of their aim. These goals would be linked, either directly
or indirectly to the objectives of the business.

Virgin Media, like many businesses have found there are many benefits to allowing
their employees to work flexibly. Virgin claim that they have found that the
advantages of flexible working stretch far beyond employees wellbeing. There are
also the benefits of freeing up office space, improved motivation resulting in higher
productivity and better staff retention rates. The wellbeing of staff is extremely
important to Virgin. Richard Branson (2016) states Put your staff first, customers
second and shareholders third.

Claire Broughton 30272054

Atkinson (1984, from Armstrong 2010), produced a flexible working model which he
called the core and periphery workforce model. He named five distinct areas to
consider for flexible working; Functional, Numerical, Distancing Strategies, Financial
and Temporal Flexibility. Virgin Media could apply this model to its business by
considering factors such as Functional the business managers could look at the
ability to adjust skills required for the workforce to meet demands of changing
workload or production methods i.e. keeping abreast of new technologies within this
sector and being able to meet demand. Also Virgin Media could look at Distancing
Strategies i.e. outsourcing parts of the business such as cleaning, catering etc.
In June 2014, the government released a press statement about the proposal to
make it easier for employers to offer flexible working. Employees now had the right
to request flexible working. Business minister Jo Swinson advocated that flexible
working was becoming the norm in the 21st century and employers were reaping the
benefits from a more motivated workforce who were finding they could balance work
with other commitments in their life. In this press release it was also reported that
40% of businesses that had taken up flexible working, were reporting a boost in
productivity and 38% seeing a drop in staff absence. To help employers understand
the new right to flexible working and how to process requests, ACAS published a
short code of practice. Flexible working can mean a variety of different things e.g.
working from home, having flexible start or finish times, job-sharing, annualised
hours basically a way of working that suits the employees need
(https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working/overview, accessed April 2016). These types of
arrangements could easily be considered for employees of Virgin Media. The
government legislation states that all employees in England have the legal right to
apply for flexible working (as long as they have been employed for the same
employer for at least 26 weeks). Employers must then respond to requests in a
reasonable manner.
It is important for us to consider the effect that changes in the labour market could
have upon flexible working. There is a growing recognition in the UK for a need for
work-life balance. This is the main driving force in the popularity of flexible working
for both businesses and employees. Virgin Media will have found that the labour
market has shifted somewhat over the years. Women, in general, are starting
families later in life and therefore need to take time off perhaps when they are further
Claire Broughton 30272054

established in their career. This has meant the demand for flexible working has
increased so that families have been able to share childcare responsibilities. Often
this can involve paternity leave, job sharing or being able to work from home. Virgin
Media, being a modern employer will have found it beneficial to welcome such
changes as it enables them to retain their experienced staff whilst allowing to them to
be motivated and happy to come to work.
Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that discrimination exists in the work place in the 21 st
century. This can include discrimination by gender, ethnicity, religion, disability,
sexual orientation, or education. An example would be that someone is discriminated
against because of their disability if they cannot gain easy access to the work area or
toilet facilities. Equally an employee could feel discriminated against if they were
prevented from observing their religious customs in the workplace. It is now widely
recognised that equal opportunities in the workplace is an essential part of being an
ethical and fair employer. Virgin Media ensures it provides equal opportunities for its
existing and new members of staff. Virgin Medias job advertisements state that
Virgin Media is an equal opportunities employer. Having a diverse workforce is
critical to the success of our business. Virgin Media like all UK businesses is obliged
by law to adhere to equal opportunity legislation i.e. The Equal Opportunities
Regulations 1999, which incorporate the discrimination acts. This legislation means
that businesses such as Virgin Media adhere to rules ensuring that they are not seen
to discriminate. However, businesses are finding there is a move from managing
equal opportunities towards managing diversity The main difference, on a very basic
level is that managing equal opportunities involves the legislation and staying within
the rules whereas managing diversity is about the people; embracing different
cultures, ideologies and capabilities make for a rich and forward thinking workforce.
Torrington et al (2011), describe performance management as a system, a
continuous system with various stages that described as Definitions of business role,
planning performance, delivering and monitoring and formal assessment and reward.
It is key that employees are given clear goals and objectives, which are then in turn
continually monitored and discussed. Sometimes in a business a manager may just
meet with the employee perhaps only once a year to for an appraisal. This can result
in lack of follow through of goals from the previous year. A more effective method is
Claire Broughton 30272054

to have regular performance reviews, which beneficial for both the manager and the
employee as they are both aware of the situation.
Many companies will utilise a skills framework. This gives clear guidelines to the
employee as to the standard they should be aiming to achieve in their role. Virgin
Media would be able to use a method such as a skills framework to enable them to
be clear to their employees what is expected of them, depending upon their job
grade. Often examples can be given by the employee as to how they meet each skill
point. This gives a measurable entity on which to measure progress and
performance.
We have looked at many issues within this essay which has helped to gain a better
and clearer understanding of Human Resource Management and how this differs
from the traditional model of personnel and IR. We have looked at how this works in
Virgin Media. This essay has looked at flexible working and how employers are now
realising the benefits of supporting employees to maintain a health work-life balance;
because of this, businesses are reaping the benefits of a motivated, happier and
more productive workforce. It seems that along with flexible working, equal
opportunities in the workplace are making a big impact on modernising business;
with employers generally more forward thinking and people orientated. In conclusion,
the future for employees in the workforce is looking bright with the focus from
business looking at increased productivity through motivated and happy people.

Reference List
Claire Broughton 30272054

Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2011). Human Resource
Management. 8th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited
Storey, J. (2007). Human Resource Management: a critical text. 3rd ed. Andover:
Cengage Learning
HRM Vs Personnel Management. Available:
http://www.whatishumanresource.com/hrm-vs-personnel-management. Last
accessed 27/04/2016.
Branson, R. (2016). People Come First. Available: https://www.virgin.com/richardbranson/people-come-first. Last accessed 01/05/2016.
Dept. Business Innovation and Skills. (2014). Flexible working rights extended to
more than 20 million. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/flexibleworking-rights-extended-to-more-than-20-million. Last accessed 01/05/2016.
The Guardian Media Network. (2013). 17 tips on how to make flexible working
work for your business. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/medianetwork/media-network-blog/2013/mar/26/tips-flexible-remote-working-business.
Last accessed 01/05/2016
Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's Essential Human Resource Management
Practice. 11th ed. London: Kogan Page Ltd.

Claire Broughton 30272054