Human Resources function Essay

In this assignment we were instructed to select a business in which to analyze its Human Resources function. After a long deliberation I chose to discuss Tesco. There are several factors that influenced my choice one of these factors was accessibility of information on Tesco. I feel that in order to produce a vivid and constructive assignment, accessibility of background information is essential. Another factor that influenced my choice of business was familiarity, and the fact that I am a regular customer of Tesco’s and have friends and relatives that work for the company presently or have done in the past makes producing an in depth assignment on Tesco’s Human Resource function, much more straight forward than if I had no awareness of the company at all. Tesco is a nationwide food retailer and has stores all across England as well as some parts of Europe it specializes in the sale of food and other household goods and necessities. Tesco is today’s leading food retailer in the country, however without good employees the company would have never reached its current status and this is the case of most of the nations leading stores and companies. It is a well known fact that human resources is the most significant resource to any large scale business or company overweighing capital, buildings, land, equipment and materials or any other resource. The purposes of human resources are to attract and keep good, hard working, high quality staff. And the other purpose of the human resource sector is to dismiss low quality, lazy unhelpful workers who are known as liabilities to the company. This is important to a company like Tesco for high quality staff is hard to come by so it is important that the functional area under which the human resources is in does its best to retain good, hard working internal customers for as I previously mentioned the staff is considered to be the company’s most significant resource. Another purpose of the human resources section in Tesco is to train and develop all their employees to enable them to reach their full potential and do the work in which they have been employed to do to the best of their ability. By Tesco training and developing their staff even the members of staff who are not the best at their jobs develop into sufficient high – quality workers and this benefits Tesco for they could possibly save money, for instead of employing 10 workers to do one particular job for instance they can use 4/5 of the employees that they have been trained for the employees would be highly sufficient and would probably do the work quicker and of a higher quality than 10 new employees and in addition save Tesco money. Another purpose of the human resources sector is to ensure that Tesco’s avoids unlawful or unfair discrimination. This purpose is important for the company for if discrimination was not unavoidable by the human resource sector many workers would find Tesco an unpleasant working environment and when they come to work would put limited effort into their job hence developing a bad name for the organization. The last purpose of the human resource sector, which I am going to put into perspective, is to ensure that Tesco operates within the law in relation to employment and health and safety. This purpose is very significant for it provides employees with information about laws which apply to health and safety and employment therefore they wont violate these laws unknowledgeable. Like most functional areas in Tesco the human resources sector also have activities that staff within the human resource sector have to undergo. One of the human resources activities in Tesco is to recruit, retain and dismiss staff this is an important activity and requires a lot of attention. The human resources center has to deal with the recruitment of staff, they have to hold interviews and undergo research for applicants who want to work for Tesco. This activity requires not only interviews and research but it also requires the human resources sector to advertise placements. Another thing this activity requires is to retain good high quality staff; the human resources can manage this by acting as consultants and helping members of staff in everyway possible. In addition the human resources have a duty to ensure that Tesco maintains a good working environment and therefore form good working relationships between staff so there is an endless pleasant felling in Tesco and it would prevent good workers from leaving Tesco as a result of hostility within the organization. It is also very important that Tesco allows its internal customers to have sick leaves lunch brakes etc. to relieve any pressures of work which the employees could fell they would need to resign. One more activity, which I am going to put in to perspective, is the dismissal of staff. The company has to deal with many incidents of staff dismissal every year but it is the human resources sector that deals with them directly. It is the human resources job to give warnings to employees i.e. verbal warnings for lateness and then written warning etc. so when a employee violates Tesco’s company policy whatever it may be, it is then the human resources responsibility to provide a notice to the member of staff who has violated company policy that they have been dismissed from the company in other words â€Å"sacked†. Another set of activities, which the human resources sector has to deal with, is the training, development and promotion of employees. The training of employees in Tesco is done solely by the human resource sector. It is human resource that decides what kind of training a particular employee needs, when the particular employee needs training and how long will the employee need to be trained for. For instance if a member of staff was appointed trainee manager of Tesco it would then be the responsibility of the human resource sector to decide how long the employee should train for depending on the particular employees personal ability. The training of Tosco’s internal customers is part of its employees development, the reason for this is because the training of employees is to do with the development of skills i.e. communication with customers. The provided training at Tesco’s helps develop skills for many employees every year for Tesco’s nurtures all its employees and gives them skills to carry along with them to future employment when they leave Tesco if they should leave. Another aspect, which the human resources sector in Tesco has to deal with, is the promotion of its staff. I feel every member of staff regardless of their role whether they are toilet cleaners or till assistants are entitled to promotion after being part of a company such as Tesco for a certain amount of time. However, the statement I have just made is not how Tesco runs its promotion opportunities there are other factors that Tesco’s human resources look into when considering an employees promotion. One factor that the human resources look at is how interested you are with your work and how interested you are with Tesco itself, the human resources look for employees who have actually gained an interest with their work and the organization when selecting an employee to be promoted, this is important for Tesco for an employee who has an interest with the company and their job is likely to put more effort and sufficiency in their work than somebody who has a low amount of interest for the company and their job. Tesco’s human resources sector also looks at a promotion candidate’s ability to get along with their fellow employees. This is also an important factor for Tesco when deciding to promote a member of staff to a higher role for they want to promote friendly/pleasant characters as opposed to hostile/rude employees who don’t get along with anybody in their current role let a lone a higher role where they will be in contact with more employees. Another factor that the human resources look at is the employee’s ability to manage their current job exceedingly well. In my own personal opinion this is the most significant factor apart from † how long the employee has been working with the company for† when deciding to promote a member of staff into a higher position. I feel this is the most important factor the reason being is that you cannot possibly promote a member of staff onto a higher position with higher pay cheque and higher responsibility when they are struggling or just about managing with their current job. The next set of activities that the human resources sector have to undergo in Tesco that I am going to put into perspective in this assignment is the monitoring and maintenance of good working conditions. Good working conditions are enforced by Tesco’s human resource sector and list of the conditions are presented to all new employees when they start at Tesco. Some of the information presented to the new employees on the list of terms and conditions include, the address of their work placements, the employees hours of work, the employees wage and also additional payments such as commission, bonuses and overtime. Also in them list of terms and conditions are employees holiday entitlements per year both personal and statutory days e.g. Christmas, whether the employee will receive sick pay and if so on what basis i.e. only with a Doctors note. In addition the list of terms and conditions, which are presented to all new employees at Tesco’s, include pension rights and any f ringe benefits, for example share rewards staff vouchers etc. The working conditions are regularly inspected by staff from the Human resource sector to ensure that the working conditions in Tesco is kept at a superior standard to ensure that employees can do there work well without worrying about any obstacles distracting them from their work. The physical environment such as good lighting and ventilation, modern furnishings and equipment, adjustable heating, low noise pollution and a restful color scheme. In Tesco, in their attempt to make sure there is an endless pleasant environment and good working conditions in the store the human resources offer employees personal services such as free medical screening and the availability to talk to counselors whenever they are experiencing any personal problems. By Tesco helping their internal customers in this way it can help to relieve a lot of tension and maintain a good working environment for Tesco’s employees. The last activity I am going to put into perspective that Tesco’s human resource sector undergoes is health and safety. The UK law requires internal customers as well as employers to conform to the health and safety legislation. Like most organizations Tesco have a health and safety officers who advises the managers at Tesco about their responsibilities in regards to the health and safety law it is, also it is the role of the health and safety officer to ensure all employees are kept informed about the health and safety law via the manager. In addition it is the human resources sector that makes sure that there is a display of the details of the health and safety law that is displayed where everyone working in the store can in the store can see it.