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Difference between Personal management and human resource management:

Home » Personnel Management and Human Resource Management

The term personal management and human resource management is often considered as quite similar. However, from the perspective of the organization, there is a considerable different between these two different phenomena. The term personal management is related with the management of different routine tasks undertaken by the organization for administration of the work force of the organization. Different activities including recruitment, selection and administration of the work which has to be done by the employees of the organization come under the scope of personal management within the organization. The personal management department undertakes the responsibilities of dealing with issues related with personal management in the organization like employment law, job hierarchy, employee insurance and payroll administration, and so on.

In contrast to this the span of human resource management is quite broad. The human resource management department of the company deals the employees as resources and holds the responsibilities to deal with different issues related with these issues. In this context, the department deals with different HRM issues like, employee motivation, satisfaction, grievance handling, performance measurement and performance appraisal, and so on. In this context, human resource management is directed to management of different activities which are quite related with enhancing the efficiency of the organization (Gary 2010).

Contribution of HRM functions in the performance of Virgin Atlantic:

Virgin Atlantic is one of most successful and crucial players operating in UK airlines industry. In existing scenario, the company is ranked second largest carrier airlines of the UK. There are a number of different factors contributing in the success of the organization. Competent and effective human resource employed by the organization is one of the most intensive factors that help the company to get success in existing business environment. In this context, the management of such resource can be one of the most important phenomena in the context of success of the company. Different HRM related policies and strategies implied by the company are quite intensive in order to provide a significant amount of satisfaction and motivation to its employees. Such strategies of the company enhance the efficiency of the employee so that they can be able to give a significant amount of contribution in the success of the organization in the long term. In addition to this, proper management of HR related issues can also lead to enhance the quality of services provided by the airlines to its customer, which is one of the core competitive advantages of the company (Lussier 2011).

Role and responsibilities of line managers:

Line managers of the airlines are appointed to manage different functions of the organization which is directly related with revenue generation and organizational output. In this context, line manager holds the responsibilities of the administration of a specific line related with the organizational activities. The line manager is considered as a bridge between ground workforce of the organization and top level management of the organization. In the context of Human resource management of the organization, Line management can play a significant role. Different issues related with HRM of ground work force are communicated to the top level management of the organization through the line manger. As the line managers are the entities which remain in direct contact with the workforce, he can identify and understand major problems faced by the employees of the organization in the most effective manner (Lussier 2011).

In addition to this, line manager needs to avail responsibilities to resolving different minor issues related with human resource management at ground level that can lead to decrease the efficiency of the organization. In this way, the role and responsibilities availed by the line managers are quite intensive from the perspective of the human resource management and organizational performance.

Impact of the legal and regulatory framework on Virgin Atlantic’s human resource management:

Legal and regulatory framework of the UK affects different activities related with human resource management pursued by Virgin Atlantic. The global aviation industry is quite regulated on the basis of framework provided by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart 2009). As per the guidelines provided by the organization, all the companies operating in the global aviation industry including Virgin airline needs to be quite concerned with different HR related activities including total number of flights and cabin crew employed in the flight, training and different licensing, remuneration of the pilot and other in-flight staff members. Along with this, the regulation of the organization is quite concentrated over the qualifications of pilots and other staff members of the organization. Further, organization also needs to follow a strict procedure for the purpose of the recruitment and selection of the employees implied by the regulatory authority.

In this context, it can be understood, the organization needs to check different policies and strategies undertaken by the organization in order to manage it work force under the influence of regulatory and legal authority of the country (Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart 2009).

Analysis of HR planning of Virgin airlines:

Planning of Human resource is one of the most crucial phenomena for an organization as it directly involved with the productivity of the organization. In the context of Virgin airlines, HR planning is quite important. There are a number of different aspects of the planning of human resource of the organization, which will be considered in this section of the report:

Reasons for HR planning in the Virgin Atlantic: Like other industries, across the globe, Aviation industry has also exposed to the threats of external business environment. There are a number of different issues like dynamism and competition. Owing to such issues it has become quite essential for the business organization to enhance their efficiency and enhance their overall productivity so that they can be able to mitigate the adverse impact of external business environment.

In the same series, Virgin airlines, that operates world wide, needs to have an effective HR planning for the purpose of enhancing overall efficiency as well as productivity from their global business operation, at current period of time, the company employs more than 9000 employees to conduct its global business operations. For the purpose of managing such a large human resource and making an effective utilization of the resource, there is a need of a competent planning of human resources of the organization. Along with this, in contemporary scenario, for the purpose of addressing competition at their domestic markets, the company employs the strategy of global expansion strategy. In this strategy, the company is undertaking a number of different mergers and acquisitions in order to set up their business operation at new location. The importance of HR planning also enhances in this context. For a new place company needs to plan the human resource in the manner that the performance of this new venture can go higher. Effective HR planning helps the company to resolve different HR related issues that are quite often in the case of a new venture (Gary 2010).

Different stages involved in HR planning requirements of the company:

For the purpose of supporting the business expansion strategy of the organization, Virgin airlines required an effective Human resource planning that can be able to fulfil all the requirements of the organization related with human resource of the organization. Comprehensively there are some specific steps involved in the HR planning for the company.

(1). Analysis and forecasting of future demand of Human resource: This will be the first and foremost stage in the planning of human resource for the company. In this stage, the company assesses it current operations and future strategies. On the basis of this assessment, the company can forecast the future demand of employees within the organization.

(2). Forecasting of internal supply of Human resource: after forecasting the future demand, the supply of the human resource will be analyzed and forecasted in this stage. In this stage, the company checks it internal resources for the purpose of accomplishing the future demand of human resource in the company.

(3). Forecasting of external supply of Human resource: After analyzing the internal supply, the company requires to forecast the external resource, from which they can fulfil their Human resource requirements. In this stage, the company analysed the market and check the employment opportunities prevailing within the market.

(4). Action plan according to the forecast: In this stage, there will be an effective action plan formulated as per the forecasted demand and supply of human resource within the organization. In this context, the management of the organization plan different HR procedures like recruitment, selection, training and development and placement so that the strategic objectives of the organization can be fulfilled (Taylor 2002).

Comparison of the recruitment and selection process with Easy-jet

There is a significant difference in the recruitment and selection process used by both Virgin airlines and Easy-jet airlines. The recruitment and training procedure adopted by EasyJet is quite sophisticated. While recruiting pilots and other cabin crew members, the company put emphasis over the quality of an aspirant to adopt a new culture and surrounding. In the interview of a candidate, the track record of a candidate related with new project handling is considered intensively (Harvey 2007).

In comparison to this, Virgin Airlines adopts a target strategy for the recruitment and selection process. Under this strategy the selection of the most suitable candidate is done on the basis of some target characteristic. For instance, during the interview, the management of the airlines judge the ability of people to make the journey of a passenger intensive and memorable. As per the organizational culture, this ability of the candidate is known as “Virgin Flair” (Bamber 2009).

Evaluation of selection and recruitment process of Easy-jet and Virgin Airlines:

On the basis of a comparison between selection and recruitment process of Easy-jet and Virgin Airlines, it can be revealed that there are some intensive benefits availed by such organizations by employing such measures of the recruitment and selection.

The recruitment strategy employed by EasyJet is quite effective for the purpose of enhancing the effectiveness of the operations of the organization. As the company select the candidate who can easily acclimatize him self according the new organization culture, the organization is required to spend less time and efforts to train the employee. This will be a crucial aspect of the organizational culture of Easy-jet (Taylor 2002).

In the same series, the target selection strategy employed by Virgin Airways is quite effective from the perspective of long term sustainability of the company in the market. The company recruits the candidates who are quite aligned with the management philosophy of the organization which allows the company to achieve its goal in the most effective manner (Bamber 2009).

Motivational theory and reward:

For the purpose of getting success in contemporary environment, the contribution of employees is quite essential phenomenon. In this context, only by motivating the employees, an organization can induce its employees to give their best performance in the favour of the organization. As per the expectancy theory of motivation, an employee can perform his best when he realised that his efforts are being recognized by the management. In this case, reward system can be a crucial measure available to the management to show its concern regarding the efforts of the employee. Rewards can be in both monetary and non monetary terms. For instance, Pfizer, multinational pharmaceutical company, provides some intensive bonus, gifts, and tour packages for its sales force for achieving the targets. These measures help the company to boost the moral of its sales force and achieving the target set by the management (Armstrong 2011)

Job evaluation process and pay structure:

For motivating an employee, an organization needs to value the skill, knowledge and efforts of the employee. In this context, the evaluation of a Job performed by the employees can be a good measure. The Job evaluation determines the worth of the Job done by an employee in comparison to other. The pay structure should be quite aligned with the job evaluation process. In this context, Wall-Mart a giant retailer across the globe, employ a frequent job evaluation framework for its different outlets. On the basis of the evaluation of the job, the management come to know about the worth of job done by employee. The company undertake this data for revising the pay grades of its employees. The company sets its wage structure as per the qualification, skills, accountability and problem solving skills of the employee (Gary 2010).

Effectiveness of reward systems in 2 different situations:

Reward system of an organization helps the organization to enhance the efficiency of the operations of the organization. In different conditions, the reward system motivates the employees in different manner. The effectiveness of the reward system varies according to the situation faced by the organization. For instance, at growth stage of an organization, the reward system conceives less amount of importance as in such conditions the company enjoys the favourable market conditions. Sales, revenues and profits of organization the organization remains quite high that period of time. Owing to such favourable conditions, the employees of the organization are quite self motivated. They require lesser amount of motivation. In such conditions reward system of the organization is effective only in terms of boosting the profits up to a desired level.

In addition to this, at time of recession, when the company has to face problems related with revenues and profits generation, there is a need of employing some intensive strategies for motivating employees. In such situations the reward system can be proved quite effective from the perspective of success and sustainability of the organization. Rewards system induces the employees of the organization to achieve some predetermined target, which is quite essential for the existence of the organization at time of recession (Gary 2010).

Methods for monitoring employee performance:

Performance measurement is an important task performed by the HRM department of an organization. There are a number of different methods employed by the management of organization for monitoring the overall performance of the employee. Such methods of performance monitoring include sudden inspection, daily reporting system, supervisor’s feedback, and benchmarking strategy and so on. An organization can employ one of the most suitable performance monitoring strategies as per its requirements and available resources.

For example, Pfizer employs the method of benchmarking and Daily reporting system for keeping eyes over the performance of the employee. In benchmarking method, the company set a target for a specific period of time, for different department. This target is set on different basis like for marketing it will be terms of sales and for manufacturing department its will be in terms of production. Further for monitoring the performance, the actual performance of the organization is measured against the benchmark performance (Lussier 2011).

In addition to this, the company employs an automotive reporting system on which the employee needs to report his daily activities to the upper level management so that they can keep eye on daily activities of the employee.

Reasons for cessation of employment:

Cessation or termination of employment can be taken place for three prime reasons listed as below:

Voluntary cessation: When an employee resigns from the organization for his personal reason, it can be classified as the voluntary reasons for termination. An employee can terminate himself from the organization for availing growth or for his personal reasons. For example, if an employee finds a better opportunity in other company, he can resign from the company. However for availing voluntary termination the employee needs to comply with exit procedure of the company.
Involuntary cessation: In this type of cessation, the organization can terminate the employee on some strong basis. The termination takes place due to poor performance of the employee, fake documentation provided by the employee at the time of joining, harassment, dishonesty, theft and incompliance with the rule and regulation of the organization. For instance, if an employee is on leave for a long time without any information, the management can terminate him on disciplinary grounds.
Recession: Recession can be reason which enforces the company to reduce its workforce. For example in recent economic crisis, many banks of the UK like Barclays undertook cessation for decreasing their cost (Selwyn 2006).

Employment exit procedure:

Employment exit procedure of Pfizer:

The procedure employed by the company is quite systematic. An employee, who wants to resign, needs to give an official notice to the company before 15 days of reliving. Further he has to hand over all the properties of the company like ID card, any accessories and so on and serve a notice period as per the rules of the organization. At the end of the notice period, he can leave the company.

Employment exit procedure of British Airways:

The British Airways employs a sophisticated procedure for employments exit. The employee needs to give prior notice before resigning. After receiving the notice an exit interview is conducted with the employee. In such interviews the reasons of resigning are discussed and feedback regarding the policies and procedures of the organization are taken (Porter and Prince 2010).

Impact of the legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangements

There is a significant impact of legal and regulatory framework on employment cessation arrangement of the organization. As per the legal and regulatory authorities, there is a need of employing a proper procedure for the cessation planning of the employee. In this regard, it is mandatory for the management as well as employee to give proper notice regarding the reasons for the termination. As per the regulatory framework an organization, the organization can not terminate the employee with out having a strong reason. In addition to this, the management also requires to take an exit interview with the employee so that the fair exit of the employee can be taken place (Davenport, Crotty, Torres, and International Labour Office 2000).

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