Assignment 1 (Factors Involved in HR Planning) Unit 16 (HR Management) PDF

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Factors Involved in HR Planning UNIT 16- HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS | BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business | 29/09/202

Introduction This report consists of 3 parts, these parts are a further explanation about the factors that are involved with the HR planning of John Lewis Partnership. This report will be explaining and describing the internal and external factors that the business John Lewis Partnership, must take into consideration when planning any human resources requirements. Furthermore this report will also explain how important is skills for an employee at the busines , it will explain which skills are required and which skills an employee through time will gain, and finally this assignment will consist with the importance of human resource planning. John Lewis Partnership is a very popular brand that has high end department stores all over the UK. The brand mostly sells general merchandise, meaning that John Lewis sells everything except groceries which is sold at a different store name called Waitrose. John Lewis Partnership which was formerly called just John Lewis has a total of 42 stores all over Britain, Ireland, and Australia. Before explaining and describing what internal and external factors are involved in HR planning, business must know what HR management and HR planning consists of: Human Resource Management is when the HR department in a business, makes sure that they manage all the employees, also taking into consideration that everything that has to do with the employees and taken care of. Human Resource planning has the objective of identifying which are the ongoing and future human resources that are necessary for John Lewis Partnership to achieve the business’s goal. HR planning is when the business ensures that the “right number of people have the right skills and are working in the right place”.HR planning is one of the most crucial elements that allows the business to be on a competitive level. And human resources planning has two factors which are the internal and external factors.

Internal Factors Within the internal factors of human resources planning these are factors which must be controlled by the business. These are things which happen inside of the business that have an impact on how business copes with new changes and how it affects the business internally. An example of an internal factor is organisational needs.

Organisational needs Businesses like John Lewis Partnership are all always constantly changing their human resources requirements just so that the business can adapt to certain changes. For John Lewis Partnership they are they monthly planning how they are going to sell new products, so they need to know if they have the right people with the right skills that are capable to

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sell these products, and if they find any gap of skills with their employees in this case they would need to conduct a recruitment and training program. Like for example if John Lewis is selling new technology products they would need to recruit a specialist in this area, because this specialist will have a better understanding and will know how to advice a customer while if the Technology department at John Lewis did not have a specialist in this area they would have to conduct a training and recruitment program and find other people to fill the job description. For the moment John Lewis has not expand their company to other different countries expect Ireland and Australia but they are developing every year and have now implemented a new strategy of shopping which is the click and collect, selfscanning, and this attracts new customers meaning the business will expand but there is a downside for the self-scanning which means that there will be less people working at the cashier but people with IT skills will needed at the self-checkout in case there is a technical issue and by John Lewis implementing new ideas for the business will mean that they will need to recruit different employees for different job roles, because every departments requires different people with different skills. Organisational needs encourages the business to adapt to its new environment and for example if John Lewis wanted to open a new store in Spain and start operating internationally they would need consider recruiting people who have retail experience and speak fluent Spanish. And not just the business that needs to adapts to changes but also the employee, for example during the summer is where more people tend to do more shopping so employees must be aware of that and need the adapt themselves to the summer period which will very busy.

Workforce Profile The workforce profile is the process which the Human Resources department analyses all their data and the workforce profile considers important elements which have an influence toward the growth of the business, and the managers of the business can monitor what types of employees they have working for John Lewis, these can include things such as age information, gender information, demographic information and others. For a business-like John Lewis it is very important for the managers to know the age of the workplace, because this will make them is what is the age rate for their company and will also help the human resource department know if they are fairly recruiting, and not discriminating against young and older people, so this allows them to see the age rate for young and older people working for the business, and if there is a gap between this will mean that the human resource department can have recruitment and training programs to fill the gap between the younger and older generation. Managers of the business can profile people by qualifications, skills and work experience, and this will allow the managers to see at what level of skills they have within the workplace. Other workforce profile factors that the business must be aware of is if they operating under the legislation requirements, expect having a gap between young and old people, because nowadays technology is a big factor, and if John Lewis only employs people are old, they won’t have the same technological experience as people who are younger, and also some of them will not adapt themselves to these in technological changes, but the busines must constantly be training their staff so

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that they don’t feel behind and have the appropriate skills (young or old). To the older people the business needs to track of how many older people work for the business so that the government and business know how many people will retire this year and start looking for people to fill their job roles. Many businesses nowadays including John Lewis use online human resource systems so that they can keep a track of their employees’ information and record everything like, qualifications, skills, training and others.

Skills Requirement Skills are a very important part of the human resource planning, and of the workforce, skills are essential because if how the business can identify what areas their employees to, need to focus more. How people work nowadays keeps constantly changing, especially with the technology now very advanced, people work differently now. The HR department at John Lewis must know what level of skills their employees have so that they identify what area the employee will make use of their skills. As explained in the definition above of Human Resource Planning John Lewis must evaluate the skills of their employees so that are the right place and right time with the right skills.

External Factors External planning factors are those which the company has absolutely no control over. These factors can be market changes, technological changes, economic changes, political/legal and social changes. These are factors which impact a business, but the business cannot control it, so they would need to adapt during these changes.

Supply of labour John Lewis must ensure that their employees have the right skills and qualifications for the business. Because supply of labuor is the number of employees who are willing and able to work in any specific job with any given wage rate. There are many factors that affect labour supply because of the level of work available. And John Lewis must that international labour is a factor because many people who live in the UK come from different countries, meaning that they have to consider changing the way the recruit employees because, if a person who is not from the UK tries to apply for a job at John Lewis and the wage rate is low, this person will most likely go a different business if a higher wage. Higher wages are factor increase the level of people who want to work. And John Lewis must make sure that their wage rate is not just attractive for people who are UK citizens but also for people who come from a different country. Not just the wage rate but there are other factors that may also be important, like for example if John Lewis does not have great working conditions, this is will make the employee not work, the employee must feel safe, stress-free while at the workplace. Job satisfaction is another factor because sometimes employees can be at low paid job, but if the working conditions and job satisfaction are great the employee will most definitely choose the job with better conditions, which he will feel satisfied than a job with higher pay, but does not satisfy the employee. And finally having a convenient job which is

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nearby and flexible will help the employee with things the person maybe committed, like picking children from school or going to school, these are things which increase supply of labour and will make the employee go to work.

Labour cost Another external factor is labour cost and this is the total of all wages that have been paid to employees, and other things such as employee benefits, payroll taxed which have been paid by the employer. Labour cost is involved with the process of employing people, so this means that John Lewis must take in to consideration how many people they will recruit so that it matches with the business’s capital, because if John Lewis does not have enough capital, the business will not be able to recruit anyone, because they must gave money to cover all their expenses and pay the employees their wages. Sometimes businesses like John Lewis tend to spend an average of 70% of their capital just for labour cost and this can mean that the business may have to many employees and they need to cut down employees, and they can do this by using the employee information and they will plan how they will try to decrease labour cost by dismissing employees or recruiting them to a different department. John Lewis must classify their employees properly because this can drastically make the business save money, because misclassify an employee can cost the business money.

Workforce skills John Lewis needs to make sure that they always update themselves with the National statistics because the information provided from their can help the business see what is the level of suitable skills available in their local area and region is, this will also help them see to what level potential employees are available. Using this information is an advantage for the business because in the future they attract people with the right skills for the right department. But sometimes for example if John Lewis recruits to many people with the same skill this will mean that the business will be overpaying employees to do all the same job. But not just the employer the employees must have certain skills to fulfill their job requirements, meaning that the employee must be qualified, so they can do their job and deliver good service.

Government Policy These are policies which are regulated by the government, businesses are obligated to follows these policies. Government policies have a big influence on the business because these are factors which are uncontrolled by the business. Like for example by the government implementing flexible working hours, employees now have the right to work hours which is flexible with their other commitments. Every law which the government implements every business must comply with it. Because John Lewis operates within the UK and Australia they must comply with the UK and Australian working regulations meaning that they must abide with national and international laws. For example an employee for John Lewis can be British or from the European Union and just provide their

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proof of working, while in Australia, except if you are Australian every who wants to work their must need a Visa, and if a company employees someone who is not legally able to work the employee and employer can face serious consequences, so John Lewis must always be aware of these regulations and follow them correctly, because otherwise the government can take legal sanctions against them. After further research there were many factors about HR planning which are explained and detailed like for example, there are two factors which internal and external factors which impact the business, and these factor can make these go down or go up, because businesses must always know that at any time external and factors will impact the because like for example during this difficult time of a global pandemic, which an external factor John Lewis and other businesses adapted themselves around it, so that they can continue selling products.

Skills sets for John Lewis Retail businesses like John Lewis, the employer must identify certain skills, which are called skills sets. Skill sets these are personal abilities, knowledge and experience that an employee needs to perform a job, these skills sets can be used in specific areas like human relations, IT skills, organization and leadership skills and that business look for when they want hire someone. When John Lewis is conducting a recruitment and selection process the employer is able to identify which are skillsets of the employee, by looking at the person’s CV and see what qualifications this person has, and after that the employer can train the employee and see if the skills need to be improved or of they are already fine for the job role. For business like John Lewis they are many skills required, starting off with an employee who works as a sales advisor at the store, they must have great communicational skills to help and understand customers, another important skill for a business like John Lewis the employee must have business knowledge, this is very important because an employee must do research and know who are the key customer, this person does not necessarily need to work at the store level, they can be a part of the business strategic department, doing research and having business knowledge will make the employee understand and know who are their competitors and what will their market target. Lastly being with an employee works at the self-checkout they must have IT skills and these skills are very important nowadays, some job do not require IT skills but is always good have some knowledge of it like for things like till handling, stock control, because this is the business has its own computer software then it’s likely that the employee needs to IT skills, Additionally, working at a retail store requires that every employee must definitely have basic numeracy skills, because from doing till transactions up to stock handling and others things numeracy is involved in it, so numeracy is a very important skills for anyone who want to work for John Lewis and other retail businesses and so.

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Skills Audit Skills audit is a process or assessment which the business conducts so that they can identify, gaps between skills within the business, it is a way of reviewing the employee, with the already existing skills or developing skills, summing up skills audit identifies is an employee needs training or needs to do a personal development. Sometimes in retail businesses like John Lewis employees might have already the required skills that the business requires, but may not be using them, but if the business does a skills audit then will find the potential this employee and move them to a different department where they be able to sue their skills, which will help them business. Sometimes in retail businesses the employer does not want to find new people to do certain jobs for they take the existing employees and transfer them to different department with different skills and this process is named skills transferability.

Skills transferability These are skills which can be transferred meaning, that these are skills which are helpful across different areas within the business and outside of it. Normally these are general skills that can be used for innumerable jobs, these are skills that acquire during past jobs, trainings, home life and others. This is a great way of showing your employer how versatile and adaptable you can be, in some cases when the employer see how versatile the employee is they will normally move that person to a different department or tell them to keep developing their skills. For employees at John Lewis there are many transferable skills that must have, and these are: patience with customers and colleagues, multi-tasking, teamwork, and other. Because these are skills that can be used in any department at John Lewis. For example, if a person used to work for a call center and now is for John Lewis as a cashier or customer service adviser, this person will have a better interaction with customer because of his experience from previous with customer service.

Skills acquisition Skills acquisition is when employers make sure that their employees are always being trained and are learning new skills, because in case a someone leaves the business the employer will not have to find someone outside they can use another person who works for business, because they know the skills and they acquire them because the employer was making sure that employee’s where being trained. The downfall of training is that it cost money and time, but is great that the business trains their employees because they wont have a shortage of staff, and their employee and most likely to constantly be learning new skills, and they can do other available jobs, inside or outside of the business. The process of skills acquisition is very important because the employee will perform more effectively, and this will increase productivity with the workplace.

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Impact on Technology Technology is changing and is evolving even more, and is changing the way people are working now, and impacts the number of people that organisation employees. Technology has helped many businesses like John Lewis, because they are able to keep a track of their money, and all accounts, and thing like online shopping, which eliminates people have physical contact and shopping inside a store where they can just do it from home and have someone deliver it for them, or with the new strategy people can click and collect. For the John Lewis store technology helps them a lot because employees are able keep a balance of their inventory without needing to go to warehouse and checking it out, where they can just see it from the stores inventory software, which many stores have now, which helps reduce the time employees need to look for product. They can also track customer satisfaction, by asking the customer their email and sending receipts and asking how the level of their instore experience was. Technology has also made a huge impact on the hour’s employees have to work, some employee can now work from home and do not necessarily need to come to the business during the five days of the week. People who work for the customer service department will acquire and learn new skills such as enquiry emails, telephone calls, rather than stay at the store the whole day, making the employee feel non satisfied. Technology has made a huge impact in everything people do in their daily lives and so it will continue to change, it is just a factor that business will have adapt themselves with.

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