The Snow Mountain Hotel Management Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Business partnering is about changing the focus of HR and customising it to the needs of individual business partners within set boundaries, it can be achieved by the proactive approach of all partners. All parties have to work together to find the most suitable solution and it has to be the result of the work of all partners.

HR has to transform itself into a "value added function that delivers results" according to Ulrich (1997) there are four key roles that HR Professionals must fulfil in order to make their business partnership a reality.

Ulrich (1997) says there are four phases which need to be completed in order for transformation to take place these phases are broken down into:

Why are we doing HR transformation?

HR transformation is done to better respond to a business context. The context responds to external drivers such as general, environmental, political, social, economic, global and demographic factors that change the world we live in.

What do we get if the HR transformation is performed well?

The benefits are the capabilities the companies needs to compete and when. What the company is good at doing i.e. Apple are good at innovation, General Electric are good at leadership. Whatever the company needs to be good at becomes the outcome of the HR transformation.

How do we do Transformation?

This is achieved in 3 parts and gets the most attention, the 1st part of that is how we change the HR department. The HR department need a structure and a strategy to deliver against the expectations. HR needs to be transformed in order to build a good HR department and they need a set of HR practices, the people they hire, the performance management systems, the communication systems they have and the organisation they structure. The department needs to be focused and organised and the practices need to be aligned and innovative. HR people have the competencies for the future.

Who does it - looks at who has what responsibilities

Line managers are ultimately responsible for transformation, HR professionals are the architects to take the lead at transformation, the employees are the recipients all of these people come together to make the business partner model.

When all of these phases come together a successful transformation can take place.

There are four key roles which are:

Strategic Partner who aligns HR and business strategy and undertakes organisational diagnosis

Administrative Expert who re-engineers the organisational processes through shared services

Employee Champion who listens and responds to employees and provides resources to employees

Change Agent who manages the transformation and change and ensures the capacity for change

Being a Strategic Partner involves working closely on strategy execution with senior business leaders, in particular designing HR systems and processes that deliver strategic business issues. HR structures and HR roles are not static and need to evolve to reflect changing business needs.

The benefits of using a business partner model mean that overall general costs can be reduced and it is more flexible than a merger or acquisition. According to Porter (1985) business partnering increases the "competitive advantage" this can be achieved through the co-operation and opportunities of revenues, occupation and investment. Employee's attitudes and behaviours should be more positive. HR has become central to business competitiveness and organisations need HR to deliver people who are skilled, creative, challenging, motivated, flexible and committed.

The potential disadvantages of implementing the model that need to be considered are a clear rationale needs to be set for the changes, without a clear rationale and vision the expected cost efficiencies may not be realised. Sufficient time needs to be allowed to ensure there is common understanding of what the role is and what adjustments are needed. Assumptions could be made regarding existing HR managers that they have the necessary skills and behaviours to move into a business partner role.

Shared Service Centres

Benefits of shared service centres

Shared service centres provide services which are needed by other parts of an organisation. There are two characteristic features of HR shared service centres one of which is that they offer a common service provision of routine HR administration and sometimes additional HR services such as payroll, IT, legal, and compliance. Also shared service centres are service-focused and enable customers to specify the level and nature of service.

Shared service centres offer benefits of sharing knowledge and best practices across organisations. This involves sharing best practice and HR processes and having the chance to pool together knowledge about what works across different parts of an organisation and enabling sharing of knowledge about customers and markets.

Internal & external drivers for developing shared service centres

External drivers are primary and should drive all leadership efforts. In order for this to grow it should constantly anticipate and adapt to changes in the external environment. The major drivers are political, economic, social and technological. In the case of Snow Mountain Hotel the main drivers for developing shared service centres are economic and technological changes, however customer behaviour could also be looked at.

Internal drivers for the development of a shared service centre include IT driven changes to integrate HR activates, administrative templates and support packs for line managers to enable them to handle recruitment and disciplinary procedures. Another driver is the transfer of professional HR expertise throughout the organisation.

Benefits and drawbacks of Shared Service Centres

The benefits from economies of scale and the elimination of duplication can reduce costs and improve efficiency. The improvement in the quality of service to customers through efficiency can improve accurate information and advice to customers. Sharing services can also reduce the threat of competition between different parts of the business. Greater structural flexibility and improved organisational learning are also a benefit and shared service centres can also take advantage of their own shared service expertise within their own centres. Higher and consistent standards are another advantage and shared services can free up time from routine processes that can be spent on value added tasks.

Disadvantages of shared service centres are organisations need to secure support across the board and one of the biggest challenges to overcome is the change in mindset and management. There can also be resistance from all areas so communication and education is paramount to ensure transition is as smooth as possible. Disputes could arise regarding ownership of activities and there maybe issues with trust. Cultural and political issues also need to be taken into account.

Snow Mountain will have to ensure the technical infrastructure and IT systems are fit for purpose and that they will run alongside other elements of the business model.

Devolution of HR Responsibilities to the Line Managers

Organisations have had changes in sources of competition, high unemployment and poor press reviews that have forced HR managers to seek new strategic innovations in an attempt to maintain competitive advantage. Critics such as Keenoy (1990) tend to see HRM as an instrumental approach to people management that is driven by market led activities that affect the business. This style of HRM is hard and is aimed at increasing competitive advantage and is enabled by the manipulation of the employees to benefit the company. Keenoy says "people are our best assets". This approach is exemplified in the strategic model of HRM developed by Fombrun et al (1984).

In contrast to this is soft HRM which emphasizes individuals and their self-direction. It places commitment and trust and is self-regulated and places employees at the centre of the strategy. As Keenoy (1990) concluded, in embracing the real power of strategic HRM, companies may have to renounce the "humane" side of HRM - where people only come first as a by-product of financial gain. The most well-known 'soft' model of HRM, known as the Harvard Model of HRM (Beer et al 1984), views business strategy as just one situational factor which influences management's approach to HRM.

Front line managers play an important role in terms of implementing and enacting HR policies and practices. Where employees feel a positive relationship between themselves and managers they tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty, which in turn is associated with higher levels of performance and discretionary behaviour. This extra performance can increase the profit levels.

By devolving HR to line managers it enables them to be closer to workplace issues and gives them the responsibility for enacting HR policies. This in turn allows for developing and monitoring HR policy and procedure. HR managers would be freed up from mundane tasks allowing them to be more involved in strategic business decisions.

Line managers can have a crucial impact on engagement as they act as the interface between the organisation and its workforce. It is therefore especially important to pay close attention to how the organisation selects, develops and manages the performance of line managers to ensure they maximise their potential to be engaging leaders.

Some of the drawbacks of this devolution are that line managers may lack the skills and competencies to allow them to deliver them. Line managers may also have a lack of interest for HR work and have competing priorities which in turn could lead to inconsistencies in applying HR policies. This can be seen in The Snow Mountain Case as the line managers have already expressed a negative attitude towards taking on more responsibility for HR work. They said that more than 40% of their time was taken up with HR related work. Line managers may be left frustrated by legal constraints or complain about having to consult with union representatives.

Practical issues that have to be addressed to ensure HR and the line managers are fully engaged

According to research by The Institute of Employment Studies (IES) published in Personnel Today "line managers play a crucial role in the creation of team spirit and engagement because they affect the atmosphere, focus and self-belief of their teams".

Line managers that are well managed are more likely to go on to lead high-performing teams. Senior management support and action on the development of line managers is critical. The relationships line managers experience with their own managers and with senior management tend to make a significant difference to their willingness to display discretionary behaviour in their own management activities.

Generally line managers are more likely to display the positive behaviours associated with higher levels of performance from those they are managing if they experience good career opportunities and support to progress their careers, a positive work-life balance, the capacity to participate and feel involved in decision-making, an open organisational culture that enables them to air a grievance or discuss matters of personal concern and a sense of job security.

Line managers would need to work closely with HR managers to ensure they felt supported in delivering their new HR strategies. Training and development programs would also need to be in place.

Conclusion

Going forward Snow Mountain Hotel should think about a shared service centre which can deliver HR functions. The use of the self-service E-HR would reduce costs and allow HR to become strategic. Line managers and HR specialists needed to work in partnership. For example, recruitment and selection frameworks need to be set by HR but line managers should make decisions, if necessary with clear support from the HR function. By working closely with the HR Director who has a clear idea of a change agenda where HR is freed of its administrative burden, it will be able to concentrate on value-added strategic activities. Business targets may be reduced as HR managers will have the necessary skills and motivation to achieve business targets. Through proper training line managers will have the ability to take on new HR responsibilities. The introduction of new technology would allow restructuring of service systems and the devolution of greater responsibility for people management to line managers.