Human Resource Activities

Human Resource Activities

Task 1: Human Resource Activities at ASDA

The Human Resource Management or personnel function of ASDA covers a variety of activities. The term 'Human Resource Management' has largely replaced the old-fashioned word 'personnel', which was used in the past.

The types of work covered in the Human resource function might include the following:

·A Policy-making role - This is important because the Human resourcesdepartment need to be making big policies thatcover the place of work and the importance of thepeople in ASDA.

·A Welfare role - The welfare role concerned with taking care ofpeople in the work place including their needs.

·A Supporting role - This role is concerned with helping department managers appoint and train new workers.

·A Bargaining and negotiating role - They are concerned with acting as a "go-between" different groups and interests (e.g. between Trade Union and management.

·An Administrative role - The administrative role are concerned with the payment of wages, the supervision and carrying out health and safety laws.

·An educational and development role - Concerned with helping in the education and development of the workforce (e.g. training employees for higher positions)

Labour Turnover

The effectiveness with which ASDA runs its Human Resources policies can be measured by the level of employee satisfaction, and this is where stability indexes and wastage rates are so important. If employees are content with their work, they are most likely to turn up for work. Levels of stress and stress-related absenteeism increase when there is a poor Human relations atmosphere.

Sickness and Accident Rates

ASDA keeps a record of the following:

·Notified absences. When employees are going to be absent from work (e.g. to attend a funeral, a hospital appointment, a wedding, etc...)

·Absences due to sickness. Employees will need to produce a Doctors note so that they are entitled to sickness benefits, etc...)

·Unauthorised absences. When employees simply do not turn up for work, without telling anyone.

As a result of these records, ASDA can record absences as a percentage of the hours/days, etc..., that could possibly have been worked. Absence records can be kept for individual employees, and for the workforce as a whole.

Such a detailed statistical enables ASDA to keep an eye on where problems lie - with an individual, with a particular section of workers or with ASDA as a whole. Comparisons can then be made with other workers and with past records (for the individual employee), with other teams/sections (for team/section) in ASDA and with comparable organizations (e.g. Tesco, J Sainsbury or Safeway). Breaking down the statistics further highlights whether the problem lies with sickness or with unauthorized absence. And by keeping these records for a number of years, it is possible to established trends.

Absences should be measured as a percentage of total time, for example, if an employee is due to work for 40 hours in the week but turns up for work for 32 hours only, then his or her absences level is:

Accident rate are calculated by recording the number of accidents at work. ASDA have a Health and Safety committee with the responsibility ...