HRM Overview at McDonald's

Executive Summary

In this report, the overview regarding HRM and workforce planning are mentioned. Human Resource Management (HRM) at the Mc Donald’s performs different function and has specific purpose to ensure proper control and dealing of human resource in the organisation. These purpose and functions are to be discussed in the report. The way functions related to HRM offer skill as well as talent needed for fulfilling objectives of business in McDonald is also to be discussed. Later, the strength and weakness of various approaches related to selection as well as recruitment implemented by McDonalds is to be explained. Lastly, the importance of different HRM practices and the critical evaluation of such practices implemented by McDonalds is to be informed in this report.

1. Introduction

Human resource management is a nature of strategic approach that is implemented by the companies to ensure better management of the employees and staffs so that they assist the organisation for attaining competitive advantage in the market. In this report, the purpose as well as function of HRM and the advantages and disadvantages of different HRM approaches and practices used in McDonalds is to be discussed.

2. Overview of Workforce planning and HRM

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the procedure of selecting and recruiting employees, inducting staffs, offer work orientation, training and development of employees, appraisal of the employee performance, providing compensation, motivating employees, maintaining effective employee relations and others (Guest, 2017). This means that HRM is concerned with proper management of the staffs and employees or any nature of workforce in the organisation so that they have proper resource in the form of human to run their business to ensure effective production and delivery of goods and services in the market to earn profit and revenue. The Workforce planning is the procedure used for arranging the needs and priorities of the organisation with its workforce to make sure the process meet the service, regulatory, legislative and production requirements along with the objectives of the organisation (De Bruecker et al. 2015). The workforce planning is beneficial for the organisation as it helps to identify properly talented employees, retain staffs, determine skill gaps and support the budget of the organisation (Lopes et al. 2015). This is because during workforce planning the work activities within the organisation are set in such a way so that the specific needs and demands if the employees are met ensuring them satisfaction to work.

3. Explaining the purpose and function of HRM that are applicable to workforce planning and resourcing in the organisation

The Human Resource Management (HRM) at the Mc Donald’s performs different function and has specific purpose to ensure proper control and dealing of human resource in the organisation. As commented by Shantz et al. (2016), the purpose of the HRM is to coordinate employees at the organisation for instigating them to work effectively so that better profit and productivity is achieved by the business institution. In McDonalds, the HRM has a similar purpose where they try to motivate the employees by providing positive work environment, compensation, rewards and others to work with maximum productive ideology and performance to improve the business of the organisation so that it can achieve to bet at a competitive advantage in the market (www.cipd.co.uk, 2015). The function of the HRM includes workforce planning and employment, development of human resource, policy formulation, arrange rewards, manage labour relations and execute risk management of the employees along with work environment (Keegan et al. 2018). In McDonalds, the HRM perform all these functions within the organisation. As asserted by Glaister et al. (2018), workforce planning and employment are performed by the HRM so that proper numbers of staffs are present in the organisation to ensure their productivity. Thus, HRM of McDonalds performs this function so that required employees and staffs are managed within the organisation to support the productivity of goods as per market demand. The policy formulation, managing labour relations, risk management and rewards are arranged for the employees of Mc Donald’s by the HR manager because this way they are able to retain the human resource required for fulfilling the goals and objectives of the organisation which is also their function (www.mcdonalds.com, 2018). The hard model of HRM indicates the HR manager has the function to recruit and selection talented employees and the soft model indicates the HR manager have the function to provide reward and appraisal to the employees (Michael, 2017). The HRM of the McDonalds follows the functions accordingly as it helps them to recruit talented employees and show value to their existing staffs to make them retained with the organisation (www.mcdonalds.com, 2018).

4. Assessing the way functions of HRM offer talent and skill required to fulfil business objectives

The workforce planning and employment along with training and development of the staffs as the function of the HRM is to provide talent and skill needed for fulfilling objectives of the business (Baum, 2018). This is because effective workforce planning and employment help in selection and recruitment of best-talented individuals from the market those have skills and talents needed for fulfilment of the business objectives of the organisation. It is evident as while performing the workforce planning and employment function by the HRM of the McDonald they select required talented employees in the organisation who can act to fulfil the business objectives through scrutiny, examination and interviewing of wide range of candidates from the industry (www.mcdonalds.com, 2018). The training and development function of the HRM of McDonald is able to provide required talent and skill for the organisation to fulfil their business objective (www.mcdonalds.com, 2018). This is because while arranging training and development the HR focuses on improving the existing skill and talent of the employees to make them competent in fulfilment of the objectives of the business which the employees were not previously able to accomplish (Tarique et al. 2015).

5. Critically evaluating strength and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection the organisation

The McDonalds uses both external and internal recruitment and selection approaches. As asserted by Bogićević-Milikić (2019), internal recruitment and selection is the process in which the business fulfils the vacancy by choosing employees from the existing workforce or by selecting employees that are referred internally by the existing staffs in the organisation. The approach is used by McDonalds as they feel it helps to recruit individuals who are previously known by them as talented or select employees regarding whom they have detailed background knowledge to understand how well they are sustained with the organisation. The strength of internal recruitment approach is that it is cost-effective in nature as well as inspire morale of the employees by improvising retention as existing employees to able to achieve promotion in grade through the process (Diaz‐Carrion et al. 2018). Thus, McDonald’s uses internal requirement as it helps them to provide value to the existing employees to make them work with better attention as well as require less expenditure to fulfil workforce demand. The weakness of internal recruitment is that the approach lack to ensure diversity and fails to recruit new talents from the market who are better than the existing employees (Li et al. 2016). Thus, using the internal recruitment approach leads McDonalds to experience loss of improved talent to be recruited.

In order to avoid the limitations of the internal recruitment, McDonalds also uses external recruitment approach as this mixed way of selection and employment of workforce helps them to avoid weakness experienced while using any approach single-handedly. The external recruitment includes selection and employment of candidates through campus recruitment, employment agencies, job advertisement and others (Chang and Chin, 2018). The McDonalds follows the process to accomplish the approach which has helped them to experience the benefits related to it. One of the strengths of external recruitment is that it helps to maintain diversity by selecting talented employees from the external environment, in turn, avoiding risk of conflicts and partiality as seen through internal recruitment approach (Waxin et al. 2018). However, the limitation with external recruitment process is that it is time-consuming in nature and needs huge among of finances as well as often fails to get proper detailed background of employees to be recruited to determine whether they can sustain with the organisation to work effectively (Van Berkel et al. 2017). Thus, McDonalds while using external recruitment approaches experiences the limitation of spending increased time and money to employ individuals as well as be unsure of the sustainable efficiency of the selected candidate to work with the organisation.

6. Exploring the effectiveness of different HRM practices in the mentioned organisation

The HRM practices performed in McDonalds include reward and appraisal, training and development, employee monitoring and management and others. As mentioned by Andreeva et al. (2017), rewards and appraisal act as remuneration for employees that helps them to feel valued for their work effort. This creates effective result in improving the productivity as well as boosts revenue and profit earnings of the organisation as out of value through the rewards employees feel added zeal to offer better quality work and services to ensure higher competitive position of the organisation. However, in McDonalds, it is seen that proper rewards and appraisals are not provided that lead them to experience lower revenue compared to previous year in 2018 which is evident as the revenue collected in 2018 was US$21.025 billion whereas in 2017 it was US$22.280 (corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018a). As commented by Dhar (2015), training and development of employees help to improve the existing skills and talent of the employees to work with better efficiency. This is effective for McDonalds to have improved performance of the employees as fewer problems are faced by them because the improved talent through tanning makes them help to cope with difficulties at work in an improved way. In McDonalds, the training and development of the employees are not properly operated due to which the existing staffs are unable to show improved talent in executing work activities to ensure better profit and competitive position of the company (corporate.mcdonalds.com, 2018a). The employee monitoring and management HRM practice are effective for the organisation to determine the needs and demands of the employees as well as understand the employee performance (Holland et al. 2015). This is effective for McDonalds as it assists them to understand what aspects are required to be focused in training of employees and the needs to be fulfilled so that positive working environment can be maintained within the organisation.

7. Critical evaluation of HRM practices and application

The training and development HRM practice is beneficial to develop talented employees in the organisation who can contribute to ameliorate the productivity and competitive position of the business in the industry (Law et al. 2017). This benefit is not experienced by McDonalds as their training and development practices are poor which do not allows the employees effective support to improve their skills to work in a better way to improve productivity of the company. It is evident as the revenue collection has fallen as well as poor financial performance is seen in case of McDonalds. The employee monitoring and management are performed in a hindered way in McDonalds which is evident from the poor performance of the organisation as well as services from employees in the market (Pierce et al. 2015). For instance, improper employee monitoring and management have lead to improper hygiene at the organisation which is evident as filthy condition of the McDonalds kitchen is being found (www.dailystar.co.uk, 2018). The employees performs poorly in case effective monitoring and management is not done as the employees due to lack of supervision or management opportunity do not have proper direction and knowledge regarding the way they are to work (Mone and London, 2018). The reward and appraisal are beneficial to motivate the employees to work with added zeal out of feeling of value (Rusu et al. 2016). In case of McDonalds, it is seen that improper rewards and hindered appraisal are provided that has made employees feel uninspired to work effectively to promote productivity of the organisation.

8. Conclusion

The above discussion informs that HRM of McDonalds has the purpose of improving the productivity of the organisation by retaining proper workforce. The functions of its HRM include recruitment and selection, employee policy formation and others. The HRM practices implemented by McDonalds are training and development, appraisal and rewards, employee monitoring and management. The organisation implements both external and internal recruitment and selection approach to maintain workforce.