HRM FUNCTIONS:

POLICY AND PRACTICE

(BRITISH MODEL)
ENGR. JOSE ANGELO S. KARAGDAG, MPA
DPA 413 – COMPARATIVE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM
DR.ANTONIO M. MACARANAS, DBA, CESO VI
HRM FUNCTIONS: POLICY AND
PRACTICE (BRITISH MODEL)
 HR policies and procedures give guidance on a range of employment
issues for employees
 They plays a significant role in practically and effectively implementing
an organization’s HR strategy
 give consistency and straightforwardness for employees and managers
 mental agreement and make a positive authoritative culture
 the people responsible for developing policies in different-sized
organisations
 gives guidance on implementing HR policies, from auditing to
benchmarking, consultation and drafting of new policies, to ongoing
review
HR POLICIES
 HR policies are a written source of guidance
 description of principles, rights and responsibilities for
managers and employees
 supporting fairness and consistency across an organisation
 to protect the organisation against legal claims
 it’s their effective communication and implementation,
particularly by line managers, that’s crucial in ensuring their
effectiveness
LINKS BETWEEN HR POLICIES,
PROCEDURES AND STRATEGY
HR policies should support the wider strategy through adopting a tailored
approach that reflects the size and unique culture of the organisation.

 HR strategy is a statement or framework determining how HR can support

business or organisational objectives
 HR policies provide general and practical advice and guidance for
managers and staff
 HR procedures support and supplement HR policies where appropriate by
giving a step-by-step account of specific arrangements

HR policies should flow from HR strategies and complement HR procedures.

WHY INTRODUCE HR
POLICIES?
 play an important role in supporting cultures of trust, fairness and inclusion
 can impact on employee motivation, organisation reputation and the ability
to attract and retain talent
 can support the attitudes and behaviours needed for sustainable
performance
 HR policies can also improve the speed of decision-making
 HR policies can help avoid involvement with employment tribunal claims
too
 HR policies and procedures are specifically needed to comply with the law
 employers often find it helpful to have a policy in place to provide clear
guidance that reflects the legal framework
WHY INTRODUCE HR
POLICIES?
Organisations introduce or review specific HR policies for a range of
reasons including:

 To reflect and comply with existing or new legislation and case law.
 To support business strategy.
 To follow the latest developments in effective people management.
 To deal with internal change.
 To comply with head office/parent-company guidance
 For smaller organisations, a desire to develop a more formal and
consistent approach that will meet their needs as they grow.
WHO DEVELOPES HR
POLICIES?
Organisations often develop formal HR policies as they increase in size
although there is no set formula to help organisations determine the point
in their development at which they need to employ people professionals.

Typical examples of practice across organisations of differing sizes

include:
 Small organisations
 Medium organisations
 Large organisations
GUIDELINES FOR INTRODUCING
AND REVIEWING HR POLICIES
 Assess/audit current practices and what already exists, whether formal or informal.
 Research and benchmark against other organisations' practice, particularly in the same sector
or location.
 Consult with staff representatives and/or unions.
 Establish steering groups/working parties to develop the policy.
 Set realistic timescales.
 Pilot draft policies.
 Give specific guidance to managers.
 Include the policies as part of the induction process.
 Have a continuous review process.
 Ensure policies are complementary, flexible, practical and enforceable.
GUIDELINES FOR INTRODUCING
AND REVIEWING HR POLICIES
Writing and formatting HR policies
 All policies should be written in plain English and avoid jargon
 it’s useful include a short glossary
 It’s also helpful to include the date of publication
 Policies should also indicate who to approach with queries about the
content
 It’s important not to assume that the policies in place are always the
right ones
 Others might be reviewed in the event of legislative developments or
simply on an ad hoc basis
GUIDELINES FOR INTRODUCING
AND REVIEWING HR POLICIES
Communicating HR policies

 Turning HR policy into practice requires working across the

business
 The format for communications will depend on the
organisational culture and nature of the policies.
 managers have a clear understanding of the policies
 have the capability to implement policies sensitively and fairly
 Induction plays a key role in making sure new employees are
aware of all the policies and procedures within an organisation.
POLICIES REQUIRED BY
UK LAW
 Policies play an important role in outlining an
organisation’s approach to various HR matters
 business policy defines your mission
 very few are legally required
 great deal of these are strongly recommended
 best practice perspective and are more commonplace
EMPLOYMENT POLICIES
There are some important policies your business will
need to be compliant with British law. These are:

 Equal opportunities.
 Health & safety.
 Equality and diversity.
 Discipline/dismissal and grievance.
POLICY THAT A SMALL
BUSINESS SHOULD HAVE
You may want to consider creating personalised policies to suit your
business or industry. So what are the list of policies a company should
have?
1. Equal opportunities
2. Fair disciplinary hearings
3. Personal data
4. Lateness and time-off
5. Company ethics
6. Environmental policies
7. Equal pay
COMPANY POLICIES
REQUIRED BY UK LAW
There are only three that British law requires.

 Health & safety policy.

 Disciplinary and dismissal policies.
 Grievance policy.
THE CONTEXT FOR HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN UK
PUBLIC SERVICE
 As in other areas of public administration, responsibility for
human resource management is highly delegated
 The Centre has progressively delegated responsibility in
most areas to departments and agencies
 the civil service pension scheme and the senior civil service
 the pervasive influence of the political agenda of the
Conservative government
 decentralised management is one of them
 performance-related pay is another.
DEVELOPMENT
MANAGEMENT
 Concentrate on training and development in British
public service
 Dealt specifically with the role of line functionaries in
the identification of trainees and the place of
accelerated training
 Other sub-headings specified in the project brief are
not dealt with as they do not relate easily to the
British experience
DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
A model of good practice
 From a professional point of view an old-fashioned view of training and
development emerges from the material, emanating mainly from the Department of
Public Service and Administration (DPSA)
 Training is equated with development, and is seen as the responsibility of
specialist training agencies
 essential shift in modern training and development has been from a training model
 line manager as the key facilitator and with training courses away from work
playing a supporting role
 the learning organisation
 emergence of integrated training course designs which are learner-centred
 production of detailed action plans and to support for trainees
 should be integrated with the overall strategic direction of the organisation
DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Training and development in the British civil service
 Central responsibility. act as a “broker of good practice”
 Staff have specialist responsibilities - topics covered are performance
management
 Training is being taken increasingly seriously at the Centre
 managers are unwilling to invest in the long-term development of their staff
 retaining a central training and development role, together with budgeting
 budgets are still held centrally and places on all courses are provided free
 in the British economy, there has been a shift of power from the training
provider to the customer
 fast stream administrative trainees in the Senior Civil Service
DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Training and development in local authorities
 training and development remains a Cinderella activity
 low status and typically not operating at a strategic level
 provision of “post-entry training” for new entrants
 Some authorities are using the new competence-based NVQ
model
 Training and development is only partially professionalised
 many are generalist administrators whose expertise is shaky
 less training is provided to local government employees
DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Accelerated training
 There is a longstanding “fast stream” accelerated programme for
high-flyer entrants
 targeted at disadvantaged groups, especially women

Accelerated training in the NHS

 Staff development
 Doctors
 Management training schemes
HUMAN RESOURCE
PLANNING
A model of good practice

 A problem-solving, ad hoc approach to HRP is nowadays

preferred to the traditional routinized collection of data
 the associated planning activities of forecasting, skills
inventories, matching of individuals to jobs
 HRP is increasingly advocated as an analytical tool for senior
managers to use in the light of their business plans
HUMAN RESOURCE
PLANNING
HRP in the British civil service
 the civil service had an elaborate HRP system known as PRISM
 not been used for skills auditing or for matching people to jobs
 HRP was probably affected by an attitude of hostility to planning in
general
 “socialist”
 The traditional approach to HRP is still widely practised in the Health
Service
 planning is now more decentralised than previously
RIGHTSIZING
 A strategic decision needs to be taken about whether to manage rightsizing through
numbers of staff or through budgets
 Any target for reduction in the number of jobs should be based on human resource
planning data to ensure that it is realistic
 rightsizing was less painful than feared.
 Reduce the number of jobs while making very few workers redundant, through
eliminating ghost workers, enforcing retirement ages, using natural wastage and soon
 While financial redundancy packages were normally carefully designed
 all the countries failed to make adequate training or counselling provision for staff who
were made redundant
WORK ETHIC
 It deals with measures to promote greater commitment to
ethical values of impartiality and honesty within the public
service
 It has been written in the light of the White Paper on the
Transformation of the Public Service
 Code of Conduct
 both administrative and political appointees
 how to give force to the provisions on ethical behaviour.
WORK ETHIC
Good practice in controlling corruption
Transparency International, a major international NGO concerned with
corruption and good governance.
Such an approach should consist of the following elements:
 demonstrable political commitment
 comprehensive anti-corruption legislation
 identification and targeting
 ensuring that public salaries are adequate
 providing additional legal deterrents against corruption
WORK ETHIC
Operationalising the Code of Conduct

Establishment of an independent anti-corruption body. Such a body

would monitor adherence to the Code.
 Public servants may interpret the absence of such a mechanism as a
signal that they need not take the Code
 public cynicism will emerge if the Government is not seen to be tackling
corruption and other abuses of public office notwithstanding the
existence of the Code
Mechanisms to control
corruption in the UK
 the primary institution concerned with fairness and impartiality in
government's dealings with the public is the Ombudsman, known
officially as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
 There is no organisation concerned specifically with corruption in
public administration
 concerns about ‘sleaze’ and the weakness of parliamentary
oversight of government, public administration is still seen to be
relatively ‘clean’.
 Parliament has also set up its an internal committee to investigate
MPs accused of misconduct