Assessment Criteria Notes

For 1.1, learners need to explain the importance of strategic human resource management and the need for adopting both a medium- and long-term perspective in respect of human resource management.

For 1.2 and 1.3, learners need to assess the purpose of strategic human resources management and evaluate how it contributes to organisational objectives. The link between corporate strategy and human resource management strategy needs to be made clear to show their interrelationship and how the human resource management strategy supports and contributes to organisational purposes. For 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3, a review or case study can be used to examine the importance of strategic human resource management and its role in supporting wider organisational objectives.

For 2.1, learners need to analyse the business factors that dictate the need to plan human resources by looking internally at the organisation’s requirements, as well as considering the influence of external environmental factors.

For 2.2, learners need to assess the human resource requirements for a specific organisation in a specific situation. Learners can use their own organisation if appropriate.

For 2.3 and 2.4, learners need to develop a human resources plan building on the results of the work completed for 2.2. The plan needs to be formulated using SMART (specific, achievable, measurable, realistic, and time-based) targets. The plan needs to be critically evaluated to show how it can contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. For 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, evidence needs to be a structured human resources plan.

For 3.1 and 3.2, learners need to explain the purpose of human resource management policies in organisations, showing how they comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Organisational policies should be accessible and the implications and impact of the policies on managing the human resource need to drawn out through analysis. The assignment used for 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 could be extended to cover 3.1 and 3.2.

For 4.1 and 4.2, learners need to analyse the impact of organisational structure and culture on human resource management. Structure and culture need to be defined.

For 4.3, learners need to examine the monitoring of human resource management in relation to contributing to organisational goals. Learners need to identify performance indicators that might be used and how the effectiveness of human resource management can be judged against these indicators.

For 4.4, learners need to use their work from 4.3 to recommend improvements to human resource management, supported with justifications based on an analysis of a specific organisation in a specific situation. For 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4, evidence can be in the form of a report that results from a review of the impact of structure and culture on human resource management, and from an examination of the effectiveness of human resource management, together with recommendations for improving it.

Unit Content – linked to Assessment Criteria

1. Understand how the strategic management of human resources contributes to the achievement of organisational objectives

Human resource management (HRM): definition; characteristics of HRM approach; models of HRM eg contingency model, best practice model, Harvard Framework, D Guest, M Patterson; HRM activities; HRM and personnel management

Strategy: organisational strategy; HRM strategy; benefits of HRM strategy for organisations; alignment of organisational and HRM strategies; impact of organisational strategy on HRM strategy; influence of HRM strategy on organisational strategy; human capital management; HRM strategy and organisational performance; creating value; business focus of HRM strategy; efficient human resource management

2. Be able to develop human resource plans for an organisation

Business factors: business growth; business decline; business change; labour cost control; capital for labour substitution; location of operations; changing nature of work; impact of technology; increase in productivity; increase in efficiency; business competition; labour market competition; employee development

Human resource requirements: identifying personnel requirements (numbers, skill sets, experience, qualifications); match personnel to organisational requirements; internal factors eg labour requirements, skill requirements, workforce profiles; external factors eg demand for labour, supply of labour; government policies eg employment, education, training, industrial, regional; labour market competition

Human resource planning: purposes (recruitment, retention, employee development; re-skilling, upskilling, succession planning); outcomes; resources required; criteria for success; milestones; planning horizons (short, medium, long-term); business case eg costs, benefits; setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based) targets

3. Be able to use strategic marketing techniques

Human resource management policies: recruitment and selection; health and safety; equality and diversity; pay; rewards, benefits and expenses; working time and time off; training and development; maternity/paternity; bullying and harassment; discipline, dismissal and grievance; performance improvement; change management; intellectual property (patents, copyrights); confidentiality of information; whistleblowing/protected disclosures; smoking, drugs and alcohol; purposes of policies

Employment legislation: legal and regulatory requirements relating to pay, discrimination, equality, employment rights and responsibilities, contractual

terms and conditions and data protection (up-to-date legislation must be used)

– Employment Act 2008, Employment Relations Act 2004, Work and Families Act 2006, Employment Rights Act 1996, Sex Discrimination Act 1995/1997, Race Relations Act 1992, Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, Equal Pay Act 1970, Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005, European Working Time Directive, National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Data Protection Act 1998

4. Be able to examine human resources management in an organisation

Structure and culture: theories of organisational structure eg Weber, Mintzberg, Handy; forms of structure and the impact on HRM eg functional, product based, geographical, divisional, matrix; centralisation; decentralisation; theoretical models of culture eg Handy, Hofstede, Schein; organisational culture; relationships between culture and the HRM function

Effectiveness: HRM components to be monitored (HRM strategy, HRM policies, HRM operations); contribution of HRM to achievement of organisational goals; costs; benefits; human resource use; efficiencies; inefficiencies; gathering information about HRM performance; developing performance indicators; evaluating HRM performance using performance indicators; quantitative measures eg productivity, output per person, employee retention, staff turnover, cost savings; qualitative measures eg employee attitude surveys, stakeholder perspectives; benchmarking HR performance; HRM service level agreements and standards; utility analysis to evaluate the costs and benefits of HRM activities; proposing improvements

This Assignment is based upon the Pearson Edexcel Strategic Management and Leadership from August 2010 Programme Specification found at http://www.lcbuk.org/pdf/Edexcel_level7_SML.pdf