Words: 4134
Assignment 2 Brief: Prepare a report for your Chief Executive outlining and critically evaluating how your HR department’s contribution to the achievement of business goals is measured, and how that contribution could be measured in the future Executive summary Changes in the way HR functions over the last few decades, with devolvement of responsibilities to line managers, outsourcing and disappearance of large teams of generalist HR professionals.
The residual role of the in-house HR team is under threat and it is therefore essential for HR to justify its existence, by proving that it adds value to the organisation. This report aims to identify how HR in SYP is measured, if the current measurements can properly evaluate how HR contributes to the achievement of SYP’s business goals, and how that contribution could be measured in the future Sophie Robinson SYP Contents Introduction
Identification of SYP’s organisational business goals and objectives Description of the current structure and role of HR within SYP Literature Review Theory and Best Practice Review Identification of current performance measures Data presentation Conclusions Possible ways of measuring HR performance in the future Recommendations Identification of organisational business goals and objectives The Chief Constable’s Commitment The Chief Constable has made a commitment to the people of SYP to improve crime reduction and community safety.
Based on the National Policing Policies and public and employee consultation, the Command team and the Police Authority have agreed six priority areas. The priority areas stated below are taken from the Local Policing Plan 2005-2006. These state that SYP will: Respond to the needs of the communities, particularly vulnerable communities by continuing to provide neighbourhood policing. Respond to the individual needs of victims and witnesses by providing timely support, improved communication to quality of service. Reduce overall crime including violent crime
Reduce concern about crime, antisocial behaviour and disorder by improving communications from and with the public – providing an accessible and visible service inspiring confidence in , particularly amongst vulnerable communities Continue SYP’s commitment to combating serious and organised crime within and across force boundaries Continue our commitment to bringing more offences to justice and to local persistent and other priority offenders projects alongside our partners within the criminal justice system How the improvement can be achieved
In order for these priority areas to be focused on, targets to achieve in the 2005/2006 financial year have been identified: {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Monitoring where we are against the targets SYP and the Authority The above priorities and targets are measured annually by SYP and the Police Authority. They look at the Policing Best Value Indicators (PBVIs) which are contained within a matrix called the Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF).
The PPAF was developed jointly by the Home Office, Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers. Its aim is to support performance improvements by focusing on key strategic outcome measures, providing a framework for performance comparison. Using the PBVIs, it is possible to measure SYP performance against the priorities and targets that have been set. SYP’s Senior Command Team On a daily and weekly basis the Senior Command team review the Force’s performance against the crime indicators, using the Strategic Performance Overview.
Each month the performance of districts and departments are circulated in the Performance Bulletin. This provides a more detailed information on the organisation’s current effectiveness, highlighting any problem areas or areas where improvements can be made. Overall HMIC Force and BCU Inspections, District Audit, Best Value Reviews and internal inspections and assessments are also used to continually identify improvements to increase efficacy and effectiveness. The role of Human Resources within SYP
Human Resources plays a big part in achieving the mentioned goals as the HR function is responsible for recruiting, training, rewarding and generally supporting the front-line officers and line managers to work towards the specified targets and goals. Therefore it is essential that the elements of HR are identified, and just as South Yorkshire Police has identified targets and goals, HR should be measured against their efficiency and efficacy in delivering the HR service and helping meet SYP’s ‘business targets’.
Description of the current structure and role of HR within SYP Mission Statement “To create and maintain a professional, diverse workforce capable of delivering an effective and efficient policing service HR at SYP encorparates three main areas Human Resource Management (HRM) Resourcing Recruiting Health, Safety and Welfare Human Resource Development (HRD) Performance Development Training Business Management Payroll/Pensions Admin/Finance Policy/Planning These areas are driven and measured (to some extent) at Force Headquarters.
Teams with corresponding names to the above areas exist at Headquarters who process any relevant information generated by the Districts and Departments. The HR teams at HQ also provide support and guidance to the remote Personnel units, however District and Department Personnel Offices are the fundamental front-line delivery of the HR services, as they are the first contact HR providers. Each District and Department has a Personnel Office, usually consisting of a Personnel Clerk and a Personnel Assistant who are managed by a Personnel Manager.
The District or Department Personnel team deals with all HR issues. Paperwork is generated and the information is fed back to the Personnel Services Department at Headquarters or the appropriate HR team. Theory and Best Practice Review What are the issues? Ulrich (1998: 124 cited in Marchingon et al 2002:247) states that HR is often ineffective, incompetent and costly; in a phrase, it is value-sapping’ to the organisation.
In order for HR to become a valuable and effective organisational tool Urlrichsuggests that HR must adopt four main roles {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Representation of HR on the Board The initial identifier of how much a company or organisation values it HR function, is whether or not HR is represented on the Board. Once HR has a place here the profile of the organisation’s HRM and HRD, but also the profile of cultural, ethical and perceived ‘soft issues’ is raised.
This can enable overall HR function to be taken more seriously and allows the board to focus on HR strategically. Problems with measuring HR contribution Guest and Hoque (1994b cited in Marchingtonand Wilkinson 2002:265) suggest that the contribution of HR has always been hard to quantify because the work very closely with the line managers and are dependent on them to put systems and policies into place. Therefore although the impact of personnel decisions may be identified, it is not always clear if the HR specialists contributed towards them.
Marchington and Wilkinson (2002: 269) suggests that it is difficult for HR professionals to measure the effectiveness of their own function. “Although we may be able to identify the impact of personnel decisions we cannot always be sure the personnel specialists contributed towards” Guest and Hoque (1994b cited in Marchington and Wilkinson 2002:265) Satisfaction Surveys Some observers state that the HR function has little or no impact on the organisation,(Guest 1991 cited in Marchington and Wilkinson 2002:265).
It is suggested that a useful way in assessing the effectiveness and contribution HR provides, is to ask the key stakeholders. This would include the views of line-managers, chief executives and employees, all of who are ‘customers’ of the HR service. This can add value by driving HR forward in areas such as change management, championing employees and can contribute to the overall strategic approach HR takes. Guest and King (2002 cited in Marchington and Wilkinson 2002:268) interviewed a number of company directors for the CIPD.
They found that the contribution was valued positively overall with HR directors being the most critical. Gibb’s survey (2001 cited in Marchington and Wilkinson 2002:268) specifically asked employees in over 73 organisations their opinion of how the though HR was performing in a number of areas. The results found that HR performed well in interpersonal relations, such as approachability, how helpful and prompt they were, as well as in the area of professionalism and knowledge. Less positive results came in the areas of service delivery in recruitment, absence and appraisal.
What are other organisations doing? The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) RBS ensures that its HR function is properly measured and can therefore be valued. The company has developed tailored benchmarking information in partnership with measurement service Saratoga. Forty human capital measures have been benchmarked against RBS’s competitors in every one of its markets. Focus groups consisting of both HR and business staff from across the group were set up to ensure the toolkit’s content was driven by the people who could best identify what information was appropriate and relevant.
Kerry Freeman, an A HR consultant with the HR retail team at RBS, believes that the existence of a Human Capital Toolkit has made life simpler. “Part of my role is to identify any potential hotspots and look at how those problems can be addressed. Before the toolkit, the data we needed was there, but we had to go running around different departments to request it. It simply wasn’t easily accessible. Now we can use data from the toolkit. We can look at an employee’s life cycle with RBS, as we collect data when omeone joins and leaves and in between. ” Mini surveys or ‘Pulse surveys’ are conducted by each division in addition to the main annual employee opinion survey. Using the toolkit for these Pulse surveys has saved RBS ? 110,000 in staff time and the prevention of duplication in only two months. But, better than that, the human capital toolkit overall has given RBS and its HR function a much deeper understanding of key HR metrics, such as absence and staff turnover. As a result, RBS has calculated that for every 0. per cent reduction in absence it could achieve cost savings of ? 2 million annually, enabling HR to align and drive business strategy Royal Mail Royal Mail has introduced a ‘Balanced Scorecard’ approach (BCS) part of its HR transformation strategy supporting the three-year business renewal plan. The renewal plan was centred at returning the Royal Mail Group (RMG) to profitably, and to turning around what was seen as neglect of the institutional, cultural, and people practices perceived as central to an effective business.
The appointment by Allan Leighton of a new group HR Director, Tony McCarthy, as a member of the board with a brief to increase the value of RMG human assets, also emphasised the centrality of HR to the renewal plan. The balanced scorecard reflected this. First it attempted to bring together traditional, but largely, static HR & finance metrics. This was a first attempt to get some kind of strategic view about the state of RMG. At the same time a few business experts had begun to look at the type of metrics that would align HR to business targets & strategy.
This was approach was threefold. First, to identify more dynamic HR metrics that aligned to business strategy – such as the major efforts that went into producing measures around new starter attrition rates. Second, by introducing a major campaign around employee satisfaction and measuring this – the so-called Have Your say campaign. This was linked to the drive to eradicate levels of bullying & harassment in the organisation & as a toolkit for line management to engage staff & produce action plans.
This led to the introduction of policies such as first line fix & share in success– that gave back to the workforce substantial say in how local budgets were used for office improvement. Third, major efforts (via comms & design) were put into organising measures (especially for areas such as absence) that to a classic BCS or vertical approach to managing the problem – league tables were introduced that were studied weekly at board level & communicated to area general managers for their action plans. BT BT is cited by Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) said in its report, Progress in Improving Government Efficiency.
NAO believes that the public sector should learn from companies like BT in the private sector by benchmarking costs and performance against other organisations. BT monitors the performance of its HR functions outsourced to Accenture via regular reports on customer satisfaction, service performance and billing. NAO advocates this as an example of best practice. It also called for higher levels of staff involvement and more training to ensure that employees in key roles had the right skills and expertise, as well as the freedom to use them.
Otherwise, NAO suggests that the reforms recommended in the Gershon review, aimed at achieving efficiency gains of ? 21. 5 billion a year by 2008, could result in a poorer service delivery. It also warned that government claims of efficiency gains worth ? 4. 7 billion so far could be inaccurate, as there is a risk that they are not may not be measured accurately and consistently. In order to progress, it is suggested that the public sector must ‘move on from isolated, one-off efficiency initiatives covering selected activities to a more all-embracing approach’. 23 February 2006:PM: 13 ) When attempting to quantify HR provision there is a danger cited in Marchington and Wilkinson (2002) stating that we can end up purely focusing on cost as we ‘succumb to the acountants’ vision of how organisations are meant to operate’ This argues Pfeffer (cited in Marchington and Wilkinson 2002:271) is unlikely to benefit HR as they are unlikely improve the service when too much energy will be spent on cutting costs rather than adding value. The focus on costs can also be too narrow as concentration tends to measure the easily measurable rather than the important elements of HR.
This can result in poorer performance. Another limitation to setting any kinds of targets is that too many targets can be set this can often leave HR spread too thinly and focus is lost. Identification of current performance measures The SYP Personnel Services Strategy document (2005/06 see Appendix 1) states that all HR activities are ‘focused on maximising operational effectiveness…. in line with the Strategic Plan and the Chief Constable’s Promise to deliver local policing priorities’ In this way the HR strategy is horizontally linked to the Force strategic Plan. SYP uses Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) to measure this.
Detailed below are some of the current KPIs set for the financial year (Full details of the current KPIs can be viewed in Appendix 1 & 2). Resourcing Key targets include: To ensure police officer strength ( Full Time Equivalent) matches the Authorised Funded Post target of 3308 To ensure 90% of our officers perform operational roles within the HMIC classification Recruiting Key targets include: To reduce the number of female police officer resignations To reduce the number of visible minority ethnic police officer and police staff resignations Health, Safety and Welfare
Key targets include To reduce the number of days absent through sickness to 7. 5 days for Police Officers and 9. 5 days for Police staff To achieve a target of 4 medical retirements per 1000 police officers or 2005/6 For Personnel Services Departments to have an average sick absence rate 20% lower than the rest of SYP For 95% of PDRs (annual appraisals) to be complete on time {text:list-item} Performance Development Training {text:list-item} Payroll/Pensions Key targets include To develop meaningful performance indicators for Payroll by September 2005 Admin/Finance
Review the structure and provision of administrative services to the department by September 2005 Develop performance indicators for core administrative processes by October 2005 Policy/Planning To review and improve the internal department process for creating and reviewing personnel policies by December 2005 Develop environmental scanning methods and impliment a system by December 2005 Critical Analysis General and intangible goals. The KPIs for HR areas above are extremely simplistic, with some very general and intangibles goals.
This means that they will be almost impossible to measure without further information. It is stated for example that one target is to reduce the number of female police officer resignations, without explaining what is the current figure and what is the target reduction. Many of the targets focus on exploring process improvement, which is positive, but the service should not loose sight of what it does at the moment. If this is not measured at it will be difficult to identify real problem areas rather than perceived problems and the value of any improvements will not be measured either.
Therefore how will the function prove that they have improved process or procedures? Several of the KPIs are to actually identify performance indicators to be used of measurement purposes. This means that the organisation will work for a year before it can properly measure and value its contribution. It maybe more appropriate to develop and review process improvements and further performance indicators as part of the continual improvement in every HR area before the yearly targets are set. Unchallenging targets Targets such as the reduction in sick absence to 7. days and 9. 5 days for Police Officers and Police Staff seems like a is an achievable target as the figures stated in the Performance Summary (Appendix 3) states that Police Officers are currently standing at 4. 32 days and Police Staff at 6. 04 days. This asks the question of whether this target was too achievable and should have really been set at a more realistic level. Unchallenging goals or targets sometime can mask the issue of an unwillingness to accept the potential to fail or not achieve the full set of targets.
This can happen, possibily in the case of SYP, where the Head of Personnel Services sets the individual HR yearly targets, and will also achieve his or her annual bonus on the result of the annual target review. Availability of current figures The current figures representing the status quo were difficult to view as they were held by different sources around the organisation, so although the various areas were being measured against locally, the overall picture could not be easily assessed.
For example there is no ‘Balanced Scorecard’ approach, so each measure is evaluated in isolation. Measuring for the sake of measuring Some targets can ensure that the individuals loose sight of why they are measuring it in the first place. SYP states that 95% of PDRs (appraisals) must be completed by their due date. This is strictly adhered to as District and Department Chief Superintendents are paid their annual bonus on the basis on this achievement. However sometimes the reason behind the PDRs are lost and HR behaves as if they are purely policing the organisational targets.
This is dangerous as once targets are set, it can be easy to loose sight of all the other but just as important elements of the HR delivery No measurement regarding the performance of process or procedures The administrative efficiency and effectiveness is extremely important to the service HR provides the organisation. SYP in many ways a beurocratic organisation, generating vast amounts of paperwork, however SYP does not measure the timeliness of its procedures and processes.
For example; if the recruitment process take longer than it should, SYP will loose the most talented recruits. This could be easily measures and controlled. The content of the measures Possible ways of measuring HR performance in the future As discussed, SYP currently measures all areas of HR and has set targets in most areas. The measures are in the form of Performance Improvement Targets, however it is suggested that this data does not adequately measure the contribution of the HR function to SYP. There are two main options: Option 1 External Benchmarking
Benchmarking can help with continuously improving public services. In particular, it can assist with: identifying examples of good practice from organisations in the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally; monitoring progress in making improvements against leading edge organisations; reviewing services to identify best suppliers; bringing about continuous improvements in policy making and service delivery; and encouraging individual and organisational learning. earning from those who have achieved excellence in similar fields; sharing knowledge and insight between organisations about overcoming common problems; setting appropriate performance measures and developing realistic targets for improvement; encouraging the involvement of staff in making changes happen; introducing collaborative approaches that give rise to better outcomes; developing a culture of continuous improvement and a willingness to learn from outside one’s own organisation; and introducing new ways of working and innovative solutions.
Opportunities for adding value from individual benchmarking projects can arise when information about them is made available for others to learn from. Much can be gained from learning about what worked well and what did not work quite so well. Option 2 Internal evaluations – Service Level Agreements (SLAs) This is often an essential exercise when an organisation is considering contracting out a particular area or function, but can also be useful when a HR function is required to justify its expenditure. SLAs can cover every area of business as at Royal Mail.
They enable each area to define their role of HR service provision. Typical SLAs are for example To evaluate training provision on an annual basis Advising staff on terms and conditions of service within five days Preparing offer and contract letters within one day. The best way to implement SLA is to find ways to improve the service to stakeholders and its contribution to the success of the organisation. Recommendations Overall the effectiveness of the current evaluation of HR within SYP is extremely limited.
Evidence suggests that SYP is collecting vast amounts of data, but only selected data is used to measure the contribution of the HR function and the validity of this approach is in question. This makes it is extremely difficult to evaluate the contribution of HR within SYP. Therefore the report suggests a programme with initially identifies measurement options by using a combination of both options; Benchmarking and Service Level Agreements between each HR area. Once this can be implemented to ensure a more valid and consistent measurement approach.
The new HR measurement inititative will take the form of a five phase implimentation plan following following the example of RBS. Phase 1 The same forty human capital measures identified by RBS will be identified by an external project team, however these measures will be applied to the public sector. The measures will be benchmarked against other Police Forces nationally (and internationally if this is not too costly) by the researchers in the external project team Phase 2
Focus groups consisting of both HR and business staff from within SYP should then be set up to ensure the toolkit’s content are driven by the people who could best identify what information was appropriate and relevant. They will discuss which of the measures should be used and identify how this information should be collated and by who. Phase 3 The collation of the appropriate data will begin and be stored in the SYP Human Capital Toolkit. All the information will accessible easily from one shared electronic site such as the force intranet.
The toolkit can be used as it is at RBS to give SYP’s HR function a much deeper understanding of key HR metrics, such as absence and staff turnover. Phase 4 The Toolkit will enable the focus groups to reform to identify suggest realistic targets to be measured against. It is also suggested that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the units are identified at this point. HR units are almost always reliant on each other, so poor performance in one HR area can often detrimentally have an impact on the achievement of targets in another HR area. If all areas adeher to their SLAs then this is less likely to occur. Phase 5
A continuous programme of monitoring and review will take place, however a year after implementation the focus groups will reform again to review the measures and performance of HR What are the conclusions to these options? (Cost/benefit analysis)What are your solutions? This would normally include an action plan of what, when, where & who. Best fit. References Jane Pickard People Management Award winners 2005: Kwik-Fit Financial Services Issue date: 10 November 2005 Source: People Management magazine Page: 26 Get personal to add value, says Ulrich ‘People need to have a sense of meaning’ Issue date: 10 November 2005
Source: People Management magazine Page: 10 The HR Value Proposition: the next agenda for delivering results Issue date: 10 November 2005 Source: People Management magazine Page: 38 Intuition: Basic instinct Personnel Today21 February 2006 08:00This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine. Subscribe online and save 20%. HR is under pressure to be more accountable. But intuition still has a role to play in business, as Lucia Cockroft… Public sector must benchmark to win Lessons to be learnt from private sector Katie Hope Issue date: 23 February 2006 Source: People Management magazine Page: 13