Mountain

The aim of this report is to clarify the new strategic orientation of the parent organization to all the HER team from SNOW Mountain Hotel about recent changes. Nowadays Human Resources needs to be more integrated to the business and add value to the organization. It is known that HER functions must become more strategic and business linked, that is why a change for the better is necessary. SSP) For the HER function to operate strategically, some people within the organization, the line managers, will need to work with day to day HARM issues. It will be analyses In this report the Importance of the new Business Partner Model and the use of Shared Service Centers and the new task and roles of the Line Managers engaged In HER responsibilities.

Human Resources Service Delivery Business Partner Model Times have changed! Organizations are now operating in a much more complex, competitive and challenging environment.

All these changes put pressure on the HER departments because they directly target the human side of a business. (Bamberger and Mausoleum, 2000) The experts are suggesting that a business partner model Is he new solution for all the problems organizations can struggle with In terms of Human Resources. The term of Business partnering was first introduced in late 90′ partner model incorporates a diversity of Jobs covering all the HER functions subdivided into: “Shared services” , “Centers of excellence” and “Strategic Partners”.

The main purpose of this model is to make the HER more strategic in close connection with the organization’s objectives.

(Brown et all. 2004) Organizations are thinking now how to make out most of the HER and add a real value to this. This new model will raise the HER purpose and priorities. Storey, 1989) There is a number of internal and external drivers lead to this choice. Having a Business Partner Model can reduce the costs of the organization and this is one of the internal drivers.

While in the I-J the business partnering is driven by cutting the cost, in the US this scheme is implemented to have a smarter and better HER team.

Externally, there are many factors, all of them under the name of PESTLE which stands for Political, Economical, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental. All this are seen as help for the organization’s improvement. For SNOW Mountain Hotel implementing the new Business partner model will help the organization to cope with the “fluctuating number of visitors throughout the year”.

The line managers and Shared Service Centers working together will be able to make a better selection of personnel. As the HER Director is saying “This HER strategy is underpinned by a number of guiding principles and values an intent on promoting the best experience for past, present and potential employees. ” (Tyson,2006; SNOW Mountain Case study) HARM policies are changing now because of the globalization.

Organization must know how to attract and retain employees from all around the world, from different cultures. This will make the integration between soft and hard HER harder.

For the lines managers, adding together both “hard” and “soft” HARM will be the challenge. While the hard HER is mostly based on scientific and strategic management, the soft one is more about the human relations. The role of HARM within an organization is crucial.

By proving that HER is providing a cost effective service it is view as an add-on service. Shared Services Centers (SC) As discussed earlier, shared services centers are part of the Business Partner model. The main role of these centers is to provide help to the organization in many sectors ouch as IT, finance and HER.

The HER shared service centers are helping the organization with common routine tasks of HER administration such as payrolls, recruitment and training procedures but also with more complex ones. They can offer full support because they are serviced-focused.

(CUPID,Bibb) The shared service centers can be found in house in the smaller organizations or with a network of partner employers that can be reached by phoning the call centre or online on a special internet platform dedicated to the organization. SNOW Mountain is still discussing whether to implement a shared service centre or not.

They are driven by the thoughts that by doing so the whole HER services quality will get better and they can implement the business partner model. Because SNOW Mountain Group is choosing to deliver more HER responsibilities to the line managers, having a shared service centre is very beneficial because the advice received is helpful for the line managers so they can do a better Job in managing HER responsibilities. The the HER department employees is unable to give a prompt and correct answer to a certain question or problem he/she can easily and quickly ask a SC (Shared Service Centre) colleague.

This improves the quality of work done by the HER department and also reducing costs. By having a limited number of employees in one location that can respond to all the queries, the organization is saving money not duplicating the same task for more people (in house HER Department). (Robinson,2005) Also a good aspect of a SC is that the HER team is not over called by employees so they can focus on more important issues as will be the case for the SNOW Mountain Group. Removing the HER personnel from the routine tasks is also beneficial for the organization because they can do more strategic activities.

The drawbacks of the SC are firstly that there will be no local knowledge available for the line managers that are going to undertake some of the HER team responsibilities.

There are also hidden costs involved. The line managers need proper training so they can know how to resolve the possible issues that might appear. Line Managers and the new HER Responsibilities By implementing the Business Partner Model along with Shared Service Centers the Line Managers will be also taking major new responsibilities. Because the on-site HER team will focus on other tasks, the Line Managers will need to cope with HER work they ever done before.

For the SNOW Mountain Group this raised lots of negativity, starting from the general manager who tends to be a traditionalist. He, along with the Line Managers are implying that “.

.. Line managers should focus on running the business and making a profit and my HER people should focus on the softer HER management and administration issues”. By giving the line managers more HER responsibilities, possible issues would be resolved quickly. They will no longer need to contact the HER department and wait for an answer if they will be given the correct training related to HER day to day matters.

Domination-Green,2002) For SNOW Mountain Group it will be a positive thing regarding the employees. Line managers already have ownership and commitment over their teams, so the communication with the employees will be better. Because the SNOW Mountain Hotel is high on employee turnover, this is the best idea to make better decisions in recruiting the right personnel. As the HER Director said, the recruitment strategy at this time is more reactive and focused on “getting the numbers right” now this has to change in “getting the right people in”.

The line managers from SNOW Mountain Hotel are although not happy with the new responsibilities: “I am not an HER manager and Vive got bigger priorities than looking at application forms and preparing for interviews”.

(SNOW Mountain Case study) Because HER is part of the management it is believed that managers should do some of the tasks related to this activities, but in SNOW Mountain Hotel the line managers are not happy with this: “More than 40% of my time is taken up with HER-related work and I have no time to run my own department” a line manager declared.

By giving them more responsibilities they will become more disciplined and more planned. Whittaker, Marching 2003) But all this advantages will have a number of impacts on both the organization and individuals, line many responsibilities and the relationship between them and the employees can change. (CUPID,AAA) So, as drawbacks of this new scheme, one of the most important one is that line managers will need to be trained in order to deliver the correct practices and procedures of HER. This can increase the cost by hiring the right people to train the line managers. Francis et Keenan,2006) Because the HER is regarded “soft” it can be viewed less important by some line mangers, therefore they will deliver a or quality of this Job.

(Beer et all 1984) Another drawback is that line managers will be more stress and this can have an impact on both the managers and the employees. Also, a problem can be the position power because they might use their position to get the things done and without monitoring this situation, this could lead to discriminatory practices.

Because HER is not viewed as part of the Job by many managers there will be a lack of clarity at first. All the line managers are task focused and this is why they will need to learn how to work with HER. The HER Director of SNOW Mountain Group top priority is to make sure that a new recruitment process is being implemented.

This will allow the line managers to adjust the working patterns in line with the fluctuating demand levels of personnel.

Conclusion In this report were analyses different points of view, both theoretical and practical regarding the new HER strategy of the parent organization of SNOW Mountain Hotel. SNOW Mountain Hotel mangers might find difficulties at first in receiving the new model of work but with adequate communication between them and the Shared Service Centers the results could be a better internal organization.