1. Introduction
This report is going to evaluate how people management practices influence business performance within a specific sector of the service industry and will put forward suggestions to improve performance based on the findings. This report will specifically focus on the Devonshire spa and its people management practices. Furthermore it is going to be an evaluative report and will look at two different practices – Monday to Friday team and Weekend’s team.
2. Introduction to Human Resources Management
Human Resource Management (further in report HRM) can be defined as a strategic and coherent approach o the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working for the company (Armstrong 2001). The main characteristics of HMR are listed in Table 1.
Table 1
Main characteristics of HRM
• It meets the need for a strategic approach to human resource management which achieves ‘fit’ between the business and the HR strategy;
• A comprehensive and coherent approach to the provision of mutually supporting employment policies and practices;
• The importance of gaining commitment to the organization’s mission and values is stressed – it is ‘commitment-orientated’;
• Employees are seen as assets or human capital to be invested in through the provision of learning opportunities and the development of a ‘learning organization’;
• Human Resources are viewed as a source of competitive advantage in line with the concept of resource-based strategy;
• The approach to employee relations is unitarist not pluralist: it is believed that employees share the same interests as employers, rather that that these interests will not necessarily coincide;
• The performance and delivery of HRM is a line management responsibility.
(Adopted from Armstrong 2001, p. 4)
Good HRM should work towards meeting business needs ensuring that the organization is able to