There are many successful firms and companies in United Kingdom but Atkins stands out as it is the leading engineering as well as design consultancy firm in the region. The company is number eleven in the whole world in the same category. It has got the ability to respond to the most technical and challenging problems. The company’s profile explains that it is aimed at planning, designing as well as enabling solutions (Atkins, 2010).
In the view of the fact that there is a lot of information concerning Atkins Company, this essay shall focus on human resource management practices. More specifically, the essay shall explore the strengths and the weaknesses of some human resource management practices such as training and development as well as recruitment. In addition, the paper shall also discuss some viable solutions to the same problems.
As any other successful company, Atkins aims at training and developing its employees to be in a position to retain them and to reap the best out of them. Most importantly, training and development helps Atkins to achieve its goal of being the employer of choice. The company spends around 16.7 million in training and development every year, conducted in work and outside the work setup (WS Atkins plc, 2010).
The company has established a Graduate Development Framework that helps in providing training as well as experience that is necessary for career development. It offers further training not only to persons willing to upgrade their skills to meet the current standards and requirement in installation and design, but also some specialist courses as well.
Tailored training is very effective in the development of the employees because it does not only help in helping a person utilize abilities as well as talents but also in enabling someone to choose an appropriate career route. More specifically, tailored training offered at Atkins helps a person specialize in different areas such as project management or other technical areas.
Therefore, although individuals have got a right to choose the route their career takes; Atkins provides necessary professional support to help them make the right decisions. Apart from graduate development programs, Atkins also offers safety training services. The company has established occupation health and safety as well as health and safety training programmes.
It is very important to offer training and development to the employees but the manner of offering the service is equally important. For instance, it is very beneficial to offer training in work and outside the work environment because both setups have got advantages and disadvantages. Atkins reaps the benefits of offering training and development in both set ups, which is an important strength.
Most importantly, the training and development is dynamic as it not only targets development of careers but also other areas that are necessary in a working environment like health and safety. Although such venture is a strength, study indicates that Atkins concentrates so much on training.
Consequently, the money spent in financing might not end up increasing the returns of the company although the same may be helpful in the life of employees outside the work environment.
Apart from that, it is explicit that Atkins lays more emphasis on formal training and abandons the most important aspect of the informal training. Although formal training is important, informal training is important as well and ought to be incorporated in the training programs.
Recruitment is one of the most important human resource management in an organization or industry. This is due to the fact that it is through the practice that a company acquires the right personnel necessary for performing various tasks aimed at meeting the goals of the organization.
Atkins proves to be very successful in its recruitment practices in the view of the fact that in the year 2010, the company was classified in the category of the best recruitment teams. Moreover, in the same month of April, it was identified as the most popular construction and Civil Engineering Company that recruits graduates. Therefore, having emerged as a winner illustrates that the company is an expert in recruitment.
The application process in the Atkins Company reveals great expertise in this area. All vacancies in the company are listed in relation to specific disciplines and a candidate chooses a vacancy and then identifies specific business areas of interest. Application is done through filling an online application which does not give some one a chance to submit two application forms.
After submitting the application form, the applicants are then required to complete psychometric tests to be in a position to move to the next level where applicants are supposed to go through a telephone interview. The last phase of the recruitment process takes part at a graduate assessment centre (Atkins, 2010).
Going through the whole recruitment process indicates that the process is carried out in a highly professional and expertise manner. The whole process does not only ensure that the company recruits the best candidate but it is also helps in the selection process because the less qualified candidates are eliminated in earlier stages of the interview.
In addition, offering graduate job opportunities as well as undergraduate job opportunities is also very beneficial not only to the successful candidate but also to the company. This is due to the fact that the company is able to benefit from the unexploited talents of the young people. Most importantly, the fact that the company offers jobs to the jobless helps improve its reputation, which is an important factor in attracting clients.
However, the recruitment strategy also reveals some weaknesses that are detrimental to the company. For instance, the recruitment procedure is too technical such that eligible candidates may be eliminated due to technical problems (Schuler, & Macmillan, 1984). In addition, due to technical reasons, the cost of recruitment increases and therefore, the method may end up not being cost effective.
It is also important to mention that although online tests are important sometimes one type of test may not be suitable for do different persons since people are characterized by different personalities. For that reason, it may not be possible to have a different online test for every applicant who reduces the efficiency of the test (Employee Evaluation and Performance Appraisals , 2010).
It is important to identify major causes of the human resource management problems in order to come up with viable solutions (HRM Advice 2008). Although it is essay to conclude that adequate research has not been conducted on the area of human resource management, available research indicates that there are other causes of the human resource and management problems.
Most of the human resource managers fail to utilize even the available research and more so disagree with some of the research findings. For example, studies of Rynes, Colbert, & Brown (2002) illustrate that many human resource managers do not believe on the results of the online tests. As a result, they may fail to make proper use of the strategy which is by itself a human resource weakness.
It is important to understand that there are both advantages and disadvantages of incorporating the very current technological development in a company set up. No one can negate the fact that they lead to efficiency and effectiveness which is an important benefit in each and every organization.
However, excessive use of technology may end up causing some human resource and management weaknesses like it is the case in Atkins Company. The recruitment process of the Atkins Company is highly technical since it is only the last step that does not make excessive use of technology.
Nevertheless, technology is not bad although improper use of the same due to failure of evaluating the implication of certain policies may lead to such problems (Oxford Policy Management, 2010) and (Bratton & Gold, 2001).
The nature of the construction company is the chief cause of the most of the human resources weaknesses in Atkins Company. For instance, the study has indicated that the company spends a lot of finances in formal training programmes.
The problem emanates from the fact that a construction and engineering company requires a wide range of manual skills and therefore, if the company has to perform, it has to invest in training personnel.
The same problem of the nature of the company also causes human resource managers to involve in some practices that are not cost effective like the highly technical recruitment process. According to Loosemore, Dainty, & Lingard (2003) pressure of cost is one of the significant challenges in a construction company.
Employees are the most important factor in a company as it is through them that the main goals are achieved. Therefore, it is important to look for solutions that can solve problems touching on them. For example, the study has indicated that the company spends so much on training of which it is very necessary. Nevertheless, the cost can be minimized if the company aims at attracting highly qualified professionals.
Studies of Ferris, Berkson, & Harris, (2002) indicate that due to the current high competition in the market, it is important for a company to build a good reputation to be in a position to attract highly qualified individuals. By so doing, the cost of training is also minimized.
Some of the changes that are taking place globally are difficult to control and therefore, the company ought to be prepared to deal with such changes. For instance, due to globalization, the company needs to attract employees from other companies, which is equally expensive. Therefore, to remain competitive, the company should aim at continuous promotion of the organization.
It is important for company to understand the needs of the employees to look for better ways of meeting the needs. As highlighted earlier, it is important to adapt to the changes that are taking place currently in all sectors that helps the company remain competitive and also to cut down the operating costs.
A study conducted by WS Atkins plc, (2010) illustrated that after modernizing the human resource department, services were not only improved but also the operating expenses were reduced by twenty five percent.
Every company or industry is characterized by certain unique or different challenges that hinder proper functioning of the same. Atkins Company is no exception since it faces major challenges faced by other construction companies attributed by the fact that the industry requires manual labour that is highly skilled.
Human resource management in the construction company is quite challenging due to the fact that it involves personnel from different career backgrounds as well as cultural backgrounds. In addition, there are pressures due to limited finances and time.
However, even in such circumstances, there are some significant human resource practices that can be adopted to help not only meet the challenges, but also increase the competitiveness of the company. Since human resource management department is the key player in any company, effective human resource practice should be adopted (Post-print of Cameron & Miller, 2008).
The study has indicate that although Atkins has been successful in some areas like recruitment, there are still some improvements that are required to enable the company meet the challenges of a construction company and to continue performing well.
Reference List
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Bratton, J., & Gold, J. 2001. Human resource management: theory and practice. London: Routledge.
Employee Evaluation and Performance Appraisals. 2010. Web.
Ferris, G. R., Berkson, H. M., & Harris, M. M. 2002. The recruitment interview process: Persuasion and organization reputation promotion in competitive labour markets. Human Resource Management Review, 12 (3), 359-375.
HRM Advice. 2008. External Recruitment Process Key Issues. Web.
Loosemore, M., Dainty, A., & Lingard, H. 2003. Human Resource Management in Construction Projects: Strategic and Operational Approaches. London: Routledge.
Oxford Policy Management. 2010. Human Resource Management and Development. Web.
Post-print of Cameron, L & Miller, P. 2008. Improving HRM practice in SMEs: how to apply relationship marketing concepts. Australasian Journal of Business and Social Inquiry, 6 (3), 1-22.
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Schuler, R. S., & Macmillan, I. C. 1984. Gaining Competitive Advantage through Human Resource Management Practices. Human Resource Management, 23 (3), 241-255.
WS Atkins plc. 2010. Human Resources Review. Web.