Human Resources Management Legal Framework of HRM

Question: Describe about the Human Resources Management for Legal Framework of HRM? Answer: Introduction: In this assignment, a detailed understanding is made on the significance, scope and legal framework of the HRM in the business organization. The case study in the assignment analyses the comment that is provided by Tolu in a social media site. The issues or the allegations that is put upon her has been analyzed critically as an HR consultant. There are legal aspects highlighted showing why the company has fired her for the social media posts. There are supporting theories and examples from the real life scenarios showing situations that were similar to the case study. In the latter part of the assignment, there is a discussion about the good practices of social media at the work place. As a HR, there is a need to constantly motivate the employees and communicate with them regarding the issues they are facing. A case laws and supporting examples have been provided on supporting the use of social media for a better purpose. Critical analysis of the issues that has been raised against Tolu by the company: The company for which Tolu words has found out that she has been tarnishing the image of the company in the social networking site Face book and thought of firing her on the following grounds: Managing conduct: When Tolu highlights about the owner of the company in the Face book comments then this has negative impact on the friend list of Tolu. In the friend list, there are also employees from the company who would be viewing the comments and a negative impression can be created in their minds. The employees might think that as she is not treated well by the manager and so similar consequences on them can result in future. This is one of the issues identified. Company reputation: The comment that is stated by Tolu in the social networking site is a way of spoiling the reputation of the company. The friends who are there in the list of Tolu would think that the company does not think about the staffs and they are harsh towards them. Surviving for longer time would be difficult in the company. If the profile of Tolu has no privacy option settings then this information can be visible to everyone apart from her friends. This news will spread like wild fire and will be known to everyone apart from the colleagues of Tolu. This are the reasons for the company highlighted against her. Communication with staffs: Another issue that was stated by the company against Tolus comment in the social media site is that the comment would project that the employees are not able to freely communicate within the organization. This was shown through the grievances that were expressed by Tolu. The friends of Tolu will think that the management of the organization does not think about the employees and they are not free to discuss the problems that they face in the workplace. Privacy in the place of work: The Company has also charged Tolu for violating the privacy at work. Tolu has mentioned in the comment about the working environment, which the company felt affected, their privacy. Supporting Theories and Law: Tolu can take legal help in order to provide a justification that she was not wrong in her act. A teenager faced a similar situation as well. This news was provided in News.bbc.co.uk (2016) in a report dated February 2009. The sixteen-year-old girl has been working for the company Ivell Marketing and logistics for stating that the job she was doing was boring. The decision to fire was for a period of three weeks. The case was similar to Tolu but the HR manager has thought of terminating her without giving a chance to explain herself. Just like the sixteen-year-old girl, she also did not mention the name of the company in the comment. Another example of this was seen in the report by Metro.co.uk (2013) where the Home Office staff was fired three employees for posting comments related to the company on Face book, MySpace and Bebo. They all have brought disrepute to the Company. It as stated by Steven George of think tank Parliament Street that sacking or terminating an employee is a short-term solution rather there is a need for the company to train and informing the employees on how to handle the social media channels (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). The spokes person of Home Office also thinks that guidance must be provided so that staffs know on how to use the social media forum. Social Media Today (2013) stated it in an article there are grounds as to why the employees cannot fire employees based on Face book. When considering the legal perspective, the rights of the worker are protected under the National Labour Relations Act of 1935. A board is constantly monitoring and interpreting so that matters related to the employees are resolved. The NLRB is also requested to apply 1935 law to the social media activities. It was determined by the NLRB is that the employees who are taking the social media platform to criticise against the employers would be protected under the law when there is more than one employee for participation. According to the Act of Section7, the employees have the right to organize and form a labour organization or engage in collective bargaining (Amos, 2016). The employees has the right to refrain such activities except to the extent that this right may be affected by an agreement that requires membership in the labour organization. There is rule under NLRB that the employees cannot say anything that they want (Werner, Schuler and Jackson, 2012). Section 7 held only the activities of collective bargaining, protection or mutual aid. When there is a comment by a single employee with no participation then there is no protection provided to them. It might be considered as libel as per the type of comment and business owners then has the right to terminate the employee or seek restitution (Rothwell et al. 2012). Good practices related managing of social media at workplace: There are many pieces of good stewardship of corporate social networking activities. The human resources team within the organization can lead to better utilization and risk management of social media in the working area (Noe, 2014). Some of the basic guidelines need to be followed: There is a need for a clear written policy on the use of social media in the organization. There is a need to ensure that there is an official social media policy in the handbooks of the employees (Armstrong, 2014). This is to be included when there is social networking allowed and who may represent the organization and the disciplinary actions regarding the wrongful use of social media. There is a need for assigning key personnel for managing the social networks of the company. There is a need for very few selected people who would be managing the account of social media of the company at certain time. The core should be related to the executive team with a proper guidance from the marketing and the HR division (Dessler, 2013). There is a need for amalgamation of the social networking with that of the recruitment and marketing initiatives: The social media tool can be used as a tool for communication with the employees so that they are alerted about the important events in the organization (Dessler, 2014). There is a need to encourage the employees so that they share professionally among each other. The social media sites help in the hiring new recruits and marketing of the products in the outside world. Dealing with comments and complaints professionally and promptly The employees and the customers for providing the feedbacks can use the platform of social media. There is a need for monitoring the feedbacks by the organization so that there are no issues faced from Public Relations as they are going to exaggerate the matter. Engagement of prospects and integration of employees: There is a need to add the social sharing button in all the publication and encourage the visitors of the website of the company to join the social networks. The brand needs to be displayed in the most appropriate manner in the social media networks. The company needs to see that the copyright law is not violated, as there is a possibility that the company logo is used for some other purpose (Ivancevich and Konopaske, 2013). The communication theory can be applied so that employees are able to communicate freely with the manager regarding the grievances (Mondy and Mondy, 2014). There are some viewpoints regarding the communication framework theory: Mechanistic: This viewpoint sates the transmission of the viewpoint from the first party to a second party. There is no intermediary in between the conversation. Psychological: Communication is not only the flow of information from the sender but there is also some emotions and feelings attached in the information. The receiver needs to understand on how to decode. Social: A close interaction between the sender and the receiver is stated in the social viewpoint. Communication is directly dependent on the content of the speech. Systematic: Systematic viewpoint is something in which the individual interpret a message in his or her own way and reinterpreting and drawing conclusion as per choice. Critical: This viewpoint states that this is a simple way through which a person and exert his power and authority among the others (Mondy and Mondy, 2012). Motivation Theory of Maslow: The employees need to be motivated during their work. The following Maslows theory of Motivation will help the employees to perform better: Figure 1: Motivational Theory by Maslow (Source: Ourdeskdrawer.com, 2016) Examples on the usage of social media for hiring practices: There is a growing importance of social media for using it for the process of hiring. A survey was conducted in the 2008 states the US human resources department found that approximately 84% of the employers utilise the search engines to find the correct candidate this was approximately 77% in the year 2006 (Davison, Maraist, Hamilton and Bing, 2012). It was written by Nguyen (2014) that a survey by Career Builder shows that 44% of the managers hired from Face book while 27% of the candidate was monitored in Twitter accounts. Case Law: A case on the dismissal of an amateur model from the organization due to entry in Face book and You Tube video The case is dated to19th August 2010. Mrs. Gill was working with SAS Ground services. She devoted her time into acting and modeling during her spare time. She has given an excuse in office that she was sick and had some medical complication where as the company looking into her Face book page saw that she was attending London Fashion Week during her leave. The company after that carried out a disciplinary proceeding. During the time of hearing, she stated that the attendance in the fashion show was social and helped couple of hours. The face book page however showed that she was choreographing the fashion show and presenting bouquet to the fashion designers. The company alleged that involvement of Mrs. Gill during her sick period in work. There was a demoralizing affect also on the other employees. Mrs. Gill claimed it as unfair dismissal. There was a short shrift given to the claims of Ms Gill. The company has followed a fair procedure and there was sufficient evidences held against Mrs. Gill Conduct. Tribunal held Gill has been fairly dismissed and her claims failed (Xperthr.co.uk, 2016). Conclusion: It can be seen that the role of the human resource management is important in handling the legal framework of HRM in the organization. Motivation is an important factor that the management needs to understand and redress the issues that the employees face. When the employees are satisfied with the services of the organization there would be no negative comments on any social media sites. The performance standard of the business organization would also include. When there is any type of conflict in work then the matter needs to be resolved as this might lead to grievances among the employees. 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