G4S and the London 2012 Olympics (August)

G4S, an international security firm, gained the contract to provide security at all Olympic
locations. G4S contracted Wave, recruitment marketing specialists, to run the recruitment
campaign. It was projected in 2010 that 2,000 security staff would be required, but by late
2011 this had risen to 10,400. Wave appeared to run a very thorough recruitment campaign
(see e.g. CIPD 2012) and in May 2012 it appeared that everything was on track for the increased
number of guards. However, suddenly in mid-July G4S admitted that it could not fulfil the
whole contract and 3,500 soldiers were drafted in to cover the shortfall. Nick Buckles of G4S,
interviewed on Radio 4, appeared to lack information about the detail of the recruitment/
training/vetting processes, could not explain what had gone wrong and was unable even to
confirm that all potential employees spoke fluent English.

G4S found there was a dropout of acceptable candidates when they realised the realities of
the job, but even more importantly there was a shortage of licensed security guards and the
company recognised that it would have to recruit inexperienced staff and train them up in
order to meet the new target. Such candidates had to provide a lot of data about themselves
and be vetted and screened, then trained for four days in order to acquire the necessary skills,
and then meet the criteria for a Security Industry Licence before they could begin their
employment. The sheer scale of this task defeated the organisation, and it accepted that it had
underestimated the challenge.

Questions
1. In what ways might contingency planning have helped G4S?
2. The chief executive of G4S only found out that it could not fulfil the
contract in mid-July, which was very close to the start of the games. How
might communication have been improved within G4S, and between G4S
and Wave, and how might this have helped the planning process?
3. In a similar situation, if you were tasked with recruiting 8,000 similar
inexperienced staff, with less than a year to do this, how would you plan to
ensure that all potential employees were vetted, screened, trained, licensed
so they were qualified to begin work on time, and that the dropout rate was
minimised?
 Theory into practice
Flex Co. is a large retail organisation that prides itself on its progressive approach to HRM. As
a retailer, it recognises that its success depends on delivery of a ‘fantastic’ customer experience
and invests heavily in the training and development of its store staff. Alongside this, it has
a range of other progressive HR policies, including WLB options. The WLB policy allows for
part-time working, term-time-only working, a compressed working week and shift swapping.
For store employees, flexitime and working from home are not permissible, although these are
offered to employees in head office and regional offices. A trial of self-rostering, where store
workers pick their own shifts (within specified parameters), is also taking place within a small
number of stores.
Flex Co. operates a decentralised structure in which each store is a profit centre and each
store manager is responsible for the delivery of a certain level of sales and profits and for
managing staff and other costs within the store. In common with many retail organisations,
Flex Co. store managers use a range of employee contracts to ensure that high levels of staff
are available at peak times, for example lunchtimes and weekends, but that a skeleton staff
operate at quiet trading times. This means that, other than at store manager and assistant
manager level, most contracts are part time and there is a high use of zero hours contracts.
Managers argue that this is unproblematic as most employees are either women with childcare
responsibilities or students. They are somewhat resistant to WLB policies that afford greater
employee flexibility as this conflicts with their capacity to devise staff rosters that meet store
requirements.

Questions
1. Flex Co. devises policies centrally at head office but devolves the
responsibility for their implementation to store managers, whose priorities
may conflict with the policy imperatives. To what extent will it ever be
possible to ensure robust policy implementation in this organisation
structure?
2. What tensions can you identify between flexibility that meets employer need
and that which meets employee need? To what extent is it likely to be
possible to reconcile these tensions? Which will take precedence?
3. What are the difficulties inherent in offering different WLB options to
different groups of employees? Is it better to have a ‘one size fits all’
approach?
 Theory into practice
(Recruitment)
At one time, only HR practitioners responsible for recruiting and managing expatriates needed
to consider the international dimension of recruitment. Globalisation now means that there are
many types of staffing groups and international matters concern a great many recruiters.
Examples of international staffing groups include workers on short-term overseas postings,
international commuters, ‘virtual’ international workers on cross-country project teams,
immigrants in national labour markets and workers based in one country but dealing with
international customers and suppliers. The roles undertaken by these workers have also
increased in variety and complexity and include: building new international markets, working
on discrete projects, building social networks and facilitating knowledge exchange. Sparrow
argues that this requires the internationalisation of all HR processes. In this adaptation of his
paper, we concentrate on the internationalisation of recruitment.
The recruitment processes of four UK-based case studies are discussed and include:
• The BBC World Service: international recruitment focuses on the acquisition of specialist
skills for the domestic labour market.
• Barclaycard International: international recruitment is focused on the setting up of
operations in new countries as part of an expansion strategy.
• South East London Strategic Health Authority: international recruitment focuses on the
acquisition of skills for the domestic labour market to tackle labour shortages.
• Save the Children: international recruitment is focused on the deployment of labour on
overseas projects/operations.
The recruitment approaches adopted by these organisations are discussed in more detail below.

South East London Strategic Health Authority

South East London Strategic Health Authority (SHA) recruited in overseas markets to fill
vacancies in specialist skill shortage areas, for example doctors and nurses. Global advertising
campaigns were run using Web-based approaches which established and communicated a
value proposition for international candidates. Part of this was the use of protocols to ensure
that other (developing) countries were not damaged by recruitment of their specialist staff. The
key matters to address included:
• Identifying professional expertise and technical support, for example HR networks and
agencies.
• Balancing targeted recruitment campaigns with longer-term recruitment initiatives.
• Assessing the ethical and reputational issues linked to the campaigns.
• Developing an operational reputation as internationally competitive and attractive.
Three strategies flowed from this. First, active recruitment policies were established to target
specific skills and countries. Arrangements with service providers were established and different
media identified and tested. Second, passive recruitment policies simply tapped into the
growing number of international employees in the domestic labour market. Finally, longer-term
strategies ensured the continued attractiveness of the SHA in overseas markets.
BBC World Service
Here the emphasis was on the use of technology to recruit journalists/producers to work
mainly in the UK but occasionally overseas. The BBC placed a heavy reliance on its
employment
brand in international recruitment and identified brand values including: international,
trustworthy, award winning, accessible, impartial, educational and online. These values were
used to inform all recruitment materials such as brochures and there was a particular emphasis
on their use in the commercial website which advertised vacancies. This activity was undertaken
largely by external providers as the BBC outsourced its HR delivery.
Barclaycard International
Barclaycard used its multicultural workforce to support its ambitious internationalisation
strategy. Internally, vacancies were advertised on intranets. An international HR business partner
was appointed to negotiate preferred supplier arrangements with headhunters and other
institutions. An employee value proposition and employment brand was developed across
countries and global versus local processes were evaluated and adjusted. Many recruitment
processes were adopted across the whole (international) operation, while others had to be
more flexible. Recruitment was undertaken in target markets ahead of entering those markets
and research was undertaken into a wide range of geographical labour markets.
Save the Children
Save the Children operated across six geographical regions and recruited three types of
international labour: long-term overseas development posts, emergency overseas posts and
locally appointed posts. To support this, it launched a new employment brand and proposition
and recruitment was devolved to local line managers. There were four main activities:
• Regional HR managers worked to identify internal talent at local level, employ local
advertising media and build candidate networks and databases.
• Global protocols were developed to identify sources of applicants and ways to advertise
roles.
• Collaborative arrangements with other agencies and charities were entered into.
• Recruitment relied on the overall brand image which informed all advertising.
Online recruitment was heavily relied upon and sold the benefits of working in a particular
programme, country or region.

Questions

1. Why do you think that all four case study organizations relied so heavily on
employer branding in their recruitment activity?
2. Why is e-recruitment so effective in international recruitment?
3. To what extent should consistent global recruitment processes be adopted?
How might more local tailored processes be more effective?
 Theory into practice
(Selection)
Pearson and Daff (2011) report on a fascinating study of selection methods that are not reliant
upon work experience or high levels of formal education, particularly in relation to tests
requiring a high facility with a country’s dominant language. They argue for a particular type
of personality test that is not language dependent to support the employment of Australian
Indigenous people in Australia.
The Discovery Session is a selection test designed to be free of cultural bias that has been
used in Australia, New Zealand and other countries in the region. It uses coloured beads, tiles
and shapes and requires the candidate to construct forms or recall patterns. This does not
require the candidate to have English-language competence and can be delivered in any
language. Across six activities, it tests eighteen types of aptitude which have been identified
as predictive of good job performance. One activity, for example, involves a computer screen
which displays seven lily pads and six frogs. The objective is to change the position of the frogs,
as per a defined set of instructions. The activity requires seventeen precise moves and a total of
three minutes is allowed to complete it. Assessment of the aptitudes of motivation,
coordination and knowledge building is undertaken.
The test is easy to administer, cannot be distributed to other candidates and has the
potential to predict high job performance. Most candidates have also responded positively to
its use and found the exercises demanding but enjoyable. The authors argue that its popularity
relates to its lack of invasiveness, a difficulty often experienced by non-English-language
speakers in other tests. As a selection method, it has wider application to societies experiencing
problems with drawing marginalised populations into the mainstream workforce. Often these
workers are disadvantaged as they lack competency in the dominant language and are typically
screened out during a selection process. Administration of the Discovery Session is oral and
is acultural, allowing candidates to demonstrate their capacity to learn and potential job
performance. Research is at an early stage but it may have a substantial contribution to make
to effective selection.

Questions
1. This research is based in Australia. To what extent can its findings be
applied to other countries where substantial numbers of prospective
employees, often migrant or poorly educated workers, do not have the
language in which selection tests are constructed as a first language? What
are the implications of this?
2. How applicable are these selection techniques across a wide range of jobs?
3. What difficulties might you face in using these selection techniques?
 Theory into practice
(Performance Appraisal)
Steel Co. is a small manufacturing company, run by an owner manager and employing around
sixty-five people, mainly male, full-time, permanent, unskilled or semi-skilled workers. The firm
has been established for approximately thirty years, many of the employees having long periods
of service, and has, in this time, had mixed performance. In recent years, however, in the face of
increased competition and difficult trading conditions, financial performance has been poor
and little profit has been made. This situation has meant that the owner manager has imposed
a pay freeze for the last three years. Employees have expressed discontent with the pay freeze
and suggest that, in general, the firm is a poor employer.
The firm is divided into two main sections, the sales team (‘Sales’), which comprises around
eight employees, and the manufacturing operation (the ‘Works’), which comprises the
remainder of the employees, other than for a small number of employees who work in
administrative or quality assurance roles. Historically, the owner manager has managed the
whole firm, but about twelve months ago, appointed a Divisional Director who is now
responsible for managing the Works. In line with his autocratic approach, the owner manager
has always adopted a command and control style of management, viewing employees as a cost
to the business and investing little in them. This is evident in his management of the sales team,
who have sales targets to hit and are closely monitored by the owner manager in respect of
achieving these targets but receive little other support from him. The Divisional Director,
however, has a more participative style of management and understands the need to view
employees as assets through which the firm can develop and sustain high performance.
The historical management style meant that, on his arrival, the Divisional Director was faced
with a group of employees who lacked commitment to the firm and were focused purely on
working their shift and earning their pay, making the minimum possible contribution to the
firm. The Divisional Director has thus undertaken a number of initiatives in order to improve
both individual and firm performance, including the implementation of a performance
management system. The system revolves around production targets which have been devised
by the Divisional Director, based on the firm’s overall requirements, and are posted on the
noticeboard at the beginning of each week, together with a report indicating performance
against the previous week’s targets. Production data is available at both the team and individual
level and the Works Manager regularly discusses poor performance with individuals where
appropriate. It is common for those employees regularly not meeting their targets to be
disciplined. An annual performance review is held for employees at which their performance is
rated unsatisfactory, satisfactory or good.
In an attempt to overcome the dissatisfaction created by the pay freeze, the Divisional
Director then introduced a bonus scheme where payment is triggered by individual and team
achievement of production targets. Employees support management’s disciplinary approach as
they perceive that those who are underperforming are likely prevent payment of team bonuses.
Team leaders are nominally responsible for coordinating team efforts, although the role is a
new one, which has not been formally defined, and the employees appointed to these roles
have been given no training and do not understand their responsibilities. Indeed, little training,
other than on health and safety issues, takes place at any level in the Works.
A year after implementing the changes, the Divisional Director undertook a review of
performance and was disappointed to discover that neither productivity nor quality have
improved in the Works. In discussions with the Works Manager, the Divisional Director has
formed the view that the attitude of the employees has changed little and motivation is still
weak, despite most earning bonuses in seven of the twelve months.

Questions
Advise on why this might be the case with particular reference to:
a. The methods used to set targets/objectives.
b. The failure to manage behaviors or competencies.
c. A discipline- rather than a development-focused approach to managing
performance.
d. The linking of financial reward to performance.
 Theory into practice
(Absenteeism Management)

Until recently Arthur and John worked as service engineers in a business that supplied deep
cleaning equipment to the catering industry to service the company’s equipment on customers’
premises. Because of growing public concern about hygiene in industrial kitchens, the company
is expanding rapidly and demand for equipment servicing is increasing even more rapidly
because the equipment, once installed, is rarely properly maintained. By agreement with their
employer, Arthur and John have set up a separate company offering a regular maintenance
service for the range of equipment from their erstwhile employer, as well as that of rival
suppliers, with the additional option of an annual deep clean of the entire kitchen. Some
of their previous colleagues have joined them as engineers and other people have been
employed to do some of the deep clean work. The new company is very successful, but the
product offered has two attendance/absence problems: the work often exposes its employees
to infection risk because of what they have to clean; and the hours are erratic because the
customer needs to keep its business running. A work shift could be 12–14 hours, with
a lot of weekends.

Question
Arthur and John are finding that absence is increasing. They would like some advice on
what to do. What do you suggest?
 Theory into practice
(T&D)
The CIPD have produced a guide for employers illustrating how to create successful
apprenticeships. As part of this they give two short case studies of individuals who have
completed apprenticeships at Rolls-Royce. Below there is a short summary of each individual’s
perspective of what they gained from their experiences.
Gurjit Johal felt that her manufacturing/mechanical apprenticeship helped her develop
both personally and professionally. She felt her life skills were enhanced, giving an example
of teamworking: Gurjit and another apprentice were tasked with updating and collating new
manufacturing instructions, which involved significant co-ordination with different departments
to gain approval. She is proud that 15 years later these instructions are still being used and that
she and her colleague moved these instructions from a manual to an electronic version for the
first time.
Gurjit also appreciated the training available to her to strengthen her weaker skills, such as
maths, and recognised that this improved her confidence. The can-do culture also struck Gurjit
and made her feel that anything’s possible, and her increased belief in herself and her abilities
enabled her to complete two very different placements following the completion of her
apprenticeship.
In retrospect, Gurjit, now a nuclear plant design engineer, is delighted that she has gained
qualifications to degree level whilst working and being paid. Rolls-Royce are continuing to
support her development in this new project management role. She feels her apprenticeship
was special due to the support she received to gain the ability, skills and experience which
provided a great start to her career.
Neeraj Sunger is currently a manufacturing engineering apprentice who feels that initially
becoming a Young Apprentice at Rolls-Royce was the best decision he has ever made. He
achieved a ‘highly commended’ in the Young Apprentice of the Year awards in 2009, of which
he is very proud, and is not surprised that the scheme has been assessed as outstanding by
Ofsted. In his current apprenticeship role he is studying for an NVQ3 in engineering
maintenance and has one day a week off work to study for a foundation degree.
Neeraj wants to stay with Rolls-Royce (as 98% of apprentices do) and hopes that they will
sponsor him to do a full engineering degree. He very much appreciates the guidance, support
and knowledge he has gained so far, and feels that the apprenticeship is ‘the opportunity of
a lifetime’.
Questions
1. For what reasons are Gurgit and Neeraj satisfied by their apprenticeship experiences?
2. What issues do Rolls-Royce and other employers need to consider so that their
apprenticeships are well resourced and successful?
3. Design an apprenticeship scheme for a specified job in your own organization, or one with
which you are familiar.
 Theory into practice
(Diversity & EEO)
A key skill of the international manager is harnessing diversity across a huge variety of cultures.
This requires consideration of varying legal, cultural and demographic influences and, outside
of Europe, anti-discrimination legislation may be lacking. Indeed, there may well be an absence
of policy or organisational interventions to promote equality and diversity. Understanding of
diversity management is essentially a western concept that may not translate well into other
cultural or national contexts. Business strategies that develop understanding of local contexts
and circumstances are, therefore, essential to the international manager, as are coping strategies
to deal with ethical dilemmas that may arise. There are a series of questions that managers can
ask themselves to determine appropriate actions in difficult situations, which include:
• Is the practice of concern acceptable? Different approaches may apply and derive from the
host country’s level of development. If this is the case, would the manager’s home country
have tolerated the practice at a similar stage? If so, the practice should be accepted. If it
would not have been tolerated at a similar stage of development in the home country,
further questioning is required.
• Is it possible to continue to trade in the host country while accepting the practice? Does the
practice violate fundamental human rights? Dependent on the answers, the manager may
have to refuse to accept the practice and may need to challenge the practice.
The international manager should, however, proceed with caution and take advice as to the
implications of this refusal and how best to frame it.
The international manager must draw heavily on diversity as an effective mechanism of team
management. A secure environment for the expression of ideas and communication should be
created and recognition of cultural differences should again be recognised. In certain cultures,
for example, it may be seen as disrespectful to express views that challenge those of the
manager. It is also essential to be aware of and account for local cultural influences that may
impact on working practices. Religion is a good example in that it may both affect working
patterns, given for example the need to pray, and create work group tensions, where for
example the group comprises members drawn from different religions. Similarly, if there is a
dominant group, they may have undue influence and other important diversity issues may be
neglected. It is important to be alert to cultural issues that may influence working relationships
in order to build respect and value dignity.
Gender is also a critical issue. Most international managers are men, which may result from
organisations’ reluctance to send women abroad. This is particularly so where it is unusual for
women to work, especially at senior levels, in the host country. This male dominance itself leads
to limited diversity understanding among international managers.
Questions
1. What examples of cultural diversity likely to be faced by the international manager
can you think of?
2. What impact might these examples have on work groups and how could this be
addressed?
3. How could the dominance of men as international managers be addressed?
Performance-related pay at the Cavendish Hall Hotel
Daphne Jones has recently been appointed as Personnel Manger of the Cavendish Hall Hotel, a
200-bedroom, four-star country house hotel located in rolling hills a few miles south of a major
northern industrial conurbation. The hotel provides a wide range of conference and banqueting
facilities and is a popular wedding location. Despite poor reviews from guests concerning the
cost of drinks and the quality of the food on offer, the hotel is financially successful, having
recently recorded increased annual profits.
Soon after her appointment Daphne decides that it is necessary and desirable to
introduce a new payment system which links reward to individual effort and competency.
She is concerned that the present system of paying everyone in a job role the same rate
irrespective of their individual performance is unfair and tends to demotivate the best
performers. She therefore decides to take a different approach when determining this
year’s annual pay rises:
1 Each member of staff will receive a 1% salary increase regardless of performance to take
account of the increased cost of living.
2 Each line manager will be required to score their staff based on their individual performance
over the past year. There are four options:
• excellent
• good
• satisfactory
• unsatisfactory.
3 Staff scored as ‘excellent’ will receive a 4% pay rise (3% plus the 1% cost of living increase),
those marked as ‘good’ will receive 3% and those as ‘satisfactory’ 2%. People who are marked
as ‘unsatisfactory’ will simply receive the 1% cost of living increase.
The hotel has not hitherto operated any kind of formal performance management system.
There are no annual appraisals or development reviews. Managers vary greatly in the extent to
which they communicate with their staff at all, let alone to discuss their individual performance.
For many the only indicator they have that they are doing a good job is the amount they
receive from guests in the form of tips. As a result, when the new scheme is announced in a
series of staff meetings, there is enormous excitement. There is massive anticipation among staff
in the days and weeks running up to the announcement of the pay awards.
At the last minute, however, there are hitches and as a result the announcement is delayed
for a week. This occurs because Daphne finds herself disagreeing profoundly with the scores
awarded by two of her managers.
George Clapham, the Head Porter, has awarded all his staff excellent ratings. When Daphne
questions him about this, he replies that he thinks all his lads are wonderful, that they have
all worked very hard over the last year and that they all deserve the full 4%. Surely, Daphne
argues, he cannot give Graham Dudd an excellent rating? Not only has he been absent most
of the past year, but he is regularly found away from his post chatting up chambermaids in the
staff room?
George argues that Graham means well and is greatly liked by his colleagues. Daphne insists
he is downgraded to ‘satisfactory’.
Henry Oldham-Down, the Head Chef, has awarded two of his senior staff excellent ratings,
but has rated all the commis chefs and kitchen porters as ‘unsatisfactory’. When questioned
about this, Henry says that they are all ‘crap’ and a waste of space as far as he is concerned and
that giving them the 1% cost of living rise is much more than they deserve. Daphne lists some
names of kitchen staff who she thinks do a good job. After each name is mentioned Henry just
says ‘crap’.
Daphne insists that one or two of the staff are upgraded to ‘satisfactory’.
The following week letters are sent to all staff telling them how they have been rated by their
managers and what the implications are for their pay. At the end of the letter is a sentence that
asks staff who are unhappy with their pay rises to see Daphne Jones.
The following day a long line of disappointed staff forms outside Daphne’s office. There is a
perceivable drop in morale and this leads to reduced effort. In the coming weeks absence rates
increase and guest complaints rise. There are particular problems in the kitchen, leading several
guests to write very strongly worded letters of complaint.
Daphne is not surprised that poor performers are disappointed, but she finds it hard to
understand why so many strong performers who have been rated ‘good’ are so negative about
the whole exercise. What is more, she finds herself under fire from the finance director of the
company which owns the hotel. He says that the pay bill is now too high and that it will have to
be cut back next year.
The general manager of Cavendish Hall thinks that the problems with the scheme have
mainly been caused by different managers rating people according to different criteria. Next
year, he says, a forced ranking system will be used. This will mean that each line manager will
be asked to rank their staff in order of performance. The top 25% will then receive the excellent
rating and highest pay rise. Those in the second quartile will be scored as ‘good’ and those in
the third and fourth quartiles as ‘satisfactory’ and ‘unsatisfactory’ respectively. This system also
means that a budget can be set and that it will be adhered to in practice.
Questions
1 What was wrong with the design of the payment system?
2 What was wrong with the way it was introduced?
3 What do you think of the new ‘forced ranking system’ that is planned for next year?
4 What alternative type of system would you argue should be introduced and why?