Introduction

Tarmac was established in 1903 and is the UK’s leading supplierof building materials and aggregates to the building industry.Tarmac is most often associated with constructing roads or majorbuilding projects such as the new Heathrow terminal andWembley Stadium. However, materials derived from quarrying areused within many different sectors, including manufacturing lightbulbs, chewing gum and toothpaste.

Tarmac’s operational structure is divided into two key areas:Tarmac UK and Tarmac International. Tarmac UK is sub-dividedinto two separate businesses: • Tarmac Ltd extracts key building aggregates and materials. • Tarmac Building Products Ltd focuses on turning raw materials

into products useable by the building sector.

Tarmac International develops building products for supply aroundthe world, especially in the United Arab Emirates.

Nearly 11,000 employees work for Tarmac in a variety of worksettings that include:• 135 quarries• 13 wharves• 73 asphalt plants• 172 concrete plants • 36 recycling sites.

In the past, most people’s view of a Tarmac employee would havebeen a man in a hard hat. That is not the case anymore. Tarmacdepends on having people with high levels of skill in externally-facing roles such as sales, customer service and marketing, aswell as internal roles in IT, finance or procurement (often calledpurchasing). The recruitment of specialist employees in these rolesis now central to Tarmac’s growth.

It is said that the most important resource within an organisation isits people. This is because an organisation depends on the skillsand capabilities of its employees to meet its mission. Employeesare not a static resource. They need to be engaged, interested,developed and motivated. It is through such processes thatorganisations meet their business objectives and increase theiremployees’ capabilities to create competitive advantage. Thishelps the organisation to outperform many of its rivals.

This case study focuses on Human Resource Managementwithin Tarmac. It looks at how workforce planning and otherHR strategies enable Tarmac to meet its mission:

‘To deliver the highest value from our resources for

our customers, communities, employees and

investors.’

Curriculum Topics

• Human Resource

Management

• Workforce planning

• Getting the right people

• Building skills and

capabilities

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Mission: Energising overall purposeand direction for an organisation.

Competitive advantage: An ability toearn superior profits through lower costsor distinctive product quality thatcompetitors cannot readily copy.

Human Resource Management:Deployment, training and developmentof people as a strategic resource withinan organisation.

Workforce planning: Process ofanticipating an organisation's futurestaffing needs and then making a planto fulfil them.

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Developing a Human Resource strategy

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Strategic: Fundamental to a plan forachieving key objectives.

Stakeholders: Person or group witha direct interest in the decisions orbehaviour of an organisation (egshareholders, employees, customers,suppliers, creditors, local community).

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Business objectives

Strategic Human Resources Management

Recruitmentand selection

Recruitmentand selection

Recruitmentand selection

Recruitmentand selectionRecruitmentand selection

Workforceplanning

Training anddevelopment Appraisal

Well qualifiedmotivated staff

Rewardand payment

High performance

Human Resource Management

A key element of Human Resource Management is to identifywhat level of human resources the business needs. This includesthe skills and knowledge that will be required by the organisationboth now and in the future. This is an integrated process as itinvolves looking at every area within an organisation. Tarmacconstantly reviews all of its human resource needs.

For Tarmac, Human Resource Management is a strategic process.This is because it involves the whole business in planning for thefuture. Having the right skills and knowledge enables the businessto meet its objectives and compete more effectively than its rivals.

Tarmac’s vision is to ‘achieve the exceptional’. To deliver value to allits stakeholders, Tarmac created an integrated plan, whichrequires all employees to contribute in different ways. Tarmac helpsall employees remember and focus on its five big goals by using theacronym ‘DREAM’:

As Tarmac’s business is now much broader, it must keep developing

its people. A key element of its plan is to ‘engage employees’ to

use their energy and skills to improve the business. The HR

management process provides the means to do this. For example,

the HR department offers formal internal and external courses to

give people training in key skills related to their current roles.

Engaging people takes many forms. Tarmac ensures that

employees are motivated through:

• clear and understandable objectives and targets

• being helped to improve and acquire the skills, qualifications

and training to do their jobs effectively

• being recognised for their performance and rewarded accordingly.

A vital element of this drive to achieve the exceptional is ensuring

that there are excellent communication systems in place. Without

senior managers clearly sharing corporate objectives, employees

would not know what they need to achieve or what skills they may

have to acquire to meet these targets.

Workforce planning

Workforce planning involves a continual review of human assets

and the business’ organisational structure. The process identifies

the skills and knowledge required at the present time. It also

estimates what Tarmac needs to have in place to respond to

future challenges in its market place. Like most other businesses,

Tarmac’s human resource needs are constantly changing:

• Sometimes individuals leave the organisation to take up

other posts.

• Some individuals retire. (This is a growing issue with the UK’s

ageing population.)

• Employees are promoted within the business.

• New technology removes some roles but also creates new

types of jobs.

• The changing economic climate may result in more or less

demand for its products.

D Develop markets By targeting customers and workingclosely with them

R Reduce costs By being operationally efficient

E Engage employees With everyone working to one planand having good performancerecognised

A Act responsibly By promoting a sustainable and safeapproach to business

M Manage assets By looking after investments andequipment, as well as the naturalresources used by the business

The changing and evolving nature of Tarmac’s business means itneeds to anticipate where new skills, such as those involved withdifferent technologies, are required. This helps it to identify whattraining existing employees need to support future growth for thebusiness.

The core business of Tarmac is producing aggregate such asrock, gravel and sand. The aggregate is extracted from quarriesacross the UK and distributed to both wholesale and privatecustomers. In addition to the production of aggregate, Tarmacuses its own materials to provide the building trade with manyother products. For example, sand, gravel, water and cementmixed together will make concrete that is helping to build theinfrastructure for London 2012 Olympics. A mixture of varioussizes of aggregate added to sand and bitumen will be used bythe Nottinghamshire Highways Partnership to repair all roadsacross the county until 2016. Harden Quarry in Northumberlandproduces a decorative stone called Harden Red. This is used forcycle tracks and for the grounds of Buckingham Palace, due toits unique properties and red colouring.

Such a distinctive product portfolio means Tarmac needs to havea more diverse workforce than ever to support its operations.Due to increases in new technology and improved ways ofworking, Tarmac requires specialist skills across the business,both on sites and in Head Offices.

Tarmac’s people make the business the market leader that it is.Employing people with science, business, engineering, finance,language, and information technology backgrounds helps toensure Tarmac stays at the forefront of its industry. For example,there are key roles within the Head Office. Other individuals arerequired for a range of commercial roles, for example, an AccountManager looking after a group of customers. This requires strongcommunication and organisational skills to ensure all accountcustomers get the materials they need on time.

Chris moved into this role when joining Tarmac’s Graduate scheme:‘It’s my responsibility to analyse the market for the types of

materials we supply and monitor prices. I also provide quotations

for customers, support on-site teams at jobs we are supplying and

work with colleagues to ensure the customer gets what they need.’

Other commercial roles support Tarmac’s business development:• Web Marketing Officer – This job focuses on developing

Tarmac’s presence on the internet. The site uses digitalmarketing activities to develop relationships with existing and

potential customer groups. This role is vital in a competitivemarket. Other aspects include creating, analysing andproviding detailed web reports for senior management. Theseshow how successful previous campaigns have been and helpinform development decisions.

• Senior Finance Officer – This role is vital in helping Tarmac toachieve financial targets. Supporting a Director, this involvesmanaging financial teams that generate information such asregular financial reports. As well as co-ordinating activitiesrelating to this information, the role involves setting budgetsand targets for the business.

• Procurement Manager – Managing the supply of more than20,000 items per year costing £40 to £50 million, this roleinvolves monitoring the business’ needs and purchasing arange of resources at the best possible rate.

• Inbound Services Co-ordinator – Manages a team thatsupports customer service within the business. It involveshelpline calls, website enquiries and providing customersupport for a range of services. In the competitive buildingsupplies sector, contracts can be won or lost on the quality ofcustomer service provided. It is important that this role isperformed effectively.

These posts indicate how much Tarmac’s human resource needsand make-up have changed, requiring more office-based staff todrive the business forwards.

Getting the right people

The starting point of the workforce planning process is to identifyemployment needs for the future. At the heart of this are theprocesses of attraction, recruitment and selection. Tarmacneeds to manage these processes effectively in order to ensure itgets high quality candidates for posts. Recruitment is a costlyprocess and so Tarmac uses a structured approach to ensurethat the right candidates are selected.

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RYRecruitment: Process of identifying the

need for new employee(s), defining thejob(s), attracting candidates andselecting those most suitable.

Selection: The process of choosingwhich person to appoint from those thatapply for a job vacancy.

Interview

Short-list based on applications received

Advertisements

Set job description and person specification

Identification of recruitment needs

Selection

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Job description: A document settingout the key responsibilities and tasksinvolved in performing a particular job.

Person specifications: Details of thequalifications, experience and personalqualities required to perform a particularjob.

Psychometric testing: A set ofquestions which, when analysed,suggest an outline of a job applicant'spersonality.

Personal development plan: A plansetting out ways in which individualemployees will have their training anddevelopment needs met.

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Attracting people involves constructing job descriptions andperson specifications. These identify what the job involves andwhat essential and desirable qualities the candidate must have.These are used to create advertisements, which are placed inrelevant press and media, for instance trade journals likeConstruction Weekly or Personnel Today.

Recruiting the right people is fundamental to Tarmac’sdevelopment. It recruits individuals capable of reaching higherpotential. This involves looking for individuals with diverse skillsfrom a range of backgrounds.

Selection is the process undertaken by human resource managers ofchoosing the best individual that has applied for a job vacancy. Forgraduate applicants, Tarmac uses a range of different selection toolsincluding competence questions, a group exercise, delivering apresentation, psychometric testing and an interview. This thoroughprocess ensures that Tarmac appoints the most suitable individuals.

Building skills and capabilities

At Tarmac, each individual has a personal development plan.This enables employees to identify the skills or knowledge theywant to develop to improve their capability and efficiency. As a keypart of the process of workforce planning, this helps Tarmac andindividual employees to set targets for the future.

The process of personal development helps employees to achievetheir full potential. This never stops and demonstrates theunderlying practice of ‘learning for life’. Individual employees areassessed on how they perform in their plan. This therefore takesboth them and the business forward. The roles that they mightmove towards include:

• Commercial Analyst – this involves supporting Finance andCommercial Managers by analysing the way in which thebusiness performs, managing major projects and settingtargets for the different parts of the organisation. In particular,this helps assess how close projects are to ‘getting things rightfirst time’, minimising waste and improving profitability.

• Business Administration Team Leader – this role ensures thatsystems are in place to support business processes. This rolealso includes mentoring and identifying opportunities toimprove systems.

• Human Resources Advisor – this involves providing a range ofhuman resource services across the organisation. Theseinclude recruitment and selection, being involved in developinggood relationships across the business, health and safetyissues and grievance procedures.

Developing employees’ skills motivates staff and provides greatopportunities for them to progress, whilst helping Tarmac toimprove its efficiency and profitability.

Conclusion

Human Resource Management focuses on matching the needs ofthe business with the needs and development of employees.Tarmac depends on its people because their skills contribute toachieving its business objectives.

Within Tarmac, every employee has a valuable role to play. Theemphasis is on helping individuals to work together. Workforceplanning is part of this strategic process, which looks at the long-term needs across the organisation. Personal development plansenable every individual to grow both professionally and personallywithin the business. They also help Tarmac to create a distinctand important competitive advantage through selecting anddeveloping highly motivated and skilled staff who are able toperform at high levels.

When will I do this?

What actions will I take to develop them?

What skills or behaviours do I want to develop?

How do I measure my success?

What are the benefits of development for me?How do they help Tarmac?

Review

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1. Using an example, describe what is meant by humanresource management.

2. Explain the difference between training and development.3. Analyse why a range of job roles are necessary in order

to support a large business like Tarmac. 4. Evaluate the key strategic benefits of workforce

planning for Tarmac. Identify how such planning mightcontribute to its performance and help it to developcompetitive advantage.

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