Human Resource Management Practices - Marks & Spencer

TASK 1

Purpose and function of human resource management applicable to workforce planning and resourcing

Human resource management aims to bring effectiveness in the performance of employees to gain competitive advantage and achieving goals and objectives. Human resource management impacts the human resources and operations of organisation by providing training and development that results in innovative and creative process (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Marks & Spencer focuses on maintaining effectiveness in organisational operations by managing effective human resource management team (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). Workforce planning is a continuous process which is applied by employers to meet needs and wants of employees.

Purpose of Human Resource Management

The main purpose of human resource management is to optimize the efforts and knowledge of employees and maximize the productivity and profits of the organisation. Human Resource Management focuses on acquiring the knowledgeable employee, develops their knowledge by proving training and development and retain them for achieving organisational goals and objectives. Marks & Spencer aims at coordinating HRM for employees so that objectives can be accomplished. It can be done by recruiting and selecting qualified employees and introduce practices which satisfy them (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016).

Functions of Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management is related to managing productivity, providing training and development to employees etc. Human Resource Management communicates with every department of organisation so that it can maintain proper flow of accurate and important information which can bring effectiveness in operations leading to accomplish objectives (Internal Sources of Recruitment, 2018). Various functions of Human Resource Management are explained below.

Recruitment and selection: Selection and recruitment of employees to fulfil the staffing need i.e. the primary responsibility of Human Resource Management. By selection and recruitment of talented and knowledgeable employees, organisation can achieve its long term goals. Marks & Spencer aims at recruiting the talented employees who can bring effectiveness in the business operations and work towards achievement of organisational goals (Brewster and et. al., 2016). Marks & Spencer operates its business in retail markets offering large variety of products to its customers and so it requires talented and knowledgeable employees at every level. Therefore, human resource management of M&S aims selection and recruitment of the best available employees.

Training and development: After selecting and recruiting employees, Human Resource Management of Marks & Spencer focuses on providing training and development to employees so that employees can make the best use of available resources and bring effectiveness in business process or operation (Smith, 2014). HRM aims at utilizing skills and knowledge of employees to bring efficiency and also focuses on developing those skills.

Performance appraisal: Human resource management assess the employees' performance so that further training can be provided, if needed. Marks & Spencer measures the performance of their employees in order to appraise the talented employees and make them satisfied.

Reward system: HRM of M&S gives rewards to employees in order to appreciate them for their high performance and is given in form of incentives or salary increment or promotion. This benefits organisation through encouraging employees to work harder and in better way and bring efficiency in operations (Asrar-ul-Haq, 2015).

Managing disputes: Human Resource Management also manages proper functioning of business operations. There are certain situations in which disputes may happen between employees and so HRM focuses on resolving them.(Jennings and Stadler, 2015). HRM focuses on maintaining proper functioning of business operations.

Maintaining working environment: Human resource management focuses on making a work culture that encourages and motivate employees. A good work culture drives the performance of employees and brings positive outcomes. Marks and Spencer aims at maintaining good working environment that leads to efficient flow of business operation and also provide employee satisfaction.

Employee satisfaction: The main aim of human resource management is to provide satisfaction to employees so that they put their efforts in achieving targeted goals. Marks & Spencer aims at encouraging and motivating employees so that they feel satisfied for their job and put their best in business operations which result in effectiveness in process (Friedman, 2017).

HRM recruits and selects talented employees who brings innovation and creation in business process. HRM also focuses on bringing efficiency in business process which leads to improve business process. HRM provide training and development to its employees which brings talent and skills in company and it also applies practices retaining those talents and skills.

Strength and weakness of different approaches of recruitment and selection

The basic and important role of human resource management is to select and recruit employees who can work towards achievement of organisational goals. Recruitment is finding and selecting the best suitable candidate for job profile in a company. Marks & Spencer uses various approaches while selecting and recruiting employees which are explained below and their strength and weakness are also explained (Schaufeli and Taris, 2014).

Internal Selection and Recruitment

Internal recruitment method used by human resource management helps to identify the capable employee within the organisation. It basically refers to hiring candidates from organisation only. Marks & Spencer uses internal recruitment approach for selecting and recruiting employees which benefits organisation to retain the talented employees. Internal recruitment is done by promoting a candidate or transferring employee from one department to another or even by employee referrals (Hawkins, 2017).

1. Transfer of employees is done from one job profile to another. This is done to bring change in their work to bring innovation which can benefit for future promotion.

2. Promotion refers to giving higher level of work position or job profile to employees. This is done to appreciate employee's performance level and encourage them.

3. Employee referrals refers to present employee referring the job profile to suitable candidates from friends and family and also recommand about them to organisation. This helps organisation to save time and cost in hiring and selecting candidates (Barrick and et. al., 2015).

Strength Of Internal Recruitment:

• Marks & Spencer uses internal recruitment and selection of employees because it is cost effective. The process of internal recruitment can be done quickly and it saves time as well.
• Arranging interviews, posting advertisement, selection procedure, administration cost can be saved by Marks & Spencer by doing internal recruitment.
• Training and development of employee is not required as he/she already knows about organisation, its culture and objectives (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016).
• Internal recruitment of an employee motivates and encourages other employees and they also show their potential towards work and benefits Mark & Spencer to retain valuable employees.
• Internal recruitment benefits Mark & Spencer in employee retention and also encourages them to seek for development within organisation (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017).

Weakness Of Internal Recruitment:

• Internal recruitment limits the entry of external potential talent which can not be achieved without internal recruitment. Marks&Spencer avoid external skilled and talented candidates which can be available outside the organisation.
• Internal recruitment blocks new ideas from new people. Mark & Spencer fails to introduce new ideas and talents by recruiting internally. Internal recruitment is adopted by Marks & Spencer limiting the pool of talented and skilled knowledgeable persons available outside the organisation.
• Internal recruitment provides limited choice of talented people and avoids large number of choices which can be availed by external recruitment (Asrar-ul-Haq, 2015).
• Promotion can be done through favouritism factor. Human resource management can promote its favourite but not so talented employee and ignore the talented ones. It affects Marks & Spencer as it will lead to staff of talent-less crowd.

External Selection and Recruitment

External recruitment refers to hiring and selecting candidates from outside the organisation. There are various methods for recruiting people from external environment to fulfil the vacant position of organisation. Following are some methods of external recruitment (Smith, 2014).

1. Media advertisement: This method is generally preferred by organisations for external recruitment. Marks & Spencer also uses various medium of media such as newspaper, magnetizes, business journals, TV to advertise about recruitment and selection.
2. Human resource management of M&S visits various colleges to select and hire students directly from campus. And it is referre as campus recruitment (Friedman, 2017).
3. Marks & Spencer also searches and selects candidates through electronically and it is called e-recruiting by using online job portals where candidates upload their resume.
4. Human resource management also prepares for walk-in interviews where candidates are invited to come and give interviews.

Strengthen Of External Recruitment:

• External recruitment provides large number of talented candidates and human resource management selects the best of them which can bring efficiency and innovation.
• External recruitment process allows new ideas, fresh or new knowledge and skills of persons which can bring positive outcomes for Mark & Spencer.
• Candidates with wide range of skills and experience can be hired through external recruitment. Marks & Spencer can hire fresh talent through external recruitment and bring innovation in its operations (Hawkins, 2017).
• Marks & Spencer creates healthy competitive environment within organisation between new and internal employees of organisation which can bring positive outcomes.

Weakness Of External Recruitment:

• External recruitment is very time consuming as it has various steps to be followed. Marks & Spencer is adopting external recruitment that has to follow a long process.
• External recruitment is expensive as it requires advertisement, vacancy announcement, interview arrangements, administration cost etc.
• Marks & Spencer may get uncertain response because human resource management may not find suitable candidates for vacant position in the organisation (Jennings and Stadler, 2015).

M&S optimise both internal and external both recruitment and selection procedure as per the workforce requirements and different circumstance cooperated by the company.

Effectiveness of different human resource management practices to both employer and employee

Human resource management aims at managing personnels of organisation in a manner that brings positive outcomes through their effective performance. Different practices adopted by human resource management helps in achieving organisational goals and it benefits both employer and employee. Various HRM practices adopted by Marks & Spencer which results in increasing profit and productivity are explained as follows:

Human resource management recruits and select employees to fulfil the vacant places with qualified candidates. This practices adopted by HRM results in hiring of new knowledgable person with new and fresh ideas which can benefit organisation to achieve its goals and increase productivity (Smith, 2014).

Human resource management aims at retaining talented and skilled employees so that it can be used to gain competitive advantage. HRM encourage and motivate employees to bring innovation by providing them proper training and development. Employees feel motivated towards work and put their best efforts and result in positive outcomes.

HRM provides health insurance, life insurances and other policies to employees in order to retain and motivate employees. They also aim at maintaining flexible spending accounts, provides scheme of disabled coverage, tuition reimbursement, etc. so that it can motivate and encourage employees and satisfy them (Jennings and Stadler, 2015).

Training and development practice adopted by HRM helps employee to learn, reinforce knowledge, develop skills and learn additional information. This motivate and encourages employees to learn and gain from training sessions which benefits organisation in innovation and creation in its business process and its productivity is also increased.

HRM practices also involves performance appraisal of employees in which employees performance is measured. Employees performance is monitored in order to appraise their level of performance, encourage them and rewards are also given (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016).

Human resource management aims at minimizing the employee turnover and so it focuses on retaining of employees. Different practices are applied to retain talented and skilled employees who can bring effectiveness in business operations. Employees also feel secured and satisfied towards their job.

Human resource management adopts orientation program helps to provide various details to employees which includes details about their roles and responsibilities, job description and makes them feel comfortable (Schaufeli and Taris, 2014). This practice adopted by Marks&Spencer makes employee feel comfortable and satisfied which result in positive outcomes in way of increased productivity.

HRM aims at providing good working environment which can bring effectiveness in business process. Marks&Spencer aims at motivating and encouraging employees by providing them with good and comfortable working conditions. This results in effective business operation and also employees feel motivated.

Effectiveness of different human resource management practices raising organisational profit and productivity

Human resource management aims at managing human resources of company and treat them as main pillars of the company. Recruitment is one of the HRM practice that helps the firm in brining new talent in business unit. Internal recruitment is beneficial for the organisation because it helps in reducing the hiring time. If M&S recruits people from external environment then it would have to spend huge time for circulating information of vacant post, screening resumes and finding the best candidate out of many, but internal selection procedure helps business in selecting deserving candidates in less time (Hawkins, 2017). Furthermore, it is also helpful in minimising cost of business. If Marks and Spencer hires people from external environment then it would incur advertisement cost and other expenses. By hiring people from existing atmosphere, company would be able to minimise cost of operations. This new people work better in business and contributes well in achieving goal of business. Right recruitment helps in raising productivity of the company and raising its profitability as well..

Training and development is another HRM practice in which HR manager provides training to people. This helps in raising their existing skills and developing professionalism among them. By this way they perform event better in business unit and helps in raising profit of company Furthermore, performance management is another practice, entity measures performance of all employees and accordingly provide them reward and recognition. This is beneficial in order to motivate people but sometimes this demotivae people those who do not receive any promotion. (Functions & Practices of Human Resource Management, 2018). It might be possible that they don’t perform their duties well. Furthermore, it is costly process because entity will have to spend huge amount to hire candidates and giving them training so that they can understand their job and can perform well in business unit.

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TASK 2

Importance of employee’s relationship and key elements of employment legislation

Significance of employee relationship

Maintaining healthy relationship with employees is the way to get success for every organisation. Workers are the assets of business; if entity has developed healthy bonding with them then it helps in avoiding conflicts and implement changes significantly. Marks and Spencer is the leading clothing company that always offers trendy cloths to consumers. The main agenda of enterprise is to attract more people and expand operations across the world (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

• Healthy relationship with employees aid management in getting innovative ideas. HR has to make necessary changes in firm time- to-time but human resource manager is required new ideas that can support in achieving goal. By involving people in decision making process company becomes able to gain trust of staff members, by this way they share their ideas and actively participate in decision making process. This relation aids the M&S in running operations significantly and minimising mistakes (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
• Health relationship aids M&S in avoiding conflicts in organisation, by this way all workers feel happy and they put their hard efforts to achieving goal of company. This aids HR in making changes in their recruitment and performance measuring decision efficiently.
• Strong bonding between employees and employers assists in influencing HRM decision related to changes, training etc. Healthy relationships motivate staff members and make them positive towards brand. This encouragement helps them in minimising confusion and performing their duties well (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). By this way, company becomes able to retain their skilled employees in the firm for longer duration.
• It aids in minimising staff turnover issue and entity will be able to retain its talented people in business for longer duration.

Key elements of employee legislation and their impact on HRM decision making

Employment legislation can be defined as laws that help in managing employees well and governs employment in the organisation. Its main purpose is to run business legally and minimising controversies related to employment. Various kinds of employment legislation are required to be followed by each firm. Impact of these laws on HRM practices of M&S is described as below:

Health and safety act: This legislation states that all companies are required to maintain healthy environment at workplace. They have to provide safety to its workers. This impact in HRM decision making process because HR manager of M&S has to provide insurance and have to complete all documentation of used material. HR manager of M&S gives training to its workers to protect themselves from such kind of risky work practices (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016).

Equality act: It is another legislation that states that entities are required to pay to each worker equality and firms cannot decide salaries on the bases of gender or age. Marks and Spencer follows this legal guidelines and HR manager of the firm gives appraisal and wages to each candidates on the basis of their workplace performance only (Brewster and et. al., 2016).

Data protection: This act instruct to all business unit to keep personal information of workers confidential. M&S does not disclose details of its employees with others. It has maintained record of all workers and keeps this data protected.

Anti-Discrimination act: This legislation prohibits discrimination at workplace and companies cannot discriminate people on the bases of their race, sex, religion etc. Thus, during the recruitment and appraisal, HR of Marks and Spencer have to follow these guidelines and entity has to offers salaries to its employees on the bases of their talent and experience (Smith, 2014).

Application Of HRM Practices

Marks and Spencer aims to retain its skilled employees in business for longer duration for which entity continuously work to improve its human resources practices.

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Job advertisement

M&S has vacant post of HR executive, for that it will have to give advertisement for the vacant post so that deserving candidates can apply in the company.

Personal specification

Company takes support of internal and external both recruitment methods that helps enterprise in selecting most deserving and skilled people (Asrar-ul-Haq, 2015). Company is planning to hire HR executive for that manager of the firm has to give advertisement in news paper and website related to vacant post. This aids business in finding suitable person (Jennings and Stadler, 2015).. Entity always ensures to give job advertisement at suitable platform so that people that are more talented can apply in the organisation. Once its is given then HR manager of the firm give person specification, that means what kind of sills are required in the person for performing this job . This recruitment practice aids in bringing new talent in firm and rising overall organisational performance as well. Company makes connection with external recruitment agencies and give news related to vacant post on its website (Friedman, 2017). This helps in getting resumes of talented people those who have required skills. By this way HR manager of M&S selects most deserving person who can be profitable for the company. M&S applies tracking system for scanning resumes. There are many job seekers those who upload their CV on company’s website. This tracking system helps the firm in screening the resumes and selecting the applicable person for vacant post.

Reward and recognition is another essential HRM practices where human resource manager has to provide incentives, recognition to the workers (Schaufeli and Taris, 2014). This motivates people and encourages them to contribute well in achieving goal of business unit. M&S gives promotions, incentives, recognition to the best performer. By this way, other workers find development opportunities in the firm and also improve their working performance in business. This assists firm in gaining competitive advantage and retaining its skilled people in organisation for longer duration.

Critical evaluation of employees relationship and application of hrm practices

Employees relations play significant role in success of business if enterprise has healthy bonding with its workers then it helps firm in retaining them in organisation for longer duration. Furthermore, strong relationship assists in minimising confusion and enhancing coordination between employees and employer (Importance of Employee Relations - Why Employee Relations at Workplace, 2018). This minimises conflict situation and assist the firm in conducting operations smoothly. Human resource management is significant department that continuously work to manage resources of company significantly (Hawkins, 2017). The main purpose of M&S is to retain its skilled people in business for longer duration and raise their working efficiency. This helps firm in improving their market performance and providing satisfactory services to consumers. Enterprise ensures to hire best person in workplace those who can contribute well in raising its market share. Recruitment and selection is the essential HRM practices. HR manager of Marks and Spencer assess the future demand and accordingly fill the gap between required candidates and actual people (Barrick and et. al., 2015).

Healthy relationship raises loyalty of people and raises their productivity as well. If HR managers have strong bonding with all workers then it will encourage loyal workforce. By this way, people will support in every circumstances. For instance, if entity plans to make changes in its technologies then people will not resist and they will give their positive response in HR decision of the organisation. Healthy relationship is beneficial in reducing staff turnover. If people are satisfied with workplace culture and environment then they will stay in business for longer duration. Thus, M&S will not have to conduct recruitment frequently, this will decrease operational cost as well (Functions & Practices of Human Resource Management, 2018).

HR manager has totake decision of change management and technological advanadcemtn in company. If entity has healthy bonding with its workers then it may help in implementing changes and implementing new technologies significantly. This assist in making suitable changes in existing decision and people also support the firm for their decisions (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016). This increases confidence of other employees as well because they think that company cars for their workers and listen their problems carefully.

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CONCLUSION

Above study can be summarised as human resource management is the process to manage employees and retain them in business for longer duration. The main purpose HR function is to develops relationship with workers and enhance their satisfaction level. Companies offer rewards, incentives, appraisal to their workers so that they feel motivated and become loyal towards brand. Companies are required to follow employment legislation carefully and they have to ensure creating healthy workplace environment. All these things aids the organisation in managing their resources well and minimising conflict situation in firm. Planning, recruiting, performance management, conflict resolution are essential practices of HRM that stimulate the productivity. Companies are required to develop strong bonding with their workers so that they become loyal and contribute well in accomplishing goal of business unit.

REFERENCES

• Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
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• Smith, L. G., 2014. Impact assessment and sustainable resource management. Routledge.

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