Human Resource Management at Debenhams

This assignment delves into the crucial role of Human Resource Management (HRM) within Debenhams. It necessitates an analysis of Debenhams' HRM functions and their significance in the organization's success. The task involves estimating future costs, revenues, and required resources over a defined period. Additionally, students must demonstrate their understanding of various HRM concepts and practices as applied to the retail sector.

Business Resources

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1. The recruitment documentation used in Debenhams.......................................................1
P2. Main employability, personal and communication skills required in selection process.. 1
P3. The main physical and technological resources...............................................................3
P4. Sources of internal and external finance for Debenhams.................................................3
P5. Contents of a trading and profit and loss account and balance sheet...............................4
P6. Use of budgets as a means of exercising financial control of Debenhams......................5
P7. Financial state of Debenhams..........................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business resources are considered as human, financial, physical, and knowledge factors
that provide a firm the means to perform its business processes. During the recruitment process,
search committee members may be required to complete and/or approve recruitment related
forms which are to be forwarded to the Departmental HR Coordinator for uploading with the
appropriate requisition in UCR’s applicant tracking system (Bangerter, Corvalan and Cavin,
2014). The selection process has various steps such as screening, assessing, interviewing,
selecting, conducting induction, and welcoming the new employee. The present report is based
on Debenhams which is a British multinational retailer operating under a department store format
in the United Kingdom and Ireland with franchise stores in other countries.
P1. The recruitment documentation used in Debenhams.
The selection process has various steps such as screening, assessing, interviewing,
selecting, conducting induction, and welcoming the new employee (Cabellero and Walker,
2010). A recruiter performs all this activities for selecting an eligible employee, from the
competitive job market. During these activities the candidate has to maintain the active
relationship with the employer, or the selector via direct, or indirect mode of communication to
present an edge over the other candidates. During the recruitment process, search committee
members may be required to complete and/or approve recruitment related forms which are to be
forwarded to the Departmental HR Coordinator for uploading with the appropriate requisition in
UCR’s applicant tracking system. Federal law requires all employers to maintain records of the
following information:
A list of all the candidates interviewed for a position
The position description
The reason for the decision to hire or not hire each applicant
P2. Main employability, personal and communication skills required in selection process.
Employability skills
Experience, gives knowledge on how to deal with situations that can’t be taught, if
Debenhams has a choice between someone who has no managerial experience and someone who
has had previous experience they are going to pick the one who has had experience because it
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shows that the person is able to do the job they are asking them to do. It is also good for
employers to employ people with experience of the job (but in different companies) because it
means the employer can get an insight on what goes on in the competitor’s companies and can
learn how to become more successful than the rival company. For example, you need to have
experience working with people and dealing with complaints if you are going to be a successful
customer service manager this is because you would not know how to deal with someone
correctly if you haven’t got any experience (Dineen and Soltis, 2011). Product knowledge, need
to understand what they are responsible for selling, if there are any issues with the product they
need to know how to deal with them, it is good to show the employer that you have knowledge
of the products the business is offering because it helps to have an understanding. A customer
service manager is going to be dealing with product complaints and they need to be able to know
whether the complaint is to do with an issue with the product or an issue that is made by the
customer, this is to ensure that they know whether to resell the item or send it back to the
manufacturer.
Personal skills
Individual abilities can be characterized as an aptitudes that a man may have however
doesn't really require while applying for a particular occupation part. There are numerous cases
of such aptitudes which would profit the business including; talking diverse dialects, dependable
and having a sense an amusing (Dipboye, Macan and Shahani-Denning, 2012). It is great if
workers or candidates have such ledges while applying for a vocation as it will make them more
prone to land the position as it demonstrates the business different abilities that the
representative/candidate have that can help the business; these aptitudes are valuable for a
variety of occupations.
Time management skills
It allow you to be able to be on time and be able to complete jobs efficiently whilst
keeping a high standard, this is necessary for a customer service manager because if they are not
on time then there will be no one to deal with customer issues which is going to reflect badly on
the company. Organizational skills, a manager needs to be able to organise staff to ensure the
entire business runs well. The customer service manager will be responsible for implementing
the
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Communication skills
Relational abilities can be characterized as an aptitudes that assistance a man pass on data
to someone else effectively and easily. Directors or workers with great composed or verbal
relational abilities will profit the business; this is on the grounds that they will have the capacity
to talk and see each other appropriately.
P3. The main physical and technological resources.
Technological resources
Technological resources Debenhams uses software that is loaded on to all their
technology. The software is the program that tells the technological items, like tills, what to do, it
is loaded with all the bar codes of items the store sells which means employees can quickly and
easily scan items and the tills will add it up with the least human labor possible, Debenhams
would not be able to operate well if it didn’t have the specific software because the software
keeps everything in check with what’s coming in and what’s coming out (Leekha Chhabra and
Sharma, 2014).
Innovative assets Debenhams utilizes programming that is stacked on to all their
innovation (Leekha Chhabra and Sharma, 2014). The product is the program that tells the
mechanical things, similar to works, what to do, it is stacked with all the standardized
identifications of things the store offers which implies representatives can rapidly and effectively
examine things and the tills will include it up with the slightest human work conceivable,
Debenhams would not have the capacity to work well in the event that it didn't have the
particular programming on the grounds that the product holds everything within proper limits
with what's coming in and what's turning out
Physical resources
Another physical resource that is required for the operation of the business is insurance,
some insurances are required by law for businesses to have this includes employers’ liability
insurance which provides insurance in case anything happens to employees as a result of the
business, Debenhams also pays for public liability insurance that covers any injuries (Rees and
Rumbles, 2010).
P4. Sources of internal and external finance for Debenhams.
Internal Resources-
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Profits generated by a company that are not distributed to stockholders (shareholders) as
dividends but are either reinvested in the business or kept as a reserve for specific objectives
(such as to pay off a debt or purchase a capital asset). When a company borrows funds, say from
a bank, it will have to provide some kind of security. In case of large loans, it may have to
mortgage its property even. But for a company with retained profit, mortgaging is unnecessary as
it has its own funds to dip into(Schweyer, 2010). This is a good source of finance for Debenhams
to use as it is there for them to use and they don’t need to go to the bank or any other Debenhams
to borrow money /loan which can be a lengthy process as they will be looking at the financial
side of the business to see whether they would be able to pay the loan back. Also by using profit
they won’t owe any interest to the bank. Personal Savings can be defined as the amount of
personal money that the owner himself puts into the Debenhams. Personal savings could be used
by a business to pay staff their wages or to reinvest into the business to revamp or front house of
the restaurant .
External resources-
Overdraft facility, where a bank allows a firm to take out more money than it has in its bank
account.
Trade credits, where suppliers deliver goods now and are willing to wait for a number of days
before payment.
Factoring, where firms sell their invoices to a factor such as a bank. They do this for some cash
right away, rather than waiting 28 days to be paid the full amount.
P5. Contents of a trading and profit and loss account and balance sheet.
Trading account is one of the financial statements prepared by the company and shows
the result of buying and selling of goods and services during an accounting period. Trading
account is prepared to ascertain the gross profit or gross loss made by the company during the
accounting period.
Profit and loss account is usually in the form of a spreadsheet and shows how much
money the business has made in a specific period of time, it includes the revenues, costs and
expenses incurred during the specified period of time (Siavelis, 2012). The profit and loss
account is used (purpose and use) by a bank or other lender to see if the business is worth
investing in, they can also be used by Debenhams to predict the future profits and losses of the
business to help them plan their future finances, below is the trading and profit and loss account
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of Debenhams from 2014 – 2015. The performance (measure of trading performance) of
Debenhams can be tracked using the profit and loss account, we can see the revenue, the gross
profit and then the net profit (which is the turnover with all the expenditure and other sources of
income that are not from normal operations).
Opening stock can be defined as the amount of stock that the business has at the
beginning of the financial year. Purchases can be defined as the amount of goods or stock that
have been bought by the business. Closing Stock can be defined as the amount of stock a
business has at the end of the financial year. Cost of Sales can be defined as the direct costs
incurred by the business when producing the goods that they sell; in order to calculate the costs
of sales you have to carry out the following formula which is opening stock + ( purchases &
expenses ) – Closing stock which give the business its cost of sales.
Gross Profit can be defined as the profit after deducting the cost of goods sold from the
business total revenue of the financial year; in order to calculate the gross profit you have to
carry out the following formula which is Total Revenue – Cost of goods Sold which give the
business its Gross Profit.
P6. Use of budgets as a means of exercising financial control of Debenhams.
A budget is a financial plan for the future concerning the revenues and costs of a
business. However, a budget is about much more than just financial numbers.
Budgetary control is the process by which financial control is exercised within an Debenhams.
Budgets for income/revenue and expenditure are prepared in advance and then compared with
actual performance to establish any variances (Simula, and Vuori, 2012). Managers are
responsible for controllable costs within their budgets and are required to take remedial action if
the adverse variances arise and they are considered excessive.
The set amount of money is given to different departments depending on their needs
instead when an employee needs money to spend they have to go to their manager and justify
their reasoning for needing the money; money will be released from the business on a case-by
case basis. An allocated budget it the opposite to a zero-based budget, an allocated budget is
what Debenhams uses, it is figured out by deciding upon the amount of money that is the budget
and then using analyst figures of forecast costs, revenues and resources, the budget is then
divided up into the different departments whilst taking into account the number of employees
working within it (Stybel, 2010).
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A budget is an estimate of the costs, revenues and resources that are going to be needed
in the future over a set period of time. Debenhams uses an allocated budget to:
 Get all the facts the business needs to ensure that the money they have is going to the
right place to ensure that the company grows as quickly and efficiently as possible.
 Limit expenditures that are unnecessary.
 Create a “financial roadmap”.
 Plan for future growth as using a budget means that money that was being “wasted” in
one area can now be used to invest in future business opportunities.
P7. Financial state of Debenhams
Return on capital employed- Formula used for both years is net profit over capital
employed (Van den Brink, 2010).
Net margin- The business show there is a high amount of business overheads of
159.200 100 2,240.80 = 7.1% because probably the net profit generated was low due to many∗
expenses.
CONCLUSION
In the above report it has been concluded that, A budget is an estimate of the costs,
revenues and resources that are going to be needed in the future over a set period of time. Human
Resource Management outlines the importance of HRM and its different functions in an
Debenhams.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bangerter, A., Corvalan, P. and Cavin, C., 2014. Storytelling in the selection interview? How
applicants respond to past behavior questions. Journal of Business and Psychology.
29(4). pp.593-604.
Cabellero, C.L. and Walker, A., 2010. Work readiness in graduate recruitment and selection: A
review of current assessment methods. Journal of teaching and learning for graduate
employability. 1(1). pp.13-25.
Dineen, B.R. and Soltis, S.M., 2011. Recruitment: A review of research and emerging
directions.
Dipboye, R.L., Macan, T. and Shahani-Denning, C., 2012. The selection interview from the
interviewer and applicant perspectives: Can’t have one without the other. The Oxford
handbook of personnel assessment and selection, pp.323-352.
Leekha Chhabra, N. and Sharma, S., 2014. Employer branding: strategy for improving employer
attractiveness. International Journal of Organizational Analysis. 22(1). pp.48-60.
Rees, G. and Rumbles, S., 2010. Recruitment and selection. Rees, G. and French, R. Leading,
Managing and Developing People, pp.169-190.
Schweyer, A., 2010. Talent management systems: Best practices in technology solutions for
recruitment, retention and workforce planning. John Wiley & Sons.
Siavelis, P.M., 2012. Pathways to power: Political recruitment and candidate selection in Latin
America. Penn State Press.
Simula, H. and Vuori, M., 2012. Benefits and barriers of crowdsourcing in B2B firms:
Generating ideas with internal and external crowds. International Journal of Innovation
Management. 16(06). p.1240011.
Stybel, L.J., 2010. Managing the inner contradictions of job descriptions: A technique for use in
recruitment. The Psychologist-Manager Journal. 13(2). pp.105-110.
Van den Brink, M., 2010. Behind the scenes of science: Gender practices in the recruitment and
selection of professors in the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press.
Online
Internal Recruitment and External Recruitment, its sources. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://headhuntinginrecruitment.blogspot.in/2013/10/recruitment.html>. [Accessed on
24th August 2017]
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