Strategic Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Mother London

This report provides an analysis of employee management and human resource (HR) practices at Mother London, a creative industry organization. It examines the role of HR practices in maintaining employee creativity and collaboration, highlighting the company's reliance on human, social, and organizational capital. The report identifies drawbacks in Mother London's approach, such as the lack of formal training programs and systematic external recruitment processes. It evaluates HR practices like employee engagement, external recruitment, and employee training, linking them to strategic human resource management principles and business objectives. The report also touches upon key legislations in international markets, specifically focusing on Australian laws regarding discrimination and employee flexibility. The analysis concludes by emphasizing the importance of aligning HR practices with business strategies to enhance productivity and employee retention. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
Employee management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The human resources based practices are able to play a key role in ensuring the success if
an organization in the industry. The practices are developed in such a manner that are able to
promote high levels of satisfaction of the employees and further to save the investments that are
made by the company. The changes that take place in the industry are also considered to be an
important part of the success that can be gained by the human resource based practices. The
implementation of best levels of human resource practices can help the organization to remain
prepared for the challenges that can be faced in the industry (Albrecht et al., 2015).
The process of strategic planning is considered to be a major human based practice that
can be implemented in the modern organizations in order to maintain the levels of profitability
and revenues in the industry of operations as well. Training is another major human resource
based practice that can be implemented by the organizations in order to manage the employees in
an effective manner. Outsourcing and evaluation of the feedback provided by employees is also a
major part of the organizational processes that are implemented in the companies
(Bailey et al., 2018).
Mother London is an organization that operates in the creative industry and has employed
more than 200 people in different areas. The organization is a subsidiary of the Mother Holdings
Group that has 20 organizations and includes 700 members including the freelancers. The
operations of Mother Holdings are based on the core principles that have been set by the
organization in an effective manner. The values of the organization are also able to play a major
role in the ways by which Mother London aims at maintaining the levels of operations and
employees as well (Motherlondon.com 2019).

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Role played by HR practices in Mother London
As discussed by Brewster, Chung and Sparrow (2016), the HR practices are able to play a
major role in maintaining the employees and levels of creativity of Mother London. The
employees in the organization work in a highly collaborative manner which is able to increase
the levels of diversity and creativity as well. The levels of ideas that are provided by different
employees can be implemented with the help of proper collaboration between the employees.
The ways by which Mother London is able to operate and organize the clients is considered to be
quite different. The development of proper teams is supported by the human resource based
practices of the organization.
According to Cherkesova et al. (2016), the organization is based on different forms of
capital for its effective operations that include, human capital, social capital and organizational
capital. The human resource practices that have been implemented by the company are related to
resourcing of external staff. Training and development is also used by the organization as a
major HR practice in order to manage the staff. The rewards and proper management of
performance are considered to be effective for the ways by which Mother London can manage
the staff and their levels of creativity in the industry. The proper implementation of human
resource based practices can help in increasing the levels of creativity and further improve their
performance as well (Marchington2015).
Drawbacks of the approach based on recruitment of Mother London
The lack of proper and formal training based programs is considered to be a major issue
that is faced by Mother London in the industry. The creativity levels of the employees cannot be
managed in an effective way due to absence of the training based programs. The training and

3EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
development programs need to be implemented within the organization on a more frequent basis.
This will be able to play a major role in the management of performance levels of the creative
employees. The process of external recruitment or outsourcing is not systematic enough to
manage the employees and their performance based levels as well (Collings, Wood and
Szamosi2018).
The recruitment process that is implemented for the newcomers is also considered to be a
major part of the issues that are faced by the organization. Mother London needs to design the
recruitment process in order to include the best and most effective employees within the
organizational processes. The organization also has to face major challenges that are related to
the ways by which the needs of employees can be managed along with the overall goal of the
company (Hollenbeck and Jamieson 2015). The work of human resource department of the
organization is also quite challenging in nature as they have to face the competitors who are a
part of the industry. The recruitment of best possible staff is an important part of the ways by
which creative employees can be included in the workforce (Jamali, El Diraniand Harwood
2015).
Evaluation of the Human Resource practices
From the case study, it is identified that there are number of human resource management
practices being followed by Mother London. One of the major human resource practices for
Mother London is the engagement of the employees. According to Anitha (2014), one of the
major determinants of employee engagement is their involvement in the workplace and the
extent to which the employees are positively contributing in the workplace. As per the authors,
the more will be the employee engagement, the more will be the effectiveness and productivity

4EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
of the organization in the long term. Thus, the business strategy of profit maximization and
market development can be well achieved with the help of enhanced processes of employee
engagement. In the case of Mother London, it is identified that they are focusing more on
leveraging on the creativity of the employees. For instance, creative employees are being
recruited in the workplace and they are being freedom and autonomy in order to focusing more
on their individual traits and skills. Thus, it is helping in enhancing the engagement level among
the employees due to the fact that they are feeling more involved by using their skills and
expertise.
On the other hand, it is stated by Alfes et al. (2013) maintaining the employee
engagement will help Mother London in meeting their business objectives. This is due to the
reason that they are operating in media sector, which is dependent on the creative skills and
innovative approaches. Hence, leveraging on the creativity of the employees is helping Mother
London in generating more innovative ideas from the source and gaining competitive advantages
in the long term. In addition, in the case study, it is stated that they are having more than 280
employees and 700 freelancers working for them. Thus, focusing on the creativity of these
stakeholders is helping in having diversified and huge sources of innovative ideas. This can be
concluded that focusing on the employees’ creativity is helping Mother London in meeting the
objectives of strategic human resource management along with aligning with the business
approach and strategic intent.
On the other hand, it is also identified that external recruitment process is being followed
in the workplace by involving the department heads. In addition, it is also identified that different
stakeholders including partners, human resource managers and higher level management. Thus it
can be concluded that an extensive process of recruitment and selection is being followed in the

5EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
organization. According to Abraham et al. (2015), it is important for the business organizations
to have effective process and approach of recruitment and selection. This is due to the reason
effective process of recruitment and selection will determine the long term retention level of the
employees and workplace stability. In addition, it is also being stated by the authors that
effective recruitment process will help the business organizations in having right people for right
job in right places. Thus, it can be concluded that the involvement of different stakeholders in the
recruitment and selection process of Mother London is helping in determining the different
eligibility of the candidates and selecting the effective ones. Moreover, initiation of the external
process of recruitment is also helping in having the maximum reach in the market for targeting
the potential talents. On the other hand, this process is also helping Mother London in having
larger talent pool to choose from. In terms of business strategy of them, their extensive process
of recruitment and selection is complementing due to the fact that selecting of right people and
talent is helping in having higher rate of retention in the long term and maximum generation of
the expertise and skills of the employees. The productivity of the organization is thus getting
enhanced with this.
Employee training and rewards are also being practiced by Mother London in managing
their employees. It is identified that they are having the mechanism of providing training to
individual staffs according to the situations. Thus, all their employees are being skilled enough to
take on the challenging situations and changing business environment. In terms of strategic
human resource management, it is being stated by Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013) that initiation of
the training and development programs will help the organizations in having higher rate of
employee retention. This is due to the reason that if the employees are skilled enough, then they
will be motivated more in facing the challenging situations and thus they will more likely to stay

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satisfied. In this case, it can also be concluded that the business objective of Mother London of
getting creative ideas and solutions for their clients can be achieved by retaining the same
workforce in the long term. Initiation of the training and development activities is helping in up
scaling the skill sets of the employees and enhancing their productivity accordingly.
Key legislations
The major international markets that might be chosen for the expansion of Mother
Holdings is the Australian market. The company might be advised to demonstrate some
knowledge and consideration for the issues that have been presented in the country and the
legislation of the country (Cotter 2016). The company should pay major attention to some of the
legislation that is presented within the Australian government due to the discrimination laws that
are strictly followed within the country. The country is known to have a strictness in the laws
that have been dealing with the discrimination of the employee on the basis of their parenthood.
The company would be advised to abide by the laws of this discrimination. The
Australian government is known to have been very strict in the matters of discrimination of the
employees on the basis of the grounds that the concerned person might be parenting or caring for
a family member or their children (Humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au 2019). The Australian
laws also deal with then conditions of pregnancy. The Australian laws tend to bar the
discrimination of the given person on the basis of the fact that the person might be pregnant. The
Australian laws further bar the person from the discrimination of the female members of the
society on the basis of the fact that they might get pregnant at some point of time (Puhl et al.
2015). The company should need to abide by the Equal Opportunities Act 2010 in case the
company attempts to expand in the Australian markets.

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The employers of the companies that have been active in the Australian markets should
abide by the fact that the employees of the organization might need to be granted the conditions
of flexibility of the work schedules. This would help in the attraction of the potential employees
to the clientele. This measure would be required in order to recognize the duties of the employee
towards their family members as well (Adams 2016). This would in turn help in the attraction of
the employees of the area to the concerned company and thereby help in the increase in the
human resources of the company. The Australian law also states that the employees might
request for a change after serving the company for atleast a year. The laws of the Australian
government are known to have been considerate for the situations that do not abide by the
normal situations within the country.

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