Understanding Human Resource Management

This assignment delves into the crucial aspects of Human Resource Management (HRM). It examines various definitions, models, and theoretical frameworks related to HRM. The document analyzes the influence of HRM practices on organizational performance and employee attitudes. It also highlights the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and explores emerging trends in HRM, such as green HRM and high-performance work systems.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1 ..............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Functions and Purpose of HRM.............................................................................................1
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of approaches of recruitment and selection.................................3
Task 2 ............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Benefits of HRM practices.....................................................................................................5
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing profits and productivity................................7
Task 3 ..............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Importance of Employee Relations to Influence Decision-making.......................................8
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making.............9
Task 4 ............................................................................................................................................10
P7 HRM Practices in work related context...............................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In an organisation, the process of maintaining and managing the staff members is stated
as Human-resource-management. It is said to be the backbone of an organisation due to its nature
of achieving desired goals and objectives. There are some certain activities which are involved
like recruitment, selection, training and development of employees along with enhancing
organisational structures which are designed by the HR department. For this assignment ALDI
has been chosen as it is a German company which has two global supermarket chains. It is
expanded into 18 countries having approximately 10,000 stores. In UK along with 20,000
employees they have 500 stores working. In this assessment, functions and purpose of HRM,
strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection, benefits of HRM
practises to increase organisation's profit and productivity, importance of employee relations, key
elements of employee legislation and applications of HRM practices in work related context will
be explained.
Task 1
P1 Functions and Purpose of HRM
The most important functioning of Human-resource-management is to improve the
productivity and enhance the efficiency of employees. Several purposes of HRM are:- Relations of Employee's: Relation maintaining between employees and employers is not
an easy task. There are certain chances of rising conflicts among them so it is the duty of
HR department to maintain the decorum and avoid these kind of situations within
organisation (Alfes and et.al., 2013). Laws and Policies: Rules and regulations should be followed by all the employees and
HR has duty towards ensuring that policies are followed by all the members within
organisation in order to avoid legal issues raised in companies. Culture: To make employees feel comfortable and satisfied by workplace environment,
it is very important that good culture is maintained in the company.
 Effective Allocation of Resources: Effective and efficient allocation of resources are
highly important due to scarcity of resources in society because without resources an
organisation is not able to stand in market and face competition (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014).
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There are various other purposes that HRM performs like staffing, Managing internally and
compensating employees etc. . There are some HRM functions performed by ALDI :- Planning: This is the first and foremost step taken by HR department. In this, all
activities which will be going to conduct within organisation including with mission and
vision. ALDI should keep in mind while planning that it should be attainable in an
effective manner. Development of Employees: Programs and activities should be regularly conduct in an
entity so that employees experience more knowledge and become very efficient to
perform work (Arumugam and Rouhollah, 2011). Maintenance of Employees: To motivate employees certain activities should be adopted
like promotion, bonus and praising. If employees are not staying for longer term, then
some policies must be adopted to make employees stay for longer period of time. Staffing: In this, HR department look towards the post which are vacant and try to fulfil
them by recruiting or placing internally to achieve the desired objectives. It is highly
essential as recruiting will involve highly aimed and skilled employees along with sound
knowledge for effective work productivity (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011).
ALDI should be implementing these functions in its organisation for better outcomes.
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(Source: Human resource management, 2017 )
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of approaches of recruitment and selection
Employees are t most important part of an organisation to run smoothly and effectively. So it is
required to select an efficient man power for the company. To get perfect and efficient employee
an organisation can adopt different approaches and methods which are:
A. Internal resources
B. External resources
A. Internal resources
Internal resource are the sources where a company fulfil its requirement by its own resources, in
simple words company gives an opportunity to its employees to promote or to change their roles.
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Illustration 1: Human Resource Management

The below techniques are related to internal recruitment resources
 Promotions :- Promotions is the one of the effective option to motivate their employees
and fulfil its internal requirements. It is very effective and most approachable method
used by the organisation by changing their existing employees position to the next level
or providing them extra facilities (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). Different organisations use
different ways to promote their employees, for examples increment in their pay scales ,
promoting their position etc.
 Transfers :- Transfer is also a better option to meet organisation's requirement of
employees. Organisation use this method by changing position or transferring employees
from one place to another. This approach is preferable and effective in those
organisations where employees are flexible and dynamic.
 Recruiting Former Employees :- Sometimes companies give an opportunity their former
employee to become a part again in their organisation again, company offers extra
benefits and wide scope to its former employee so that he get any reason to work again
in the same organisation.
 Internal Advertisements :- Internal advertisement means company release an
advertisement in the organisation and offers openly its existing employees to meet its
vacant profiles or different roles.
 Employee referrals :- Companies also give some option to its employees that they can
approach their mates and friends to work with in the same organisation in the form of
referrals (Buller and McEvoy, 2012). Company pays reword to their employees who
provide effective and good referrals to the Company.
 Previous Applicants :- There are also some circumstances when a company achieve its
employee requirement in that condition company get extra applicants for the job profiles.
In that situation company keep their portfolio for fulfil their requirements in near Future.
Advantages and Disadvantages of internal resources
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Company Need not to pay any extra cost to
external resources.
Companies remains fail to get new portfolio
and good options.
Companies existing places remains vacant if
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2. Company Need not to spend cost on basic
training programmes.
they use internal recruitment.
B. External Resources
There are many options are available for achieving an organisation's employees requirements but
here are some major resources an organisation use these are
1. Open Advertisement :- Company gives an open advertisements in news papers or by
internet so that interested candidates can apply.
2. Consultancy Agencies :- These are the most recent external resource which is used by the
companies now a days, they provide their eligible criteria to the agencies and as per their
requirements agencies provide eligible candidates to the company. In exchange agencies
charged some amount for the companies (Choi, 2011).
3. Campus Recruitments :- Campus interviews are the major sources for an company to get
eligible and effective employees. Organisations contact with the universities and
education institutions and organise campus interviews which offers eligible students to
participate in it.
Advantages and Disadvantages of external resources
Advantages Disadvantages
1. Company's Visibility increase though
external resources
2. Company gets large options to recruitment
better candidates.
Company faces large cost to organise external
interview processes.
Fresh candidates for more incentives and
payments.
Task 2
P3 Benefits of HRM practices
Impact of HR department practices for employees and employers are different. There are
several practises are like Job design, employer labour relationship, training and development,
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performance management, beneficial incentives and many more. Benefits for ALDI Employer
are:  New plans Introduction: Whenever new plans are introduced, more employees or
particular skilled workers are required to implement new plan effectively and ALDI
being a huge company has opportunity to hire more employees for achievement of plans. Employee's Retention: It is also improved when the employer himself pays attention to
all employee related activities in the company (Daley, 2012). Reward and Incentive System: Giving rewards according to performance of employees
will make them feel praised and motivation and that will in turn increase the duration of
an employee in company. Employee Participation: It is highly important for an employer to make employees
participate in different activities so that members can connect to organisation and feel
more motivated. Job analysis: HRM practices is a boon for the employers because here to get
opportunities to select employees as per their choice and which suits the best (Guest,
2011). Recruiting Process: Process of recruitment and selection of employees is conducted by
employer whose duty is to select best candidates for particular job. Human-resource-
management gives this facility to employer.
There are various benefits for employees of ALDI like: Skills Improvising: Training provided to employees to improve their skills and
knowledge to provide them benefits in many ways. Employees will be satisfied after
implementation of this activity. Increase Confidence: When employees participate in a company's activities, they feel
more attachment towards their colleagues and organisation and motivates them
simultaneously (Hendry, 2012). Beneficial Plans: Plans which are made for benefit of employees like compensations,
rewards etc. boost self confidence in staff members.
 Growth of Career: Many of the organisation provide opportunity to staff members
growing their career graph. For example they are offering post graduation courses which
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will help employees to complete their studies while doing job as well. ALDI can
introduce such practises as well (Jiang and et.al., 2012).
ALDI should try to implement all such plans in the company so that satisfaction level can meet
of both employers and employees and in turn it will automatically improve the productivity.
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing profits and productivity
HR managers of an entity plays an essential role to improve the profitability and
productivity. Guidance to employees about work and training is provided by them. Various
practices which are adopted by them to raise the profit graph of company. HR manager of ALDI
should also use few affect able techniques for raising productivity and profitability. The practises
that will help ALDI in increasing the productivity are like: Providing training and Development: Training is provided to the employees so that they
can learn new set of skills and can improvise in their work and thus performance
increment as well. Training and development are two different aspects in an enterprise.
Training is focused on skill development of employees but development focuses on
overall growth of employees but both being vital point plays important role in increasing
productivity (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
 Job Design: Human-resource-management helps the company to make employees learn
new and different types of work within organisation. This will make employee efficient
therefore in Case of unavailability of authority , middle level management can handle
situation and save company from losses. In this way productivity of employee is
increased and company is also able to make large profits.
 Reward management: In this technique, Company gives rewards to its employers and
employees various form of rewards on various occasions so that the employee feel
motivated and perform better in the organisation. It will bring a sense of respect in
monetary terms in the eyes of employee and will become a loyal employee towards
company. Reward management brings loyalty in employees.
ALDI should also apply these HRM practises into their organisation bit for this employee and
employer needs to corporate. There are few small steps also that company should take to bring
effectiveness in organisation like:
◦ Using less resources to produce goods.
◦ Help company in generating revenue by applying new ways to do business.
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◦ By cost cutting, through which company will try to make its employee use more
latest technology.
(Source: HRM practices, 2017)
Task 3
P5 Importance of Employee Relations to Influence Decision-making
In a business, the most important asset considered is Employees. Employee relations can
be defined as relation of an employee towards his\her colleagues and towards organisation as
well. To become successful and competitive leading it is highly important for company to
maintain relations between employers and employees. There should not be any conflict present
as it can destroy business environment of the company. The importance of employee relations in
influencing HRM decision-making are:
 Productivity: If employee relations are strong in aspect to other employees and
organisation, then working environment becomes comfortable. Investing in employees
relation will become profitable as it will not only increase productivity but also will help
in better decision making (Lengnick-Hall, and Lengnick-Hall, 2011). ALDI's increased
performance will motivate managers to take decisions effectively. Group Discussions: There will be many situations when employees have to come
together as one and perform on a focused task of a company. So it is required to maintain
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Illustration 2: HRM Practices

good relations among them to avoid hurdles. Therefore, employee relation is very much
important for the benefits of company.
 Conflict Reduction: Chances of conflict occurs when employee relations does not go on
right track. Therefore, it is highly essential to imply certain actions which will help to
avoid conflicts and this can be done by HR department.
While making decisions for ALDI, HR manager should try to think from employee's point of
view so that everybody in organisation can share maximum benefits. Employee relation works
from both aspect like it works from employer and employee as well. So, ALDI employee's
should try to hold good relations among them and with authority as well because it can affect the
sales of company and customer relationship by the staff's behaviour. Therefore employee
relations is very important for decision-making.
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making
Govt. has enforced laws and policies for protection of Organisation's rights which are
included by all companies while determining policies of the company. Some certain acts which
are enforced by Govt. impacting activities conducted under HRM, they are:- Equal wage Act: To decrease discrimination of wages on basis of Gender, caste,
religion,post etc. this act was introduced . It states that each and every worker has right to
get equal pay like their co-workers working on same profile. ALDI has given their staff
payment who are working in stores otherwise employees can complaint against the
company. Employee Right Act: This act is against the exploitation and unemployment for the
workers and youth from the country. Here every worker have some rights regarding
health security, life insurance etc. freedom should be given to employees to use their
rights but when only required (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013).
 Disability discrimination Act: This act was facilitated for proper treatments of disables
and needy people. This act was formed so that no one is able to harass or bully the
disables in the organisation.
 Minimum Payment Act: Under this act, UK's Govt. has set minimum wages that
employee will get as per their profile in this company and if company is not obeying this
act then employee has the right to claim from company. This strategy has been
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successfully implanted in ALDI company because it is related to employees which are
important source of the company (Wright, and McMahan, 2011).
Task 4
P7 HRM Practices in work related context
Human-resource-management is an essential factor whether it is a small industry or a
large scale industry like ALDI as it is impossible for them to manage so many employees
without any proper management. HRM conducts various functions like they inspect and examine
all activities which are being conducted in the organisation. It helps organisation to maintain
goodwill in market as well in the society and also satisfies employees which affects customers
indirectly (Benefits of HRM Practices. 2017.). ALDI's HR managers should apply some good
HRM practises that are effective within organisation and increases its efficiency. Some of them
are: Experts Acquiring: Through recruitment and selection process, people can be selected so
that ALDI's HR can build a creative workplace. By this process, they select most
qualified candidates for job profiles of enterprise so they can helps inn accomplishing the
organisational goals and objectives. Resolve Conflicts: To ensure that no conflicts should arise within organisation, HR
department of ALDI must take some steps so that if any kind of this situation arises then
it can be sorted out soon as possible and make sure that it does not affect performance of
company. Selection and Recruitment Process: To attain the competitive objectives, HRM organise
activities by using effective approach of hiring which assists them. ALDI's HR manager
helps employers and leaders in choosing best employee who has skills and also can affect
revenue and trade system in organisation in positive manner.
 Flexible Workplace: If environment is good provided to employees, then they will be
able to perform well in the organisation (Importance of employee relations in HRM
decision making. 2017). Therefore, it is the duty of HR department of ALDI to provide a
friendly environment to the employees so that they feel comfortable.
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 Grooming and Training: ALDI should organise training and development programmes
for their worker for introducing new technologies and methods which is trending in
market to build a fresh environment of work.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be stated that human-resource-management is very essential
for an organisation as it conducts all the activities that are necessary for survival of organisation
like selection, recruiting, Training and development process , performance and many more and
all of these are managed by HR department and they are responsible for even alteration. It is their
responsibilities to adopt a method by which they recruit best employees. Employer and employee
are always benefited by conducting these HR activities because if all functions are performed
nicely then employees will get appropriate environment to work and eventually better outcomes
will be seen for the company. Collective bargaining process and negotiation strategy can be used
by organisation to minimize the chances of conflicts and will also increase the productivity and
profitability. To maintain a good working environment, it is highly important to analyse that
whether staff members has maintained relation amongst them or not. Therefore, HRM is
considered as an integral part of all organisation.
References
Books and Journals
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Alfes, K. and et.al., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices,
engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international
journal of human resource management. 24(2). pp.330-351.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Arumugam, V. C. and Rouhollah, M., 2011. The impact of human resource management
practices on financial performance of Malaysian industries. Australian Journal of Basic
and Applied Sciences. 5(10). pp.951-955.
Bloom, N. and Van Reenen, J., 2011. Human resource management and productivity. Handbook
of labor economics. 4. pp.1697-1767.
Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Buller, P. F. and McEvoy, G. M., 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance:
Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review. 22(1). pp.43-56.
Choi, M., 2011. Employees' attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review. Human
Resource Management. 50(4). pp.479-500.
Daley, D. M., 2012. Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management,
pp.120-125.
Guest, D. E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal. 21(1). pp.3-13.
Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.
Jiang, K. and et.al., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational
outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of
management Journal. 55(6). pp.1264-1294.
Kehoe, R. R. and Wright, P. M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource
practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management. 39(2). pp.366-
391.
Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E. and Lengnick-Hall, M. L., 2011. Developing a capacity for
organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human
Resource Management Review. 21(3). pp.243-255.
Renwick, D. W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A
review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15(1).
pp.1-14.
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Wright, P. M. and McMahan, G. C., 2011. Exploring human capital: putting ‘human’back into
strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal. 21(2).
pp.93-104.
Online
Importance of employee relations in HRM decision making. 2017. [Online].Available through:
<http://www.business2community.com/strategy/strong-employeeemployer-relationship-
important-achieve-0876781#uiOcp2dFrGOaPAxV.97>. [Accessed on 28th September
2017].
Benefits of HRM Practices. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2013/01/27/top-10-best-practices-in-hr-management-for-
2013/>. [Accessed on 28th September 2017].
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