Human Resource Management in Marks and Spencer: Trends, Problems, and Ethical Practices

This report discusses the current trends and problems in human resource management faced by Marks and Spencer, a UK-based multinational retailer. It also explains the long-term workforce planning and ethical practices used in recruitment and selection processes. Recommendations are provided to solve HRM problems.

Human resource
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Current HRM trends and problems an organisation face and in what manner it impact on it....1
How HRM start to plan ahead and think to long term workforce planning................................3
What HRM team considered to ensure ethical practices used in recruitment or selection
process.........................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations to solve HRM problems...............................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to a practice of deploying, recruiting, hiring,
managing people with an organisation. It is a type of a strategic approach to effective and
efficient management of people within an organisation so that competitive advantage can be
attained by firm in business industry. This process is mainly designed to manage and handle
employees performance in a business entity to attain employee strategic objectives. This
particular report is based on the Marks and Spencer that is a UK based public limited company
but deals on international level (PEOPLE, 2021). It is a major British multinational retailer that
highly specialised in selling cloths, food products, home products, financial services etc. This
report explains the current trends and problems that Marks and Spencer face and their impact on
overall operations. Further it also elucidates the long term workforce planning along with ethical
practices used in recruitment and selection process. At last it discuss recommendations for Marks
and Spencer so that HRM problems to be resolved easily and effectively.
MAIN BODY
Current HRM trends and problems an organisation face and in what manner it impact on
it
The working style of Human resource has been changed in recent past years (Stewart and
Brown, 2019). Due to more advancement in technology working of human resource
management is to be changed within Marks and Spencer that impact positively on business
operations and profitability so that firm will sustain longer time period in competitive business
industry . Some of the recent trends of HRM in Marks and Spencer are presented below:
Current HRM Trends in Marks and Spencer
 Virtual working and appraisal- Now-a-days virtualise is very trending in organisation.
Due to COVID 19 pandemic situation government of several countries strictly imposed
locked down in cities due to this working of Marks and Spencer is suffered (Lawler and
Boudreau, 2020). At this time virtual working is come into existence where employees
are working from home and company appraise employees virtually by analysing their
performance using advanced technology. It satisfy and retain staff members for longer
time period.
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 Artificial intelligence in recruiting candidate- It is one of the best current trend under
HRM of business organisation. Automation in recruitment work is already done but in
2021 a new technology is raising the authenticity under recruiting candidate. Therefore
during COVID 19 period it is going to be tough for Marks and Spencer to recruit
manually at this time artificial intelligence come into existence. AI is a tool and a type of
human elements that is useful to engage, recruit and select candidate for a particular job
role so that targets are easily achieved. It includes high cost of Marks and Spencer but it
is beneficial for recruiting suitable staff so that high profitable results are enjoyed by
company.
Current HRM problems in Marks and Spencer
In an organisation HRM plays a vital role for acquiring, maintaining, managing,
preparing human resources. But due to changes done within business environment several HRM
problems are reflected within Marks and Spencer that are presented below:
 Employee retention issues- Due to COVID-19 Marks and Spencer face employee
retention issues. For instance- If an employee is working in one state that is far from their
home area. In COVID-19 period employees prefer to stay with their family even in the
low opportunity. This issue affects the Marks and Spencer profitability and brand image
(Flynn, Valentine and Meglich, 2021). This is a major issue that HRM of organisation
faced in this pandemic situation. In pandemic situation employees face insecurity from
their family side so that more employee turnover is occur. This also affects company
visibility in marketplace. Hence, employee turnover issue affects negatively on
operations and productivity of business.
 Workplace diversity- It is another issue that HRM of an organisation is to be faced.
Marks and Spencer is an international company that works on diverse place with
different ethnic and cultural differences. It is a major challenge that human resource
department of company is faced (Baporikar, 2020). Every nation have different rules and
regulations at this time HR manager of Marks and Spencer follow policies and standards
as per UK that affects employees working in other country and creates dissatisfaction.
This impact productivity and performance of business.
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How HRM start to plan ahead and think to long term workforce planning
Workforce planning defines as a process of analysing, forecasting, supply and demand,
examine talent management interventions etc. so that human resource manager of business entity
easily ensure that company has right people who place at right job role to attain the strategic
goals of business enterprise (Gurmu, 2020). In case of Marks and Spencer, human resource
manager highly emphasis on long term workforce planning and for this manager focused on
implement two theories of HRM that are presented below:
Human capital theory
To effectively manage the employees of Marks and Spencer it is very essential to Human
resource manager to think about long term workforce planning and for this they need to develops
the human capital management system. Therefore, in this manager need to review human capital
theory that is presented below:
Human capital theory: This theory suggest that human capital is a key determinant of
the success of any business enterprises (Crawshaw, Budhwar and Davis, 2020). This theory is
proposed by Becker and Mincer. Human capital is basically involved education attainment,
experience, skills etc. of employees. This means that organisation is highly emphasis on seeking
productive human capital to add them to existing human capital of business enterprise. On the
basis of this theory manager of Marks and Spencer align their goals and objectives for improving
the user experience with company culture and their offerings. As human resource manager of
Marks and Spencer highly focus on managing skills, people and their role so that targets are
attained on time along with gaining competitive advantage within business industry. By using
this theory human resource manager of Marks and Spencer easily handle the workforce because
in this they are accountable and responsible for handling issues. This theory helps in guiding the
decisions related to training and development of employees so that long term workforce planning
is to be effectively attained by business that boost firm image in customers and market. To
manage skills and people effectively Marks and Spencer updated their Oracle human
management capital system so that employees easily understand information and guidelines that
helps in enhancing skills and performance at workplace.
Dynamic capability theory: It defines as a capability of an organisation to purposely
adopts the organisation resource base. It is an ability to build, integrate the internal and external
competencies to adopts changing environment frequently (Freitas and et. al., 2020). The main
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aspect of this framework is that business enterprise use core competencies to develops short term
position in competitive market that provide long term benefits to organisation in global business
market. This theory concern with development of strategies that managers followed to adapt the
radical changes while maintaining capital standards to enjoy sustainable results. In context of
Marks and Spencer manager use this theory when they plan to develop long term workforce
planning. For this they need to include dynamic capability system where they upgrade oracle
people-soft system management tool that is a type of gateway of various HR application. This
theory is useful to attain profitable results by innovating changes as per market condition. For
instance- in Marks and Spencer manager focus on developing their workforce planning for this it
is essential to examine individual employee capability to complete the target and according to
this company assigned task so that profitable results are attained effectively and efficiently.
What HRM team considered to ensure ethical practices used in recruitment or selection
process
Recruitment within an organisation is essential concept for achieving the targets
prominently. At the time of recruiting the candidate it is very crucial to adopts ethical practices
so that applicants feel happy and satisfied at the time of interview. It is very essential to keep
employees happy because they are the main success factor of company. In terms of Marks and
Spencer, several ethical practices that human resource manager used at the of recruiting or
selection process are demonstrated below:
 Eliminate nepotism- To avoid unethical practice within organisation human resource
manager ensures that recruiters does not hire favouritism employees as they recruit and
select within honesty and examine individual skills and knowledge (Oehlhorn and et. al.,
2020).
 Focus on never mislead the job advertisement- To ensures that ethical practices are
effectively used in recruitment and selection process it is essential for human resource
management to present the correct and suitable job advertisement information in front of
public so that correct and interested candidate visit effectively. It also present the working
culture and condition that helps in gaining fruitful results in their long term survival.
 Treat candidates equally- It is an essential and effective ethical practice that human
resource manager of Marks and Spencer adopts. It is crucial not to discriminate the staff
on the basis of gender, race, origin etc. for effectively implement this practice company
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follow anti-discrimination law so that employees and candidate feel safe in working. It
also boost company image in marketplace.
 Correctly inform applicants regarding selection decisions- It is another ethical
practice that human resource manager of Marks and Spencer adopts to maintain decorum
at recruitment and selection process. In this they properly communicate the selection
decision such as that applicant get the job or not. In simple terms company does not hang
the applicant as it spoil image of organisation in marketplace.
Hence, manager need to ensures these factors that represent ethical practices at
recruitment and selection process so that objectives of business are attained on time and
company enjoy long term sustainability within global business environment.
Recommendations to solve HRM problems
By analysing the above information it is essential to solve human resource management
problems within an organisation so that firm enjoy long term sustainability within global
competitive market (Shen and Zhang, 2019). Some recommendation to solve HRM issues are
presented below:
 To solve employee turnover issues due to COVID 19 pandemic Marks and Spencer
offers extra health care benefits to employee family members so that employees are
working with satisfaction in any other state. This benefit involves insurance policy
facility to individual family members along with offer accommodation facility at
employees working nation so that candidate feel secured and perform their task
effectively and efficiently. To manage diversity within organisation, improving culture awareness is to be
recommended to Marks and Spencer human resource manager so that each and every
employee are satisfy towards working in any country (Song, Yu and Xu, 2020). To
effectively manage the diversity company need to organise culture awareness program
where they train employees to respect each and every culture and norms so that strong
bond between employees is generated.
 Artificial intelligence tool is to be recommended to HRM of Marks and Spencer so that
they recruit and appraise employees effectively and efficiently. It is essential to evaluate
employees performance when they work virtually because it helps in long term workforce
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planning in positive manner and also helps in attaining organisation goals in prominent
manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is to be concluded that human resource management is a
significant term within an organisation because it works for managing, organising, hiring,
deploying staff members so that targets are attained on specified period of time. This particular
project helps readers to understood the current trends and problems that Marks and Spencer face
at the time of attaining targets along with their impact on their overall operations. It is essential
to examine trends and issues so that company effectively focus on developing workforce
planning prominently using human capital theory and dynamic capability theory. This whole
report also assist in gaining information about ethical practices that are used within recruitment
or selection process so that it should be done effectively and efficiently without any
misunderstanding. To solve each and every issues under human resource management this
project study several recommendations so that company gain competitive advantage along with
enjoy long term sustainability within international market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baporikar, N., 2020. Human Resource Management for Managing Cultural
Diversity. International Journal of Applied Management Sciences and Engineering
(IJAMSE). 7(1). pp.74-99.
Crawshaw, J., Budhwar, P. and Davis, A. eds., 2020. Human resource management: Strategic
and international perspectives. Sage.
Flynn, W.J., Valentine, S.R. and Meglich, P., 2021. Healthcare human resource management.
Cengage Learning.
Freitas, W.R.D.S. and et. al., 2020. Green human resource management and corporate social
responsibility: Evidence from Brazilian firms. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
27(4). pp.1551-1569.
Gurmu, A.T., 2020. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation of human resource management practices
influencing construction labour productivity. International Journal of Productivity and
Performance Management.
Lawler, E.E. and Boudreau, J.W., 2020. Global trends in human resource management. Stanford
University Press.
Oehlhorn, C.E. and et. al., 2020. Human resource management and its impact on strategic
business-IT alignment: A literature review and avenues for future research. The Journal
of Strategic Information Systems, p.101641.
Shen, J. and Zhang, H., 2019. Socially responsible human resource management and employee
support for external CSR: roles of organizational CSR climate and perceived CSR
directed toward employees. Journal of Business Ethics. 156(3). pp.875-888.
Song, W., Yu, H. and Xu, H., 2020. Effects of green human resource management and
managerial environmental concern on green innovation. European Journal of
Innovation Management.
Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Online
PEOPLE, 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/people>
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