Functions and Benefits of HRM in John Lewis

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM..............................................................................................3
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection..........................................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Benefits of different HRM practices for employer and employee.........................................6
P4. Effectiveness of different HRM practice...............................................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Importance of employee relation in HRM decision making.................................................8
P6. Key employment legislation..................................................................................................9
LO4................................................................................................................................................10
P7. HRM Practices in work related context...............................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management basically comprises of the duties and activities that are
performed by the HR department that is present mandatorily in every organisation. John Lewis is
the major clothing brand of UK that has its operations spread extensively in the UK. The current
report will evaluate the different functions and activities that are associated with HRM activities
and it will also assist in the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses that recruitment process
has. Further the report will identify the benefits of HRM practices and then the effectiveness of
practices in increasing organisational profits will be evaluated. The importance of employee
relation and the different legislation related to employee management will also be analysed.
Lastly, a practical application of the HRM practice will be presented in the report.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM
There are some major functions and purpose behind the implementation of the HRM practices in
the organisations as they no longer are simply utilised for the recruitment and selection purpose
(Bailey and et.al., 2017). Along with this, there are many other functions as well and these can be
collectively illustrated as follows:
Training: The process of training basically helps the employees in completing their existing job
responsibilities or the new responsibilities that they have been assigned in a better manner where
they intend to improve the overall capability, skill and performance of the employees
collectively. The change in the industrial trends, complexity in the organisational structure, better
human relations, modification in the job assignment etc. can be categorised as the basic reason
why an employee is involved in the training procedures. There is on the job and off the job
training methods that can be utilised for employees and the HRM at the John Lewis is mainly
targeted with the role of engaging employees into proper training sessions that are thoroughly
updated.
Recruitment: The process of recruitment can be categorised as the activity where the most
suitable candidate are searched for the job role that has been allotted to them and there are
mainly two different sources i.e. internal as well as external methods that can be used for the
purpose of recruitment of the employees (Noe and et.al., 2017). This is the most basic purpose
with which the HRM activities are performed and this can mainly affects the overall process of
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selection and the recruitment of the employees. John Lewis uses both external as well as internal
sources to identify the candidates with highest potential that would be most suitable for the
fulfilment of the different job roles and these are then adequately hired by the HRM of John
Lewis.
Reward Management: The activity of reward management is also categorised under the purview
of the purpose behind integration of HRM activities where the employees are regularly
motivated and encouraged to increase their performance (Levashina and et.al., 2014). The
rewards are given in monetary and non- monetary methods where the increased pay or incentives
can be counted as the monetary rewards and the promotion or recognition can count as non-
monetary rewards. This helps the HRM at John Lewis to improve the performance of the
employees and their loyalty as well making them more satisfied and all this collectively increases
the productivity of the organisation.
Performance Management: The performance management can be ascertained as a set of actions
that are adopted in order to ensure that the goals that have been set by the organisation are being
met adequately and in the correct manner. The HRM practices in John Lewis tend to be adopted
and implemented in such a manner that they take adequate consideration of their employees and
the performance. Further the employees of John Lewis are also punished or reward accordingly.
The employees who are not adequately performing are given more training or even removed if
their performance is not very good.
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection
In order to ensure that the workforce that is being employed in the organisation is adequately
skilled and talented, there are a multiple number of aspects that need to be taken into
consideration (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, 2015). The HRM at John Lewis integrate and
adopt different approached related to selection and recruitment of the potential employees so that
the quality of the workforce can be maintained. This can mainly be done through following
major approaches:
Workforce Planning: Workforce planning basically indicates the development of a correct
approach that can be used to hire employees according to the job roles that they will work on and
the skills that are essential. This is done through workforce approach and the workload
approaches where first one is den by hiring employees according to job roles and latter is
accomplished by the analysis of the amount of workload that needs to be completed.
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