HRM Practices: Workforce Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development

This article discusses the purpose and scope of human resource management (HRM) in workforce planning and resourcing. It also analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches in HRM. Additionally, it examines various HRM practices such as workforce planning, recruitment and selection, and training and development, highlighting their benefits and advantages. The article focuses on the case of Sainsbury, a leading supermarket chain in the UK. Read more on Desklib.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
Explain the purpose and scope of human resource management which are applicable to
workforce planning and resourcing of an organisation..........................................................4
Analyse the strength and weaknesses of different approaches...............................................5
Examine the different HRM practices....................................................................................7
Evaluate the effectiveness of HRM practices for rising profitability and productivity of an
organization..........................................................................................................................10
Examine the importance of employee relations that influence HRM decision making.......12
Analyse the key elements of employee legislation and its impact on HRM........................13
Illustrate the application of HRM practices..........................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a process of planning, organising, directing and
controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and
separation of human resources to achieve organizational, individual and societal objectives. It is
used for describing both individual working and company’s departments which are responsible
for managing the resources. In this report Sainsbury is chosen for better understanding of HRM
and it deals in the retailing industry as well as it is a second largest chain of supermarket in
United Kingdom. It was founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane,
London. The company deals in numerous products such as Hypermarket, supermarket, forecourt
shop and convenience shop as well. Under this report discussed about the purpose and functions
of HRM and strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of human resource practices.
Studied about the benefits of practices and importance of employee relations which influence the
manager decisions and elements of employee legislations as well as application of HRM
practices in work.
Overview of the Sainsbury: It is the second largest chain of supermarkets in UK with a
15.3% shares of supermarket area. It was founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury and
headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The number of employee are 186900 and has net
income £309 million in 2018. it splits into mainly three divisions such as Sainsbury supermarket,
bank and Argos.

Explain the purpose and scope of human resource management which are applicable to
workforce planning and resourcing of an organisation.
Human resource management is a strategic approach which are used by the company
for effective management of an individual which helps in taking competitive advantages. HRM
is planned to increase the employee’s performance for achieving the organizational objectives
(Noe, 2017). The main aim of this is to manage the distinguish expectations and needs of
employees and helps in maximise the efficiency by handing the issues of funds, legal etc.
Functions of human resource management are described below: Personnel needs: HR department of a company is responsible for hiring the competent
candidates this includes evaluating the job duties and determinations of skills which are
required for the job positions. Human resource managers are liable to ensure that no laws
are violate during the process performance and they can terminate employees at any time.
HR department of Sainsbury participates in the procedure of transfer and promotion for
the current employees of an organization as well as handling the staff members of a
company effectively. Compensation: It defines as a payment, remuneration, benefits etc. fairly for each &
every workforce. HR department of a company analyse the performance and makes
changes in pay scale of the company. The Sainsbury manager access policies and
practices which are helpful for the company in adhering several laws like federal, local,
state etc. in relation of compensation (Bratton and Gold, 2017). These laws are labour
standards act, minimum wages act etc. that are used to pay in a systematic manner.
 Performance appraisal: Human resource department of Sainsbury works for evaluating
the workers performance. They are responsible for continuous appraisal and develop their
working for getting effective results. This is also used for transfer, promotion, retention
as well as employee termination.
 Training and development: This kind of HRM function helps workers in order to trained
them to develop their skills and knowledge for the purpose of effectively perform tasks
on time.
 Employee welfare: This function is related to the employees benefits in which the
manager of Sainsbury is liable to provide services, facilities as well as benefits for their
well beings.

Scope of HRM: Human resource management has a broad and huge scope that begins
from planning of human resource till workers leaves an organisation. As with the aids of several
functions of HRM, it is achievable to piece of work upon individual's planning and resourcing,
such as it will assist in understanding about the necessitates of personnel for the successful
execution of various tasks in Sainsbury.
Purpose of HRM: The main purpose of HRM is to maximise Sainsbury's productivity in
order to fully utilise its employees effectiveness. Also, prevent all issues firstly to increase the
company performance through investing in right people at a right time.
Analyse the strength and weaknesses of different approaches.
Recruitment: Enrolment indicates to the general procedure of drawing in, shortlisting,
choosing and delegating appropriate possibility for occupations inside an organization.
Recruitment can likewise refer to procedures associated with picking people for unpaid jobs.
Supervisors, human asset generalists and enrolment pros might be entrusted with doing
enlistment, yet sometimes open segment business organizations, business enrolment offices, or
pro search consultancies are utilized to hold portions of the procedure.
1. Internal: It consists of those employees who are already working in an organization or
fill-up the vacancies from insides workers by using promotion, re-hiring, transfer etc. of
their existing employees (Mondy and Martocchio, 2016).
Strengths Weaknesses
 This is easy, fast and cheaper
method of recruitment.
 Provide motivation to employees by
promoting them to a higher
designation.
 Existing employees are familiar with
the organization and manager also
knows their strengths and
weaknesses which reduces the extra
costs.
 The company unable to reach and select
the fresh talents and potential applicants
for a job.
 Outsiders individual’s new ideas and
innovative thoughts cannot be
introduced in business.
 When existing employees promoted
then existing positions are vacant in the
company.

2. External: It refers to employees who are hired or selected from the outside of an
organization through advertisement in newspapers, referrals, contracts, employment
exchange etc.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Outsiders individuals brings new and
innovative ideas and concepts for an
organization.
 From external source of recruitment, a
manager of company has an
opportunity to choose the best suitable
applicants from a broad range of
candidates or from given pool.
 External recruitment considers as an
expensive and time-consuming
procedure because advertisements and
interviews take high costs and time.
 The company may not able to select the
best candidates for the job because of
their misrepresentation.
Conclusion: While recruiting, Sainsbury can used both sources for the purpose of hiring
suitable candidate i.e. internal and external after examining the company's requirements. The
company can select internal source because Sainsbury believes on their present workforce as
they are able enough but if a company needs fresh talent along with new ideas then they have to
go for recruiting persons from the external source which have more knowledge of latest
technologies. The company use promotions, transfer and rehiring as a internal methods of
recruitment whereas, they use advertisement, educational institutions, employment exchange as
well as outsourcing methods for external recruitment.
Selection: Choice is the way toward picking or picking the correct competitor, who is most
reasonable for an empty activity position in an association (Albrecht, 2015). In other words,
determination can likewise be clarified as the way toward meeting the up-and-comers and
assessing their characteristics, which are required for a job and afterward picking the appropriate
possibility for the position.
1. Interview: A prospective employee meet-up is a meeting comprising of a discussion
between a vocation candidate and a delegate of a business which is directed to evaluate
whether the candidate ought to be hired. Meetings are one of the most prominently
utilized gadgets for worker selection.
Strengths Weaknesses
 They are useful for obtaining detailed
information about personal feelings,
perceptions and thoughts.
 It is a time-consuming process to
setting up the interview methods and
process.

 They usually achieve a high response
rate.
 Ambiguity can be clarified, and
incomplete answers can be given.
 Interview is considered as a costly or
expensive method of selection.
 Various questioners may understand
and translate meets in various
manners.
2. Personality tests: A determination technique measure the character qualities of
candidates that are identified with future employment execution. Character tests
commonly measure at least one of five-character measurements: extroversion, passionate
strength, suitability, consciences, and receptiveness to encounter (Hasle, Seim and
Refslund, 2019).
Strengths Weaknesses
 It brings about lower turnover due if
candidates are chosen for qualities that
are exceptionally corresponded with
representatives who include high life
span inside the association
 It uncovers more data about candidate's
capacities and interests
 Absence of decent variety if every
single chosen candidate have same
character qualities.
 Cost might be restrictive for both the
test and elucidation of results.
 Absence of proof to help legitimacy of
utilization of character tests.
Conclusion: While choosing candidates, Sainsbury can used interview or personality test
procedure or even both that totally depends upon the job complexities. If depth knowledge is to
be analysed then they can prefer personality test other than the company can use for interview for
selecting an appropriate candidate as it is time saving and questions can be adjusted as per the
job requirements.
Approaches of recruitment and selection: There are two approaches such as traditional and
competency based that are considered as follows:
Traditional approach Competency approach
In this kind of approach, mainly focused on
choosing ideal candidates towards the job
performance that have a defined jobs. Also
emphasised on the evaluation of skills and
competencies of individual in order to
understand their personality and accomplish
This approach is used by the human resource
manager in order to focused on the
identification of organisational requirements
and match with individuals prospectives in
order to do tasks in a well manner. This will
mainly focused on recruiting candidates

objectives of organisations. towards the requirements of team instead of
individual performance.
Examine the different HRM practices.
The human resource management practices are crucial for the company for implementing
the human resource strategies and systems which are required to complete the operational
activities (Ahmad, 2015). A best HR policies results in employee satisfaction and better
performance. The various practices are used by the Sainsbury such as training and development,
workforce planning, recruitment and selection and performance management systems that are
described below:
 Workforce planning: It is essential for managing human resources in effective and
efficient way and creates action plan which includes clear and desired plans and
strategies to make solutions for analysing the gaps. This provides an idea for developing
skills and competencies to become better.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Sainsbury
HR aligns with business policy with strategic
workforce planning via data protection,
wellness programme, employee’s assistance
and benefits, career development programmes
as well as training and learning facility.
The company get benefited from employee
retention as well as helps in avoiding delays
and disruptions. As well as manager of
company helps in problem solving tactics and
prevent them in an effective manner.
Advantages of Workforce planning:
 Required number of employees shall be hired at each level at all stages of management.
 High worker turnover ration is clearly highlighted while a company doing manpower
planning.
 Manpower planning helps in increasing the Sainsbury productivity as well as profitability
because this focused on hiring appropriate candidate who have desired skills and
knowledge.
Disadvantages of workforce planning:
 Records should be needed to maintain it detail as this will incur huge expense.

 It can be uncertain like dynamic conditions of businesses hard to forecast the future along
with the better accuracy.
 Recruitment and selection: The Sainsbury have structured recruitment and selection
procedure for hiring or choosing the suitable candidate for a business on the basic of
fulfilling the organizational requirements with individual’s skills and abilities.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Sainsbury
Individuals are appointed at a right job
requirement at a right time and use their skills
in an effective and efficient manner by using
own specialisations and interests.
Strong pool of candidates are available to
connect with the qualified applicants and it will
helps in reducing the turnover of employees
and increase retention and morale.
Advantages of recruitment and selection:
 It is a better way to contact a lot of people within a small period as well as cost effective
if a company have various roles to fill.
 Selection methods helps in choosing right candidate for a vacant job openings as it reduce
the turnover mechanism of employees.
Disadvantages of recruitment and selection:
 Manager of Sainbury can face difficulty to give full control over hiring processes as it
want to read all resumes and conduct interview.
 Skills and ability of a person may not be judged properly by using tests.
 Training and development: The human resource management of an organization conduct
several training and development programmes to educate and trained their employees
(Noe, 2017). This includes coaching, on-job, apprenticeship, orientation programme etc.
to increase the efficiency and productivity of company.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Sainsbury
Employees are trained and educated from the
training and development programmes and
learned many more things and developed
themselves to fit accordingly the job
The company gets skilled and desired
candidates to perform the job tasks as well as it
directly impacts upon the organizational by
increasing productivity and profitability.

requirements.
Advantages of training and development:
 Training and development practices helps in developing employees morale and
satisfaction towards the job.
 It increase the capacity of an individual to adopts new technologies and methods.
Disadvantages of training and development:
 It takes lot of time in conduct training programmes which directly leads in decrease
productivity and financial gain. Sometimes it incurs huge cost for trained and developed their employees.
 Performance management: It refers to the evaluation of employee’s performance who
are working in Sainsbury. Human resource department is liable to identify the abilities
and skills and facilitates appropriate training and learning sessions for employees.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Sainsbury
Employee’s judge and evaluate themselves by
using performance management systems as
well as it will helps in improving their
personality and performance to work better.
This practice is useful for the company to
matching the actual performance with standard
sets and reduce the gap of both by
implementing changes in appropriate way.
Advantages of performance management:
 This will helps in encouraging their entire staff and motivate to perform better.
 It can help identify the under performers and terminate them to facilitates the smooth
functioning in an organization.
Disadvantages of performance management:
 It considered as a time consuming process as it measures the performance of entire staff.
 It is not a grateful experience as it has potential to discourage employees.
Evaluate the effectiveness of HRM practices for rising profitability and productivity of an
organization.
HR practices are essential for every business organization, after studying the above
practices mainly training and development is more suitable for Sainsbury because this helps in

improving the productivity and profitability (Effectiveness of HRM practices, 2018). This will
enable to minimise the employee’s turnover and satisfy them to improve their learnings and fell
confident towards their tasks. Human resource management functional includes the staffing,
motivation, performance management, manpower planning, development etc. for achieving the
organisational objectives. Company's HR department follows effective approaches and develops
employees by using professional capabilities. The company satisfy from their workforce
performance as well as they use talent and capabilities effectively to attain the desired objectives.
This helps in satisfied and motivated workforce.
The human resource management are responsible for managing and controlling the
functions of an organization that are based on the employee welfare. The company facilitates
training and development practices to trained and educate them for increasing the employee’s
performances. If an organization hired skilled and desired candidate’s, then they produce
effective results by attaining goals in adequate manner. The Sainsbury followed HRM practices
to enhance the company's efficiency. Manpower planning is essential for effective human
resource management and make action plan that consists of strategic decisions and strategies for
solving the problems and issues. It helps in examining demand and supply gap, competency gap
as well as succession disparity. Employees of Sainsbury knows their continuous performance
and evaluation regarding their personal as well as organizational goals. This will help in getting a
framework regarding their skills and abilities and develop them for better performance.
Performance management system is defined as a process which are used by human resource
department and consider for evaluating the actions and results of employees working in
Sainsbury. HR management of the company line up the vision, mission, goals, objectives and
strategies of the company with human resource strategies. Performance management evaluates
the skills and competencies of an individual and accordingly a HR manager facilitates proper
training and development programmes for their staff members (Shields, 2015)
For example: Performance management approach adopts by Sainsbury in respect of having
several benefits which influence the performance of a company as it can discourage employee
while measures and monitor their performance as well as it considered as a time consuming
practice also.
.

Examine the importance of employee relations that influence HRM decision making.
Employee relations defines as the attempts which are made by an organization to manage
the workers relations at their workplace. Sainsbury has better and strong relations with their staff
members that will help company to reduce disputes, develop good understanding among workers
etc.. These relations are very significant for employees as well as the employer which are
described as follows :
 Healthy as well as better relations with workers leads in minimising the absenteeism that
will helps in feeling employees more comfortable with their colleagues as well as it
provides employer to concentrate on performance improvement factor by giving
appropriate training instead of resolve their conflicts.
 When workers have good relations with each others as well as with the management of a
company then employees are motivated and willingly participate in business activities.
As they facilitates or share their views and opinions in front of managers that may be
useful for a firm in order to solve issues and conflicts.
 The productivity as well as potentiality is increased as employees will cooperate
effectively which helps employers to make appropriate decisions in order to improve
production as well as profits. This will directly connected with workforce potentiality and
productivity as they contribute more organization get high and effective results.
Merits of employee relation Demerits of employee relation
A positive relationship with co-workers and
management helps in doing work more
efficiently as it encourage to shares opinions
and views of workers and select best of them.
More communication lines and the inconsistent
decision making potentiality consider as a
disadvantage of employee relation as managers
may have hard time to monitor decisions as
well as activities in an appropriate manner.
In addition, employee engagement is essential for an organization as it helps in
developing effective teams as they feel that it is the internal business requirement. Management
of a company is responsible for formulating appropriate strategies on the behalf of the
requirements of an organization which needs to be most suited at their working place. There are
several strategies of employment engagement that are used by Sainsbury plc which are
considered as follows:

 Human resource manager of Sainsbury regularly focused on asking feedbacks that helps
in feeling their workers that the opinions which is provided by them plays a significant
role in this company.
 In order to engaged employees at a great extent a company brings flexibility at workplace
like provide flexible working hours, location, schedules etc. which are in accordance of
their wants as well as increase their productivity and loyalty towards the organization and
its objectives.
Analyse the key elements of employee legislation and its impact on HRM.
Employees legislation refers to the enactments, laws and different guidelines, for
example The Business Rights Act, Equivalent Compensation Act, Sex Discrimination Act, The
lowest pay permitted by law Act, and The Handicap Separation Act etc. must be consented by
Sainsbury in the midst of basic leadership particularly in choice making of HRM as it might
absolutely change any choice or plan set by the HR division (Donate, Peña and Sanchez, 2016).
 Data Protection Act: The Information Assurance Act 2018 is an Assembled Realm
Demonstration of Parliament which updates information insurance laws in the UK. It is a
national law which supplements the European Association's General Information Security
Guideline and updates the Information Assurance Act 1998. Data protection affects
Sainsbury company’s human resource activities, from recruitment and references to
employee record-keeping and performance monitoring.
Merits Demerits
It helps in storing data for a long period of
time as it can leads to formulate effective
business practices for better management.
To run their business according to this laws a
company required data controller which means
they need to train their staff to make sure that
data is properly handled as it required
according to this act.
 Equality Act: The Uniformity Demonstration 2010 is a Demonstration of Parliament of
the Unified Realm with the main role of combining, refreshing and enhancing the various
earlier Acts and Guidelines, that shaped the premise of aggressive to segregation law in

Extraordinary England. This implies managers need to take a gander at their present
approaches and systems to ensure they consent to the Fairness Demonstration.
Merits Demerits
It gives more rights to employees as well as
assists in increasing awareness. Also, it
facilitates equal opportunities for men and
women.
It attached a lot of expenses because of huge
laws to increase awareness. Also, this law is
not applicable or protected for children in
school.
 Health and safety act, 1974: It includes the duties, operations as well as actions that are
necessarily performed by employees of Sainsbury as it is implemented by HR manager in
order to facilitates healthy as well as positive workplace, effective working condition as
well as safe and secure culture.
Merit Demerits
As it clarifies the responsibilities as well as
functions in Sainsbury business.
Equipments along with the safety measure for
manufacturers are expensive so prices of
products goes up.
 Discrimination Act: It is refers to that legislations that are designed to remove the
discrimination against the group of people they belongs to different age, gender, class etc.
in order to protect them.
Merit Demerits
It promotes the workforce diversity in order to
ensure that objectives are achieved in diverse
workplace environment.
It diversify the changes in accountability
standards is a demerit of discrimination act.
Impacts of employee relation and employment legislation in HRM decision making
Employee relations are essential for businesses as it is advantageous for both employee's
as well as employer's. In Sainsbury, the company forms flexible and comfortable culture at their
working environment for their workers this will helps in increasing their performance as they
contribute more towards the organization by participating in decision making. Sometimes it may

not be suitable for a company to develop flexible and friendly workplaces as it will results in
frauds or miscellaneous activities. Whereas, employee legislation sets the limits on the
companies to work in accordance of laws and legislation but these governance are always in
favour of workers as they are mainly adopts for protecting their workforce from misconducts and
frauds. Sainsbury has to follow the lawful legislations and obligations of data protection as it
helps in securing their customers records and information which may results in developing trusts
that are required to increase the productivity as well as profitability.

Illustrate the application of HRM practices.
Application of human resource management: An organisation manages its employees
in effective and efficient manner for reducing the turnover rate. HR manager of Sainsbury
manages its workforce in a systematic manner and human resource practices are followed in a
company for improving the overall performance and productivity. HRM faces numerous issues
related to the compensation, wellness, safety, motivation as well as training and performance
management (Fernández and Camacho, 2016).
Person specification: It is a written statement of educational qualifications, experience,
physical and technical skills etc. which are required to do a job. This is derived from the job
description and consider recruitment process.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Company name: Sainsbury
Job title: HR manager
Qualification: MBA in HR
Essential criteria:
 Diploma and post-graduation in management field.
 Minimum 4 years of experience as working in HR department.
 Fluent English communication skill.
Desired criteria:
 Experience of 5 years working in HR department of consultancy firm.
 Ability to understand business competency.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: Stella John
Address: 45th street, East-side, London
Phone number: 142517458
Career objective: To engage in an organization that assist me in giving opportunities where I
can utilize my skills and educational experience.
Educational qualification:

 Master’s in business administration
 Diploma in HR management
Experience: 5 years of experience as working in HR department.
Skills:
 Fluent communication skills.
 Punctuality.
 Negotiable ability.
Declaration: Hereby, I declare that the above information presented by me are correct as per my
views and knowledge.
Date:
Place:
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that human resource management is essential
for an organization to ensure the employees growth and development towards the company
benefits. Several functions of HRM are performed in a firm like planning, recruitment, selection,
training and development etc. along with the practices of human resource which are aligns with
the organization which helps in increasing the profits and productivity. Moreover, a company
follow a specific procedure to recruit and select candidates at a right job position. Employee
relations are very important for an organization to engaged employees properly and employment
legislation elements and its impacts on human resource decision making. Also, the application of
HR practices is used by the company to select the suitable applicants.

REFERENCES
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Online
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