HRM Practices for Productivity and Profits

The assignment discusses the importance of Human Resource Management (HRM) in boosting business productivity and profits. It highlights various HRM practices used by Marks and Spencer to increase employee skills and knowledge, such as training and development programs, fair evaluation, and good working environment. The analysis concludes that effective HRM can lead to higher motivation and increased firm performance.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Purpose of HRM in an organization...................................................................................1
2. Functions of HRM..............................................................................................................2
3. Two functions from above list............................................................................................3
4. Various approaches to recruitment and selection...............................................................3
5. Approaches recruitment and selection and their weakness and strength...........................4
6. HRM practices within the organisational context..............................................................5
7. HRM practice with their benefits for the employee's and employer's in the organisational
context....................................................................................................................................6
8. Detail of selected HRM practice that will benefit for Marks and Spencer in order to
enhance profits and productivity............................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the effective management or systematic approach in
management of people within the organisation, so that these approaches helps the business in
order gain competitive advantage in marketplace. HRM mainly designed to increase employee
performance for achieving desired goals in an effective manner. HRM involves if different
functions of management like planning, directing, controlling or organizing activities in an
effective manner. In this present assignment Marks and Spencer has been taken as an
organisation which is a clothes retail industry and offers various kind of items like food, crockery
and so on. Along with this Explanation of the goals and functions of HRM applicable to
workforce planning and resourcing an organisation will be covered. At last this assignment will
get covered Identify the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to recruitment and
selection (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018).
1. Purpose of HRM in an organization.
Human resource management is the process of selecting, recruiting, providing
orientation, training and development programmes and appraising the activity or performance of
employee. Therefore, HRM is a proper utilisation of resources or available skilled workforce in
an effective manner.
Maintaining effective employee relations:
The main aim of this function is to keep maintain attractive or effective relation with
employees in order to decrease few kind of conflicts. It is the very known or useful purpose of
M&S in order to maintain effective relations with other employees in a good manner. Therefore,
in this company is responsible for making good purpose to attain goals and objective in a
particular manner (Brewster, 2017).
Training and development:
The main goal is to trained the employees in a good way so that they can work more
effectively and efficiently in an effective manner. In this the major role or responsibilities of
company is to provide on job or off job training to their employees and also resolve their specific
issues without any problems. That's why in this purpose M&S is responsible for playing vital
role in order to giving good training or development programme to their employees.
Approaches of HRM
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The main purpose of HRM is to increase working capabilities of employees in order to
achieve goals or objectives in a effective manner. As per this manager of M&S build strong
relationship among subordinates or superiors to achieve productivity of the company. There are
two approaches of HRM which are discussed below:
Soft approach:
According to this approach of Human resource management, employees or candidates are
treated as resources of an organization in order to gain competitive advantage. In this HR
manager of company also focuses on the employee's needs and planned accordingly. They
always concentrate on increasing their skills and make effective plans and programmes so that
employees can easily maximise their development skills in an appropriate manner. They also
focuses on the needs of employees or candidates. In regards with the Marks and Spencer, they
treat their employees or workers in a effective way and also make plan or strategy accordingly.
This company also conduct large or two-way communication between the employer or employee
in a effective way.
Hard approach:
In this approach of HRM, Employees are treated as resources within the business
organisation such as building, machinery or equipments. According to this employees are
managed in a specified way so that they work easily as per their working efficiency and also able
to achieve desired goals. There is a strong link with the planning of corporates business plan
such as what kind of resources are required, how much will they cost and so on. Commonly
HRM focuses on the identification of workforce needs and demand of the business and recruit
and manage according to them. In the context of M&S, they do not use this approach because of
their employees or team members or resources (Brewster, Brookes and Gollan, 2015).
Wherein, soft approach is used by M&S, so that company leaders or managers can easily make
good relation with their team members or employees as well. It will help managers of companies
in order to resolve the problem with in the business enterprises.
2. Functions of HRM.
HRM refers to the strategic approaches in order to make management effective within the
business cycle. It helps to company to achieve their competitive advantages in a proper way,
that's why it is designed to enhance the employee's working performance. Therefore, there are
few functions which is followed by the M&S such as training and development, fair evaluation,
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working environment, planning, organizing and so on. All these are very effective and helpful
function for each organisation in order to increase their working operations of business and it
also enhance the employee's motivation towards work in an effective manner.
3. Two functions from above list.
From the above list of functions, two function has been selected, which are given below:
Training and Development:
Training and development is related with specific activity which mostly used by any kind of
business organization in order to improve employees skills or knowledge in an effective manner.
According to this programme employees can get chance to changes their skills and performance
as well. This programme will helps the organisation in an appropriate way in order to desired
goals and objectives. In context of M&S it is needed to offer proper training and development
programmes to their employees on the regular basis. That's why this function is applicable to
workforce planning as well as resourcing of an organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Recruitment and Selection:
It is very essential for an organisation in order to have proper selection or recruitment
method because this function helps them in hiring new candidate or employees which are needed
for them. In regards with M&S, this function is necessary in order to select appropriate candidate
for specific job role. Therefore, as per this employees can get their desirable job in which field
they want to work. Therefore, it is also applicable for workforce planning in order to develop
employees skills, so that they can easily helps the organisation in achieving goals or objective in
a particular manner.
4. Various approaches to recruitment and selection.
There are various approach of recruitment and selection in an organisation. The
organisation selects its recruitment and selection process on the basis of their requirement. There
are several kind of approaches like selection of right candidate, specification of persons, reward
package, internal and external recruitment. With the help of this company can get their
appropriate candidates in order to develop their growth within the market in a perfect way. Some
of the approaches are defined below:
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Job description: As per this candidates are able to know about their roles and
responsibilities perfectly.
Reward package: According to this candidates are able to get several kind of salary,
accommodation from an organisation and so on.
For making better selection for the employee's manager of company's always focus on
their higher skills employee's in order to make organisation effective and attractive by using the
different type of skills in a proper manner. Therefore, different kind of approaches are helpful to
make company profitable and productive in an appropriate manner (Moutinho and Vargas-
Sanchez, 2018).
5. Approaches recruitment and selection and their weakness and strength.
From the above approaches two approaches have been selected that is recruitment and
selection, which are given below in a proper way:
Total quality approach- This depends on quality of work among employees. It also includes
proper managing and monitoring of performance of employees and increasing quality of work of
employees and making them competitive so that hey can achieve goals and objectives of the
company in specified time frame. The management of Marks and Spencer selects qualified
candidates that can enhance the growth of company and are suitable for working in the
organisation. Marks and Spencer uses both internal and external recruitment process while hiring
workers and after these selection method is applied.
Internal recruitment process: In this process of recruitment, hiring is done by evaluating and
analysing the current employees. This process helps in boosting morale of employees working in
the company. It decreases the extra budget utilised in recruiting through external ways. In
context to HR manager of M&S, Employees who fits the vacant position are given promotions
and incentives or their pay scale is increased (Friedman, 2017).
Strength Weaknesses
This method helps in encouraging and
motivating employees by giving them
promotions and incentives.
Internal recruitment increases the expectancy of
employees from management and it is not
possible for managers to promote all workers.
It is a time saving and cost saving process as it
does not require extra budget from
It demotivate other individuals who are not
promoted. This may create conflicts in the
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organisation for recruiting. organisation and overall efficiency of the
company gets affected.
External recruitment process: The process in which new talents are hired from outside the
company is known as external recruitment process. These people have new innovative ideas used
for accomplishing goals of the company. The HR manager and leader of M&S uses online
process for hiring candidates for their company.
Strength Weaknesses
This method is cost-effective and it enhances
the speed of recruitment cycle.
The main weakness of this online method is
that individuals who do not have computer
operating skills are not able to give the
evaluation.
This method manages records and feedback
and includes job advertisements (Marchington
and et. al., 2016).
There are some cases in which undesired
applicants upload their data. It wastes time of
management of the company.
Marks and Spencer uses different methods for recruitment and selection practices. These
includes various methods like and interviews personality tests. M&S should carefully analyse
requirement of individuals and then select recruitment process. The selection method used by
M&S is written test and interviews.
Selection: It refers to the process of selecting candidate in order to fulfil the vacant position in an
enterprises. This process mainly includes in several methods like written test, interview test,
reference checking and so on. There are some process of selection, which are given below:
Written test: It is the kind of written exam which is comprehensive that check the
person's knowledge which can be based on any topic but related with the particular field.
Therefore, it help examiner to check their student eligibility within the right manner. There are
some strength and weaknesses of this test, are given below:
Strength Weakness
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The main strength is that, candidates are able
to understand their needs in the fields. Along
with this they have lots of choice like different
questions which helps to give written test
properly.
Some times applicant not includes in the
written test because they think that they are not
able to understand concept of particular
subject.
Interview test: It is the conversation between two persons like interviewer or
interviewee. Along with this, interviewer asked questions to candidates and than they respond in
a positive manner. There are strength and weakness of this test, given below:
Strength Weakness
With the help of this candidates can maximise
their confidence in order to speak in front of
someone with appropriate answers.
During the time of interview, some candidates
feel shy and not able to give answers to the
interviewer so that they lose their confidence.
6. HRM practices which is followed by the Marks and Spencer.
Work life balance According to this practice of HRM, M&S
provides healthy culture and working
environment to their people so that they can
work easily without any issues that's why this
situation makes company effective.
Fair evolution In this HRM practice, Marks and Spencer
behave with their employee's in a transparent
way so that it enhance their confidence as well
as working ability in the organisation.
Training and development With the help of this HRM practice, Marks and
Spencer is able to provide different kind of
training programmes in a proper way.
Therefore it is very important for each
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company. It also motivates people in a
effective way.
Recruitment and selection This the general practice of HRM within the
company. On the basis of this manager and
leaders of this organisation are able to recruit
appropriate candidate so that they can get to
know about job profile in M&S, wherein,
selection is the process of hiring employee's
with effective skills in order to increase the
firm's value in an effective manner.
7. HRM practice with their benefits for the employee's and employer's in the organisational
context.
Fair evolution: From the above this HRM practice has been selected because it is very
much essential for each company in which people works together and company provide benefits
to their employee's and employer's, are given below:
Benefits:
Employee's Employer's
This is beneficial for employee's because M&S
provide transparency so that they can share
problems with the manager of this organisation
so that it is beneficial.
According to this M&S concentrate on their
employments as well to make their business
operations effective.
Training and Development: It is the effective or essential approach which helps
company to offer various type of training and development programmes to their employee's so
that they can get lots of knowledge about every function of management in a proper way. Along
with this, once they get knowledge than they are ready to perform well in an appropriate manner.
Therefore, it is beneficial for employee's and employer's as well, given below:
Employer Employee
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According to this Training and Development is
beneficial aspects for employer's just because
they have good skills and able to provide
several kind of task to their team members in a
effective way. Therefore, is is beneficial for
employer to get effective knowledge in a better
way.
Training and development benefits, employees
of Marks and Spencer take helps from this in
order to represent themselves in a different way
and also faces the ability, competencies in
order to achieve effective goals and objectives
in an appropriate manner. That's why it is
beneficial for them so they are inc4reasing
their knowledge-based skills at higher level.
8. Detail of selected HRM practice that will benefit for Marks and Spencer in order to enhance
profits and productivity.
Raising organizational productivity and profits
As per this, fair evaluation is the very much effective HRM practice by which employee's
can learn something within the working place. With the help of this, employee's are able to face
any kind of challenges and also able to resolved them because as they are taking lots of
knowledge in the company. In reference to the Marks and Spencer, they are following several
kind of HRM practices in order to increase their growth in a perfect way. As they are providing
training and development programmes, fair evaluation, good working environment all these
elements are helpful for employee's that's why they can get higher motivation. Therefore, this
concept will increase the firm's productivity and profits as well.
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CONCLUSION
According to the above representative report it has been concluded that, Human Resource
Management plays a vital role in order to manage or handle whole workforce within the business
organisation. In context of Marks and Spencer, they used different kind of functions, approaches
or purposes for increasing their employees skills or knowledge within the business. Therefore,
strength or weakness had been discussed also in an appropriate way.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018.Introduction to human resource management. Oxford
University Press.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017.Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy.
InPolicy and practice in European human resource management(pp. 22-35). Routledge.
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Brewster, C., Brookes, M. and Gollan, P. J., 2015. The institutional antecedents of the
assignment of HRM responsibilities to line managers.Human Resource
Management.54(4).pp.577-597.
Friedman, S. D., 2017. Succession systems in large corporations: Characteristics and correlates
of performance. In Leadership succession(pp. 15-38). Routledge.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017.Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Lu, K., Zhu, J. and Bao, H., 2015. High-performance human resource management and firm
performance: The mediating role of innovation in China.Industrial Management & Data
Systems.115(2). pp.353-382.
Marchington, M. and et. al., 2016.Human resource management at work. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Mosakowski, E., 2017. Overcoming resource disadvantages in entrepreneurial firms: When less
is more.Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.106-126.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018.Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
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