Human Resource Management Challenges

This assignment delves into the complexities and evolving landscape of Human Resource Management. It examines various challenges, including managing a diverse workforce, adapting to technological advancements, and ensuring employee well-being and engagement. The focus is on understanding how these challenges impact organizational success and exploring potential solutions for effective HR management.

Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Different ways in which HR objectives can be delivered within organization.....................3
1.3 The business case of delivering the HR function in a professional, ethical and just manner
.....................................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Criteria that might be used to evaluate the contribution of HR functions and methods used
to do this......................................................................................................................................5
Activity 2.........................................................................................................................................6
1.1 Organizational objectives that HR function is responsible for delivering and ways by
which these are revolving in contemporary organizations..........................................................6
2.2 Focusing on HR functions and analysing the ways through which HR function varies
between three organizations in different sectors and of different sizes......................................7
Activity 3.........................................................................................................................................9
1.2: the significant impact of HR in improving the organisation performance in change
management................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Identify and evaluate research evidences that links with the HR practices for achieving
positive outcomes......................................................................................................................11
4.2 Impact of high performance working and investment in human capital on organizational
Practice......................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is an art of effective management of people within an
organization. A human resource manager is responsible in managing all the aspects of employees
such as recruitment, selections, promotion, salary etc. This department is also responsible in
enhancing the performance of employees within an organization. The organization taken in this
report is Marks and Spencer. This is a multinational organization which mainly deals in clothing,
grocery and luxury food items and having its headquarter in Westminster, London. In this
report, purpose and key objective of HR function with reference to M&S is explained. The ways
through which HR objective can be delivered within an organization is also discussed. Apart
from that, ways through which HR function can be evaluated in terms of value added and
organization performance is understand. In the end, relationship between organizational
performance and effective HR management and development is also discussed.
Activity 1
2.1 Different ways in which HR objectives can be delivered within organization.
Objectives are the targets set in order to gain success in a specific field. In case of M&S,
HR department has also some objectives which are necessary to achieve in order to make the
objective of organization's success. Following are the objective of HR towards the employees
within M&S (Buttimer2015). These objectives incorporate some HR functions which are the part
of objectives that HR needs to accomplish as:
Promotion of Equality
It is one of the main objective of an HR within M&S. Every employee within an
organization requires promotion according to its performance. The function of HR at company
should monitor the performance of each employee and thus suggest the higher authorities to pay
attention on it. On the basis of these kind of activities, HR can make positive changes in the
working abilities of employees by promoting them on the basis of their working skills. This
makes the fair way of giving promotion to the employees. Thus objective of HR can be achieved.
Getting fair promotion from the company employee work with its potential and hence the
objective of organization can also be achieved.
Employee well-being

This is another aspect of an HR manager within M&S in which it has the objective of
providing solutions to all the employee of their issues. These issues can be regarding with salary,
promotion, collaboration, communication etc. Providing employee well-being can help the HR
manager of M&S to achieve its objective. In this process the function of HR as Compensation
and benefits helps in analysing concern of employees in order to conduct a positive relationship
with them easily. Employee well-being help them in increasing their faith towards the
management of company and thus motivate them to work for the betterment of company. This
will help the company in achieving their objective.
The contribution of HR manager towards sustainable business success is discussed
below:
Promoting good employee relationship
By promoting good employee relationship the staff of M&S can work by helping each
other. This will increase the performance of each employee with organization. Increased
performance will help them in increasing their productivity and thus productivity of the
organization also increased. Hence the business can get sustainable success with the help of good
employee relationship by HR manager (Dirani and et. al., 2015).
Developing skills and talent
The requirement of change is must in almost every organization. For adopting the change
the employee within M&S needs to have proper skills and talent. This is the contribution of HR
manager at M&S to provide effective training and development session for the employee so that
they can contribute towards the success of company.
High performing organization status
With the help of training and other developing aspects, the employee within organization
perform higher. This also increase the performance of company among its rivals. Performing
consistently within competition, M&S will gain high performing organization status. This will
help the company to stand in front of its rivals and thus achieve sustainable business success.
1.3 The business case of delivering the HR function in a professional, ethical and just manner
Following are the functions of an HR manager at M&S so that it can help the company in
achieving its objectives and goals.
Performance measurement and evaluation: The function of HR is to measure
performance of employees in order to appraise them accordance to it. All these activities aid to

motivate employees towards their business objectives by improving their working performance
easily. Through these practices, HR of M&S can create a long term positive relation with their
workforce by managing their working practices. By measuring performance of employees, HR
can provide them further training for the improvement of their skills.
Compensation and benefits: This is the function of HR to analyse concern of employees
properly. They needs to provide them compensation benefits so that they can get maximum
advantages from the organisation. All these activities aid to build positive relationship between
organisation and its employees by providing them several benefits.
Recruitment: The major function of HR is to conduct recruitment sessions so that they
can hire experienced and desired candidates in the firm. Recruitment sessions are based on
requirement of organisation for the specific candidates who help them in attaining organisational
goals and objectives effectively.
Ethics in Human Resource Management
Ethics are the values which help the person in identifying the difference between right
and wrong and act accordingly. Human Resource manager of M&S has the responsibility of
providing ethical environment within organization. The HR manager should provide proper
training to the employees so that they can work ethically. This will help them in increasing,
productivity, higher employee morale, less wastage etc. Apart from that, HR manager can also
reward the disciplinary system so as to motivate other employee for working ethically. This will
help the employees to work with their potential and thus the goals and objectives of M&S can be
achieved.
Role of HR manager as professionals
As a professional in M&S, the role of HR manager is to help the employees in order to
provide them training to fit changes in technology, quality improvement programs and
discrimination free promotions. All these roles are necessary for the employees in order to make
them as professionals. Apart from that, these roles are the integral part of business in order to
gain success. With the help of training, quality in work and discrimination free promotions M&S
can easily achieve its goals and objectives (Gadomska–Lila, 2015).
Role of HR as justified manner
The HR manager of M&S has the responsibility of performing the task in ethical and
justified manner. This will enhance the employees to set the manager as their pioneer and thus

the objectives of organization can be achieved. Apart from that, these roles and responsibilities
are integral part of M&S in order to achieve the goals and objectives.
3.1 Criteria that might be used to evaluate the contribution of HR functions and methods used to
do this.
Methods that might used to evaluate the contribution of HR functions are:
KPI HR metrics
Key performance indicator is used to evaluate the performance of company with respect
to specific department. In this section, the contribution of HR department is evaluated in M&S,
with the help of HR metrics. There are many sectors in which an HR has to focus to evaluate the
performance such as Ethnic diversity ratio, Gender ratio, span of control, headcount, open job
requisition, Job offer acceptance rate, cost per hire etc. From the above indicators, ethnic
diversity ration is calculated here. This help the manager in tracking the diversity of workforce
within M&S. This will help the company in improving business ideas and strengthen company's
branding.
Criteria Outcome
Formula Number of minority/ total number of
employees
Reporting frequency Quarterly
Example 40% minorities
Audience CEO, HR, Recruiters
Variations Organizational Ethnic diversity ratio.
Thus, the contribution of HR manager can be evaluated with the help of above metrics.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices within the same or similar
functions outside the immediate industry. In case of M&S, the comparison is done between M&S
and Sainsbury in HR department. This will help the companies to identify the lacking area in
which there is requirement to modify some changes. Thus, M&S can identify the difference
between contribution of HR department. Any exceptional strategy is being adopted by M&S to

enhance the contribution of HR manager. For the effective analysis, organisation can consider
benchmarking model which have three different phase as:
Phase 1 Benchmark: At this phase, organisation requires to consider the topic on which
they wants to set benchmark. Through this M&S can easily identify the scope of their working
practices that assist them in attaining target goals and objectives. For this, firm can implement
data collection approach to analyse different options for the betterment of business success.
Phase 2 Best practices: This stage determine results for the improvement by making
proper changes in business activities on the basis of desired targets and objectives. In this
process, data collection and survey approach play a most important role that suggest criteria for
further improvements. On this phase, M&S can share findings which are based on their business
benchmarking options.
Phase 3 Improvement: This is the last stage of benchmarking that consider planning,
implementing, monitoring, standardization and control for the desired targets. All these
approaches assist in setting a appropriate benchmark for the organisation for attaining desired
outcomes.
Risk Analysis
It is known as another method which is used by the organizations to evaluate the risk
while applying different practices in HR. These steps help M&S in identifying the contribution
of HR manager. Following are the steps of using risk analysis (Geissen and et. al., 2015).
 Identifying the threats of applying the HR practices among employees and their
performance.
 Estimate the risk help the company in identifying the likelihood of these risks and their
impacts. It can be identified with the help of following formula.
Risk value= Probability of event* Cost of event
If the occurrence of risk is higher in implementing HR practices than proper actions
should betaken to counter it.

Activity 2
1.1 Organizational objectives that HR function is responsible for delivering and ways by which
these are revolving in contemporary organizations.
Following are the three organizations in which the use of different HR functions is
explained.
Public Sector
These are the organization which have been operated by the government and their main
motive is to provide services to public. For this process these kind of organisations are plan for
preparing different policies and practices that help them in analysing public requirement for
specific services. The main functions of HR at these organizations is to equally treat the people
so as to implement similarity among the employees. Function of HR in public sector
organisations are also to create best fit policy on the basis of public demand in order ton
providing quality services to them. It also set its working in the direction of improving the
performance of the individuals. With the help of such functions these organizations can easily set
to meet their objectives. These roles and responsibilities can be revolved within the organization
with the help of an HR. It can take the organization on the path of delivering excellent services to
their population.
Private Sector
These are the organizations which have their main target to earn profit as much as
possible. Although these organizations offer services and products to the public. The HR
function at these organization is set to provide the platform for the employees so that they can
maximize their profit. The function of HR can provide effective training programs, adopt new
trends and technologies so as to maximize the profit of company. These functions can be
revolved within the company with the help of applying them effectively. In order to attaining
organisational goals and objective, the main function of HR is to recruit desired candidates who
assist in attaining organisational goals and objectives in effective manner.
Voluntary sector
These are the organizations which main aim is to work for the welfare of public. These
are operated by the trust or welfare funds. The main function of HR within these organizations is
to perform creative recruitment, train the employees, motivate and courage them etc. All these
tasks help the companies to allow the employee in engaging themselves in the welfare of society.

Apart from that, these roles can be revolved easily when the perception of employees changed
with the help of training (Girard and Girard, 2015). Functions of HR in such organisation
incorporate responsibilities such as identification of society need or trained employees in such
manner that aid in attaining target objectives of firm.
2.2 Focusing on HR functions and analysing the ways through which HR function varies
between three organizations in different sectors and of different sizes.
The functions of HR in three different organisation is explained below:
Public sector
These are the organizations which are operated by the government and have their main
motive of providing services to the society. The public sector company is Audit commission. It is
a statutory organization owned by government of UK. This is a large audit company which is
used for auditing in local public bodies in England. The organization is working power culture
and it has hierarchical structure.
Private sector
The private sector organizations are the operated by an individual or group of individuals.
The main motive of such organizations is to maximize the profit as much as possible. The private
sector organization could be Tesco which is a UK based multinational retailer giant. It is a large
company having 9th largest retailer in the world. Apart from that, it is a Ltd company which has
been operated by an individual. The company is following an inclusive culture with having
hierarchical structure. The function of HR has the responsibility of providing training to the
employee of organization so that they can be ready to adopt the recent trends and technologies.
This allows the employee to grow their future and knowledge as well(Golden and et. al., 2016).
Voluntary Sector
These are the organizations which are operated by the trust or welfare funds. The main
motive of these companies is the welfare of society. The voluntary organization taken is Save the
Children. This is multinational NGO working for the rights of children across the globe. This
sector is a charity based organization which has hierarchical structure and it has role culture as
the role of each employee is decided already. The function of HR at this organisation is to recruit
creative employees so that they can work according to their decided roles. This will help them to
think with free mind and apply their thoughts and perception.

In case of M&S, the goals and objectives of the company with respect to HR function is
to increase the performance of employees so that they can earn for the company. Apart from that,
it also set the goals of adopting new technology. In achieving the goals and objectives of the
company, the functions of HR should consider training and development program to the
employees. This will help them in adopting the goals and objectives of company easily. Apart
from the recent functions of HR, it has changed at lot from the time. In recruitment and selection
process, the criteria has changed because of the advancement in technology. In now a days, the
company will hire the employee which has good technical knowledge of computer systems.
Since all the works have been operated with the help of computer systems therefore it has
necessary for the company to hire right person for the right post.
Ulrich model
This model was first developed by David Ulrich for looking at the role of people within
organization. This model suggests the to specify the roles of each employee rather than by their
functions. Here are the four roles of HR department within an organization.
HR business partner
This is a fictional term within the company to identify the internal customers. These
customers are employees, shareholders, stakeholders, creditors and more. Human resource
department act as a channel for communication among different internal customers. HR business
partner gives feedback to internal customers about the quality of their experience, identifies the
top talent within organization, help filling job vacancies etc.
Change agent
It is the role when M&S will try to change its objective or goals and required to expand,
evolve or alter. This agent communicate with the changes internally. This will provide training
opportunities to the employees so that they will be familiar with the changing environment. This
will not only impact on the working but also never letting down the organization.
Administration expert
This is the expert within an organization which is responsible in managing the
administration in terms of legislations, regulation, occupational health and safety rules and
different types of trade or labour law. This expert is also responsible in organizing the personal
details of employees also (Kakar, Raziq, and Khan, 2017).
Employee advocate

This is the champion which is responsible in protecting the rights of employees within an
organization. This allows to increase the morale of employee and provide them satisfaction while
working in the premise.
This model is based on the basic roles and responsibilities of an HR manager. The basic
needs always requires to be completed within firm. Therefore this model is useful in terms of
today's working culture. Since, employees requires safety, administration, training and
development program and feedback from the customers. Therefore, this model is also useful in
today's business context.
Activity 3
1.2: the significant impact of HR in improving the organisation performance in change
management.
The impact of human resource management is very crucial in improving the performance
of the organisation. The performance of the company is improved by providing proper training
and development programmes to the employees that results in effective use of their skills and
abilities towards the organisational objectives. As, Marks and Spencer is one of the largest retail
industry and its business operations are expanded all over the world. The company deals with the
dynamic business environment which changes on a fast pace. The company is facing problems
due the changes taken place in the business environment related to the advancement in the
technology. The Marks and Spencer is required to plan strategies to adapt the changes in the
organisation as to gain the competitive advantage in the market. The human resource
management is very important in for the company as it will plan all the required steps to enable
the effective change in he organisation (Woźniak, 2015).
As, the company need to adapt the technological advancement in the business structure
they need to prepare new ideas to innovate in the products which will attract the customers and
for all this they need HR to proceed its functions in this regard and they are as follows:
 Selecting people with suitable skills: Selecting the individuals with suitable skills and
abilities to perform the task according to the changes acquired by the company and to
develop the effective and innovative ideas which will lead the company to gain
profitability in the market among its competitors. This function of HR will impact in the

growth for Marks and Spencer and will make the effective use of the changes in
advancement of technology in effective manner with proper utilisation of resources.
 Training and development programmes: Human resource management helps in
growing the performance of the organisation by providing the proper training to the new
employees and constructing the development programmes for the existing employees
which helps in improving their skills and knowledge and leads to increase the
productivity of the organisation and the workers as well. The changes in the business
organisation can be handled effectively by the proper training.
The human resource management performs these functions and they impact majorly in
increasing the growth of the organisation and leads the company to dwell with the changes in the
effective manner.
4.1 Identify and evaluate research evidences that links with the HR practices for achieving
positive outcomes.
It is the most important model which ensures the managers about change process. This
model emphasizes on the identifying the element because of which changes are takes places in
the workplace. It also provide supports to the employees so that the changes can be adopted by
them. This model is divided in five parts which are given as under:
Awareness – It is the first step of model in this, employees of M&S wants to get
awareness that what changes are implemented by the managers and why these are important for
the workplace. If the staff members of Marks and Spencer have no knowledge about these
changes then they can't perform on the given task in proper manner. So that, for reducing the
conflicts and issues from the workplace of M&S the managers have to provide better knowledge
about the changes so that the employees can aware and perform their duties in well manner.
Desire – In this, The managers of M&S have to take supports from their employees
before implementing any decisions in the workplace so that the staff members will aware about
the upcoming changes and desired outcomes will be received by the managers.
Knowledge – When changes are regularly implemented in the workplace of M&S it will
help the managers in improving their decision-making skills and also helps the employees in
improving their efficiencies.

Ability – In this step, managers have to implement changes in the workplace when they
will ensure about the abilities of employees. With the help of this, the managers of Marks and
Spencer will be able in identifying the abilities of employees through which they can take better
supports from the skilled and experienced employees in decision-making process.
Reinforcement – It is the last step of model, in which managers of Marks and Spencer
have to provide better rewards to their employees so that better contribution can be gained by
them and the changes can be implemented at the workplace without any difficulty. If the changes
are implemented with the better understanding of employees it will reduces the chances of
conflicts and issues which will be beneficial for the firm in gaining competitive advantage in the
marketplace (Lasserre, 2017).
From the above theory it can be said that changes are necessary for the workplace of
organisation because it assists the managers in improving the efficiencies and skills of their
employees.
4.2 Impact of high performance working and investment in human capital on organizational
Practice
High performance working refers to the accurate and clear result of the input given to the
employee. The high performance working is suitable with the help of HR department within
M&S. To be a high performance working company, the human resource within organization
should be specifically updated with the recent trends and technology. This will help them to
make maximum output with less efforts. This will help the company in developing their
strategies in future also. According to the CIPD report 2005, high performance working refers to
the development of an organization in terms of its employees also. The development depends
upon the performance of employee within the context of company. If employees will not perform
better, the company cannot survive itself in the competitive market. High performance working
will lead the company among the rivals. High performance not only comes through employee,
manager is also responsible in attaining the work from employees. Proper training programs and
sessions allow the employee to work with their full potential therefore HR manager of M&S also
plays an important role in the development of an organization (Manroop, 2015).
According to the CIPD report, 2005 on high performance working. The organization
should also develop the career of their employee. This will help them in developing their career

and also the organisation gets on the way of success. High performance workers yields more
productivity and performance rather than the normal performer. Their quality of work is also up
to the mark. They perform accurate and clear work so that their motivation also increases with
the reward power of managers. The performance of each employee is calculated with the
performance indicator. A tool is used in this report as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). A
graph is prepared on which different aspects of performance are evaluated and calculated. Thus
help them in improving the lacking areas and getting updated with the changes. These changes
not only allows to develop the company bit also individual develop occurs. Thus, M&S can
easily develop itself with the help of high performance workers. By investing in the human
capital through M&S, company will motivate the employees and thus their performance
increases. Increase in the performance of employees help them to develop the steps of
organization. Therefore M&S should invest in encouraging the employees to work for the
betterment of company. This also help them to feel important for the company and work with
potential.
CONCLUSION
In this report, it can be concluded that human resource is an important function within a
organization. No organization can achieve its objectives and goals without the succession of this
business functions. Different roles and responsibilities of HR manager help the employee to
develop it's personal and professional career. The purpose and key objectives of HR functions
not only provide assistance to the employee but also allow them to develop their career. In
deeper terms, the evaluation of HR functions help them in identify the necessity of this
department towards the success. The relationship between organizational performance and
effective HR management and envelopment help in identifying the usefulness of this department.

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