Human Resource Management Practices in Amazon UK: A Case Study

This case study examines the human resource management (HRM) practices employed by Amazon UK, a leading online retailer. It explores the purpose and scope of HRM in resourcing the organization with talent and skills, evaluating the effectiveness of key HRM elements in raising organizational profit and productivity. The study also analyzes internal and external factors that influence HRM decision-making, including employment legislation and employee relations. Specific examples from Amazon UK are used to illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context.

BUSINESS HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
1

Contents
Introduction:.......................................................................................................................3
LO1: Explain the purpose and scope of HRM in terms of resourcing an organisation with
talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business functions....................................................4
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation................................................................................................4
P2: Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and
selection.............................................................................................................................6
LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of HRM in an organization.............8
P3: Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of
your chosen organization..................................................................................................8
P4: Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation in
terms of raising organisational profit and productivity.......................................................9
LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect HRM decision making, including
employment legislation....................................................................................................11
P6: Analyse the importance of employee relations in your chosen organisation in
respect to influencing HRM decision-making..................................................................11
P6: Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making in your chosen organisation..................................................................12
LO4: Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context...........14
P7: Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples from your chosen organisation........................................................................14
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................17
Reference:.......................................................................................................................18
2

Introduction:
The human resource management is one of the most essential parts of the
organisation. This particular department helps in recruiting the suitable employees for
the company and then after recruiting it requires to train them for a while for the job
position.
The particular selected company for the study is Amazon, on the verge to elaborate the
role and function of HRM in an organisation. The author will explain the objective and
scope of HRM while discussing all the recruitment process of a particular organisation.
Along with that the author will also discuss about the rules, regulation and policies which
helps the organisation to achieve its goal. That also includes the legislation influences in
the internal and the external policies of an organisation. It also explains about how the
HR department makes it employee relation good by motivating them.
3

LO1: Explain the purpose and scope of HRM in terms of resourcing an
organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business functions.
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning
and resourcing an organisation.
The Human Resource Management department of a company deals with the process
and operations of training and management of the employees. They are mostly
concerned with the benefits, health and development. There are certain models and
structures introduced which is used for effective planning.
Best-Fit Model: The best-fit model acts as a form of link between the Human Resource
strategies and the current business ideas of the organisation. The model includes
external and internal fit. The external fit looks for the strategies of marketing and
operations which influences the business. The internal fit emphasizes on fair and just
distribution of work and promoting healthy competition. Amazon follows a version of the
best-fit model for transparent distribution of work among the employees (Marchington et
al., 2016).
Best practice Model: This model aims to bring about a positive approach in the
workplace. This model encourages more effort on training and development which
results in higher efficiency and performance of the employees, thus a transparent
communication process is observed (Wilton, 2016).
The Hard and Soft Model: The hard and soft model is another approach implemented
by the Human Resource department. The model can be differentiated between two
parameters. The Hard model is stronger in nature where business output is considered
to be the first priority. Therefore the steps are taken with respect to maximum business
growth where frequent screening and bulk work is focused on. The soft model
contradicts the former. This model considers stability of the employees as their first
priority, more effort is given to the wellbeing of the employees, updated plans on their
growth structures and physiological aspects so transparency is needed within the chain.
Amazon appreciates this kind of model. The hard model is accepted because it provides
maximum business growth and turnover (Truss et al., 2013).
4

Workforce planning: A well coordinated workforce is the backbone of a successful
organisation and to have such an ambience workforce planning is required. Amazon is
a multinational organisation which provides online retail shopping services. The Human
Resource Management department of Amazon UK has certain activities and functions.
Global HR Operations and Analytics (HROA) provide Human Resource solutions to
Amazon’s exponentially increasing workforce. Amazon provides an extensive workforce
planning which includes induction of certain regulations and policies which promotes the
employees for growing a greater workforce however the workforce planning system of
Amazon needs to be updated because there has been a serious kind of allegations
regarding work environment (Buller et al., 2012).
Recruitment: The Human Resource team of Amazon follows an ideal network plan for
the recruitment process. The screening process is quite layered. Strategic planning is
taken into consideration for the recruitment of capable employees.
Training and Development: The training and development process initialises with a
just assessment of the job that is to be done which is followed by the external training
assignments. With the end of the training process the developmental process begins at
Amazon. While on the job it is observed that the skills and processes learnt during the
training process is being applied by the trainee.
Employee relations: An equal and unbiased workplace is mandatory for a healthy and
successful working organisation. A transparent relation between the higher and lower
sections of the team is present. Amazon emphasises on positive work ethics and
coordination all over the chain of employees.
Promotion and performance management: The developmental process of an
employee is necessary for their growth. Healthy competition and participation is
appreciated as it is required for a growing workplace (Fagerström et al., 2014).
Legal compliance: An updated legal ground is necessary for the benefits of the
employee. Pay equity, human rights, insurance, labour relations and other parameters
are taken into consideration.
5

P2: Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment
and selection.
Generally an organisation follows the most appreciated process of recruitment which is
the internal and external recruitment process. This process has its own pros and cons.
The internal and external recruitment process is adapted by Amazon itself.
Internal recruitment process: Internal recruitment process means induction of
candidates from within the employment field of the company.
Pros and cons of internal recruitment process:
Advantages:
 Better growth and prospect for the existing employees.
 More effort on business plans because of less work on training and development
processes.
 Better work efficiency.
Disadvantages:
 As the recruitment is within the system diversity is compromised.
 Long term work reduces the zeal to prove oneself.
 Internal recruitment minimizes introduction of fresh ideas by employees.
External recruitment process: External recruitment process means induction of
candidates outside the company workspace.
Advantages:
 External recruitment provides a diverse range of ideas.
 External recruitment initiates management policy updates.
 It also helps the organization to promote itself.
6

Disadvantages:
 External hiring is more time consuming as the human resource team needs to
work on training new recruits.
 Moral degradation of current employees because new recruits diminish their
chances of promotion.
 Increase in the number of employees directly or indirectly affects the funds.
7

LO2: Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of HRM in an organization
P3: Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of
your chosen organization.
In the making of the entire business this business organisation includes a large number
of human resources from the different parts of the world. It is very important to maintain
the comfortable work flow of employee’s performance in each section of the HRM while
co-ordinating with various other sections of the particular business organisation
(Brewster, 2017). The basic key factors which help the organisation to built a strong
management process, in the each section. Management function basically depends
upon the factor of good communication that requires keen observation power and
understanding of the organisational teams. Whenever the organisation practices all this
factors that organization is close to achieve their goal. There are some other factors
which are mentioned below:
In the theory of motivation, it is clearly mentioned that employees can actually make
their work better and improve their performance by hard work and out of good
motivations (Collins and Smith, 2014). The brand Amazon is known for; the reason after
this is it is one of those organisations which motivate its employees to overcome their
underdevelopment and solve the other difficulties they have in their skills. Amazon has
been following this particular motivational thing since the starting of the organization,
this is why for now it is easier for them to achieve their business goals.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This theory caters both the business organisation requirements and at the same time it
even looks after the fact of fulfil the employee needs as well. The theory of Maslow is
actually depends on five factors.
 Physiological needs: Individual needs like food, water, shelter.
 Safety needs: The security and protection in different situation.
8

 Love and Belongingness need: Make people secure with their family, friends
with trust.
 Esteem needs: The character of individual like self-respect, recognition and
status.
 Self-Actualization needs: This involves the realisation in aspects of individual
difficulties (Combs et al., 2016).
P4: Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation
in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity.
Usually there is certain standard goal of any organisation the HRM needs to meet that
and he/she should look after the popularity of the organisation at the same time. The
initial stage of an organisation is very sensitive; this is why it is important for the HR to
identify the objectives and elements of development in the segment of productivity and
margin (Fernandez et al, 2014).
Like the way Amazon have high demand across the entire world. The major reason for
this kind of popularity is the advanced team of the HRM. To reach the major goals of
any business organisation one need to look after the demands and satisfaction of the
employees from each aspects. In the order, maintain a good work environment the
HRM of every organisation needs to be unbiased, because at times it becomes major
reason of the employee efficiency (Law et al., 2015).
Each business organisation serves the customers; this is why customer satisfaction is a
big thing taken by the HRM. While running any business customer may face various
kinds of problems. Back up strategies should always be there to help the customers.
Amazon was always a tough competition towards the other companies, in case of the
management of the customers. The effectiveness of any HRM will be seen with the high
demands of the products among the Mass.
There is a major relationship between HRM practices and the organisational
performance in an organisation. It develops the organisational effectiveness (Loi et al.,
2016). Effectiveness of a business organisation will increase when the communication
and co-ordination is clear among the employee, employers and consumers. Amazon
9

always kept a particular track on a particular point; this is why it is easier to them to
reach the business goal for them.
10

LO3: Analyse internal and external factors that affect HRM decision making,
including employment legislation
P6: Analyse the importance of employee relations in your chosen organisation in
respect to influencing HRM decision-making.
On the verge to achieve the organisational success, it is very important to maintain the
employee relation in the organization. The strong employee relation is a requirement for
high productivity and human satisfaction. Employee relation is based on various factors
such as avoiding and resolving the issues which indicates the work scenario of the
individual (MacDuffie, 2016). Effective employee relations depends on various things
such as safe and healthy environment for work, for the sake of the motivation incentives
are there and clear communication in an obvious sense. Amazon as a brand maintains
healthy employee relations for high productivity and it even makes an effect on the
sales figure of this particular business organisation.
There are different type of factors in which good employee relation depends on the feel
good factor of the employees for the particular organisation they are working for.
Though the organisation tries its best to keep the relation good and healthy with their
employees, still there are some cases of bad employee relation (Paré and Tremblay,
2017).
Some of the reasons for that are described below:
 Whenever, the employee is not behaving in the particular way, which he/she was
suppose to do that is named as employee indiscipline. Certain change in the
behaviour of the employees, grievances and slow performance are the forms of
the employee indiscipline.
 The management is supposed to give the employees safe work environment,
proper incentives, appraisals and motivation. Whenever the management is
failed to do all this, it is named as employee grievance (Roehling et al., 2017).
 Sometimes the employee himself fails to meet the personal goal and
organizational target, and then it is termed as employee stress.
11

P6: Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon
HRM decision making in your chosen organisation.
The interest of the employee in their work is the key factor for the improvement of the
business organisation. Amazon makes their employees work in the particular section
where they want to work. The government of UK has set a particular standard bar for
the countries different organisation to make the work happen in an effective manner
(Schuler and Jackson, 2014). This is why they gave a set of rules and regulation for the
organisations. The interest of the employees are protected by certain rules and policies,
they are discussed below in a brief:
 Healthy and safety Act, 1974: The act of the UK government talks about the
health and safety responsibilities of a particular organisation. The HR manager is
takes care of it. In case if the employee face any kind of sudden accident while
performing the duty in the organisation, then HR is the person who is suppose to
look after that (Terpstra and Rozell, 2017).
 Human Rights Act, 1998: As opined by this act every employee should have the
equal kind of rights to express their view point, opinion and thought in a particular
situation. It actually keeps the employee dedicated and attentive towards the
organisation.
 Sex Discrimination Act, 1975: This particular act talks about the gender
discrimination. According to this act the company can’t discriminate any gender
in particular; they have to treat both the male and female employee in an equal
way. All the employees should utilize all the policies of the organisation without
any discrimination.
 Equality Act, 2010: According to this act every employee of a particular
organisation should not be treated in the point of gender, caste, culture or
anything else. All of them should get the proper kind of work benefits,
opportunities in the equal manner, as per as every employee is equally valuable
in an organisation (Wayne et al., 2017).
12

LO4: Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context.
P7: Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using
specific examples from your chosen organisation.
The Human Resource department of Amazon U.K deals with the functions and activities
related to the employment section. This department deals with the implementation and
execution of policies which are in relation to the employees. Recruitment and training of
fresh candidates is also controlled by the department of Human Resource. The Human
Resource department handles the salary, incentive and compensations of the
employees. It is also the job of the Human Resource team to maintain the ambiance of
the workplace.
13

14
Curriculum Vitae
Jason Hardy
London
[e-mail] – 0737847585
Objectives:
I am at present 24 years old. I am ambitious and adaptable. I am swift and i have an
urge to learn and participate. I look forward to be a part of your organization.
Educational qualification:
Graduation: Regent High School (2010)
Diploma- Central Saint Martin’s (2013)
Skills:
 Data analysis
 English proficiency(advanced)
 Basic knowledge of computer
Work Experience:
 Sales executive at Pfizer (2014-2017).
Hobbies:
 Reading
 Painting
Curriculum vitae
Rebecca Cobs
[e-mail]-7875488958
Edinburgh

Conclusion:
The strong employee relation is a requirement for high productivity and human
satisfaction. Employee relation is based on various factors such as avoiding and
resolving the issues which indicates the work scenario of the individual. There is a major
relationship between HRM practices and the organisational performance in an
organisation. It develops the organisational effectiveness. Effectiveness of a business
organisation will increase when the communication and co-ordination is clear among the
employee, employers and consumers. The Human Resource Department looks forward
to the wellness and betterment of the employees and they are also responsible for the
recruitment of fresh candidates. It is quite necessary for an organisation to perform
flawlessly and to do so there should be perfect balance in the workplace; a transparent
workplace with a clear network among the employees is the key to a successful
organisation.
15

Reference:
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015.
Employee engagement, HRM practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-
35.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate
strategy. In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35).
Routledge.
Buller, P.F. and McEvoy, G.M., 2012. Strategy, HRM and performance: Sharpening line
of sight. HRM review, 22(1), pp.43-56.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Collins, C.J. and Smith, K.G., 2016. Knowledge exchange and combination: The role of
human resource practices in the performance of high-technology firms. Academy of
management journal, 49(3), pp.544-560.
Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A. and Ketchen, D., 2017. How much do high‐performance
work practices matter? A meta‐analysis of their effects on organizational
performance. Personnel psychology, 59(3), pp.501-528.
Fagerström, L., Lønning, K. and Andersen, M.H., 2014. The RAFAELA system: a
workforce planning tool for nurse staffing and human resource management. Nursing
Management (2014+), 21(2), p.30.
Fernandez, S., COMMENTATORS, H.G.R., CONNOR, P.E., THOMPSON, F., MIHM,
J.C. and TSCHIRHART, M., 2014. Managing successful organizational change in the
public sector. In Debating Public Administration (pp. 33-52). Routledge.
Knies, E., Boselie, P., Gould-Williams, J. and Vandenabeele, W., 2015. Special issue of
International Journal of HRM: Strategic HRM and public sector performance.
16

Law, K.S., Wong, C.S., Wang, D. and Wang, L., 2015. Effect of supervisor–subordinate
guanxi on supervisory decisions in China: An empirical investigation. International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(4), pp.751-765.
Loi, R., Hang‐Yue, N. and Foley, S., 2016. Linking employees' justice perceptions to
organizational commitment and intention to leave: The mediating role of perceived
organizational support. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 79(1),
pp.101-120.
MacDuffie, J.P., 2016. Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance:
Organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry. ILR
Review, 48(2), pp.197-221.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Paré, G. and Tremblay, M., 2017. The influence of high-involvement human resources
practices, procedural justice, organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviors on
information technology professionals' turnover intentions. Group & Organization
Management, 32(3), pp.326-357.
Roehling, M.V., Cavanaugh, M.A., Moynihan, L.M. and Boswell, W.R., 2017. The nature
of the new employment relationship: A content analysis of the practitioner and academic
literatures. Human Resource Management, 39(4), pp.305-320.
Schuler, R. and E. Jackson, S., 2014. HRM and organizational effectiveness: yesterday
and today. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 1(1),
pp.35-55.
Schuler, R.S. and Jackson, S.E., 2014. Linking competitive strategies with human
resource management practices. The Academy of Management Executive (1987-1989),
pp.207-219.
Tarique, I., Briscoe, D.R. and Schuler, R.S., 2015. International HRM: Policies and
practices for multinational enterprises.
17

Terpstra, D.E. and Rozell, E.J., 2017. The relationship of staffing practices to
organizational level measures of performance. Personnel psychology, 46(1), pp.27-48.
Wayne, S.J., Shore, L.M. and Liden, R.C., 2017. Perceived organizational support and
leader-member exchange: A social exchange perspective. Academy of Management
journal, 40(1), pp.82-111.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
18