Human Resource Management Practices in Marks & Spencer

Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................7
LO3................................................................................................................................................12
LO4................................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................22
Reference.......................................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
This assignment is based on the discussion on the human resource practices of a business
organization (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Human resource practice is very common practice in a
business organization. There are some major roles and responsibilities of HR manager in a
business organization. To keep communication with all the employees and to keep relation
between the management and the workforce are two major tasks of Human resource
management. Recruitment and selection is also one more role of the HR manager. The example
of Marks & Spencer has been taken here to explain the subject. It has been highlighted how the
human resource manager performs all the HR activities through various models and theories of
human resource practice.
Company overview
Marks & Spencer is a British multinational retail company headquartered in London. The
company mainly deals with mainly the clothing, home products and the luxury food products
respectively. The company was formed in the year 1884. The name of the CEO of the company
is Steve Rowe. The company works in the international market. In the year, 2017, the net income
of the company was £115.7 million. The total number of employees is about 85000. Marks &
Spencer has about 300 stores in 40 locations in the international market. The company has 979
stores only in the United Kingdom out of which 615 stores sell only food products.
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LO1
Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resources in your chosen organization. [P1]
There are various purposes and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and
resources in an organization. The purposes and functions of HRM in Marks & Spencer are the
following:
Purposes of HRM
Human Resource Management plays a vital role in keeping a relation between the management
and a workforce. As the number of employees is few in a small company, there is a direct
interaction between the management and workforce. In a large organization, there are a number
of departments in the organization and hence, a human resource management is required to
interact between the management and the workforce. Human resource management keeps link
between the two and protects the rights of the employees in the company. The key purposes are
the following:
Internal customer management: The productivity of Marks & Spencer depends on the
performance of the internal employees of the company. Apart from this, the HR Manager of
Marks & Spencer attracts skillful employees from the outside market. The HR manager looks
after the salaries of the company, benefits of the company to motivate the employees. There is a
link between the customer service of the company and the HR management (Camgöz-Akdağ et
al., 2016).
Laws: In a business organization like Marks & Spencer, there are numerous laws related to the
company. The laws are related to the recruitment and selection of new employees, termination of
the employees, employment laws, retirement benefits, equal opportunity laws, workplace safety
and security and many others (Boston and O'Grady, 2015).
Metrics: The employees of all levels are communicated by the human resource manager in the
Marks & Spencer. Human resource manager, through using matrics methods analyzes cost and
creates more efficiency at all the departments of the company (Xiao et al., 2014).
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Cultural awareness: The cultural awareness is created and maintained in Marks & Spencer by
the Human resource manager. Different types of employees are hired in by the HR manager in
Marks and Spencer and thus, there is a combination of different cultures in the organization (Bird
et al., 2016).
Functions of Human Resource Department
The basic functions performed by the HR manager of Marks & Spencer are the following:
Recruitment and selection: Recruitment and selection is one of the basic functions of the HR
department of any type of organization. Marks & Spencer, through internal and external
recruitment processes, employ skillful and competent candidates in the company and thus,
increases the productivity of the company (Cascio, 2018 ).
Orientation: The HR manager of Marks & Spencer arranges oriental programs for the new
employees to make them aware of the rules and regulations of the company and thus, he helps
the new employees to achieve long-term organizational goals. This job orientation helps the new
employees to understand his new roles and responsibilities in the new environment (Choi and
Yoon, 2015).
To maintain good working conditions: Being a renowned company in the international market,
the HR manager in Marks & Spencer maintains a good working condition in the company to
motivate employees for their greater productivity. The HR manager provides a lot of financial
and non-financial benefits to the employees. Besides this, the HR manager provides employee
welfare for job satisfaction (Jain and Kaur, 2014).
Employee relation: Employee relation is a vital component for the productivity of the
organization. The HR manager in Marks & Spencer, has maintained a good employee relation
and thus, maintained a healthy working atmosphere in the company (Guest, 2017). Through a
good relationship, the employees have been motivated to create a better productivity in the
company.
Training and development: Training is an essential part in an organization both for existing and
new employees. Marks & Spencer has provided necessary training to both the existing and new
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employees to make them aware of the products, services and policies of the company. Through
frequent training, the culture of the organization has been enriched (Pollock et al., 2015).
The manager of human resource management of Marks & Spencer optimizes the organizational
resources. The main thing done by the HR manager is that he motivates all the employees to
perform their work. According to the hard model of HRM, the organizational resource is used
for gaining the business growth whereas according to the soft model, the organizational
resources are used for gaining the organizational assets.
Using examples from your chosen organization, explain the strengths and weaknesses of
different approaches to recruitment and selection. [P2]
Recruitment is the process of recruiting and hiring new candidates. The process of recruitment is
the initial step in the organization (Board, 2017). It focuses on the training and development of
the employees. It is the process of identifying the appropriate candidate and thereby recruiting it.
In case of the recruitment, the organization focuses on the background of the candidate and to
which designation candidate is appropriate. Cost effective measures are to be provided in the
recruitment of the candidates. The process of recruitment includes screening of the candidates,
selection of the appropriate candidates. Thereby the hiring of the candidates is undertaken.
Training of the candidates is done by the recruitment department, which helps the candidates to
familiarize with the working environment.
Selection is the step after recruitment. Once the candidates are provided the training they are, go
through a test whereby the candidates are shortlisted. In this phase, candidates selected are
selected for the designated post in the organization. Screening of the candidates is important
which helps in bringing out the best from the candidates. Once the candidates are selected, the
emoluments of the candidates are discussed and are provided thereby (Stariņeca, 2015).
Selection and the Recruitment process are important aspects for any organization. Marks and
Spencer is a global company whose recruitment and selection procedures are prolific in nature.
The recruitment and the selection division is entitled with the responsibility to provide the beast
candidates for the organization. The functioning of the organization depends on the efficiency of
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