Benefits and Drawbacks of HRM Practices for Productivity and Profits

This article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of HRM practices such as training and development, performance management, and succession planning in relation to productivity and profits. It explores how these practices impact both the employer and employees, and provides insights into their effectiveness.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Examining the main functions and function and purpose of HRM...................................3
P2 Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment and selection......5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Explaining the benefits and drawbacks of of HRM practices in relation to both the
employer and employees........................................................................................................7
P4 Evaluating effectiveness of HRM practices in relation with productivity and profits......8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P5 Examining the importance of employee relation and their impacts on HRM decision-
making..................................................................................................................................10
P6 Determining key elements of employee legislation........................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
P7 Application of HRM practices in organisation...............................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource are the backbone of every organisation and key to success of all the
operations of an entity. Human resource management (HRM) is a process of managing existing
staff and bringing new talents in company according to the needs and requirements of it. HRM is
a very crucial practice which is performed by the HR managers or HR department of the
organisation. This assignment is based on the HRM and different practices which are undertaken
by the HR managers of company. Recruitment and selection are among the most essential
activities of HRM, their strengths and weaknesses are discussed in the report. Moreover, several
HRM practices are explained along with their benefits and drawbacks to seek thorough
understanding (Noe and et. al., 2017). Employee relation is another concept which is highlighted
along with its importance. In this report, TESCO is chosen organisation, which is a British
multinational retail store. TESCO was established in 1919 by Jack Cohen and headquartered in
England, UK. The company has its presence all over world and serves at global level to different
customers belonging to varied society.
TASK 1
P1 Examining the main functions and function and purpose of HRM
Workforce Planning is a process of analysing, forecasting and planning the employee
base of the company according to the needs and demand. This action is undertaken for seeking
knowledge and ensuring that right people are place in entity at the right place and in right time.
The HR managers make plans to acquire the best talent with appropriate skill set for fulfilling
strategic aims and objectives of the organisation.
Functions of Workforce planning:
 Analyse the future demands- The first function which HR manager of TESCO perform
in relation with their workforce is analyse the future needs of the company. The need for
this step arises when positions becomes available in company (Shen and Benson, 2016).
There are several reasons due to which position gets vacant but main reason which exist
in TESCO is the job opportunity it creates for the locals by opening new stores. Main
benefit of this stage is management seek knowledge and enables to acquire staff at right
time with appropriate set of skills. The employers get the knowledge about their
workforce through this stage which help them to bring new people in company at right

place and in right time. Also, employees get the benefit of promotions if the company
plans to internally recruit staff for the prescribed job.
 Analyse current workforce- This stage is where the HR managers will gain
understanding of the existing staff for knowing their behaviour, motivation level and
factors. This enables managers to motivate employees in an effective manner and making
them in accordance with the organisation. The main benefit of this function is manager
get to know the need of providing training to staff in order to update their skills and
knowledge, also, it develops better abilities of employees (Mondy and Martocchio,
2016). The employees gets the chance to learn new things and develop better and updated
skill set which are going to stay with them for longer duration.
 Close the gap- This phase helps TESCO managers to determine the gaps between the
demand and supply of workforce. It also, defines and analyse top priority gaps which has
huge impacts on the operation of TESCO and fill those gaps by suitable workforce
interventions. The benefit of this phase is it enables managers and organisation meet their
strategic objectives and goals. The employees also gets to meet new people, learn about
new ways of performing tasks and gets better opportunities of conducting new duties
having new roles.
 Evaluate, monitor and revise- This is an essential function which HR managers of
TESCO will perform after conducting thorough analysis of demand and supply of
workforce and filling all gaps now, it is mandatory for them to monitor all changes they
have made. This is done for gaining knowledge about the effectiveness of solutions
implemented and take corrective measures accordingly if required. The employer got to
know where their new strategic plans lacks and the employees are being properly
supervised and have proper guidance at each level and enhancing their skills.
Purpose of HR functions
 Orientation and induction- The main purpose of HR functions is to provide new comers
with all information about the company and their position in organisation for providing
them clarity of their job roles and expectations of employers (Voegtlin and Greenwood,
2016).

 Employee relations- Another purpose of HR function and HRM is to enables employer
to build and maintain effective and healthy atmosphere in company along with good
relations with staff.
P2 Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment and selection
Recruitment is a technique of creating a pool of skilled candidates in accordance with
the demand of the company for filling and closing gaps. Recruitment is a positive process which
is use by HR managers of company and involves several activities. Recruitment is classified in
two broad categories internal and external recruitment. These two methods are used by
managers to fill the vacant position with experts. TESCO, managers uses both techniques for
recruiting staff.
Internal recruitment method is undertaken by managers when they plan and consider
their internal talents to fill the vacant post. Instead of opening the position to the public and
attracting third parties, company's managers seeks to fill it by existing staff through promotions
or transfers.
Strengths of Internal recruitment:
Internal recruitment process is easy to conduct as managers know their employees, their
skill set and behaviours towards the company. Also, very less efforts and money is used which
reduces costs as employees do not need to be trained (Cascio, 2015). Moreover, internal
recruiting works in positive manner for increasing the morals of staff and motivating them for
working with their full potentials.
Weaknesses of Internal recruitment
This process is beneficial for TESCO but, it also possesses some drawbacks such as,
through internally recruiting workforce, a rigid and inflexible environment gets developed in
company. The flow of fresh ideas, talents and perspectives stops and company lacks in it along
with it, sometimes internal recruiting personnels creates jealously in mind of other staff members
which harm their performances and ultimately TESCO'S operations.
External recruitment technique refers to the bringing employees in company from the
external environment. It is an evaluation of pool of candidates other than existing employees for
filling vacant position and bringing fresh talents in the organisation (Baum, 2015).
Strengths of External recruitment

This method of recruiting staff is effective allowing fresh ideas and skilled staff to travel
towards the entity, bringing more effectiveness in the operations. This is an effective way of
recruiting staff in which managers seek third parties, who are potential and skilled enough to
work in their organisation effectively. Also, the comapny's growth is ensured as better ideas of
performing tasks are introduced and used by personnels having updated set of expertise. The
staff which is recruited from outside are new and bring better competition with them. The
existing staff now willingly learns new things and performs more effectively to prove themselves
and their abilities.
Weaknesses of External recruitment
External recruitment process is very complicated, involves lots of stages which makes it
more costly and time consuming. Moreover, it is an uncertain process as the effectiveness of
employees is not sure and can be harmful for the company. In this pool of candidates, they
belong to varied industries and screening and sorting those is very difficult and hectic job.
Selection process is performed once recruitment is over, it is a negative process as the
managers have to reject and ask applicants to leave from the pool created by recruiters. Selection
process is takes place once recruiters finish sorting and screening potential candidates. It is
basically a process of choosing or picking the right people for the company. In TESCO, HR
managers uses interviews and ability tests for selecting staff (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst,
2016).
Interviews is the tool in which there are two parties, interviewer and applicants. The
interviewers ask them few questions which are related to the job role they have applied. This is
an effective process as both the parties are facing each other reducing the chance of lies and
serving any fake information. Interviews are better than seeking information from mailed
questions as it enables interviewer to have thorough understandings about the candidate and their
personality. But, the time duration of an interview is small in which it is very difficult to seek
appropriate knowledge about the applicant and their abilities. Also, interviews have some
specific questions according to the duration of it and which is a barriers to the effectiveness of
this process.
Ability test is also known as aptitude test which is conducted by the employers while
selecting staff. This test covers different segments related to work and question in relation to
them for assessing individuals performance in various fields. Most ability tests are conducted

through computers which makes them cost effective and easy to conduct. But sometimes, an
individual have some psychological barriers which can affect them negatively while they are
giving their tests this is known as test anxiety. Also, aptitude tests does not always results in that
the applicant will perform best and be most effective.
TASK 2
P3 Explaining the benefits and drawbacks of of HRM practices in relation to both the employer
and employees
Training and Development is one practice which HR managers of TESCO performs in
order to provide full knowledge to new appointees about the nature and operations of company.
Development programs are provided mainly to existing staff for updating their skills and
knowledge.
Employer- For TESCO, it is beneficial as the new skills which are developed by the
workforce will be practised by them in company for gaining expertise over them and that will
automatically enhance the operations of TESCO (Deery and Jago, 2015).
Employees- The personnels develops new skill set which stays with them for longer
durations and they use them to gain better positions in their professional life by practising them
in future.
Performance Management is an effective tool used by HR managers of TESCO for
measuring job performances of employees and maintaining the productivity of the workforce.
This is continuous process of appraising staff and establishing new aims for them in order to
accomplish them appropriately.
Employer- The HR managers can develop better understanding about the skills of staff
and enables them to maintain better relations with personnels.
Employees- Sometime through this function it help employees to discover new talents
and practice them for increasing personal productivity (Albrecht and et. al., 2015).
Reward system is another function which managers act on, once they acknowledge the
performance level of employees now, they reward them in accordance to it. Rewarding
employees for their actions and performances will motivate them and helps in decresing
employee turnover ratio of company.

Employer- The benefit of reward system for TESCO is that employees get motivated and
encouraged to work effectively, which enables entity to make appropriate use of human resource
present in the company and making them work potentially.
Employees- The rewards and compensations which workforce gets, makes them
enthusiastic and provide job satisfaction.
Succession Planning is broader HR planning practice which is undertaken by the
managers and includes steps like identifying, developing and retaining capable staff within
entity.
Employer- TESCO management gets to know their most potential staff and retaining
them enables entity to work effectively and make use of the expertise of skilled workforces for
attaining competitive advantage.
Employees- The managers will perform actions to retain most effective workers and
skilled employees and to do so they will generate better opportunity for them to be motivated and
stick to company. The benefits attached to these actions of managers are huge and enables
personnels to be work more appropriately.
P4 Evaluating effectiveness of HRM practices in relation with productivity and profits
Training and Development
Benefits
Training and development programs generated for the workforce are beneficial in order
to increase the productivity and profits of TESCO as the employees develops new expertise in
which they practice in company enhancing the productivity of operations. Moreover, the training
to new labour force will give them clarity of task which helps to make utmost use of resources
and increasing profits by reducing costs. Also, training staff updates their knowledge and skills
which enables them to perform their tasks in more effective manner and increasing the
performance level, reduces training time and increase the consistency in the company.
Drawbacks
The drawbacks of training and development is this activity involves huge costs and their
effectiveness is uncertain. This sometimes leads to waste of finances and affects the profitability
of business. Moreover, once employees develops new skills they seek better opportunities and if
they do not get those, employees leave the organisation for better jobs.
Performance Management

Benefits
The performance management function of HR managers provides job satisfaction to
employees and motivates them in order to work with their full potential which enhances their
productivity and ultimately helps in increasing the profits of TESCO (John and Taylor, 2016).
One more benefit of performance management is it enables managers to identify under-
performances and eliminate them by guiding staff and supervising.
Drawbacks
Negative impact this practice have over the company is managers sometimes rather than
encouraging staff discourages them which affects their performance in negative manner. This
demotivation created results in jealousy and unhealthy environment which influences the
productivity of the entity. Also, performance management practice is time consuming and
include more money which is a negative aspect of it as this resources can be used in better
profitable areas.
Reward system
Benefits
This system increases competition which makes workforce to work and explore more
abilities and provides higher level of performance and ultimately profits. Rewarding employees
will motivate them provide them job satisfaction and enables entity to retain them for long time
period.
Drawbacks
Reward system has a limitation as it creates overconfidence in staff and discourages
others which is not helpful even it brings lack of attention in attitude of workforce and affects the
productivity of the operations. This system is very complicated and includes huge planning and
execution strategies which makes it complicated. Also, it is time consuming and costly,
rewarding employees and giving them gifts involves more cost.
Succession Planning
Benefits
This function assist managers with specific steps to undertake for retaining personnels,
which results in less frequent recruiting and selection activities and saves money. Also, the staff
have thorough understanding about the operations of TESCO and perform them with utmost
effectiveness, resulted in increasing the profits of company and enhancing productivity of tasks.

This practice helps manager to improve their decision-making and make more effective decisions
rapidly.
Drawbacks
Retaining staff is always beneficial for the organisation but if they stop recruiting new
individuals, fresh talents and new ideas also stops. The company works with same old methods
and old personnels which are no longer appropriate and efficient enough for the entity. People
will work with old ineffective techniques and company will operate inefficiently. Regular
changes in succession strategies and makes difference in structure affecting and ultimately
affecting the productivity.
TASK 3
P5 Examining the importance of employee relation and their impacts on HRM decision-making
 Flexible organisation- This HRM practise refers to adapting to change and responding in
relative manner to gain competitive advantage, sustain in marketplace and build good
relationships with staff. Through adopting this style, HR managers of TESCO will
provide trainings to staff for updating their knowledge which increase their interactions
and assist in developing good relations. Sometimes the knowledge which is gained by
employees by training an development sessions is more than what they can practice in
their current organisation. Therefore, to fulfil their ambitions they switch company and
move to other where more opportunities are available.
 Flexible working practices- This HR policy provides employees with flexible working
hours and environment. This enables them to perform their tasks according to their ease
and comfort, making them satisfied with their job. In Tesco, HR managers can use this
policy as it will helps in building good relationships between employees and them along
with increasing performance of staff (Stone and Deadrick, 2015). This style of working
when practices too much makes employees lethargic and this leads to their inefficiency
and rigid behaviours.
 Employer of choice- This policy is states that the employer is providing best culture and
working environment to their personnels which enables them to communicate with one
another effectively and with open mind. This policy will help in maintaining employer
relations as both the parties understand each other, communicate all issues which

enhances the level of performance and motivation of workforce. Due to this function and
providing best flexible culture and atmosphere to employees no boundaries are left and
this is very harmful for the organisation.
 Psychological Contract- These are the set of promises and expectations which are given
or offered by the employers to their employees. These set of promises enables TESCO
managers to attract new candidates and retain existing staff effectively along with
keeping them happy and satisfied. The leaders sometimes to motivate staff make huge
promises and then never fulfil them this impacts the personnel negatively and affecting
their morals and attitude towards the entity.
P6 Determining key elements of employee legislation
 Equality and Diversity Act 2010- The Act develops and provides the legal framework
to managers which are developed for protecting the rights of individuals and rendering
them with equal opportunities. For this, HR managers of TESCO develop new plans and
strategies to treat their each and every employee in fair and equal manner and provide
equal opportunities to their employees.
 Health and Safety Act 1974- According to this act, it is the duty of company and
managers to provide healthy and appropriate working conditions to employees especially
considered in hazardous factories such as mines, oil and gases etc. It also cover other
people who visit the organisation on temporary basis and this act provide the framework
which is developed by government regarding the issue of health and safety. For this,
TESCO take major decisions like make modifications in its working condition practices
such as changes in current policies and provide compensation as if any employee get
injured at workplace and also guide their employers for providing healthy working
conditions to workforce.
 National Minimum wage rate UK- This legislation highlights the minimum wage rates
and salary standards which are necessary for employers to offer their workforces in order
to sustain and fulfil their basic needs. For this, HR manager of TESCO set a standard of
wage rate for their employees which also matches with the norms of government and also
set pay roles of employees according to their job roles and skill set (Jabbour and de Sousa
Jabbour, 2016).

 GDPR 2018- This act was agreed by EU government in 2016, replacing Data protection
directives. This act is mandatory and apply to each member state of EU in which they
have given more consistent and strict guidelines for protecting the personal data of
employees and customers. The HR manager of TESCO develop appropriate steps and
provide data protection software to protect the data of their employees and because of
this, personal details of employees does not leak to anybody and can not publish it
without taking permission and their consent. HRM staff have to ask the personnels before
serving their personal data to others.
 Sex discrimination act- This act highlights the rules and regulations for removing
gender discrimination practices from company. The job roles which are being offered by
the management to people should based on their expertise and not on their gender from
which it belongs. Managers of TESCO, will develop suitable policies and plans which
helps in eliminating the discrimination and also recruitment those candidates who does
not believe in discrimination. They also provide guidance of their employees regarding
the policies and norms of discrimination act as when manager is not present then
employee would take stand against any misconduct.
TASK 4
P7 Application of HRM practices in organisation
JOB SPECIFICATION
Job Title: Store manager
Reports To: Administrative manager
Job Overview: The individual have to perform various roles for managing store and the
employees working in particular store.
Responsibilities:
 Managing team
 Supervising employees
 Making day to day and future plan of action of the operations of store
 Managing the stock or inventory of the store
Qualifications:

 Bachelors degree in management field
 Team management skills
 Market knowledge
 Strategic planning
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Job Title: Store Manager
Criteria Essential Desired
Skills required  Excellent communication
and presentation skills
 Technology friendly
 Ability to work in difficult
situations
 Experience of work in other
stores
Attainment Degree in management -
Knowledge Required to hold good knowledge
of motivation techniques and
management of staff.
Knowledge of finance and budget
making in case of urgencies
Relevant
experience
At least 2 years of experience in
same field
Experience of working in other
industries
Disposition  Ability to work with team
and managing them
effectively.
 Willing to provide
customer utmost
satisfaction
 Curious and willing to learn
new things and skills
 Develops interest in knowing
staff and their interests for
better management
Preparatory notes for Interview
Interview is a selection process which is undertaken by employers to seek knowledge
about the personality, behaviours and abilities of applicants or interviewees (Hecklau and et. al.,

2016). Before conducting an interview, the employer or interviewing committee of TESCO will
prepare some basic notes for conducting the interview effectively and gaining appropriate
knowledge about the candidates. In these interview notes, some questions are prepared which are
in relation the personal and professional information about the applicant.
Q1. How do you find yourself suitable for this store manger job?
Q2. What are the different motivational strategies managers can use to encourage
subordinates?
Q3. What are different tool of managing inventory and other store supplies?
Q4. How would you handle an angry customer?
Q5. What actions could be taken to manage the variance in the inventory?
Job offer letter
TESCO plc.
21st January 2020
XYZ
Dear, XYZ
We are pleased to inform you that we are offering you employment opportunity in
TESCO plc. We have conducted thorough process for evaluating your skills, knowledge,
backgrounds and personality and feel that you will be a valuable assets to our organisation.
As per discussed, your are being hired for the role or position of our Store manager.
Your joining date will be 1st March 2020. The enclosed employee handbook outlines the
medical and other related benefits which we offer to our employees.
If, you are interested and choose to accept our offer please contact us through dropping
an acceptance mail on our official website. For more information or clearing any queries you
can write us on our mail id which is present on the official website. We are looking forward to
welcome you as a new member of our family and move ahead with us.
Sincerely,
HR Manager

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is summarised that Human Resource Management (HRM) is an
essential function, it is the role of HR managers of company to manage staff and motivating
them effectively and making them work with their full potential. The HR managers of entity
performs various function to fulfil the staffing needs and bringing best talents. Recruitment and
selection are the most critical processes of HRM which are conducted for attracting fresh talents.
HRM practices also, plays vital role in building effective employee relations as they are very
important for both the employees and employers. The HRM decision-making is affected by and
made in accordance with the employee legislations as they are imposed and monitored by
authorised body.

REFERENCES
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