Strategic Human Resource Management Assignment

This assignment focuses on strategic human resource management, specifically addressing workforce planning gaps. Students will analyze a provided article and create a report outlining challenges and solutions for closing these gaps. The assignment also includes a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the findings.

Human resource
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Environmental Scanning.............................................................................................................3
Labour demand forecasting.........................................................................................................6
Labour supply analysis................................................................................................................7
Evaluate areas which help in succession of business..................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is refers to plan of action which is required for appropriate
management of staff in an organisation. By which they able to get effective competitive
advancement (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Department of HR is responsible of various

functions such as employees hiring, training, staff engagement, performance appraisal, rewarding
and many more. Organisation taken for this assignment is Marks and Spencer which is founded
by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in year 1884. Its headquarter is in Westminster, London,
UK and it is a British retail company which operating their business worldwide. Topics covered
in this assignments are systematic procedures of human resource planning and evaluation of
areas which are required for successful execution of HRP.
MAIN BODY
Environmental Scanning
For the scanning of environment in effective and appropriate manner Marks and Spencer
conduct SWOT and PESTEL analysis. Through SWOT analysis they able to evaluate their inner
factors or environment of organisation and for outside environment scanning they conduct
PESTEL analysis.
SWOT analysis:- It refers to the technique through which an organisation able to
identify their strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. By identifying these factors they able
to plan strategies in effective manner through which they can overcome their weakness, able to
grab opportunities and make plans which help in dealing with threats. SWOT analysis conduct
by Marks and Spencer is describe below:-
Strength- It refers to the factors or characteristics of an organisation in which they are best and
get competitive advancement in proper manner (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Strength of respective
company are give- High brand recognition: The brand image and name of Marks and Spencer is highly
recognised and know by peoples worldwide. Product quality and trendy design of Marks
and Spencer is highly liked by their customers.
 Private labels: Marks and Spencer has their own private labels in all categories such as
Per Una, North Coast, Indigo Collection, Autograph and so on. By these private brands
respective company effectively able to make customers familiar with Marks and Spencer
and it also enhance brand recall.
Weakness- This refers to the areas of factors on which an organisation need to work on for its
improvement (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012). Some of major weakness of respective
company are-

 Supply chain scalability: Marks and Spencer has poor supply chain scalability which
seems as a barriers in delivering products in all location globally. It also affect the
profitability and market shares of respective company.
 Customers Satisfaction:Customers of respective company is satisfied with products
quality and designs but they are not happy with return policies of Marks and Spencer.
Which reduce customers loyalty towards brand and enhance brand switching.
Opportunities- It refers to the factors which help company to enhance their business and market
shares. Company have to make plans accordingly so that they grab opportunities in effective
manner. Opportunities for respective company are-
 New Segment: The Marks and Spencer can develop or launch new segment such as they
can introduce ranges of traditional clothing. Through this they able to attract more and
more customer who prefers respective range.
Threats- These factors are those which come up as a barriers in the growth of an organisation.
Some major threat of Marks and Spencer are-
 Competitors: For respective company the major threats are its competitors which affect
sell of Marks and Spencer. Some of main competitors are Aldi, Asda, centra,Gap and
many others.
PESTEL analysis:- It refers to the tool and technique which is use to evaluate and analysis
micro environmental factors which have major effect on an organization operations and
functions (Buller and McEvoy, 2012). This tool is majorly use when a company want to start a
new business or expanding their business functions. PESTEL analysis of Marks and Spencer is
given below:-
Political- Political factor of Australia is consider as strong nation government which
provide equal opportunities to everyone. The major population of Australia are working class.
Legal framework of respective company is transparent and efficient. By this it can be consider
that political status of Australia is stable which help Marks and Spencer in operating their
business in effective and appropriate manner in respective country.
Economical- Economic condition of Australia is strong and its rich diverse resources
attract high foreign investment (Berman and et.al., 2012). It has a huge services sectors and
major exporter of natural resources, energy and food. The economic condition respective country

help Marks and Spencer in enhancing their profitability ratio in effective manner. It is so
because economic condition is strong and peoples spend money in huge basis.
Social- Australia is consider as one of the best country in world in respect of wealth,
education, health and life style quality. It is consider as multi culture and multiracial country.
The population of respective company get attracted towards new trends and western cloths. So
when Marks and Spencer run their operations in Australia they get major advantage of this
because respective company offers trendy western cloth.
Technical- Australia is consider as country which use most advance technology. They
adopt new technology at very fast rate which enhance economic condition of respective country.
Some of the best Australia's technology achievement are electric drill, bionic ear, Wi-Fi, lawn
movers and so on. So when Marks and Spencer introduce new design or adopt new attractive
technology they able to attract populations of Australia.
Environmental- The respective country is one of beautiful county in world with
mountains, beaches and forests but some time they face major issues related to climate changes.
Due to this situation Marks and Spencer change there products range according to climate
situation. For this they prepare themselves in advance and able to attract customers in effective
manner with their products ranges.
Legal- The respective company has clean trading law, compensation law and consumers
law through which every company able to conduct their business in effective and appropriate
manner (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). By this right of marketer as well as consumers
both get safe. By this Marks and Spencer able to run their business in effective and appropriate
manner.
By conducting PESTEL analysis it can be analysis and evaluate that the Marks and
Spencer able to conduct their business operations in effective and appropriate manner at
Australian marketplace and also able to attract more audience for there products ranges.
Labour demand forecasting
In human resource planning labour demand forecasting is done through qualitative and
quantitative approach. Qualitative approach is based on statistical and mathematical method or
assessments and quantitative approach or forecast is rely on judgement of an individuals such as
identifying need and demand of employees and then build training programmes according to
requirement (Storey, 2014). Labour demand forecasting is similar to forecasting appropriate set

of capital inputs. In other word it means identifying right amount of peoples who have
appropriate skills and ability and can use it at right time. When Marks and Spencer want to
conduct labour demand forecasting they have to consider some questions such as what type of
staff are required to meet demand, number of employees required and many more. It is a
important and necessary part of HR department which help an organisation in achieving goal
and objective in effective and appropriate manner. The respective company can conduct
appropriate and effective labour demand forecasting by using various practices or methods which
are explained below:-
 Time period and timing- Marks and Spencer first identify whether they required labour
for long term or for short term. Short term is consider as time duration from six months to
a year, intermediate also from one year to five year. Whereas long term duration is
consider as five years and more . For the application of long term plan respective
company need to make changes or modification in both internal and external
environment. So for conducting labour demand forecasting Marks and Spencer has to
identify time duration for which they want to recruit labour.
 Qualitative and Quantitative- After deciding the time duration a company need to
identify approach which they use to conduct labour demand forecasting. Qualitative
approach is used for short term decision and quantitative approach is use for long term
decision forecasting (Anderson, 2013). So the respective company has to analysis
requirement and then select appropriate method and strategies according to the
requirement.
Requirement of labour in an organisation is totally based on several; factors such as if a
company want to expand their business in new location, a company going to launch new range of
products so they required labours according to the requirement of production and many other. So
it is the responsibilities of HR manager of Marks and Spencer that they must conduct analysis
and evaluation before selecting method for labour demand forecasting. After analysing both the
methods quantitative and qualitative respective company select appropriate strategies which help
them in enhancing their business and productivity which directly increase profitability of
company. It is so because when respective company hire appropriate employees according to
requirement they able to conduct work appropriate manner and in given time duration. Also

company not need to provide training and development sessions for each and every work. By this
they save time and money in effective manner.
Labour supply analysis
Labour supply analysis refers to the situation which is related to the recruitment process
which is related to the demand and need of an organisation (Purce, 2014). An organisation can
fulfil its requirement of labour by the internal source or by external source. If an organisation is
big like Marks and Spencer they have to conduct appropriate and proper planning for recruiting
employees which help them in achieving goal and objective in effective manner. A company hire
those employees or labour who can work effectively and reduce wastage. Marks and Spencer
conduct their recruitment through inner sources such as promotion, department change and so
on. They can also conduct external recruitment by doing advertising, job fair and many other.
After conducting recruitment process respective company develop rules regarding working hours
and days and quality and quantity of work done by a employees.
For developing rules they may consider as the quality and quantity of work an individual
done in a particular working hours. If a person do effective and best work he/ she can get
advantage of that in various ways such as promotion, monetary benefits and many others. Supply
of impressive labour not always based on healthy bodies, it also need necessary skills. It not
always required inner ability they also need external strength. In Australia there are various laws
and policies related to labour supply that is in respective country minimum working hour for a
person is approx 37 hours a week which is near by 7 hours a day (Nickson, 2013). In Australia
working days are usually from Monday to Friday and if a person working more then working
hours it will count as overtime and they benefits fort it. In respective country it is illegal if a
person is working more than 12 hours a days. Marks and Spencer make various rules and
regulation according to laws and policies of Australia which help them in conducting their
business in effective and smooth manner. Some of the basic rule which is made by respective
company mangers are given below:-
 HR manager fix the working hours and days and if a person work more then that they get
extra pay for it. Such as if a person work more than 8 hours a day he/ she will get extra
pay for it.
 They also make rules regarding extra working day such as a person can only work extra
for three days a week. They didn't work daily on extra basis.

 They also develop rules related to if a person complete their work within the working
hour and there is no other important work in office that person can go before the time. In
this case no salary will deducted.
Evaluate areas which help in succession of business
Peoples: It refers to human beings in general or considered collectively. These are very
important in a successful workforce plan implementation. But this is only possible with having
right peoples as good leaders in organization (Kim, 20123). In mark and Spencer peoples such as
human resources plays an important roles. But apart from that it faces various challenges
regarding the people factor in organization.
Challenges: It refers to the various situations which have to be developed by the respective
organization(Kehoe and Wright, 201). These challenges about peoples are faced by the
Mark&Spencer as follows:
Employees turnover: The organization faces various challenges regarding the peoples in
organization, because with improper workforce plan that factor can't managed properly. So the
employees turnover at higher stage.
conflicts: These are the situations due to those coordination among employees in
organization goes to level zero. Due to improper management and supervision of people factors
these arises at high level which are not beneficial for the organization, because the organization
have not proper leaders.
loss of work: Mark&Spencer have not proper leaders due to that factor proper
supervision and allotment of accountability is not possible. So it faces a lot of loss regarding day
to day working standards.
Suggestion: Following are the various suggestion to improve the challenges in organization:
1. Recruitment of high skilled peoples.
2. Assigning proper accountability according to skills of peoples
3. appointing proper and responsible team leaders.
Process: It refers to a specific sequence of steps which used to implement a specific task
or plan (Bratton and Gold, 2017). It enable implementation by streamlining approaches and
ensuring sufficient effectiveness to secure and keep stakeholder buy in. Mark&Spencer also have
a centralized workforce plan to implement but it faces various challenges as follows:
Challenges: followings are the various challenges which are facing by the organization:

1. it have not proper support.
2. Not defined area to implement plan of workforce.
Suggestion: The followings are the various suggestions which help Mark&Spencer in facing the
challenges:
1. first of all clearly define the area to implement process.
2. Identify issues and conflicts reasons with too.
Technology: It helps in the centralize, standardize and streaming the process of planning.
The every level of business organization use technology such as top performers use HR
information, talent management, and learning management system (Storey, 2014). Same as the
medium level and low level perform also use the technology to complete their allotted task.
Mark&Spencer faces various challenges regarding technological factors.
Challenges: following are the various challenges which are facing by the organization:
1. Don't have proper tools and techniques to adopt new technology.
2. Unable to track accurate needed systems in organization at different levels
Suggestions: Followings are various suggestion which will help the organization in
improvement regarding various challenges:
1. Engaging with new introduced technology everyday.
2. Clearly divide the working system so that proper system can be implemented at every
level.
3. Conduct proper research to tackle with everyday requirements and need in organization.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned point it can be conclude that for a company conduct SWOT
and PESTEL analysis for conducting environmental scanning. By this they able to know about
current position of a company in marketplace and then they make strategies accordingly. During
conducting analysis they able to know the requirement of labour or they can do labour demand
forecasting. To fulfil it they do labour supply analysis in which they recruit employees according

to requirement. Their are some factors such as people, process and technology which help
company in achieving or attaining goal in effective and appropriate manner.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Briscoe, D., Tarique, I. and Schuler, R., 2012. International human resource management:
Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.

Buller, P.F. and McEvoy, G.M., 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance:
Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review. 22(1). pp.43-56.
Berman, E.M., and et.al., 2012. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes,
processes, and problems. Sage.
Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A
review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15(1).
pp.1-14.
Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
Anderson, V., 2013. Research methods in human resource management: investigating a
business issue. Kogan Page Publishers.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Nickson, D., 2013. Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.
Kim, S., 2012. The impact of human resource management on state government IT employee
turnover intentions. Public Personnel Management. 41(2). pp.257-279.
Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices
on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management. 39(2). pp.366-391.