HRM Functions and Employee Relations

The assignment discusses the importance of HRM as the lifeblood of any organization, assisting in recruiting and selecting personnel, managing existing staff, and developing collaboration among employees through training programs. It highlights various aspects and functions of HRM in Morrison's plc, including employee relations and legislation that affect decision-making. A sales manager job description and offer letter are also presented, showcasing a comprehensive analysis of HRM functions and employee relations.

Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Explaining the purpose and function of HRM and their importance in acquiring talent......1
P2. Different approaches of recruitment and selection with strengths and weaknesses.............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3. Explain the benefits of different HRM practices for both employee and employer.............5
P4. Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and
productivity.................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect of influencing HRM decision-making...........8
P6. Key aspects of employee legislation within Morrison’s plc.................................................9
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7. Application of HRM practices in work related context........................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
HRM can be defined as the procedures of managing, recruiting, hiring and offering
training and development of the main asset of company, workforce. HRM enables the proper
safety and welfare and employees well-being which assist the firm in increasing their
productivity and overall growth of business entity. It helps in proper utilization of the skills and
knowledge of workers in order to increase the efficiency of their performance. The present
report will assist in understanding different aspects of Human resource management in
Morrison’s supermarket plc. Morrison’s plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarket lacrosse
UK with 498 stores and workforce of 130000. Report will demonstrate the purpose and function
of HRM in order to acquire the talent in business entity. Assessment of different approach of
HR will be explained with different HR practices. Report will help in analysing different factors
that affect HRM decision making which different legislation as well. Report will include a
recruitment process and the use of technology in improving recruitment and selection process.
TASK 1
P1. Explaining the purpose and function of HRM and their importance in acquiring talent.
Human resource management is an essential practice which includes recruiting, hiring
and managing the organisation's people. It can be said that, human resource is the plays a vital
role in achieving business objective as they are engaged in managing the most essential
resources of company, its employees. Morrison’s supermarket plc is the one of the largest chain
of supermarket in UK. The company has huge workforce of 132000. Thus, it can be said that,
HR department is responsible to manage all the requirement and needs of employees in order to
meet the business objectives efficiently (Human Resources Department Functions , 2019). The
main purpose of human resource management in Morrisons plc is as follows:
 A main purpose of human resource management is to determine the organisational
objectives.
 HRM is responsible to manage and coordinate different organisational department so
that they can function harmoniously.
 They aim to make effective use of the workforce through proper direction.

 To make appropriate decision and policies about human resource planning, recruiting,
rewarding, provide training and improvement.
 It is the foremost essential purpose of HRM to offer and maintain the employee
satisfaction so that they can contribute to the success of Morrison’s plc.
An effective HR department is essential in order to provide organisation a structure in
order to meet the business needs by managing company's workforce (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014). HRM aims to increase the performance of the employee and fulfilling the employees by
hiring the right people with effective skills so that they can contribute to the organisation's
productivity. Following are the main function of HR department is:
Workforce planning:
This planning helps to ensure that the Morrison gets the right people who have effective
skills, knowledge at the right time. Workplace planning is an effective approach which assists
the HR team to determine the present workforce and the needs in the future. Effective planning
is vital in order to achieve the needs of the Morrison’s human capital need.
Recruitment and hiring:
HR department is responsible to recruit the right person for the right job. Recruiting can
be termed as analysing, screening and selecting potential and qualified person as per need and
demand of the particular job. HR has to make planning before starting recruitment and selecting
process.
Professional Development:
HR also ensures the employee with opportunity and growth in their professional career.
In order to achieve this Morrison’s plc arranges various programs, seminars and conference,
trade shows and corporate responsibilities (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). It helps in motivating
employees as they feel they are being valued and taken care buy their organisation.
Compensation and Benefits:
In order to achieve the goals and benefit of the company, HR makes plan to provide the
benefits to the employees in different ways. Some facility includes extended holiday, bonus,
incentives, insurance plans, working hour flexibility etc.

Ensuring legal compliances:
It is the crucial function for HR department to be aware of the laws and policies which
are related to employment, working condition, prevent any kind of discrimination, minimum
wages etc. Compliance with such laws is very much essential for the existence of the company.
HR department is significant in order to acquiring talent of the skilled labour and
employee which will assist in increasing the productivity of the organisation. Importance of
acquiring talent in order to meet the business objective of Morrisons plc is:
 HR helps in finding the best candidates for the job; it includes the candidates selecting
the candidates with full skills, his fit for the future development to cultural fit (Bratton
and Gold, 2017). Thus, it can be said that the HR has acquired the talent not just recruit
him.
 In order to remain competitive in market, it is every essential for the business to have the
right candidate at right place so that he can utilise his full skills which will help to
achieve the business objectives. Acquiring talent skill employee will ensure that he will
complete his work on time. HR plays a significant role in filling the vacant job with
skilled candidates.
 Talent acquisition helps in hiring the candidate’s who have potential, skills and
knowledge which helps them in growing and developing their position within the
organisation. HR screens the candidates to be ensures that they will not just be fix for the
present job but also have potential to take new roles in the future.
P2. Different approaches of recruitment and selection with strengths and weaknesses
Human resource management of Morrison’s plays an essential role in enhancing the
productivity and efficiency of organisation by managing its workforce. There are various
techniques available, through which HR execute the needs and requirement of employees (Jiang
and et. al., 2012). It includes internal and external recruitment approaches which provides a
number of techniques. However, it can be said that all the approaches are not effective as they
lead to some weaknesses as well. The different approaches of HRM with their weaknesses and
strength are as follows:

Recruitment and selection: To fulfil the vacant position, recruitment and selection
technique could be considered as best tool. It provides a number of ways through which
managers of Morrisons can introduce talented workforce in its retail business (Marchington and
et.al., 2016). Recruitment process can be defined as identifying the requirement of the job,
provide information to the interested candidates, screening and choosing candidates, hiring and
integrating the employees to organisation. There are two best approaches for the recruitment of
employees, internal and external:
Internal recruitment:
This method mainly use to hire employees from within the workplace for fulfilment of
vacant position. As Morrisons has expanded its business in various locations in UK
marketplace, where thousands of workers are currently working, therefore, to fulfil any vacant
position at workplace, HR managers can hire workers from one store to another either by
promoting or switching their job position.
Internal recruitment approaches: For hiring workers from internal environment, a
number of approaches can be used, such as promotion, transfer and more. For example-
Managers of Morrison can use Promotion as a method to fulfil the vacant position in other
store, which would help in encouraging other staff to give more contribution for getting high
promotion at workplace. But it may also arise feeling of competition that further leads to impact
on team-development, which is essential to provide best services to customers at stores.
Strength: The main strengthening point of using internal method recruitment is time
effectiveness, because hiring workers from internal environment reduces the documentation
process. Along with this, it also reduce cost and time need for developing skills of workers to
make them able to work in desired way.
Weaknesses: The major drawback factor of internal method is that it fails in offering
fresh talent at workplace. Along with this, giving promotion or switching job position of
workers also lead to vacant the existing position of them, which needs to be fulfilled further.
Hereby, giving promotion to one person may also demoralise the existing ones who have better
potential to hire the same position. In such criteria, managers of Morrison need to adopt some
motivational and leadership techniques to handle conflicts between workers and getting their
retention.

External recruitment:
It is considered as best technique to hire workers from external environment, which
reduces chance of conflicts among existing ones. Hereby, in the assessing the available pool of
candidates, managers of Morrisons can use a number techniques like campus placement, job
portal, online methods and more.
External recruitment approaches: There are various approaches available to introduce potential
candidates at workplace, like advertisement in newspapers and company's website; online
recruitment method and more. For example- HR managers of Morrisons can place Job
advertisement on website of company and job portal to attract eligible candidates. This would
help in accessing a large pool of applicants, so that highly qualified one can be recruited as per
requirement. But it consumes much time, effort and cost where a single mistake can impact in
negative manner on workplace productivity.
Strength: External recruitment assists in finding the candidates who possess new skills and
inputs for the growth of Morrison’s plc. It helps in formulating better employment policies to
attract potential candidates and gain their commitment to retail at workplace for longer period of
time (Lengnick-Hall, Beck and Lengnick-Hall, 2011). It allows the HR team to have larger pool
of workers so that right candidates can be hired as per the required skills.
Weaknesses: The main drawback of hiring candidates from external technique is its time
consuming process, that also increases the cost burden to search candidates from outside. Along
with this, hiring new candidate will take longer time to make them able to work as per
organisational culture.
TASK 2
P3. Explain the benefits of different HRM practices for both employee and employer
Human resource practices can be termed as part of conceptual and implementation of
HR strategy that includes the system of doing business and activity which will have the great
impact on the workforce and the organisation as whole. With the continuous growing in global
competition, it is essential for HR manager in order to change its way to manage the employee
relationship and its function in order to increase the most effective utilization of the human
resource. In Morrison’s plc, its HR manager is using various new practices in order to increase

the superior performance of employees for organisation. Some HR practices of Morrison plc
include:
People are being values: Morrison’s plc gives value to the people whether it’s their
customer or employees. Company has maintained their culture in a way that employees show
their high level of commitment to the organisation. HR of Morrison’s plc makes the business
criteria easy so that employees can work in their most efficient manner.
Employment security: Company is facing problems regarding the increases in the
conflicts among the employees and employers of company. The HR is accountable to provide
the effective support to those employees who feel their right have been violated. Human
resource manager is accountable to exercise the anti-discrimination and harassment laws and
should be responsible to provide assistance in the legal matters (Guest, 2011). The HR manager
should be responsible in order to provide full information to employees regarding new norm so
that they must be familiar with the working of the enterprise.
Selective hiring: this is an important practice which assists the HR to bring the best
employees who can bring value to the organisation. Morrison’s plc practices talent acquiring
methods in order to select the right candidate who can best fit to the organisational culture and
atmosphere (Shuck and Herd, 2012). It helps in ensuring that HR will do their best in order to
hire the people with exceptional skills and knowledge so that they can contribute to the growth
and success of the organisation as well as their growth as well.
Compensation and Benefit: Morrison’s plc has a clear policy to compensate the
employees who contribute more to the company. With hiring right skilled employee, HR will
pay back them fairly (Human Resource Planning Methods , 2019). Facilitates the employees by
providing them financial benefits are also a part of HR practices in Morrison’s plc. Performance
rewards are being given to the best performance. This help to maximize the employee
motivation to improve their performance which adds value to the organization.
Training and development: it is very essential to provide proper training and
development programmes for the employees which will assist in enhancing their motivation and
increases their skills which leads to increase their productivity in their performance (Bailey and
et.al., 2018).

It can be said that training and development as well as selective hiring of the employees
could be the mos effective practice of the HR which assist in increasing the organisational
efficiency and productivity which will leads to enhance the profitability of the organisation.
It can be evaluated that HRM practices such as recruitment and selection is effective
because it assist in getting the human resource for the organisation which are qualified and thus
the firm is able to improve their productivity and profitability. If the candidate is having lack of
skills and knowledge than the firm productivity and profitability is affected to great extent.
Training and development is another HRM practice which can be adopted by the firm in order to
enhance the productivity and profitability (Pintão, Chave and Branco, 2018). Morrison’s plc can
use training and development in order to improve their productivity and profitability by
improving the skills and knowledge of the existing employees which will be beneficial for the
firm.
P4. Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and
productivity
For raising organisational profitability and productivity of workplace, different HRM
practices has been run by managers of Morrisons. It includes development of employee
relations, providing professional training and development courses for increasing their skills,
compensation and benefits to boost morale of workers and more (Pintão, Chave and Branco,
2018). All these techniques help in developing higher productivity of workplace. Hereby,
employee relation can be defined as the efforts to maintain the healthier relationship among
employees, who belong to different background. As more than 110k workers are currently
working at different stores of Morrisons therefore, by managing appropriate relationship among
them, will lead managers in getting high cooperation of them to offer best customer services.
The undertaking of flexible working practices have further enhanced the morale of
employee as they are able to maintain a work life balance. This practice assists them in fulfilling
their personal and professional obligations. But to manage it may also considered as most
challenging role of HR managers, because all are having different skills and knowledge level
(Lengnick-Hall, Beck and Lengnick-Hall, 2011). In this regard, to reduce the gap skills, another
HRM practices that incorporated by respective company is training and development program.
The major effectiveness of this practice can be measured in terms of workplace culture, where

after getting proper training, workers can work in more collaborative manner with each other to
accomplish the set objectives.
It is evident from the above analysis that HRM practices which relates to Compensation
and Benefits are considered as the most effective approach when it comes to managing human
resources in an organisation. Undertaking such practices would improve performance level of
employees where to get high incentives, they will put more efforts in achievement of customer
satisfaction at stores (Bailey and et.al., 2018). But this lead to arise competition among workers
as well which may impact on team-performance in negative manner. Thus, from all these HRM
practices, managers of Morrisons need to focus more on development of employee relationship.
This would help in maintaining healthy environment, which may directly help in getting high
performance of workers to achieve business objectives.
TASK 3
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect of influencing HRM decision-making
Employee relation is considered as most essential HRM practices that helps majorly in
strengthening the relationship among workers and management, so that high productivity of
workplace can be gained (Zameer and et.al., 2018). In Morrisons plc, management concerns
more on making policies so that engagement of employees can be developed in decision making
process like increasing sales, cutting manufacturing cost, introducing new technology to offer
best customer services and more. This would help in generating feeling of equality among
workers as well as take their ideas to implement effective decisions in business, to gain high
profitability. The employment legislation have a great influence on the HRM decision making
because while making the decision the firm have to comply with the requirement of the
employment law.
The Human resource management for making any decision regarding the employees
have to comply with the provision of employment law otherwise the firm can be liable for the
any damages caused to the employees. If the firm does not treat the employees equally as per the
equality Act, 2010 than it is liable to face the consequences for not complying with the
legislation which will affect the organisation image and thus, the profitability of the firm will
also be affected. For this purpose, a number of legislation regarding employments are present,
which has to be compliance to the Morrison’s plc in order to develop effective employee
relations, like includes Health and Safety Act 1974; Data Protection Act 1998, Equality Act

2010 and more. HRM has to make and change their decision in order to effectively apply these
laws and legislation in their organisational culture. Analysing these legislations, managers of
Morrisons can implement best HRM practices like training and development procedures, team-
development procedures, people orientation program and more. This would help in developing
more effective relations between top management and associated employees, so that better
decisions can be made for running business effectively.
P6. Key aspects of employee legislation within Morrison’s plc.
There are certain employee legislation that is very essential for the HR in order to
formulate company's rules and regulation. There are certain elements of different laws regarding
employment, that should be consider by Morrison’s plc. Some of this legislation are:
Equality Act, 2010: According to this act, employees in Morrison’s plc across its stores
should be treated fairly and protected from any kind of discrimination (Aspects of Employment
Laws , 2019). HR has to make policies regarding the organisational culture, so that no
employees can be harassed or discriminated on the grounds of age, nationality, gender etc. If
present company fails to comply this law, then this may arise a number of issues at workplace
like conflicts among employees, staff turnover and more. Along with this, it may also generate
negative feelings between staff when they treated unequally. So, it is essential for this company
to comply this law while formulation of employment policies, to maintain positivity at
workplace.
Health and Safety act, 1974: As stated by this act, the employees in a company should
be protecting the health, safety of the employees. HR managers of Morrisons should be ensured
that there will be all safety measures available in the stores. This would help in reducing risk
that may create due to equipment failure velop collaboration among them. at stores, that may
create threat for life of staff members, customers and visitors at workplace. The undertaking of
Health and safety act assures that safe and stable environment is created for employee which
will reflect positively in the productivity.
Minimum Wages Act, 1998: As per this law, all employees in workplace should be
provided the basic wages for the job role they are hired for. There must be equity among all the
employees so that employees to the firm can perform their business activities in the well and
efficient manner. In this regard, it is essential for managers of Morrisons to concern this law for

providing appropriate salary to workers as per their job role. The positive influence of this law is
that more and more people will be willing to work with the organisation which directly
influence goodwill of the company.
TASK 4
P7. Application of HRM practices in work related context.
One important practices of Morrison’s plc’s HR is to recruit and select the right person
for the available job at the right time (Shuck and Herd, 2012). Morrison’s plc has a job vacancy
fort the sales manager. In order to recruit a right candidate, HR has prepared a job description
and person specification for the job role of sales manager.
Job Description:
Sales and Marketing manager: Job description
Job title: Sales and Marketing Manager
Location: Bradford, U.K.
Working Hour- 8 Hours a day
Experience: 2-5 years in sales or related field
Salaries and commission rates vary considerably in sales. As a guide, basic salaries start in the
range of £20,000 to £30,000.
Primary purpose of job:
 To be responsible for the development and implementation of sales, marketing,
publicity strategy.
 To maximise the sales of the company.
 To manage the sales and marketing team and associated IT system.
Skills and Qualification:
 Must be a initiator.
 Must be able to demonstrate the sales record.
 Should have Bachelor degree in business, marketing and sales or in related field.

 Analytical skills set, strong presentation skills, ability to interact.
 Should have excellent communication skills.
 Must be creative and innovative.
Person Specification:
Category Essential Desirable
Attributes  Professional Appearance
 Confident in communicating
Education  Master of Business Administration in
marketing
Knowledge and
Experience
 • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in
a sales focused role.
 Experience of communicating with
customers in order to achieve sales
and margin targets.
• Experience of selling a range
of garage door products
• Experience of field sales
Skills  Able to identify additional sales
opportunities.
• Evidence of well developed people skills.
• Able to work in a fast paced customer
focused environment.
• Innovative/creative approach
to solving customers issues
 Personal
Qualities
 Ability to work on own initiative.
 Ability to determine the
opportunities for improvements
within thief area of responsibility.
Flexible and ability to respond to this
to improve sales and margin
performance.

The profile of two suitable candidates for the job profile of sales and marketing candidates are
mentioned below:

Using LinkedIn, two suitable candidates has been selected and are called for the interview.
Following are the question that has been asked is:
1. What are your responsibilities in your previous job?
2. What are the ideas or strategies you will use to increase the sales?
3. Which of the product you most prefer to sell? Try to sell me something.
4. What are the management style you opt in order to encourage your subordinate? What is
your sales style?
After interviewing candidate 1 has been selected and are offering the job letter.

Job offer letter for sales manager:
Ian N.
123 Main Street
XYZ town, UK
[e-mail]
February 3, 2019
Paul Jonson
000 main street
XYZ City, UK
Dear Paul,
We are pleased to offer you the job of sales manager with Morrison's. This letter confirms the
term of your employment with Morrison’s supermarket plc as sales manager job initiating from
15th August, 2019. As per our discussion in the interview, you will be offered with monthly
remuneration of approximate £8000. if you have any queries, than please contact the
undersigned.
Title: Sales Manager
Job Description has been attached (prepared above)
Basic Salary: As mentioned in Job description
Start date: 1st March 2019
Telephone number: XYZ
Signature:
Date: ____________
Furthermore, while developing employment policies to hire workers from external
environment, it is essential for managers of Morrisons to concern on employee relations as well.
Because employee relationship have a great influence on the HRM decision making as hiring
workers from outside environment can impact on existing culture at workplace. Along with this,

it also may increase skill gap among new and existing workers that may impact on performance
of them on individual basis. For this process, appropriate training needs to be given to all
employees to reduce gap skill and develop collaboration among them.
CONCLUSION
By summing up the above report, it can be concluded that HRM is the life blood of any
organisation. It assists the organisation in recruiting and selecting the person, manages the
existing staffs in an organisation. The present study has concluded different aspects and function
of Human Resource department of Morrison’s plc. It has been concluded that different purpose
and function is essential to acquire new talent and skills approaches. It can also be analysed the
effectiveness of elements of HRM in order to meet the objectives of business. Report has
concluded the employee relation and employee legislation that affects the decision of HRM.
Report has also concluded a sales manager job description and offer letter.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals