Human Resource Management - Strength and Weakness

Human Resource
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose of HR functions and their key roles and responsibilities in acquiring talent within
the organisation...........................................................................................................................1
P2. Strengths and weaknesses of different approach to recruitment and selection.....................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3. Examination of different methods of HR practices along with benefits ..............................5
P4. Effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement..........................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P5. Evaluation of employee relations and employee legislations in decision making
procedures...................................................................................................................................7
P6. Key aspects of employee legislations within which organisation works..............................8
LO4 .................................................................................................................................................9
P7. Application of HRM practices in work related context and preparation of Job description
and Person specification and appropriate job related questions..................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) refers to a process performed by managers to
manage overall workforce of an organisation including hiring, providing healthy working
environment and firing of staff as well. Inclusion of best HRM practices helps the business in
achieving the overall objectives more productively by having the best use of the human
resources. Amazon is a global business founded in 1994 and performs its business activities
through online sources. It has employed 566,000 employees in all over the world. The current
assignment includes key roles and responsibilities of HRM along with various approaches of
HRM to workforce planning, recruitment and selection procedure. The study also shows
different methods of HRM and effectiveness of employee relation and engagement within the
business. Further, the assignment also shows preparation of job description and job specifications
along with some questions to be asked in interview. It also includes a brief evaluation of
technology, online resources and digital platform in improvement of recruitment and selection
procedure.
LO1
P1 Purpose of HR functions and their key roles and responsibilities in acquiring talent within the
organisation
Human resource management (HRM) can be defined as a team employed within the
organisation for the purpose of effectively managing the workforce of the company in order to
enable it in having most efficient use of human resources recruited in the business (Wright,
2018).
Purpose of HRM in context to Amazon
HR need to perform several functions in an organisation. Key functions of the HR in
order to manage the human resources of the organisation are as under:
 Recruitment: One of the major function of HRM is to hire the best talent for an
appropriate post within the organisation. It helps amazon in acquiring the best talent
within the organisation.
 Selection: HRM of amazon hires employees on the basis of their administrative skills
and personality test as to acquire the best candidate for the post. It enables the company
in hiring appropriate candidate for the vacant position as to achieve the organisational
goals more effectively (Six Main Functions of a Human Resource Department, 2018).
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 Training and development: HRM of Amazon also performs a main function of
conducting training and development program for each employee as per their
requirement. It enhances the capacity of each employee and overall businesses as well.
 Incentives procedure: They also provide employee benefits like incentives, medical
insurance, etc. in order to provide them job security and satisfaction as well (Bratton and
Gold, 2017). It helps the amazon in providing self motivation to the workforce.
Functions of HRM in context with Amazon
Main functions of HRM functions area as under:
 Planning: HRM plans for providing effective growth to the company. They makes plan
regarding job, recruitment, promotion, etc. activities of the business.
 Organising: They organise overall human resources of the Amazon. In thiss order, they
make groups for enhancing efficiency in working, delegate various authorities, works for
coordinating all the employees, etc.
 Directing: HRM of Amazon also plays a function of providing proper direction to the
employees. They plays function for motivating them by providing them incentives,
fulfilling their needs, etc.
 Controlling: Controlling refers to analyse and monitor overall performance and take
corrective actions as to minimise the ineffectiveness. HRM plays a key function of
monitoring employees performance and make appropriate strategies to improve their
efficiency.
Key roles and responsibilities of HRM
HRM of Amazon have been provided numerous responsibilities as to recruit the best
talent within the business organisation like:
 Determine the need to employees within the organisation, along with determining
appropriate skills and knowledge required for the same.
 Plan the best technique for hiring employees for the vacant positions.
 Develop and effective career development strategies as to enhance the career
opportunities for each employee.
 Further, they play a vital role to built a healthy relationship between all the team
members so that conflict within the organisation could be eliminated.
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 They also have a responsibility to select the best procedure of recruitment and selection
so that most potential and knowledgable candidate could be selected for the vacant post.
 In addition, they also have a responsibility to describe the role and responsibility to each
employee hired by them.
In this regard, it can be evaluated that HRM of Amazon have provided a major
responsibility to acquire the best talent within the organisation, they also play a vital role in
employing the best talent for the organisation and performs several functions in the recruitment
and selection procedure along with providing best job satisfaction to the hired workforce.
P2. Strengths and weaknesses of different approach to recruitment and selection
There are various approaches which can be adopted by the HR while performing various
functions like planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance
management, etc. Approaches to be used by HR for performing various functions are:
Planning:
Majorly there are two approaches that are adopted by HR of Amazon for planning for the
management of human resources as per on the basis of mission and vision of the organisation
(Noe, 2017). This approach helps in achieving the overall business objectives effectively.
Recruitment and selection:
Video conferencing, aptitude test, group discussion, ability test, personality test, etc. are
various methods of the selection procedure. The HR of Amazon selects the best practice in hiring
of employee as per the need of post. This flexible HR practice enhances the efficiency of hiring
the candidates further, it also reduces the cost of recruitment procedure of the company.
Strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection methods
Basis Strengths Weaknesses
Internal recruitment  It reduces the cost of
employees.
 It reduces the function of
HRM.
 Company can't employ fresh
talent in the company.
 It may impose extra burden
over existing employees.
External recruitment  Fresh talent can be
recruited.
 It helps in enhancing the
 It enhances the cost of
company
 Company need provide
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efficiency of the company. training to the newly
recruited employees
Interview based
selection
 It helps in omplete analysis
of the candidate
 Interpersonal skills along
with professional skills can
be analysed by the
interviewer.
 It contains a lengthy
procedure.
 It takes more time than other
methods.
Selection through
group discussion
 It makes the interviewer to
check the communication
skills of the candidates.
 It shows the presence of
mind of candidates.
 It is not suitable for each
post.
 It may provide negative
result as it only focus on the
communication skills of
candidates.
Performance management
Having a practice of regularly monitoring the performance of the employees, helps the
HR in detecting the need of training program, innovation in any policy or program, need of
development of any new strategies, etc. all of these aspects are important for effectively
managing the human resources of the company along with enhancement of overall efficiency of
the business. Further, having the best management of the employees also helps the company in
achieving its organisational objectives.
Reward system:
Reward system is the best way to motivate the employees as to enhance their efficiency
of work. HR can provide reward either economical i.e. through appraisals or non economical i.e.
through promotions (Sarvaiya, Eweje and Arrowsmith, 2018). Each employee motivates to work
with more efficiency as to gain these rewards.
Training and development:
There are mainly two methods for providing training and development program to the
employees i.e. on the job training and off the job training. Both training programs are needed for
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the enhancement of efficiency of the employees. HR need to conduct both type of training and
development whenever needed. It helps the managers in enhancing the productivity of the
workforce which helps in enhancement of performance of the overall business organisation.
Advantages and disadvantages of training and development program
Pros Cons
It enhances the profitability of the organisation It enhances the cost to the company
It enhances the productivity of the overall
business
It is a time consuming process.
From the above analysis, it can be evaluated that, HRM
LO2
P3. Examination of different methods of HR practices along with benefits
There are several practices that can be used by the HR in order to maintain the best talent
within the organisation in order to meet the overall business objectives. Some best methods of
HR practices that can be used by Amazon are as under:
 Incentives and rewards: Amazon can adopt this practice as providing security to the
workforce is the main responsibility of HR. In this regard, HR can provide health
insurance to employees along with their family members, which may lead in providing
mental satisfaction to the employees (Abzug, 2017). It provides benefits to the employers
as satisfied employee always works with the best efficiency which is most important
factor for achieving the business objectives. This method may not work properly, as
providing mental satisfaction may not work properly in attaining the best use of human
resources.
It helps the employer in providing self motivation to the workforce and helps employees in
enhancing their own efficiency along with get some monitory and non monitory benefits.
 Extensive training: In this practice, HR invests time and budget in conducting
appropriate program for each employee (Al Shobaki, 2016). This practice can help the
Amazon in reducing the need of more recruitments within the employee, as HR enables
the employees to perform multiple jobs to meet the targets of the company and help in
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generating maximum profits as well. Although, this method results in occurring excessive
cost by the company.
This method helps the Amazon in enhancing the skills of workforce by providing them effective
trainings. On the other hand, it helps employees in have better development in the future.
 Performance management: Amazon adopts this as HR a practice which helps the
company in enhancing the performance of each employees. When an organisation
focuses in the performance of the workforce, it motivates them to perform with their best
efficiency which enhances the efficiency of overall business operations as well.
Although, this practice enhances the work of HR as they need to monitor performance of
each employee of the organisation.
It makes the Amazon enable to have effective control over the performance of overall workforce.
Further, employees enables to enhance their own efficiency of work.
 Recruitment and selection: This method is used by the HR of Amazon, due to which
company enables to gather the best talent within the organisation. This method reduces
the cost of frequent training and development program of the company as the employees
hired by the HR do not need much training for performing their part of task. This practice
also helps the company in improving the productivity of overall organisation.
In this regard, it can be analysed that there are several methods of HR practices and all
methods helps the company in achieving their overall objectives (Ekwoaba, Ikeije and Ufoma,
2015). Practice used by Amazon is the best practice of HR as it helps in attracting the best talent
and sustaining them with the company as well. Company can also use other methods along with
current in order to gain the best use of the human resources.
Effectiveness of HRM practices
There are several HRM practices like recruitment and selection, training and
development, motivation, etc. (Marler and Parry, 2016). all these practices helps the company in
enhancing the productivity of the overall organisation which directly affects the profitability of
the company. HRM of Amazon involves best practices in their HRM practices which helps them
in having better control over the human resources. With the help of using best technique for
recruitment and selection procedure, HR can recruit the best talent within the organisation, which
enhances the overall efficiency of the company along with enhancement of the capacity of
generating maximum profit.
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The HR practises declines employees turnover in the company. Also, it is beneficial for
Amazon by resolving conflicts among employees it impacts directly on increase in employees
satisfaction. The company goals is achieving effectively by conducting HR practises in effective
and efficient manner.
P4. Effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement
Employee relations
Employee relation can defined as a healthy relationship of company with its employees.
It gains be gained through providing lighten environment to employees and flexible working
condition to the employees. Employee relations results in providing fair treatment to each
employee and enhance their capabilities as well.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement refers to amount level of job upto which the workforce works
with their best capabilities. A company need to have higher level of employee engagement as it
directly affects the sustainability of employees in the business. Further, it also affects the level of
efficiency of the employees.
Both employee relation and employee engagement are important in the business.
Managers can gain both employee engagement and employee relation by providing them flexible
hours of working and flexible organisational structure (Noe, 2017). These leads in providing
relaxation to the employees which results in maintenance of healthy working environment. It
directly affects the efficiency of the workforce and helps the company in generating maximum
profit more efficiently.
LO3
P5. Evaluation of employee relations and employee legislations in decision making procedures
Employee relation refers to a healthy relationship with employees due to efforts of HR of
the company. Whereas, employee legislation refers to law containing rules regarding
engagement of employees which has to be followed by each employee.
Amazon has strong employee relation management which helps the company in having
good communication with employees. Further, it also enables company in effectively managing
all queries of the employees and providing them the best solution for the same. In addition, a
strong relation with employees helps in identifying needs of the employees which is important
for management in taking effective decisions for them (Bailey, 2017) Further, maintenance of
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healthy relationship also enables company in involving the employees in decision making
procedure.
Further, involvement of employee legislations like equality act, minimum wages act,
employee relationship act, etc. helps the Amazon in maintaining employment standard in the
business. Further it also attracts the best talent towards the company (Ryan, 2016).. In addition,
employee legislation also leads in elimination of discrimination among the workforce. All these
are important for the business in order to provide sufficient job satisfaction to employees.
Good and friendly communication among employees and the company Amazon is
helpful as the employees feel free in suggesting their ideas which provide aid to them in process
of decision making. The involvement of employees lead the organisation towards growth and
efficient achievement of goal. On the other hand, Amazon also motivates them for their
contribution by providing them monetary benefits and recognition. This enhance the employees
to contribute and engage more towards the decision making of Amazon.
In this regard, it can be evaluated that both employee relation and employee legislation
are important element for meeting the organisational objectives. Further, it also helps the
organisation in taking effective decisions for the company.
P6. Key aspects of employee legislations within which organisation works
There are numerous employment legislations which are applicable on the Amazon ( PaulNoe,
2017). The organisation need to frame its business structure, policies and procedures for the
employees as to comply with each legislation. Some main legislations are as follows:
 National Minimum wages Act 1998: Due to compliance of this act, Amazon has to pay
a minimum amount of wages to its employees as mentioned in the rules of the Act.
Further, it also needs to update the wages policies as per the changes made in the act.
Non complains of this law will attract the strict action against the company at national
level.
 Equality Act 2010: Amazon has adopted anti discriminatory policy within the
organisation due to application of equality act upon the business. Due to compliance of
this act, HR has to built a strict rule as to avoid discrimination among the employees on
the basis of cast, race, gender, religion etc. it has a policy that discrimination with any
worker will lead in having strict actions against the discriminator.
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 Employment Relation Act 1999: This legislation is also applicable on the business due
to which Amazon needs to adopt a practice in order to maintain a healthy working
environment (DeGeest, 2017). Company also need to provide appropriate maternity and
parental leaves, provide the employees a right to be heard as well.
Amazon needs to perform its business activities as per these laws, as non compliance of
any of the legislation applicable on the company may lead in attracting legal proceedings over
the business which have direct effect upon the brand image of the organisation.
LO4
P7. Application of HRM practices in work related context and preparation of Job description and
Person specification and appropriate job related questions
HRM practices
Some major HRM practices in workforce context are as under:
 Planning: The major function of HRM is to manage the overall workforce by preparing
appropriate strategies and plan for the organisation so that organisation can be enable to
have the best use of its human resources (Schumacher, 2016).
 Recruitment and selection: The main role of HRM is to identify the need of employees
within the business, determining appropriate skill and knowledge required for performing
tasks of such position and perform recruitment and selection procedures to recruit the
best talent for the same position using appropriate method of selection and recruitment (7
Human Resource Best Practices (A mini-guide to HRM), 2019).
 Performance management: Further, effectively managing the performance of each
employee so that their efficiency could be enhanced for the purpose of enhancing the
productivity and profitability of overall business organisation.
Job Description
Name of company: Amazon
Name of position: Human resource manager
Academic skills needed: MBA in HR
Extra skills:
 basic knowledge of computers
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 Good communication skills
 Knowledge of English speaking
Experience : 2-4 years
Responsibilities in business:
 To effectively manage the human resource
 To handle quarries of each employee
 To maintain good relationship with each employee
 To maintain record of each employee
Salary: 600,000 p.a.
Working hours: 8 hours per day and extra as needed
Person specification
Essential Desired
Qualifications MBA in Human resource Having a valid degree in computer.
Qualities  Good communication skills.
 Patience to handle each
queries and provide
appropriate solution for it.
 Quality to maintain healthy
relation with each employee
 Knowledge if English.
 Good knowledge of computer
 Quick decision making
power.
 Problem solving quality.
 Multitasking.
Interpersonal
skills
 Quick problem solving skills
 Caring for workforce
 Communication skills
 Conflict management skills.
 Listening skills.
 Assertiveness skills.
Experience 2-4 years 3-7 years
Interview Questions for HR
Q.1) Tell me something about yourself?
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Q.2) What is your expected salary?
Q.3) How will you motivate your workforce?
Q.4) What are your long term dreams?
Q.5) What are your strengths?
Q.5) What are your major weaknesses?
Curriculum vitae
Name: John
Aim: To gain a higher post in a well known company
Academic Qualification:
 Graduate in accounting
 MBA in HRM
Experience: 2 years experience of HRM practices
Extra qualifications:
 Having knowledge about computers.
 Command in Excel.
 Communication skills.
Interpersonal qualities:
 leadership quality
 Quick decision making power.
Thanks,
regards,
John
Date
1/1/19
“Resume”
Name: Kenya phernandis
Aim: To become leader and manage overall organisation
Academic Qualification:
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 Graduate in economics
 Post graduation in economics
 MBA in HRM
Extra Qualifications:
 Having valid certificate of computer knowledge
 Having certificate of leading a group.
Interpersonal skills:
 Communication skills
 Command on computer
 patience
 leadership quality
Experience: 5 years
Thanks,
Kenya phernandis
Date
1-1-19
Offer latter
Name of company: Amazon plc.
Miss Kenya phernandis,
Congratulations.
We have glad to inform you that you have selected in the Amazon plc for the post of Human
resource manager. Your annual salary will be 600000 p.a.
Your key responsibility in the company will be effectively managing the employees and taking
coorective actions for them as well.
Thanks,
regards,
Amazon plc
Date
15/1/19
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Use of technology and other digital platforms in improving recruitment and selection process
Today, technology has reduced the work load of each field. With the help of technology
and other technical sources, way of performing any job has become easier. It has also affected
the working of HR (Amini, 2018)(. various functions of HR like recruitment, selection,
management of human resources, etc.
importance of technology, online resources, digital platforms and social networking in improving
recruitment and selection process are as under:
Technology: Digital platforms
With the help of the latest technology, HR can recruit the best suitable candidate from all
over the world. It also helps HR in reducing the performance of HR in recruiting procedures as
they can also take interviews of candidate through phone calls or video calls. It reduces the cost
of employees as well. Further, company can also maintain the list of all the candidates as to call
them whenever they fit for any vacant position.
Online resources:
There are also some online resources which helps the HR in their recruitment and
selection procedure. With the help of some online resources HR can gather numerous candidates
from all over the world who needs job and whose qualifications seems perfect for the vacant
position. HR can call them for interview and select the best employee for the organisation.
Social networking
It is the easiest path to recruit the talent for the company. HR need not to perform heavy
tasks for recruitment procedure. Rather, they can put the requirement of candidates along with
the required qualifications of social networking sites (Jennings, McCarthy and Undy, 2017).
Which enables HR in gathering numerous candidates for the company from which they can
select the best talent for the appropriate position without performing any lengthy procedures.
CONCLUSION
From the above analysis it can be concluded that Amazon has adopted the best HRM
practices. HR of Amazon has assessed their function, roles and responsibilities within the
organisation, which has helped them in effectively performing their tasks. HR has also evaluated
various approaches for planning, training and development, reward system, etc. and selects the
best approach as per the need of situations. They have also evaluated importance of employee
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relation, employee engagement and employee legislation as to apply them appropriate within the
organisation. HRM has also analysed the need of technology and other digital platforms to use
them within HR practices through which they have improved their recruitment and selection
procedure. All these analyses and evaluations has helped the business in enhancement of overall
productivity, profitability and decision making power of the managers as well.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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HRM in the Palestinian Universities. International Journal of Engineering and
Information Systems. 1(5). pp.36-55.
Amini, M. and et.al., 2018. Analysis the Relation between Emotional Intelligence Components
and Employee Performance. Journal of Business Economics and Management. 1611.
Bailey, C. and et.al., 2017. The meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: A
narrative synthesis. International Journal of Management Reviews. 19(1). pp.31-53.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
DeGeest, D. S. and et.al., 2017. RETRACTED: The Benefits of Benefits: A Dynamic Approach
to Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices and Entrepreneurial
Survival. Journal of Management. 43(7). pp.2303-2332.
Ekwoaba, J.O., Ikeije, U. U. and Ufoma, N., 2015. The Impact of Recruitment and Selection
Criteria on Organizational Performance.
Jennings, C., McCarthy, W. E. J. and Undy, R., 2017. Employee Relations Audits. Routledge.
Marler, J. H. and Parry, E., 2016. Human resource management, strategic involvement and e-
HRM technology. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27(19).
pp.2233-2253.
Noe, R. A. and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Noe, R. A. and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Noe, R. A. and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
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