HRM Practices and Employee Performance

This assignment delves into the critical link between human resource management (HRM) practices and employee performance. Students are required to analyze various HRM strategies, such as performance appraisal, talent management, and compensation, and evaluate their impact on employee attitudes, behaviors, and overall organizational effectiveness. The assignment encourages students to draw upon scholarly research, case studies, and practical examples to develop a comprehensive understanding of how effective HRM practices contribute to achieving business goals.

HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1: The purpose and function of HRM in workforce planning and resourcing of Aldi.........1
P2: The strength and weakness of recruitment and selection approaches in Aldi: -..............2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3: The benefits of HRM practices for employer and employee within Aldi........................4
P4: The effectiveness of different HRM practices in raising the profit and productivity of Aldi
................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5: The importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision making in Aldi....6
P6: The key elements of employment legislation and it impacts on HRM decision making.7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P7: HRM practices in a work-related context for Aldi...........................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Managing human resources adequately within the organisation is a very crucial,
challenging and dynamic job. Human resources management is considered as most unique and
valuable asset for the enterprise. It is primarily focused on increasing employee level of
performance while concerning companies’ policies and system. The functions of human resource
are facing the scarcity of talented resources and overstate expectation of modern workers. Here,
human resource management provides outline to the importance of human resource functions
within the firm. This report is about Aldi, which is a common brand of two major discount
supermarket chains. The headquarter of Aldi is in Essen, Germany and it has around 7,000 stores
in 70 countries. The present report covers, the overall purpose and function of Human resource
management within an organisation. Along with this, benefit to the enterprise by the use of HRM
practises also evaluated. In the end, the impact of employee legislation on human resource
management decision making also been discussed.
TASK 1
P1: The purpose and function of HRM in workforce planning and resourcing of Aldi
Aldi is well known with the fact that people are the key to success. They include an
efficient HRM system which is concentrated on delivering industry leading training package.
The human resource management purposes and functions of Aldi can be classified into three
following categories:
 Managerial functions
 Operative functions Advisory function
The managerial human resource management functions perform by Aldi are: -
Human resource planning- It is helpful for Aldi in determining the amount and type of
employee required for achieving the organisational goals. The human resource planning function
requires research, from which information is collected and analyses for figure out current and
future human resource needs for the enterprise (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Organizing- HRM playing very vital role for the purpose of allocating the task to
members so that organisation can integrate the activities align with common objective. Aldi
managers organize the activities in a manner through which healthy relationship is built among
the employees.
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Directing- The Human resource manager of Aldi providing proper direction and
motivation to employee at different levels, so that they can contribute more in the growth of
organisation.
Controlling- After the completion of planning, organizing and directing the performance
of employees is checked. Aldi evaluate each employee performance and if it is not up to the level
then control measures need to be taken (Brewster and Hegewisch ,2017).
The operative human resource management functions perform by Aldi are: -
Recruitment and selection- This process is taken care by the human resource department
of Aldi. The main purpose of this function is bringing the prospective candidates for the
company from which management will choose the right candidate.
Job analysis and design- The job design work is also come under the boundary of
Human resource management. Aldi HR manager use it to describe the nature of job and define
the requirement such as- qualification, skills, work experience for performing the job (Purce,
2014).
Performance appraisal- The main purpose of performance appraisal function is ensuring
the employees of Aldi are performing at acceptable level.
Training and development- The HR managers of Aldi often use the training and
development function for the purpose of helping employees to acquire skills and knowledge to
perform job in the most efficient manner (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014).
The advisory human resource management functions perform by Aldi are: -
Advise to top management- Personnel and Human resource manager of Aldi advises the
top management in order to evaluation and formulation of personnel policy, procedures and
programs.
Advise to head of department- HR manager of Aldi gives advice to each and every
department head of the company for the purpose of manpower planning, job design and analysis,
placement, selection, training and appraisal (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013).
P2: The strength and weakness of recruitment and selection approaches in Aldi: -
Recruitment and selection process- It is the process of distinguishing the needs of the
organisation. It is considered with the process of selecting, attracting and appointing the right
candidate for the job (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). There are several factors that can
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affect the recruitment and selection process of Aldi. These are generally classified into two
categories:
 Internal factors
 External factors
Internal factors
The internal factors of recruitment and
selection process is considered as, element
within the organisation that affect the
recruitment personnel (Alfes and et.al, 2013).
The internal factors for Aldi are:
 Size of the company
 Recruitment and selection policy
 Image of the organisation
 Image of the job
External factors
External factors of recruitment and selection
seeking for a wider range of talent and provide
opportunities to get new ideas and experience
into the business (Anderson, 2013). The
external factors for Aldi are:
 Demographic factors
 Labor laws
 Unemployment situation
 Legal consideration
Strength and weaknesses of Internal factors in context with Aldi
Strength
 It will enhance the knowledge of Aldi
about their own employees’ strength
and weakness so that company can
utilize their skills and eliminate their
problems
 The internal recruitment provides an
opportunity to Aldi to make use of
available internal talent
 It is economically beneficial for Aldi as
they does not need to spend much on
finding the potential candidates
 This will improve the morale of
internal employees as they know that
company will prefer them over
Weakness
 The internal recruitment process will
limit the Aldi choice to the talents
which are there within the organisation
(Hoque, 2013)
 It will make competitive perspective of
internal employees’ low, as they will be
sure about there is no competent
candidate from outside Aldi
 The skills and knowledge of internal
employees could be stagnant or
obsolete because of no competition
from outside
 It will increase the amount of conflict
between internal employees for
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outsiders promotion
Strength and weaknesses of External factors in context with Aldi
Strength
 The external sources of recruitment will
be an open process to attract the large
number of candidate for Aldi
 It will open the large pool of talent for
Aldi as organisation can get talented
and expected candidate from outside
 In the external sources of recruitment
Aldi will have more power to selecting
the best candidate
 It is assumed that the external members
are more efficient and trained to work
with greater vigor and positive attitude
Weakness
 In this the recruitment process will be
more expensive and time consuming
for Aldi
 The applicants or candidate are not
much familiar about the work as
compare to internal employee
 Sometime it can be result in
discouragement of existing employees
(Marler and Fisher, 2013)
TASK 2
P3: The benefits of HRM practices for employer and employee within Aldi
The human resource management consist with practices which is beneficial for both
employee as well as employer. The HRM practices of Aldi includes performance management,
training, payroll and employee benefits. All the practices can be done only through the mutual
collaboration of employer and employee.
The benefits of HRM practices for the employer of Aldi
Achievement of goals and objectives- The human resource management practices are
formed for the welfare of organisation. Aldi can involve skillful workforce into their business
which will work for achieving the end goal and objectives of the company.
Recruitment- Human resource practices use the professional way to recruiting potential
candidates. It is useful for employees to selecting the right candidate for the specified job. The
human resource management practices are benefiting Aldi by identifying the potential candidate
(Boella and Goss-Turner, 2013).
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Monitoring the employee performance- The human resource department of Aldi build a
program to tracking the performance of employees. It is playing an important role in providing
the information to employer about the talent and skillful employees within the organisation so
that it will be easy for them to groom the employee and give them promotions.
Record keeping- It is one of the important function performed by the HRM practices.
Employee can keep the overall record of employees. It makes the appraise and promotion task
easy for employees and amount of conflict also mitigated (Shields and et.al ,2015).
The benefits of HRM practices for the employee of Aldi
Increase employment relationship- Involving HRM practices within the organisation
Aldi can increase the level of employment relationship. Employee feel motivate if they can
directly communicate their problem and issue with employer. HRM practices works as a link
between the employer and employee.
Individual development- The human resources practices will be beneficial for the
employee of Aldi in terms of self-development. Empowering the employees for taking the
responsibility of individual development is the priority of HRM practices (Kehoe and Wright,
2013).
Motivation- Aldi can motivate their employees to work hard for the vision of
organisation through giving them appropriate rewards for their efforts. It is the one of the part of
HRM practices to track the performance of employees so that company can identified most
potential and productive employees. Good reward and appreciation can surely motivate the
employees to work hard.
P4: The effectiveness of different HRM practices in raising the profit and productivity of Aldi
There is remarkable relationship between HR practices and shareholder return. The
human resource management is an important contributor to profitability and productivity goals
set by Aldi. The main idea of Aldi behind involving the HRM practices into the business is
making everyone responsible for increasing and decreasing the cost. These practices are useful
for the firm to achieve the set goals and objectives.
The practices perform by HR department of Aldi improvise their performance by
involving right person in right job. It increases the level of motivation among the employees
which result in, they put their higher efforts for maximizing the productivity of organisation. The
human resource management practices also providing the cost benefits to Aldi. By the use of cost
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benefit analysis, the HR manager of company quantitatively understand the potential returns on
the investment of projects such as employee training (Farndale and Kelliher, 2013).
The goal of Aldi is to link the HR practices with quality, productivity and efficiency
improvements. Organisation is incurring profit because of the influence of HR decision making
on organisational performance. It is useful in understanding that investment on existing
employees will be beneficial or not. Human resources management includes tasks such as
training, induction and recruitment, which helps in increasing the productivity of the firm. HR
practices also increase the level of employment relationship in Aldi, through which higher
management communicate the goals and vision of organisation to their employees. Employee
also have various issues and problems regarding their work, employee relationship provides
them a platform to directly interact with higher authority and share problem with them.
Human resource practices are helping Aldi in various ways. It helps them to maximizing
the reputation of business and saving the money. It is motivating the employees by building
confidence in them through training and development program so that they can be more efficient
and contribute in firms’ overall benefits.
TASK 3
P5: The importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision making in Aldi
Employee relationship refers to effort by organisation for managing relationship between
employers and employees. The employee relations are part of Aldi's human resource
management decision making process. It helps in designing the human resource strategies in a
way in which company can ensure the most effective use of workforce to fulfill organisation
mission. The main focus of Aldi behind their employee relationship program is to understand the
issues which are affecting their employees such as pay and benefits, regarding work life balance
and safe working conditions. Following are the elements of employee relationship which
influence the HRM decision making in Aldi:
Leadership- Employees of Aldi willing to build meaningful relationship with their
managers. It is very important element of employee relationship as it is a vital predictor of
employee commitment. The relationship of employees with their manager decides that they are
going to work in particular firm or not.
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Communication- A good employee relationship ensures positive environment at work
and also useful for the workforce to achieve set targets at a faster rate. It engages managers and
employees with each other through clear communication (Armstrong, 2014).
Employee satisfaction- Measuring the satisfaction level of employees is important
function of employee relationship. It is useful for HRM decision making of Aldi as employee
morale and engagement with work can be maximize.
Performance management- A healthy employer-employee relationship plays very
important role in implementing and developing the performance management system. Human
resource department of Aldi can prepare a performance appraisal program which will achieve the
need of the work force (Locke and Latham, 2013).
Reward and recognition- Employee relationship will help the human resource
department of Aldi in recognizing the hard work of employees. It will support the decision of
providing reward to the employees on the basis of their performance.
Personal and professional growth- Employee relationship also provide opportunity to
employee for develop new skills and capabilities. It will help the human resource management in
deciding that which employee require the training and in what area.
Safety- Aldi have to make sure the safety and health measurement at workplace.
Encompassing necessary safety measures in organisation is an integral part of human resource
management (Nyberg and et.al, 2014).
P6: The key elements of employment legislation and it impacts on HRM decision making
The employment protection legislation consists with various employment protection
measures. The area of human resource management has great impact and shaped by the federal
and state laws which are governing employment issues. The United Kingdom labor law, which is
Employment Rights Act 1996 is ensuring that each working person have minimum charter of
workplace rights.
The laws and regulations govern most of the aspect of human resource management such
as recruitment, development, placement, compensation etc. The human resource professionals of
Aldi must have the knowledge about existing federal, state and local employment laws which is
applicable on their business. As per the Civil Right Act of 1964 human resource managers need
to protect all the employee from the discrimination based on sex, age and race.
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The one of most important term which accompanies the employment relationship is that
employer of the organisation have to provide safe system of work. As per the factories act and
labor legislation HR managers need to manage minimum standard at workplace which consist
cleanliness, ventilation etc. According to the Fair Labour standards act the minimum wages of
workers is fixed. The HR professional requires to continuous verification of the amount paid to
employees. As per the stated regulation it is the responsibility of company to paid employees for
overtime and worked over 40 hours in a week. The Federal family and medical leave act allows
employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a year for several circumstances such as
health related problem of employee and their spouse or child. It is the responsibility of HR
professionals to calculate the appropriate time for leave (Gelens and et.al, 2013).
TASK 4
P7: HRM practices in a work-related context for Aldi
Aldi has the realization that people are the main element to every success. Company has
focuses upon efficient HRM practices for the purpose of delivering industry leading training
package. Moreover, the workforce of Aldi is motivated and the recruitment process is
responsible for selecting the candidate with can-do attitude. For the purpose of career
progression, the HR professional of Aldi using internal promotion approach so that the level of
motivation can be maximize within the workplace (Phillips, 2013).
Aldi major focus on the betterment of the employees and implementing the effective HR
system within the company. Aldi is also first retail organisation which allows paid maternity
leaves for their employees. Furthermore, firm has the highest pay scale as compare to other retail
organisations. Aldi is determined towards achieving the higher level of operational efficiency,
for this they develop human resource strategies that would allow the company to operate in more
efficient manner. The human resource of organisation is accountable to forming the HRM
strategies that would be aligned with company's competitive strategy.
The major human resources initiatives within the company is totally based on HR centric
strategy. The strategic human resource management (SHRM) is playing a vital role in Aldi. A
main competitive advantage for any industry is including efficient human resource management
within the enterprise. Human resource in the organisation is playing a more strategic role by
supporting daily business activities. In addition to this, the strategic human resource management
is focusing upon the corporate strategy of Aldi rather than supporting administration and
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operational activities. SHRM is also helping company to maintaining the operation cost low by
relying on their workforce. The HR professional of the firm knows that how to have right people
on the right position so that the organisational objectives and goals can be achieved.
Following practices are involves in Aldi's HR framework:
Managing the work environment- The human resource professional of Aldi is keeping
the employees in small work environment so that they can feel their own importance.
Rewards and Recognition- Aldi provide recognition to their employees on the basis
individual and team. Rewards also distributed to employees for their extraordinary efforts.
Compensation policies of the enterprise formed for providing competitive salaries with superior
benefits to employees.
Talent and career management- The HR professional of company keep the management
structure simple so that they can provide ample of opportunities to their employees. Aldi is using
360-degree feedback mode for the purpose of performance assessment.
Recruitment- The approach which is use by the HR professional at the time of
recruitment is getting the best people. Individual with high motivation, skills and can-do attitude
are prefer by the organisation (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that, human resource management is an
important factor because the performance of an individual within the organisation is depend on
the work environment and culture. In addition to this, the managerial, operative and advisory
function of HRM are playing integral part in managing the workforce. The practices which are
performed in HRM are beneficial for the company and provide competitive advantage.
Furthermore, the human resource professional of enterprise has to be careful about the
employment legislation for the smooth functioning of company. In the end, it can be concluded
that an organisation cannot survive for a longer period without the proper use of human resource
practices.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F. and Paauwe, J., 2014. Talent management: Current theories and
future research directions. Journal of World Business. 49(2). pp. 173-179.
Alfes and et.al, 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices,
engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international
journal of human resource management. 24(2). pp. 330-351.
Anderson, V., 2013. Research methods in human resource management: investigating a business
issue. Kogan Page Publishers.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Armstrong, P., 2014. Limits and possibilities for HRM in an age of management accountancy.
New Perspectives On Human Resource Management op. cit. at. pp. 154-166.
Boella, M. and Goss-Turner, S., 2013. Human resource management in the hospitality industry:
A guide to best practice. Routledge.
Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. Eds., 2017. Policy and Practice in European Human Resource
Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor & Francis.
Budhwar, P. S. and Debrah, Y. A. Eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Farndale, E. and Kelliher, C., 2013. Implementing performance appraisal: Exploring the
employee experience. Human Resource Management. 52(6). pp. 879-897.
Gelens and et.al, 2013. The role of perceived organisational justice in shaping the outcomes of
talent management: A research agenda. Human Resource Management Review 23(4). pp.
341-353.
Hoque, K., 2013. Human resource management in the hotel industry: Strategy, innovation and
performance. Routledge.
Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human
resource management. Academy of Management Annals 8(1). pp.-56.
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.
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Locke, E. A. and Latham, G.P. Eds., 2013. New developments in goal setting and task
performance. Routledge.
Marler, J. H. and Fisher, S. L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human
resource management. Human Resource Management Review. 23(1). pp. 18-36.
Nyberg and et.al, 2014. Resource-based perspectives on unit-level human capital: A review and
integration. Journal of Management. 40(1). pp. 316-346.
Phillips, J., 2013. PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides).
McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). 67.
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.-14.
Shields and et.al ,2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices,
Strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Online
Human Resource Management, 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.managementstudyguide.com/human-resource-management.htm>. [Accessed
On : 26th June 2017].
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