Role of HR Function within Marks and Spencer

This report discusses the role of HR function within Marks and Spencer, including recruitment and selection strategies, talent management approaches, and the importance of HR systems and procedures in achieving business objectives.

HRM Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Role of HR Function within Marks and Spencer.............................................................................3
Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection Strategies...................................................................6
Approaches of Talent Management.................................................................................................9
Explore HR systems and procedures and how it helps in achieving business objectives..............12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a procedure of managing people efficiently and effectively
as they help in gaining competitive advantage and makes business profitable. The Human
resource management is one of the functions of Organisation that focuses on improving the
performance and efficiency of employees so that they can give better output while working.
They play an important role in Company as they hire, motivate and maintain the workforce. The
Human resource manager of Firm deals with various issues and problems related to Staff such as
compensation, hiring, communication, training and administration (Reina and Scarozza, 2021).
Main role of Human resource manager is to manage the life cycle of Staff and administer the
employee benefits. HR is important in Organisation as they develop, reinforce and focus on
changing the culture of Firm. For becoming the successful human resource manager in
Organisation it is important to have a few skills that help in managing people effectively such as
communication skills, organisational skills, training and development skills, budgeting skills,
decision making and empathetic skills (Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow, 2016). The Objective
of human resource management is to define organisational structure that increases the
productivity of business, developing effective communication and coordination within Company
and embracing ethical developments. The report is based on human resource management which
includes the role of human resource function within Organisation, effectiveness of recruitment
and selection strategies, approaches to talent management and Human resource system and
process in management is examined. The Chosen Company for accomplishing the report is
Marks and Spencer; it is a British Brand that sells clothes, food product and home product at
their own label. The Firm was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884 and
headquartered in London, UK.
Role of HR Function within Marks and Spencer
There are various human resource functions which are performed by HR Manager in
Organisation in order to run the business and manage the workforce effectively and efficiently.
The human resource manager performs various roles and responsibility in Marks and Spencer
they focus on recruiting and selecting the candidate that can contribute their best efforts in
Organisation. The role and responsibilities are not limited to only recruitment and selection there
are many other functions which are played by HR within Company they are as follows:

Recruitment and Selection:
It is one of the functions of human resource manager within Marks and Spencer; they
look out the top talent according to their expectation and select the suitable applicant by
matching their qualification with expectation. Recruitment is a process of inviting fresh and
talented candidate by assessing their CV and Resume whereas Selection is an activity of hiring
the people by offering job letter so that they can be the part of Organisation (Al Ariss and Sidani,
2016). It is important for the human resource manager to hire the right talent that can contribute
their best in achieving the business goals and objectives. The HRM of Marks and Spencer helps
in sourcing and identifying the potential applicant for interview and selection. They take various
test and interview rounds to screen the candidates and analyse the knowledge, skills and wok
experienced which are required in job position.
Employee training and development:
Training and development is another function which is performed by HR Manager within
Organisation. It is the responsibility of human resource manager to organise training and
development program for their employees in order to improve their skills, abilities and
knowledge so that they can give their productive outcomes. Training and development is one of
the important functions of human resource manager as they have to ensure that their employees
must get right development which helps in improving their growth and development
opportunities. When new employees are hired in Marks and Spencer, HR ensures that they must
get training so that they can perform their task efficiently. It helps in increasing the efficiency
and productivity of employees that results in better business of Organisation.
Compensation and Benefits:
Compensation and benefits is important function of human resource management as it is
necessary to pay Staff well amount in order to make them happy and comfortable while working
in Organisation. The Human resource management of Marks and Spencer formulates the
attractive benefits and compensation packages to grab the attention of more and more employees
without disturbing the finance of Firm. The main objective of Compensation and benefits is to
offer fair and equitable remuneration for employees. The HR departments frame the policies and
guidelines in order to provide compensation and benefits to employees.
Employee Performance Management:

It is also a HR function within Organisation in which they ensure that Staff must give
better output in order to achieve the goals and objectives of Company. The Human resource
department of Marks and Spencer focuses on the performance of employees, teams and
Organisation. It is the responsibility of HR to measure the performance of Staff and gain
information about their contribution within Firm so that they can action and make a report of
each employee’s performance. The Human resource department provides right training and
education to improve the performance and efficiency of Staff (Barrena‐Martinez and et. al 2019).
They also conduct performance review monthly or quarterly in order to discuss the positive and
improvement areas of employees.
Managerial and labour relations:
Managerial relation is another function of human resource management they ensure that
the workplace must have positive and healthy working environment in Organisation. The
relationship in employment are categorised in two parts they are labour relations and managerial
relations. Labour relation is about maintaining relation between workforce and company whereas
managerial decision is maintaining relationship between various processes in Organisation. It is
important for manager to ensure that there must be healthy relationship between employer and
employee so that they can work collectively and achieve the goals of business. The Managerial
relation must be strong and maintained so that the productivity and efficiency of Company get
increased (Guest and et. al., 2020). By maintaining labour relation workers can give their
productive outcomes and work efficiently in order to become successful in Market.
Employee engagement and communication:
It is also a function of human resource management they ensure that employees give their
productive outcomes and get satisfy with their job. The Human resource department ensures that
their employees must be engage in the business activities and give their innovative ideas in
making business successful. The Highly engaged Staff gives their best efforts in producing
effective ideas and suggestion which results in better productivity and greater employee
satisfaction. In Marks and Spencer, HR maintains a proper flow of communication through
which each and every individual staff know what is going in business.
Health and Safety Regulations:
The Human resource management also integrate the health and safety regulations with
Organisational procedure so that their employees can work with safely in Workplace. It is the

responsibility of human resource department to focus on health and safety of employees by
providing them equipments and other gadgets that can be wear by Staff while working in
Company in order to remain safe (Shanock and et. al., 2019). Due to pandemic, Marks and
Spencer becomes more concern about the health and safety of employees due to which they are
providing training, PPE kit, masks and sanitizer to their Staff so that they can remain safe while
working in Organisation.
Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection Strategies
Recruitment
Recruitment is an activity of seeking out and inviting the candidates for job interview and
shortlist the suitable applicant according to their qualification and experiences. The main purpose
of recruitment is to hire the right person for the vacant job position so that they can give their
valuable and productive output in accomplishing the business goals and objectives. The
Company attracts the job seekers in order to build pool of qualified job searchers. There are few
stages of recruitment they are as planning, strategy development, searching, screening and
evaluation and control. The main objective of recruitment is to determine the upcoming needs
and requirements of Company so that they can sustain in Market for Long run. Recruitment is
further divided into two categories they are internal recruitment and external recruitment.
Internal Recruitment is an activity of hiring candidate within the Organisation which means
filling the vacant job position from existing employee. The Human resource department
advertises the vacant job position internally so that the interested candidate can apply and give
the interview (El-Ghalayini, 2017). External recruitment is a procedure of hiring candidate from
outside the Organisation in search of innovative and talented people with fresh knowledge and
skills. The Human resource manager invites the applicants from outside the company in order to
gain fresh and new employees that can contribute their innovative and productive outcomes. The
Internal recruitment includes transfer and promotion whereas External recruitment includes
advertisements, recommendation, gate applicants, personal consultants, educational institutional
or jobbers and contractors.
Strength of recruitment
Through recruitment process organisation can gain pool of candidate’s resumes from
which they get an opportunity to select the right talent by identifying their qualification and

experiences. Recruitment is a positive process in which people get invited for the giving the
interviews and meet the interviewer.
Weakness of Recruitment
The recruitment process takes time which and also a high cost due to which company
have to invest huge amount to find the right talent from number of application form. Sometimes
human resource manager fails to identify the talented employees due to which they loose the
opportunity to hire top talents (Hoon, Hack and Kellermanns, 2019).
Recruitment Strategies
The recruitment strategy in Marks and Spencer helps in identifying the talents employees
that can give their best output in making business successful.
Hiring right Candidate:
The First strategy of human resource manager is to hire the right candidate in Organisation
that can contribute their skills and efforts in increasing the business performance and profitability
of Company. The main role of human resource management is to look out the talented
employees in Firm so that they can produce their innovative ideas in uplifting the growth of
business.
Look for Multi tasking gene:
The human resource manager looks out the candidate who has ability to perform multiple
tasks at the same time. The Marks and Spencer also seeks the candidate with multi tasking gene
so that they can perform task efficiently and effectively (Acquah, Agyabeng-Mensah and Afum,
2020). Organisations usually demand for the employees that have an ability and capability to do
more than one work at same time.
Use Social Media:
Marks and Spencer also uses social media platforms to find candidate by posting on various
social media platforms. The Human resource manager advertises jobs on social media platforms
and communicates the information with potential candidates.
Selection
Selection is an activity of hiring the candidate for vacant job position and filing the
vacancies in Company. There are various stages of selection in Organisation they are seeking
application, screening & pre selection, Interview, assessment, references and background check,
decision making process and job offer & Contract. The Selection process is important in

Company as it helps in hiring good resources which increases the overall performance of
Organisation. Selection is a negative process as it eliminates the employees by matching their
expectation with candidate’s qualification. There are various methods of selecting the talented
employees in Marks and Spencer which is used by Human resource manager they are CV,
application forms, Interviews, test, group activities and references. The Human resource
department conducts various tests in order to measure the skills and knowledge of Candidate and
identify if they are capable to be the part of Company.
Strength of Selection
The Selection procedure helps in getting the best and suitable candidate for the vacant job
position. It is a cost effective procedure which helps in recruiting the right candidate without
making any bias decision.
Weakness of Selection
The Weakness of selection process is that company have to invest more on employees by
providing them training and compensation so that they get attracted and give their productive
outcomes.
Strategies of Selection
The Strategies of Human resource department of Marks and Spencer while selecting the
candidates are as follows:
Analyse the job requirements:
It is one of the selection strategies which are used by human resource manager, they
analyse the job requirements and assess the need and requirements of employees in Organisation.
The Analysis includes detailed job description, specific roles to perform job, kind of
responsibility need to be taken and the task which is performed by Staff.
Adopt multi round selection:
Marks and Spencer conducts the multi round selection in which human resource manager
selects the candidate if they qualify the multiple rounds (Westerman and et. al., 2020). The Multi
round selection helps in identifying the suitable candidate with effective and efficient skills,
knowledge and capabilities.
Take Decision on Overall Performance:

The Candidates in Marks and Spencer is selected on the basis their overall performance
in each round. The applicant face all rounds and manager gives points on the basis of total scores
the final score is produce and the decision of selecting the candidate is also made.
The Effectiveness of Recruitment and Selection Strategies
The Effectiveness of Recruitment and selection strategy is that company get strong pool
of applicants from which they can identify the right talent and hire the best person in
Organisation that can give their efforts in accomplishing the business goals and objectives of
Company. The Human resource manager can screen the qualification of candidates and align
with the expectation which is set by Organisation. They usually prefers person who are well
qualified and have expertise knowledge so that they can share their knowledge and skills in
making business performance better (Bouaziz and Hachicha, 2018). The right decision of
selecting the suitable candidate can reduce the turnover and increase the morale of employees
while working in Company. The new person recruited by firm brings new approach of working
in Organisation due to which they can helps in increasing the profitability and growth of
business.
Approaches of Talent Management
Talent management is a process of attracting, developing and retaining the employees in
Organisation for long run in order to maximise the profit and growth of business. The Main aim
of talent management is to improve the performance of business by ensuring employees must
give productive outcomes (Flamini, Gnan and Pellegrini, 2020). Talent management includes
various components they are strategic employee planning, talent acquisition and retention,
performance management, career development, learning and motivation, succession planning
and compensation. The main purpose of talent management team is to identify and recruit the
candidate that can help in making business successful. The talent management team in Marks
and Spencer helps in maximising the value of employees in Organisation. The focus on talent
management team is to improve the business performance which helps in resulting better output.
They hire the talented people in Company which helps in preparing business to face the risk and
challenges and also become stronger through which organisation remain competitive in Market.
The Effective talent management team helps in making strong employer brand which helps in
attracting bets and talented employees in firm. The Strategies of talent management includes
hiring top employees and promising specialists and develop them.

The approaches of talent management include developing job description, providing
development opportunities, performance assessments, selection process and effective
compensation. Through these approaches they hire talented employees in Organisation that can
contribute their best in accomplishing the task and objective of Company.
Developing Job Description:
The Organisation posts the job internally and externally by describing the job effectively
and efficiently. The talent manager ensures that they post the right job with valid description and
it must be clear to job seekers so that they can know the actual duties and responsibilities which
they have to perform in Organisation (He and et. al., 2020). It helps in reducing the high
turnover rate as by providing valid information in job description helps employees to know what
they have to do in Company.
Providing Development Opportunities:
It is the responsibility of talent manager to ensure that employees must get effective
development opportunities in Company in order to improve their professional as well as personal
growth. The Talent manager must focus on existing Staff as well as new employees in
Organisation so that they can learn something new and improve the knowledge of Employees so
that they can give productive output.
Performance Assessments:
The Talent manager focuses on measuring the performance of employees and also finds
out their contribution level in Organisation. The Staff also find out the ways through which they
can improve the performance and efficiency and conduct a regular assessment in order to find
out the level of performance in Marks and Spencer. The assessment helps in giving brief
overview of the performance of employees and their work in Company even they also provide a
ways through which they can improve and move forward while giving their best in Firm.
Selection Process:
The Company must adopt right selection process through which they can hire the talented
employees. The right selection process helps in making the decision easier and faster due to
which Organisation can get the talented employees. The Talent manager ensures that the
requirements of the candidates must be met and it must be aligned with the expectation and they
should also check out the references.
Effective Compensation:

It is necessary for Organisation to provide attractive compensation to their employees so that
more and more applicants get attracted towards the compensation packages and willing to be the
part of Company. The Good compensation packages helps in obtaining talented employees due
to which the reputation and brand image of Organisation increases. Marks and Spencer must also
focus on providing good health benefits and additional perks in order to attract and retain
employees for long period.
Talent management Model
The talent management model helps in finding the right candidate and examining the
ways through which company can retain the employees in Organisation.
(Figure 1: Talent Management Model, 2020)
Planning:
Planning is the first step in which the organisation plan for identifying the right talent.
The talent management teams create strategies and make a plan to attract the employees so that
they can maximise the profit and growth of business (Roumpi, Magrizos and Nicolopoulou,
2020). The planning stage includes identifying human capital requirements, developing job
description and proposing workforce plan for recruitment.
Attracting:
Attracting is another step in which talent management team find the best sources of
recruitment and decide whether they have to recruit internally or externally to fill the vacant job

position. To attract the talented employees Marks and Spencer can post on job portals such as
Naukri.com or Timejob.com. They can also post on social network such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
Selection:
Selection is a step in which Organisation hire the candidate according to their education and
experiences. Marks and Spencer conducts various tests and interviews which helps in getting
them right candidate to fill the vacant job position. The Selection process includes scheduling
interviews and written tests and scrutinizing the most desirable candidate for the profile.
Developing:
In developing stage employees are prepared according to the job position and Company so
that they can contribute better outcomes. The developing stage includes carrying out on-boarding
programmes, enhancing skills and knowledge of employees to match the profile and counselling,
educating, coaching, mentoring and job rotation.
Retaining:
It is essential for the Organisation to retain the employees as it requires various cost in hiring
the new candidate for the job profile so better to focus on the existing Staff by fulfilling their
needs and requirements so that they can stay in Company for long run (Jiang and Li, 2019). The
retaining process includes promotion and increments, providing opportunities for growth,
participative decision making, teaching new job skills and identifying the individual efforts and
contribution.
Transitioning:
The main aim of talent management is to transform the employees so that they can achieve
the Organisational vision. The transitioning process includes retirement’s benefits, conducting
exit interviews and succession planning or internal promotions.
Through implementing this model in Organisation the performance of business get increased
as this model helps in determining the planning and ways through which company can retain
employees.
Explore HR systems and procedures and how it helps in achieving business
objectives
Policies, systems and practices of human resource have an impact on attitude and behaviour
of employees towards performance of organization such as innovation, quality and productivity
that ultimately have a positive impact on the performance of Marks & Spencer. The systems of

human resource assist Marks & Spencer to recruit and attract employees who could be beneficial
for the achievement of its pre-defined objectives and goals. As time passes, company grows
towards development and it becomes significant for organization to provide benefits so that they
could be retained in the organization for the longer time duration (Nankervis and et. al., 2019).
There are various policies and systems of Marks & Spencer like Grievance, sickness,
performance management, recruitment and selection, training and development and so on. These
policies and systems are formed to provide support and create satisfaction among employees
towards their job role and responsibility. When employees are satisfied with their job role they
keep their focus and concentration towards achieving goals and objectives of Marks & Spencer.
System of performance management: Performance management is defined as system that
Marks & Spencer use so that managers and leaders could easily evaluate and monitor the work of
employees. It is created with the motive of creating an environment in which employees could
perform effectively and efficiently according to their ability and capabilities. There is positive
impact of performance management on the business operations because it helps in finding out the
gap existing in achieving the pre-defined objectives of company. It helps in ensuring the
expectations of employees and their goals are continuously reviewed so that they could be
fulfilled at right time for achieving objectives of organization. It helps organization to identify
employees who are not performing as per the set standards and then these employees are offered
with training session so that they could improve in their weak areas.
Policy of sickness: Sickness policy is adopted by Marks & Spencer for maximizing attendance
of employees. There are various occasions where employees are unable to perform their duty
because of their ill-health. The motive of policy is to give a clear framework to record and report
sickness absence. This policy makes employees encouraged and motivate towards organization
because they generate feeling that their health is important for the organization and they are also
being provided with salary without any pay cut. It ultimately improves the productivity if
employees towards operations of business and focuses on achieving objectives effectively and
efficiently.
Policy of grievance: This is the kind of policy provided by Marks & Spencer so that employees
could easily raise complaints or grievance arising from their workplace. This policy makes
organization to deal with complaints fairly and promptly. In this employees are able to bring
issues that are sensitive in nature about the environment of work (Wilkinson and Dundon, 2021).

This is the policy that brings confidence among employees that if anything wrong happens they
can take step. This creates positive impact among employees towards achievement of pre-
defined objectives.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is being concluded that human resource management perform
several duties and responsibilities in Organisation and they are consider as an important part of
Company. There are various functions of human resource management which they perform on
daily basis in order to improve the business performance and achieve the goals of Organisation.
They recruit the employees and select the suitable candidate for performing the business
activities and functioning of company. It is important for the human resource management to
hire the top talents that can contribute their skills and knowledge in Organisation due to which
helps in accomplishing the goals. The human resource manager implements various strategies for
recruitment and selection which helps in identifying the best candidate.

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