Strategic Human Resource Management

This report discusses the current trends and developments in HR strategies, the internal and external factors influencing HR strategy and practice. It also explores theories and concepts related to the growth and development of strategic HRM. Additionally, it examines how appropriate change management models support HR strategy. The report concludes with an explanation of how HR outcomes can be monitored and measured, using the example of Marks and Spencer.

Strategic Human
Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Current trends and developments that influence an organisation’s HR strategy...................4
External and internal factors influence HR strategy and practice. .............................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Theories and concepts relating to the growth and development of strategic HRM ...................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Appropriate change management models support HR strategy..................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Explain how HR outcomes can be monitored and measured and apply this to a specific
organisational situation...............................................................................................................9
P6 Discuss and evaluate how effective HR management and development can support
sustainable performance and growth to meet organisational objectives...................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is concerns with the managing of work force and their
issues. Correct and right talent into the organisation enables the company in gaining the
competitive advantage. The human resource department is concern with organising the
recruitment and selection program where they hire the talented candidates which are consider as
an asset for company. It is believed that it is the human resource only which takes the
organisation to next higher level. Human resource department is also responsible for making the
policies and rule regarding the employee. For reference purpose this report has taken an example
of a company, Marks and Spencer (Bhattacharyya, 2018). Marks and Spencer is a British
multinational company which is engaged into selling the clothes apparels, home products and the
food products. The company serves worldwide with a total number of 1467 stores. M&S was
founded in the year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer.
This report discusses about current trends and development in the HR strategies, the internal and
external factors which impacts the tactics and practices. Apart from this the report also discusses
the practices through which the organisation can bring sustainability into their performances. .
TASK 1
P1 Current trends and developments that influence an organisation’s HR strategy.
The external environment is taking its change so fast that any organisation whether big or
small get impacted by these dynamic changes. The strategic human resource management refers
to an activity in which the HR department makes the necessary developments regarding its
human resource, retain them, and helps the organisation in attracting the talented candidates for
the company. The motive of the human resource department is also to integrate the forte of the
employees to the objectives of organisation. The department help the organisation in hiring the
talented and potential forks into their organisation. Because it is believe that it is the human
resource only which can help the organisation in accomplishing their targets or goals (Bouaziz
and Hachicha, 2018). There are various benefits which the organisation gets from HRM
strategies which are, increasing productivity of company, quality improvement, customer
satisfaction level is high, ability to survive in this cut throat competition, decrease in employee
turnover ratios and etc.
The major external impact upon the strategies related to HR are as follows:

Political factor: Political factor are the rules and regulation which are formed by the government
of that region or country. It tells about the degree towards which the government has its control
upon the companies. Some of the factor includes exchange rates, foreign exchange policies, trade
restrictions, corruptions and the like. The employees of the company M&S do gets impact by the
trends and development which is running currently into the market place. The company make
and frames policies which have been decided by government. The company's rules and
regulations are in regard with that only (Huselid and Becker, 2018). Different regions or
countries have various regulations which is obligatory upon the company to follows if they want
to operate into the market.
Technological factor: The technological factor includes the level of technological awareness
and advancements into the company or in economy. The company M&S is looking out for the
technology for which they can reduce their wastages and can perform more work through the use
of effective technology. As the company believes in bringing advancements into their
technology, they have to plan the needs for human resources accordingly.
Generic strategies of HR are the approaches or the tactics which are used by the human
resource department for integrating the goals and objectives of both, the organisation and the
employees. They do so by giving or allotting the employees the work of his own interest and
forte. It has been observed that an employee performs the work very effectively when it performs
the work which he likes. Different strategies related to HR generic are:
Acquisitions of talent: In this the purpose of HR department is to hire the employees or the
candidates who have the talents and become the assets for the company.
Reduction for cost: When an employee performs the work of her own interest he performs it
with full motivation and enthusiasm (Jiang, 2016). This also enables the company in decease in
employee turnover ratio as the employees are happy in performing the work of their interest.
External and internal factors influence HR strategy and practice.
Followings are the external factors:
Workforce diversity: Bringing the work force diversity is very much essential for ever business
now a day. All organisation including, M&S, is encouraging the cultural diversity into their
workforce. They employees the people who belongs to different cultural background. This also
enables the organisation in bringing new and innovative ideas with regard to work. The HR of an
organisation needs to frame policies which encourages the diverse cultures of workforce into the

organisation workings. The employees also feel very much valued that the organisation does
value them and the culture from which they belong. From the diverse work force, the employees
would also get retain into the organisation, their skills and knowledge would remain with the
company only. This is also trend which is very much inn into the market, hence it is considered
as an important strategy into the organisation to practice.
Impact on globalization: Globalization is a strategy in which the integration of resources takes
place. These resources may include human resource, technology, capital, finance, and so on
across the economies. Globalization has bring a drastic change into the working of organisation.
The organisation has to make its policies or the products such that they cater the needs and wants
to diverse market (Kamoche, 2019). In the retail industry the taste and preferences of the
customers get change within a short period of time. The company has to cope up with these
changes so that they can cater the required market with the products and service which they
need. To meet these dynamic changes which are prevailing into the market, the company has to
hire or employees the work force who has the ability to cope up with these changes. Such
employees need to form the strategies in such a way that the company, M&S, survives and stand
strong into the market place.
The followings are the internal factors:
Changes in the requirements of knowledge and skills: With the changing time, the
requirements of the organisation with regard to employee skills also get change with time. To
meet this demand to the current trend into the skills the company has to employee those
candidates who posses such skills in them (Knies and et. al., 2017). Also for the current
employees, the organisation, M&S brings some expert who can deliver the training and
development sessions to the employees so that they can bring the necessary skills and knowledge
in them.
Bringing improvements: The human resource of the company is also responsible for filling the
holes which are present into the company's employees. They fill the hole by employing the
employees who are talented and can be prove as an asset for the company. The same applies with
M&S where the company has to fill the holes by employing the candidates who have talent in
them and can increase the productivity level of an organisation.

TASK 3
Theories and concepts relating to the growth and development of strategic HRM
Some of the theories are as follows:
Personal theory of management: This theory focuses upon recruiting and retaining the talented
and satisfied workforce into the organisation. They do so by selecting the employees who has the
interest in performing the task for which the vacancy the organisation has released. At the
interview session only the HR specifies about the job role and responsibility and how these roles
would help the candidate in attaining his professional goals. When the goals of the employees are
aligned with the goals of the organisation then ultimately the employee would get retain into the
organisation resulting into decrease in employee turnover ratio (Nishii and Wright, 2017). This
also brings the healthy environment into the work place.
HR management theory : The human resource management theory is concern with the
reattainment and management of the talented work force. The company, M&S, attains by
through managing properly the work force working into the company. The company provide the
timely appreciations and appraisals to the employees, they also keep an account for the employee
performance which can be used at the time of making decisions. These decisions may include
promotions decisions, decisions related for providing the training and development sessions and
so on. The HR department can retain the employees by providing the growth to them on a timely
basis. They provide the increment into their salaries, increase the position which they have
acquired into organisation and so on. These things keep on increasing the motivation level of the
employees and provides them the reasons to retain into the organisation.
Theory for Strategic HRM: Through this concept the organisation tries to integrate the culture
of different employees to the culture of organisation (Rees and Smith, 2017). The organisation
frames the actions for the employees according to the cultures. This enables the organisation in
accomplishing the goals and objectives at the specified time only.
Talent acquisition: This theory focuses on maintaining the talents work force from different
sources like campus recruitments, references made by employees and so on. This would help the
organisation in attaining the required workforce in a short period of time.
Cost reduction: The HR strategy of an organisation should be such that it reduce the cost related
to the personnel in the possible way. The strategies like attaining the workforce, maintaining

them, cost related to organising the recruitment and selection program and etc should be such
that it reduce the cost for organisation.
Talent improvement: The talents of the employees can get improve through organising the
effective and efficient training and development program of the employees. Through the proper
conducting of training and development program the employees would feel valued that the
company is putting so much value into them. The training and development program helps the
employees in developing the specified skills in them which is in accordance to the current
demand (Richard and Johnson, 2017).
TASK 3
Appropriate change management models support HR strategy
A change management model which was initiated by Kotler in his book, published in the
year 1995 as taken as an important model to get followed. The model has been called by Koltler's
8 step model. This model has a total of 8 steps, which are as follows:
Increase urgency: At this stage the organisation develops an urgency to bring change into the
system. They create the urgency through the identification of possible threats and examiniation
of opportunities which the change can bring into the system.
Formation of powerful coalition: here the role of leader charges up. In this step the
organisation convince the employees about the need to bring the change (Schuler, 2019) urge to
bring up the change.

Development of vision: At this step, the leader tries to make people understand about the
reasons through which the organisation gets benefits from the change. Here a vision is present
before the employees in which they are shown about how the change would going to benefit the
organisation.
Communication of vision: The vision which has been created by the M&S, now gets
communicate to all the associated people so that they also know the reasons behind bringing the
change. In this session the company communicates about the plan and its benefits to the
audience.
Remove the obstacles: At this stage, the M&S removes all the problems or doubts which
employees has with the new vision. In this the organisation address all the issues or doubts which
the company has in regard to change (Storey, Ulrich and Wright, 2019). A true leader who can
influence the employees needs to make employees understand about th).
Creation of short term wins: In this the company, M&S, creates the short term goals regarding
change to make sure that they are heading into the right direction.
Build on the change: At this step, the organisation analyse its performance at its every win. In
this they analyse where they went right and follows that trend.

Anchor the change: In this the organisation slowly but steadily brings the change into their
system. Slowly that change gets properly establish in the organisation and they becomes in habit
for that.
TASK 4
P5 Explain how HR outcomes can be monitored and measured and apply this to a specific
organisational situation.
In any of the organisation HR plays the most significant role because it is the only way
through which entity can accomplish their goal. Talking about Mark & Spencer, their HR has an
important role within the organisation because they are the one who hires the team in the
organisation that can work in the favourable manner (Storey, 2016). In order to monitor the
outcomes of HR, there are different ways which has been discussed below in detail:
Performance of Employees: The role of employee is always huge within the entity
because they are the one who support in attaining the goals. In context of M&S, the HR
outcomes can be easily determined through the performance of employees because training
which is provided to them is directly reflects the role of HR.
Efficiency of staff: It is easy to determine that how any of the entity needs to work but
the main thing from which HR outcomes can be monitored and measured is through their
performance and efficiency. The efficiency of staff performing within Mark & Spencer will
certainly allow to determine the HR outcomes.
Customers connected with company: In order to determine the outcomes of HR, it is
necessary to check the number of customers which is connected with organisation. Talking about
Mark and Spencer, the list of customers will definitely allow the entity to ensure that they are
able to perform effectively as per the requirement of company.
Revenue generated by company: In any of the entity, role of HR always plays crucial
role because they are the one who helps organisation to accomplish the goals. In order to
determine about the HR outcomes, it is essential for the organisation to check about the revenue
which has been generated by the company.
All of this ways are the effective one because it allows the company to attain their goals
and target but at the same time while monitoring it is necessary to check whether objective of the
company is being met or not (Wright and McMahan, 2016). It is also said that whenever any of

the organisation tries to monitor the HR strategies they can easily determine about the weaker
side where organisation can further improve themselves through which goals can be
accomplished.
P6 Discuss and evaluate how effective HR management and development can support
sustainable performance and growth to meet organisational objectives
In context of business organisation, sustainable performance is very much important
because it is the only way through which organisation can allow themselves to attain their goals
and target. If any of the organisation is able to maintain sustainable growth then in that
respective condition there is high possibilities that company can easily earn higher percentage of
profit. In order to attain sustainable growth in the market, it is necessary for entity to bring new
innovative idea of performing any of the task and in that respective condition there is a huge role
of HR who provides training to employees. Also, HR department can easily help employee to
improve their performance by providing them the ways to perform any of the task. Even it can
certainly allow HR to work on their employees to bring improvement in the skills and
competences of employees which is essential in current scenario (Yong and Mohd-Yusoff,
2016). If an organisation like M&S needs to monitor the activity of employees then there are
some of the tools which has been mentioned below:
Key performance Indicator (KPIs): It is explained as the tool which is essential for any
of the entity in current scenario which simply provides the way through which performance can
be measured. The main purpose of this particular tool is to find out the area where company is
unable to perform effectively. In context of Mark & Spenser, KPI can be the most crucial in that
particular situation where there is high competition in the market. This tool will simply allow
them to find out the way through which they can improve their performance. Bringing
improvement in the performance of company will certainly allow the organisation to accomplish
their goals and target in best possible manner.
Bench marking: It is defined as the organisational practices which mainly done for the
purpose of identifying the process and level which company holds. Here, comparison is required
to be done between the rivalry company so that particular standard can be set by entity where
they wants to reach in specific time period. In context of Mark & Spencer, Benchmarking is
important for them because it will certainly guide them that how they needs to perform so that
their performance can be improved. For example: If Mark & Spencer requires to do comparison

then in that particular situation, there will be the requirement of similar field of company such as
TESCO, Asda and many more. This will help them to enhance their overall performance.
In short, there are different tools in the market which can be used by entity which can
certainly allow them to improve their overall performance. Improvement in performance level is
the only way through which entity can accomplish their goals and target.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that human resource management is quite
important for any of the entity where it becomes essential for entity that their HR should be able
to form proper strategies so that goals can be accomplished. HR department is among one of the
most important department because it helps entity to retain their employees who plays the vital
role in performing any of the task which are essential in attaining the targets. Also, it is said that
it is essential for the HR to take the help of different types of tools through which comparison
can be done as it allow to uplift the performance of employees and organisation both.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhattacharyya, S. S., 2018. Development of a conceptual framework on real options theory for
strategic human resource management. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Bouaziz, F. and Hachicha, Z.S., 2018. Strategic human resource management practices and
organizational resilience. Journal of Management Development.
Huselid, M.A. and Becker, B.E., 2018. Bridging micro and macro domains: Workforce
differentiation and strategic human resource management.
Jiang, K., 2016. Strategic human resource management and organizational commitment. In
Handbook of employee commitment. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kamoche, K., 2019. Strategic human resource management within a resource‐capability view of
the firm. Journal of Management studies. 33(2). pp.213-233.
Knies, E., Boselie, P., Gould-Williams, J. and Vandenabeele, W., 2017. Strategic human
resource management and public sector performance: context matters.
Nishii, L.H. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Variability within organizations: Implications for strategic
human resource management.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Richard, O. C. and Johnson, N. B., 2017. Strategic human resource management effectiveness
and firm performance. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 12(2).
pp.299-310.
Schuler, R. S., 2019. Strategic human resource management and industrial relations. Human
relations. 42(2), pp.157-184.
Storey, J., 2016. What is Strategic Human Resource Management?
Storey, J., Ulrich, D. and Wright, P.M., 2019. Strategic Human Resource Management: A
Research Overview. Routledge.
Wright, P. M. and McMahan, G. C., 2016. Theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource
management. Journal of management. 18(2). pp.295-320.
Yong, J. Y. and Mohd-Yusoff, Y., 2016. Studying the influence of strategic human resource
competencies on the adoption of green human resource management practices. Industrial
and Commercial Training.

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