Functions and Practices of Human Resource Management Assignment

Understanding functions and
practices of Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P.1. Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM..............................................................1
P 2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
................................................................................................................................................2
P 3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both employer
and employee..........................................................................................................................4
P 4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity............................................................................................................5
P 5 Importance of employee relation in respect to influencing HRM decision.....................7
P 6 identify key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has on HRM decision..9
P 7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context...........................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the term which is used to describe the formal system
devised for the management of the people within the organisation. The responsibilities of human
resource manager fall into three major areas which are staffing, benefits, employee satisfaction
(Bach and Edwards , 2013). Human resource management deals with the issues which are related
performance management, compensation, development of organisation, wellness, employees
motivation, safety, training and many others. The role played by human resource management in
the organisation is strategic role in managing people as well as the culture of organisation. In this
present report, Tesco Plc is being chosen for assessment. It is a British multinational retail
company in UK. Its headquarters are located in Welwyn, Garden City, Hertfordshire, England,
United Kingdom. It was founded Jack Cohen in 1919. This present report will explain the
purpose and scope of human resources in organisation and it will also evaluate its effectiveness
of key element of HRM.
TASK 1
P.1. Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM.
Human resource management is very important functions of the organisation. It is fact
that none of the organisation can function properly without human resource management. It is
very important that their should be an effective and efficient (Bratton and Gold, 2012). It is
mainly concerned with the efficient utilisation of resources in order to bring better outcome.
They manage people as well as the entire culture at workplace. The human resource management
of Tesco is very efficient and effective. The main purpose of the human resource management
such as-
 The efficiency and effectiveness of the company is improves with the human resource.
 They ensure the positive relationship among the employees as well as employer of the
company.
 The development of the employees is also done by human resource management of the
company.
 Increasing performance of employees to the highest level.
Function of Human Resource Management
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The functions of Human resource management plays a very important role in the
organisation. Here are the function of Human resource management at Tesco plc-
Recruitment and Selection- This is the fundamental function of HRM played by the HR
manager of the company (Bratton and Gold, 2012). It is the systematic procedure of raising the
capability, screening as well as selection potential and qualified candidates based on objectives
criteria for the specified job. It is very important that recruitment and selection of candidates
should be done in a systematic ways so that Tesco can appoint proper human resource within
organisation.
Maintaining Good working condition- This is also one of the most essential functions of
HRM which is played by the HR manager of Tesco. In order to keep the employees motivated
and manage the performance of employees it is very important that their should be a proper
environment of working.
Training and Development- This is also one of the best most essential function of HRM
if the organisation. It is very essential that they should provide proper training and development
opportunities to employees so that the knowledge and skill will be raises and they also feel
motivated and valued for the organisation (CIPD, 2015). The training and development
programmes organized at Tesco are outstanding as employees are highly skilled in the company.
P 2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment method refers to the sources or means by which an organisation meets to the
potential job seekers. Furthermore, these are some ways of creating contacts with the potential
candidates. It is considered essential that the hiring approaches are different from the sources of
recruitment. The methods are as follows:
Internal recruitment :- this type of recruitment can be done through promotions and transfers.
The company i.e. Tesco may also decide to allow current workers to switch from temporary or
part tome positions to permanent or full-time positions. It has been observed that this kind of
method is cost effective and can promote worker's morale. Moreover, it assists company to retain
top talent and decreases employee turnover (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In addition, the
organisation's employees will feel more encouraging and motivated to work and give their best.
Under this method there are various sources of recruitment which are explained below:
 Promotion :- it means to provide a higher position, status, salary and obligation to an
existing employee.
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 Transfers :- it means a change in the place of employment without any change in the
position or status of the worker.
 Internal advertisements :- under this the vacancy is advertised within the firm itself.
Advantages
 This method seems to be very time saving, economical, easy and reliable.
 No requirement of induction training as the candidates are already aware of everything
(Foot and Hook, 2011).
 The morale of the workers is increased & also enhances the connections in the company.
Disadvantages
 A person who is transferred, his/her position will remain vacant.
 There are chances of bias or partiality in promoting or transferring.
External recruitment :- external recruitment method eliminates all those issues of internal
approach but in more expensive way. Different sources of external recruitment are as follows ;
 Management consultants :- this source is utilised for selecting higher level workers as
they act as representative of the employers (Torrington et al. 2011).
 Public advertisements :- the vacancy in the newspaper and internet is advertised by the
personnel department.
Advantages
 Encourages young people with innovative ideas to enter the company.
 Offers broad scope of selection.
 Fewer chances of bias or discrimination.
Disadvantages
 The external approach of recruitment is expensive because of advertisements, etc.
 Time consuming process.
 May not develop loyalty among current managers.
P 3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both employer
and employee
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Functions of human resource are significantly different from HRM practices.
Transnational activities form function, that can be managed easily. Practices are the conceptual
part of HR strategy. Further, it has been found that Human Resource practices are those that
serve guidelines for many HRM professionals. Below are some practices of HRM and their
benefits to both employer and employee:
 Selective hiring :- this is the second best HRM practice that enables Tesco to bring
employees who add value to the company. Human resource manager recruits workers on
the basis of company's mission and workplace culture.
 Compensation :- benefits to employees and compensation are seen together,
demonstrating a comprehensive view of how employers reward their employees.
 Training and development :- another HRM practice is training and development that
includes fresh employee orientation, job skills training, professional development &
leadership training. These activities tend to improve and enhance worker's job skills in
their present position. Professional development support the firm succession planning
strategy making them prepare for potential leaders for higher degree jobs.
Identifying and providing Learning, Training & Development
Benefits for the Employer (Tesco) Benefits for the Employee (Worker)
1. This impart technical knowledge and
enhances the employer's behavioural
skills within the firm.
1. Helps in establishing company's standards,
procedures and guidelines the enables the employees to
know & learn acceptable attitudes and practices within
the organisation.
2. They gain feeling of confidence,
competitiveness and decreases their
stress regarding work.
2.The human resource team make use of trained
employees to develop management plan for changes in
work flow, disasters. The conveyed procedures and
policies make sure that all workers are on the same path.
Further, the organised training programs determined
that correct delivery methods to establish training
material based on staff's needs.
3. The consistency increases in the
performance of the employers.
3. Human resource management services also provide
employees satisfaction, improves the performance of
employees and in turn result is success of the company.
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 Employment security :- the best practice and first in Human resource is employment
security. Employees for company and to achieve its objective hence, to perform all these
operations they get something in return such as; employment security (Atkinson J. 1984).
Making provisions for Flexible working
Benefits for the Employer (Tesco) Benefits for the Employee (Worker)
1. Increase morale 1.Human resource management promotes to positive
behaviour; as a successful company creates a positive
working environment and favourable benefits, through
this practice, employees and employers feel happy and
productive.
2. Improve their behaviour 2. Satisfied employees, encourages them to provide
their contribution to Tesco.
3. Better relation between employer and
employee.
3.Furthermore, knowledge and skills of workers can
raise the firm's competitive advantage.
Managing Performance and Reward
Benefits for the Employer (Tesco) Benefits for the Employee (Worker)
1. To maintain a competitive position. 1. Better participation & performance.
2. Motivate them to perform effectively. 2. Top talents are attracted and retained.
3. Personal growth is fostered. 3. Job satisfaction.
P 4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity
1. Effectiveness at the place of work recognises that workers are the greatest resources for the
company and a critical difference is made in the firm's capability to not merely survive, but to
thrive. The process of making the work environment or setting in which individuals are enabled
to perform to the best of their abilities, is known as performance management. The human
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resource management of Tesco promotes innovative environment and encourages workers for
much better facilities and all these initiatives assist the firm to raise the productivity and profit.
Further, HRM purpose is to maintain good connection with staff at the place of work. Therefore,
this relationship is termed as effective to increase profit and productivity of the business.
Moreover, it has been observed that effective human resource management also enables the
employer to decrease employee's turnover. This is because their turnover can affect the Tesco's
performance. In addition, employee's turnover can raise the cost of human resource department.
Therefore, human resource management at Tesco can raise profits by declining the employee
turnover. It has been also discovered that reducing the turnover of employee can also maintain
the efficient performance of them. Tesco might lose an experienced and well skilled employee, if
any worker leaves the organisation. Only for this reason, Tesco offers its workers with flexibility
to satisfy them and this staff satisfaction further assist Tesco to reduce employee turnover.
2. The key practice of Human resource management is to hire best and skilled employees for
their company. However, this task of recruitment seems to be easy but it is not, as making wise
decision for hiring is a tough responsibility for HR. apart from this, selecting the bet employee
not only means filling the vacant job, it also means selecting a candidate that gives his/her best
towards their job. Employee's participation result in higher profits for organisation as workers
who are entirely engaged may be productive. In Tesco an employee relation program can remove
the potential risks that company might experience if they become involved in proceedings over
unfair employment practices.
2.1 Performance management refers to a procedure of creating a work environment or setting in
which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities.
2.2 There are few major requirements of performance management and that are; first members of
the team should focus on their efforts, second it requires leadership team to focus everyone on
the task, thirdly team needs to define a performance target and so on.
2.3 Performance management motivates employees and boost their level of confidence
2.4 It also helps employers to create sense of fairness.
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2.5 For measuring employee's performance there are 4 main types of metrics; work quality, qork
quantity, work efficiency and organisational performance metrics.
3. There are some steps in employee relation program for resolving worker's issues, delegating
an HR staff member particularly trained to examine complaints to restore the workplace to
wholly functioning machine that generates profits. Furthermore, the decision of outsource HR
function can raise revenue for small businesses through important cost saving. Leadership
development, performance management, and talent management are three key areas in which the
high performance organisation i.e. Tesco differentiate themselves. All these three areas come
under HRM practices which help the company to achieve higher productivity.
4. Methods for evaluating effectiveness of HRM practices
 HR audit :- verifiable data on the human resource management is provided through this.
 Analytical approach :- this method for evaluation of human resource management is the
analytical one that depends upon cost benefit analysis.
 Balanced score care method :- this is another approach that helps to evaluate HR
effectiveness.
P 5 Importance of employee relation in respect to influencing HRM decision.
1. Employees and employer's relationship exist when they work or perform under certain
conditions in return for remuneration. In other words, the workers share a good rapport with each
other and strive hard to realize the goal of the company.
2. Key elements of employee relation:
 Open communication :- there must be a feeling of comfortableness in raising any issue by
employee to an employer. Therefore, communication must be encouraged by employers
by offering input when needed.
 Support :- the responsibility of employers is to provide a kind of support that allows
employees to their job well with access to the proper resources & tools.
 Gratitude :- the best ways to enhance relationship between employees and employers, is
bonuses and promotions, through which employers express their appreciation to team.
3. Importance of employee relation:
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 Work becomes easy if it is shared among all :- it has been observed that, a healthy
relation with employees or peers would make work load easy on other employee and it
further leads to increase your productivity.
 Reduces the problem of absenteeism at the work :- individuals are seems to be more
serious towards their job and feel like coming at workplace daily. They do not go on
leaves through his employees stop being complaining against each other.
 The company becomes a happy place :- if an individual's mind is being full of stress and
tension, then he/she might tend to lose focus. Therefore, their strong relation make them
talk to each other, share feelings, issues and tension automatically decreases. Moreover,
an individual must have someone to whom h/she can share everything to reduce their
stress level.
4. Importance employees involvement:
 Helps to motivate better performance.
 Identify HR issues quickly.
 Helps to develop better products.
5. Importance of employee's rights and discipline:
 Helps to correct the attitude and behaviour of employees.
 Discipline of employees is considered a way of protecting other staff who put their time
& talent at place of work.
 It can deal with issues like absenteeism, tardiness or missing deadlines effectively.
6. Internal factors :
 Level of growth :- company's present and future rate of growth affects the decision
making of HR practices in Tesco.
 Available labour pool :- the key function of human resource department is to keep
adequate staffing levels through planning for workforce. This is one of the internal factor
that affect decision making in Tesco.
 Funds availability :- it is obvious that HR planning must be within budget that enables to
increase profitability. So if, Tesco lacks the financial resources then it may affect
decision making process.
7. External factors :
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 Economic conditions :- due to bad economic conditions of the country, company's ability
to hire talented employees is adversely affected, which in turn affects decision making
process.
 Government rules :- establishment of new workplace compliance standards, company's
human resource section is consistently under pressure to stay within the law.
 Use of technology :- this is reasoned as external influencer as when new techniques are
emerged the HR function start seeing at how to downsize and see for ways to save
money.
P 6 identify key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has on HRM decision
The Employment Right Act :- the act was subsequently amended by the Employment Relations
Act of 1999 and 2003, further, provides a number of contractual rights for employees.
 Entitlement to an itemised pat statement
 national Minimum Wage entitlement
 terms and conditions of work must be in written
 Protection against uneven dismissal at workplace.
The Gender Discrimination Act, 1975 :- the act was established in 1975 that protects workers
against any discrimination on the basis of gender, for example:
 during job advertisements
 at the time of selection for jobs
 in promoting workers
 providing training and career development opportunities
There are also some conditions in which the Act does not apply in relation to Genuine
Occupational Qualification. Moreover, as an example is that it is termed as to be lawful to
advertise for a male's lavatory attendant, or for actress to play a female part in a film.
The Equal Pay Act. 1970 :- the act was introduced in 1970 state that both men and women
should be paid equally. In other words, women and men should receive the same amount of wage
for doing the similar type of work and also ranked as being of the same value.
The Race Relation Act , 1976 :- there are many organisations that perform or act as partially or
in biased way towards their employees on the basis of race relation. Therefore, this act was
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established in 1976, which makes discrimination on basis of race illegal, likewise to the the
gender discrimination Act.
The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 :- this act is implementable only to those firms who
employee more than 20 people. They need to accommodate the requirements of the disabled and
introduce right of access for the disabled in transport, higher education and other fields.
The National Minimum Wage Act, 1998 :- the act was resulted from a directive from the
European Union. Britain opted out of specific features of EU employee law. But it has been
observed that with the current labour party coming into authority this altered. In line with the
increase in the cost of living, the minimum wage is also increased every year.
The Employment Relation Act, 1999 :- this act states that workers have to identify trade unions
where at least 41% of those eligible to do so take part in a ballot and majority of those voting are
in favour of union recognition.
P 7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context.
 Recruitment :- this practice of HRM in Tesco is very important task and considered as
one of the major responsibility of the HR team (Armstrong, M. 2014). The major job of
Tesco's HR manager to plan and conduct strategic campaigns and guidelines for
recruiting suitable workers. Apart from this, they also have to serve as a mediator
between employer and the applicant, also convey the company's policies prior to hire
him.
 Training and development :- the HR must know that, not all is done once a personnel is
hired for the relevant job. The major task begins after final selection of an employee.
Training employee, is termed as the major task of Tesco's HR team and it is considered
insistent for the HR section to incorporate a training program for each new worker they
hire based on the skills set required for their work.
 Professionalism development :- this practice of HRM is closely connected with the
training part of HRM. This states the developing of staff members is an added bonus for
the employee as well as the company itself. Therefore, it will be beneficial for Tesco by
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way of worker's added skill set. Which means engaging them in conferences, seminars,
trade shows, etc. and that may be in their personal interest. Hence, this will make
employees feel being valued and an important part of the company.
 Resolving conflicts :- in any organisation there are different kinds of people that work
together and have different of opinions which give rise to conflict at the workplace. The
Tesco HR must be available at the disposal of the conflicting parties and listen the
problem or cause of conflict without being partial or biased.
CONCLUSION
From the overall report it has been concluded that, the scope of human resource
management is very wide. The act is concerned with manpower, planning, hiring, transfer,
promotion, training and development. Further, it also describes the purpose of HRM function
which is to increase the productivity and profitability of the organisation by hiring skilled
workers and providing them training. Further, the report demonstrated strengths and weaknesses
of various approaches to recruitment. Moreover, the report analyse the significance of workers
relation in respect to influencing HRM decision making
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REFERENCES
Armstrong, M. 2014. Armstrong's Handbook Of Human Resource Management Practice.
London: Kogan Page.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Atkinson J. 1984. ``Manpower strategies for flexible organisations``, Personnel Management,
August, pp 28-31.
Bach, S. and Edwards , M. 2013. Managing Human Resources. Oxford: Wiley.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J. 2012. Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 5th Ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J. 2012. Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 5th Ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
CIPD. 2015. HRM. Available on: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-topics/cpd-personal-
effectiveness.aspx. [Accessed on 24/10/16].
Foot, M. and Hook, C. 2011. Introducing Human Resource Management. Essex, England:
Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Torrington, D, et al. 2011. Human Resource Management. 8th Ed. London: Prentice Hall.
Online
Brien, O. P., 2014. Why Strong Employee/ Employer Relationship is Important and How to
Achieve This? [Online]. Available on:
<https://www.business2community.com/strategy/strong-employeeemployer-relationship-
important-achieve-0876781>
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