Human Resource Management Practices at Aldi: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Aldi, a UK-based supermarket chain. It begins by defining the purpose and functions of HRM, emphasizing the importance of employee development through practices like training, rewards, and performance appraisals. The report then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection approaches, including internal and external methods, highlighting their impact on Aldi's operations. It further explores the benefits of various HRM practices, such as performance appraisal, training programs, and flexible working options, for both employers and employees, focusing on increased productivity and profitability. The report also examines the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making and outlines key components of employment legislation and their impact. Finally, it discusses the application of HRM practices within Aldi's work-related context, providing a holistic view of how Aldi manages its human resources to achieve its organizational goals.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1: Purpose and functions of Human resource management.............................................................3
P2: Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.........................4
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3: Benefits of HRM practices within an organisation......................................................................6
P4: Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing productivity and profit of organisation................8
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P5: Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making....................9
P6: Key components of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making.............10
TASK 4...............................................................................................................................................11
P7: Application of HRM practices in a work-related context..........................................................11
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is concerned with developing the interest and working
behaviour of employees with the hope of maximising their contribution towards
organisational goals and objectives. Such development can be made through adopting various
HRM practices which includes training and learning programs, rewards, performance
appraisal etc. ALDI, a UK based supermarket chain which is engaged in providing grocery
products is selected for the purpose of study. The present assignment report includes the
purpose and function of HRM, strengths and weaknesses of recruitment approaches, benefits
of HRM practices, advantages of maintain healthy relationship with employees and
application of HRM practices within an organisation. The role of HRM practices in
increasing organisational profits has been also discussed under this report. All such aspects
are briefly explained under this report with the context of Aldi (Anderson, 2013).
TASK 1
P1: Purpose and functions of Human resource management
Human resource management is usually focuses on finding out the better ways of
improving the skills and knowledge of the employees employed in an organisation.
Therefore, HR manager should required to first conduct research through which they are able
to identify the needs and requirements of their human resource and accordingly make further
corrective actions to fulfil them as quickly as possible within limited period of time. As
thinking for the betterment of employees will directly make profitable impact on the
company’s performance thus it must required for an organisation to improve the performance
level of their employees so as to get maximum contribution from them. Due to this, HR
Manager required to perform several functions which are briefly explained as below:
Recruitment and selection: It is the primary function of HR management to fulfil the
human resource requirements in an organisation through adopting various approaches of
recruitment process and selection. As Aldi is one of the largest grocery retailer in United
Kingdom which deals with large number of customers every day. Therefore it is must
required for an organisation to have sufficient number of employees so as to deal with large
number of customers and make efforts in maximising their satisfaction level. Thus, it is
important for HR manager to recruit and select well knowledge and skilled candidates on the

basis of their experience and communication skills so that they can get effective services
from them (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011).
Orientation: It an effective planning made by HR managers with an objective of
eliminating communication gap between them and employees. It is such a program which
must be conducted by an organisation on regular basis in which the HR manger describes
company’s mission, vision and objectives of Aldi with the hope of getting maximum support
from them. All the policies and regulations are also explained in this program so that
employees can follow such rules while working at workplace.
Creating healthy working conditions: The employees can give their maximum
contribution only when they get a healthy work atmosphere where no barriers and difficulties
are present in the process of performing business activities. It can be done through providing
an effective techniques and proper guidance to the employees so as to overcome the issues
faced by them at workplace.
Training and development: It is one of the types of HRM practices which are
essential to adopt by Aldi in order to enhance the performance level of employees. Dealing
with lots of customers every day is not an easy task thus it is essentially required for an
organisation to educate their employees that how to treat customers and influencing their
buying behaviour towards purchasing their products and services (Cooke and Saini, 2010).
Managing employee relation: In order to maximise the performance level of
employees, it is must required for HR manager to make proper communication and
coordination with their employees and ask them for any suggestions and views in order to
make an effective business decision. This will help manager in maintaining healthy
relationship with their human resource.
P2: Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection is an essential need of every organisation with the help of
which they have attained skilled and knowledgeable employees who contributed their more
efforts in achieving desired goals and objectives. Therefore, HR managers are wholly liable
to fulfil human resource requirements through following different recruitment approaches and
selection. It can be further defined as below:
Recruitment: It is a practice of giving job opportunities to the candidates through inviting
them to apply for the vacant job position offered by an organisation. Such invitation can be

made through giving advertisement in Newspaper, Pamphlets, company’s website etc. Such
recruitment process can be done through internal and external approaches which are
described as below:
Internal approach: Using such approach, HR manager has focuses on recruiting
candidates among existing employees within an organisation thus HR manger no need to give
many efforts in identifying their skills and knowledge. They need to just anise their actual
performance through comparing their past with standard performance and on the basis of
which decision should be made to recruit them to higher position or not. Under this approach,
the existing employees are recruited in the form of:
Promotion and transfer: It is related with giving higher position to employees on the
basis of their past performance in an organisation. As promoting to higher designation will
includes additional roles and responsibilities thus HR manager need to concentrate more on
the capability of employees in order to perform such additional roles in an effective and
efficient manner (Farndale, Scullion and Sparrow, 2010).
Employee referrals: It is also one of the ways of recruiting candidates with the help
of referral given by existing employees. In this, the relatives and family members of existing
employees are giving more priority for the purpose of recruitment so as to strong
commitment of existing employees with an organisation.
Merits:
 No need to advertise the vacant job position offered by an organisation thus saves cost
and time of company.
 Giving priority to existing human resources instead of new candidates who maximises
their interest and working behaviour.
 Retain existing qualified and experienced employees for longer period of time.
Demerits:
 Due to restricting new candidates to apply for the vacant job position, the company
fails to get new and innovative ideas of executing business activities.
 Promoted employees may be over-confident due to which their performance level
may decrease (Huselid and Becker, 2011).
 Conflicts may arise between promoted and non-promoted employees.

External approach: It is such a recruitment approach in which HR managers focuses
on recruiting people outside of an organisation with the purpose of entering new talent and
techniques within an organisation. Aldi is a multinational UK based company which deals in
maximum number of customers which comes from different culture and backgrounds.
Therefore it is important to hire new candidates who are having different cultures due to
which they can easily achieve huge customer strength throughout ht world.
Merits:
 Such recruitment approach is more suitable when an organisation is opening new
outlets in different countries.
 Large number of applicants increases the chances of recruiting skilled and
knowledgeable employees.
 Can compete with rivals through inviting new and fresh talent within an organisation
(Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
Demerits:
 Dissatisfaction among existing employees which make negative impact on their
performance level as well.
 Due to existing employees, the working environment are not enough good for new
employees.
TASK 2
P3: Benefits of HRM practices within an organisation
As every organisation wants to have an effective human resource who are capable to
deal with any complex situations and challenges so as to achieve maximum possible result.
For this, HR manager need to focus on adopting various HRM practices which includes
performance appraisal, training and development programs, flexible working etc. These all
practices plays an important role in enhancing the performance level of employees thus
brings beneficial result to company. It is essential for an organisation who are employed large
number of employee such as Aldi to implement such practices for the betterment of their
employees as their growth and success are depend on the performance level of their human
resource. To motivate and maximising the interest and working behaviour of employees,

adoption of different HRM practices are must. Following are the some HRM practices along
with the benefits to employees and employers (Ployhart and Moliterno, 2011).
Performance appraisal: It is an activity of giving appreciation to the employees after
analysing their past performance with an objective of motivates them to perform better than
before. Such appreciation can be in the form of giving rewards, promoting to higher
designation, incentives etc. which help company in retaining experienced employees for
longer of period.
Training, Learning and development programs: It is essential for every organisation
irrespective of size whether small, medium or large to conduct different programs which
gives support in enhancing the performance level of employees. Such programs include
training, learning programs which increases the knowledge of employees about execution of
different business activities in more effective and efficient manner. Therefore, such programs
should be conducted on regular basis in order to achieve maximum outputs from their
employees.
Flexible working options: It is based on the willingness of employees to perform
business activities in what working hours so that they can give maximum contribution in
achieving desired goals and objectives. HR manager should require to give flexible working
options to their employees through which the employees can work as per their willingness.
For example, some employees want to work on daily shifts whereas some are willing to work
on night shifts.
Benefits to employer:
Increasing profitability: Adoption of different HRM practices maximising the
performance of employees which results in getting profitable outcomes to company. Thus, it
becomes easy for employer to giving direction and guidance to their employees as they are
much qualified and knowledgeable after conduction of training programs (Renwick, Redman,
and Maguire, 2013).
Trustworthy employees: Implementing activities and programs for the betterment of
human resources increases the commitment of employees towards an organisation. It also
help employer in retaining experienced employees for longer period of time thus company
can get valuable contribution from them on regular basis.

Quality products and services: Increasing knowledge of employees about how to
utilising available resources will help company in providing quality products and services at
affordable prices.
Benefits to employees:
Feel motivated: Various HRM practices such as training, learning and development
programs play an important in bringing motivation and self-confidence among employees
due to which their performance level are also improved. Providing appreciation for the work
done by them is also another way of motivating employees to perform future business
activities better than before (Tarique and Schuler, 2010).
Higher promotional chances: Training and development programs enhance the skills
and knowledge of employees about different field areas through which their chances of
getting promotion in company are more. It means the value of employees has been increased
thus can be easily get job without facing any difficulties.
Personality development: HRM practices teach employees how to deal with
upcoming challenges and issues in more effective and efficient manner. Therefore, they are
more capable in dealing with complex situation thus can perform any task in more profitable
manner.
P4: Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing productivity and profit of organisation
Profit is the main objective for which all business activities have been performed within
an organisation. Therefore, to achieve such objective an organisation should required
developing HRM practices and implementing them in more effective and efficient manner.
Such practices play a valuable role in helping company to gain huge profits and productivity.
Through HRM practices, the management are able to assign roles and responsibilities after
identifying the skills and knowledge of employees which results in achieving productivity
and profit. There are several HRM practices which must required to adopt by company to
achieve growth and success in competitive market. Such HRM practices include:
 Training, learning and development programs
 Performance and reward system
 Talent management
 Employee relation
 Career growth and planning

All such practices help in improving the abilities and skills of employees due to which
they are able to perform quality work. This will bring benefits to company in terms of
productivity and profitability (Wagner, 2011). The management of Aldi is required to
understand the important of such practices due to which they give more efforts in
implementing them at workplace on regular basis. As Aldi is multinational retailer company
of United Kingdom which has operated business operations on large scale therefore it should
required for management to maintain healthy relation with their human resources with a hope
of getting maximum support from them in achieving desired goals and objectives. If the
company successfully adopts such HRM practices then it makes good impact on different
sectors such as financial, legal, organisational etc.
TASK 3
P5: Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making
Employee relation: It is an efforts made by management of an organisation to make
good relation with their employees with an objective of gaining maximum support from them
in operating different business functions. It will also help in retaining experienced employees
and commitment with an organisation for longer period of time. It can be done through
resolving issues of employees after identification, providing them an opportunity to take
participate in decision making process, collecting feedbacks etc. It will bring motivation and
self-confidence among employees which results in increasing performance of employees as
well as an organisation (Wright and McMahan, 2011).
Importance of employees relations:
 There are various advantages an organisation can get which are determined as below:
 Maintaining good relation with employees minimising the chances of
misunderstanding and conflicts among employees.
 It is helpful for management in assigning roles and responsibilities through
communicating them regarding their willingness to work.
 It motivates existing employees to work in a team and gives combined efforts in
achieving desired goals and objectives.
 It helps management in creating healthy working environment which makes positive
impact on the performance of employees.

 Maintaining good relation with employees attracts lots of new candidates due to
which they are also show their willingness to apply for the job in an organisation.
 It will overall help company in achieving its desired goals and objectives within pre-
determined period of time.
Therefore, if HR manager of Aldi makes efforts in maintaining good relation with
their human resource then it will bring positive outcome to company. It makes the employees
more trustworthy due to which they can accept additional roles and responsibilities for the
betterment of an organisation. Thus, it is essential for HR manager of Aldi to maintain
healthy relation if they want to achieve success and growth for an organisation.
P6: Key components of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making
Employment legislation: It includes various laws and legislations made by
government of United Kingdom for an organisation operated at such country. The main
purpose of formulating such legislations and laws is to protect employees from any
discriminations and violence in an organisation. Thus, it is the responsibility of management
of Aldi to implement such laws in an organisation in order to run business more smoothly.
Such legislation laws and acts are described as under the following:
Equality Act, 2010: Under this act, the management has given strictly direction to
treat their employees equally and should not be partial on the basis of their position in
company, age, gender, race etc. If any such activity has been done within an organisation
then it will damage the interest and working behaviour of employees which in result
decreases in profits and productivity. For example, during promotion, qualified employees
have been rejected due to not having good relation with the management of an organisation.
Working time regulation act, 1998: Such act states that the managers have no right
and power to stop their employees in an organisation more than working hours as it will
brings disadvantage to company as well. Du ton having any reason, the manager are not
allow to force their employees to work more than the normal working hours. The managers
are also liable to give some time to employees for relaxation in order to reduce their stress
and workload (Human resources. 2017).
Health and safety act, 1974: It is such an act which is made with the purpose of
maintains good health of employees while working at workplace. Sometimes due to
negligence, the employees may indulge in any accidents which affected their health on

adverse basis. Therefore, it is important for management of Aldi to implement safety
equipments such as fire extinguisher in order to protect employees from any hazards and
contribute gives their valuable services to company for longer period of time.
Data protection act, 1999: It is such an act which is made by government with the
purpose of directing company to record and protect their crucial and important data regarding
strategies, customers and employees’ information etc. Such act informs management to store
data in such a confidential way that should not be leaked to outside parties.
Minimum wages act, 1998: It an act which is made to direct management of Aldi to
provide fair remuneration to their workers for the services they get in return. Such act informs
the minimum wages that must be paid by management to their workers who are getting legal
employability of company. This will help in protecting employees from any exploitation.
TASK 4
P7: Application of HRM practices in a work-related context
As employees are determined as the main asset of an organisation thus need to be take
care of their needs and requirements at workplace. It is the responsibility of HR manager to
apply HRM practices in an organisation which play an important role in enhancing the
performance of human resource. At present, the revenue of Aldi has been decreased and
employee turnover has increase which requires from management to adopt an effective HRM
practices at workplace so as to recover from downfall and attaining stable position in
competitive market. Therefore, the managers of Aldi are required to apply HRM practices in
following areas:
Planning of manpower required: HR manager need to identify the requirements of
human resources in an organisation and accordingly make an effective recruitment plans and
strategies so as to attain more skilled and knowledgeable candidates has been employed for
an organisation. It helps Aldi in operating business functions in more effective and efficient
manner (Functions of HRM. 2018).
Decision making: It is the responsibility of HR manager to identify the issues and
problems faced by human resource at workplace so as to resolve them as quickly as possible.
It can be identified through conducting research within an organisation and collecting
feedbacks and suggestions for the employees in order to make effective decisions.

Development and training of employees: Sometimes the employees failed to execute
allotted business activities in an effective and efficient manner due to having less knowledge
and capabilities. Therefore, it is must required for management to conduct training and
development programs for them with a motive of providing an opportunity to employees in
order to develop their skills and knowledge so as to perform different business functions in
better way.
Maintaining the quality of business products: As Aldi deals in providing grocery
product which should be optimum in quality which help in enhancing the standard of living
of people. Therefore, HR management should required to teach their employees through
adopting HRM practices that how to utilise available resources in an optimum manner so as
to produce quality products and services. It will help in attracting large number of buyers to
purchase their products and services.
Performance evaluation: It is must required to identify the actual capability and skills
of employees due to which allocation of roles and responsibilities can be done in proper way.
It can be done through comparing the actual with standard performance which help
management to identify the low skilled and high skilled workers.
Creation of vision or mission: It is important for management to communicate
company’s mission and vision to employees through conducting orientation programs which
brings motivation and self-confidence among them due to which they perform in best
possible way.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that HRM is considered as
valuable department of every organisation which are responsible to fulfil the requirements of
human resource in an organisation. Aldi can achieve growth and success in competitive
market environment when they have skilled and knowledgeable human resources which are
more capable to give maximum efforts in achieving desired goals and objectives. There are
internal and external approaches of recruitment process through which qualified and skilled
candidates has been selected. Maintaining healthy relations with employees are also brings
maximum advantages to company which results in increasing profit and productivity. Various
HRM practices and legislations laws are also required to be implement by management in
order to operate business in more effective and efficient manner.

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