HRM Report: Analysis of HRM Practices at Aldi (Semester 2)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, focusing on the application of these practices within the context of Aldi, a leading grocery retailer. The report explores the purpose and functions of HRM, emphasizing its role in enhancing employee performance and aligning policies with organizational goals. It examines various recruitment and selection approaches, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, and discusses the benefits of different HRM practices, such as conflict resolution, training and development, and employee relations, for both employees and employers. Furthermore, the report assesses the effectiveness of HRM practices in terms of organizational profit and productivity, highlighting the positive impact of proper implementation. The importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making is also discussed, along with key elements of employment legislation and their impact on HRM. The report concludes by illustrating the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples from Aldi's operations. The report covers topics like recruitment, selection, training and development, employee relations, and the impact of HRM on organizational success, providing a well-rounded overview of HRM principles and their practical application within a real-world business setting.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ..........................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM.....................................................................1
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................4
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation .............................4
P4 Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of organisational profit and productivity
.....................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P5 Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making...........6
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making
.....................................................................................................................................................7
TASK 4 ......................................................................................................................................8
P7 Illustrate application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples
.....................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................9
..................................................................................................................................................9
..............................................................................................................................................9
....................................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
` Human resources management refers to managing people. This concept is design to
increase employees performance. Human are the main concern of an enterprise. Every
organisation need to mange its human resources properly so that they can achieve their goals
effectively (Hendry, 2012). There is separate department in an organisation which look after
these activities such as recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal. Behind
every unique product and services there is human mind, efforts and his hard work. No product
and services can be produce without human efforts. So firm need to handle these resources in
effective manner.
The company which is taken into consideration is Aldi. Aldi is one of leading grocery
retailers in UK. The company is having its operation in many other countries also. The market
share of an enterprise is very high. Company is private owned country and having its stake
holders such as suppliers, customers, employees, and communities. The vision of company is to
revolutionize grocery industry with unique business models. Mission of Aldi is to provide top
quality product at lower prices.
In this report function and purpose of HRM has been discuss in this report. Different
approaches of recruitment and their strength & weakness has been mention in this project.
Benefit of HRM practices and its effectiveness is mention in assignment. Various legislation and
their impact on business decision making.
TASK 1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM
The main purpose of human resources management is to ensure that all employees
perform their duties so that company can achieve its goals. Management should place right
person to the right job so that employees can perform in effective manner. Its help worker to get
motivated to do their work in their full dedication manner (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). HRM
ensure that all the policies should be design in way so that they aligned with organisation
mission.
Role of human resources management
Employees of company carry out many important activities. HR professional and manger
are responsible to organize people so that they can perform these activities in proper manner.
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Looking at people assets and do human capital management. Following are the roles of human
resources management.
 Collaboration: HR professional and manger work to together so that they can develop
employability skills (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). They need to assign workers
different roles and responsibilities. These professional do rotation of employees so that
they can work in every field. This help workers to become flexible in nature.
 Commitment building: HR professional design many strategy so that commitment of
employees can be increased in an organisation. This can be done by matching candidate
profiles with right job position according to their qualification. When employee is
committed with job they are challenged by their manager throughout year. Building capacity: HRM team help to build capacity of employees so that they provide
unique product and services to their customers. It is not about hiring people. Enterprise
help them to grow and stay committed with company for longer run.
Functions of HRM
HRM is all about increasing employees performance. Since in every organisation there
are many people so that human resources department need to develop their skills, motivate them
to ensure that they maintain their commitment with an enterprise. Following are the some of the
functions of HRM.
 Recruitment and selection: Recruitment and selection is process by which company
choose its potential candidates. The goals of this process to attract more applicants
and encourage them to work with enterprise (Daley, 2012). This procedure is very
important for each and every organisation because if firm recruit people again and
again it can increase cost of business unit.
 Orientation: There re many enterprises who do not provide orientation to their new
employees. But it is important to give orientation as employees get familiar to
business environment and they get chance to know each other. In orientation
company present its vision, mission and objectives. They help help employees to
achieve their long and short term goals.
 Maintaining good environment: Human resources need to provide good environment
to its employees so that they engaged with company for longer time.
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 Maintaining employees relation: It is a wider concept and very important function of
HRM is to build strong relation with employees. This can influence behaviour of
worker and they work in more effective manner.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
There are variety of approaches of recruitment and selection. Different enterprises choose
different approaches according to their needs. Company can choose two or approaches at one
time (Bratton and Gold, 2012). This help to do effective recruitments. Some of the approaches
are give below.
 In house recruitment: This approach is used when company wants to recruit people
inside the organisation. This process is cheaper one as company need not incurred high
cost. The main advantage of this approach is employees are already familiar with firm
environment. Disadvantage of this approach is firm get limited applicants and they are
not attracting new talents.
 Outsourcing: Most of time company is not able to perform all activities. For this reason
they outsource employees for other regions. The main advantage of this approach is
company get expertise who are wide range of knowledge and skills. Outsourcing
expertise risk management which minimize company risk factor. The main
disadvantage of this approach is there is lots of hidden cost which enterprise need to
bear and there is lack customer focus in this model.
 Employment agencies: There is another approach is recruit candidates by
employment agencies. These agencies are engaged in recruiting people and send those
candidate to company (Guest, 2011). By this the time of enterprise can be save.
Employment agency has responsibility to send proper candidate for particular profile.
These agency have pool of candidate so that they have wider range to choose most
talented employees for company. The strength of this approach is these agencies are
expertise in there field. They provide great help to an enterprise. Main weakness is they
are many candidate to handle so candidates issues are not properly solved. Sometime
these agency try to push people for job for which they are not suitable.
Internal and external methods are used for recruiting people but they are having their own
weakness and strengths. But these are suitable for company. In context to Aldi company is hiring
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people by external mode. They give advertisement in their website by which candidate can
directly apply to their desire jobs. This approach is cost effective and take less time.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation
Both employees and employers get benefit from HRM practices. These practices are
performed by manger. HRM practices involved performance management, hiring, firing, training
payroll and employees administration (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). These activates gives
benefits to employees and employers both. Following are the benefits of HRM to employees.
 Conflict resolution: HRM help management to resolve conflicts in enterprise. Whether
conflicts is between employees or management and employees. It resolve every kind of
problem. There is rules and policies in which appropriate behaviour of employees has
been mention. Employees need to look after it carefully and follow it. It helps to solve
matters like poor attitude of subordinates. Wrong language and other disrespectful act
take place in company. HR solve these conflicts and try to build strong relation
between employees.
 Training and development: Another benefit for employees is they get training and
development to enhance their skills and knowledge. Manger decide appropriate
training methods so that they can achieve training objectives and goals. It gives
opportunity to workers to improve their performance. It develop good career track.
 Employees relations: Employees those who think that they are discriminate and harass
in an enterprise (Wright and McMahan, 2011). They can contact to HR department for
such situation. There are different law which deal with these matters. HR try to
understand both side problem and if any situation take place they follow company laws
and take action accordingly.
 Information resources: HR has great responsibility to provide accurate information to
their workers. If worker is not getting answer its subordinate they can directly ask
question to HR department. The information regarding to benefits, leaves, employment
programs and issue related to compensation are address by HR head.
Benefits to employers
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 Building flexible workplace: Employer get flexible workplace where they can work
according to their wish. They have right to take their decision which is suitable for
particular situation.
 Motivating workers: Manger can maximize employees performance by motivating
them (Storey, 2014). For this reason employers need to promote to that they can
mange their work effectively. If HRM practices are properly implemented it has
positive impact on company.
 Promoting positive behaviour: Employers get positive working environment and by
this they get benefits through HRM practices. This keep employers happy and
productivity. This motivate employers and employees so that they perform in
effective manner. Good performance give employers reward which influence their
behaviour.
According to Aldi conduct training and development, recruitment, appraisal practices in
an enterprise these practices has positive impact on employees and employers. These both get
different benefits from these activities.
P4 Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of organisational profit and productivity
HRM practices has great impact on profits and productivity of firm. When Aldi is hiring
candidate they properly match their skills and abilities with desire job profile. By this right
person can get right job (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). Individual get interest as they
are getting training and chance to learn different concept this may tend to increase their
productivity. This practices has impact on bottom line by improving their effectiveness. If
employees of company are improving their performance they serve better to their customers by
which enterprise earn more revenues.
When employees conflicts are solved by management their coordination improves by
which operation activities can be done in smooth manner. If all HR practices are done in proper
manner stake holders get satisfied if they get satisfied profits can automatically increases. If
employees are getting good training and their motivation level are high in that case productivity
improves.
Company also have advantage of cost cutting when enterprise is hiring employees they
need to retain them so that they do not leave job. All these human resources practices help
employees to engage with firm because they are able to achieve their personal goals. In context
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to ALDI all human resources practices give opposite results to enterprise. As their employees
highly qualified and experienced they try to serve their customer in best possible manner. This is
one of the reason that firm is earning high revenues and this give exposure to expand their
business in other countries (Alfes and et. al, 2013). Aldi conduct different training program in
regular manner so that employees performance should be maintain. Workers are sharing their
knowledge and skills with each other by this they can earn new techniques and methods.
TASK 3
P5 Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making
Maintaining healthy relation between employees is very important for every enterprise.
This tend to give success to an organisation. Strong employee relation tends to give customer
satisfaction and improve productivity. This concept generally deal with avoiding and resolving
issues which might arise due to certain scenarios. This gives healthy and safe working
environment. Manger can establish strong relation with its workers by giving them appraisals,
incentives, motivation and by communicating them properly. Healthy relation leads to increase
productivity and increase their productivity and improves performance. By this sales can be
improves. Employees relationship influence on HRM decision as they make strategy accordingly
and try to solve problems occurring in an enterprise (Jabbour and et. al, 2013). There are
different strategy which management can make according to situation.
Good employees relation help workers to feel positive about their job and environment in
which they are working. There is situation where employees and management relation hampered
so enterprise need to look after it and take appropriate actions. In Aldi make decision by over
look relation of employees and management. Company always ensure that they build strong
bound with their employees so that any problem should not take place. There are many session
take place in which employees get chance to interact with other staff and all of activities took
place. These activities help them to understand each other and get familiar. Following are
benefits which company gets if their employees relation are strong.
 Productivity: Strong relation create pleasant atmosphere which increase employees
motivation and also improve their morale. By this company may experienced high
productivity and increase in productivity tends to get more revenues.
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 Employee loyalty: Motivating employees and good working environment can effect
on workers loyalty. Having such loyal employees can improves retention. It reduce
cost for company. They need not hire candidate again and again. There are many
companies those who are facing high employee turnover by this loyalty turnover can
be reduce.
 Team work: When there is less conflicts and proper understanding is there between
workers this can leads to generate team work. Employees are working in team and
maintaining proper coordination (Kehoe and Wright, 2013). By this task can be
completed on given time.
 Conflict reduction: When employees are getting friendly environment chance of
conflict can be reduce at workplace. Less conflicts tends to employees concentrate in
their task and complete it in an effective manner. This lead to increase productivity
and profits.
Aldi is having its major focus on their human resources practices they involve their very
workers while taking decision in every field. Company always try to maintain relation with their
employees so that employees feel free to share their problem with management.
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making
Every country is having its own legislation. These law can impact on human resources
management. Employees are affected by these laws. Some of the elements are as followed.
 Anti discrimination: This laws tells that company should not recruit employees on basis
of race, colour, sex and national origin. Enterprise should hire candidate who is having
potential capability (Flamholtz, 2012). This regulation is applied on when company is
having 15 or more than workers. Enterprise cannot refuse to hire candidate if he/she is
capable for particular job. There is age discrimination Act in which firm cannot fire any
employees on the basis of their age.
 Wage and hour: There is fair labour Act in which employees minimum wages are
mention which employees are entitle for. HR professional should continuous verify
whether the wages are paid according to standards or not. The workers are entitle to get
paid for their extra hours. HR manger ensure that every employee is classified
according to their job profile. If enterprise is not following these rules they need to pay
penalty and pay back to their employees.
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 Leave provisions: For these there is federal family and medical leave Act which give
authority to employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid leaves in 12 months because of
different circumstances. The situation can be serious health issue of employees, his
child, spouse etc. employees are entitle to have their job protection during their absence
(Ployhart and Moliterno, 2011). HR is responsible top train staff so that they can do
employee work who is on leave.
 Medical and disability: This law concern about disability person and it tell employers
how to treat employees with medical condition. In this company need to provide special
accommodation to these employees so that they can properly perform their duty and
job. Firm should provide facilities in their business premises by which disable person
can have their convenience. Business unit need to take information about workers when
they are hiring them as they are having any genetic problems if such problems are there
they need to over look and develop infrastructure accordingly.
These legislation having great impact on HRM decision making. Aldi need to considered
all these rules and regulation while conducting their human resources activities. Company of all
size try to follow laws in their necessary area to avoid legal issues. When firm is designing
strategy regarding their human resources legal laws is important part of this decision making.
Workers minimum wages, hours and leaves need to take into account while hiring new candidate
(Moutinho, 2011).
TASK 4
P7 Illustrate application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples
In this report company which is taken into consideration is Aldi. There are many HR
practices take place such as training and development, recruitment, appraisals, motivations and
other activities. The main segment of Aldi is to promote their food section. They want to expand
their business world wide. Aldi is hiring people according to their job requirement. They are
having their own recruitment process. They post job vacancy on official website by which many
candidate fill application. There is separate department in Aldi to hire candidate for other
department. Every area of management inform HR department if they need extra people to do
work. Enterprise provide regular trained its workers so that workers can get knowledge about
new product and new technology in market (Batt and Colvin, 2011). This help them to improve
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their productivity. Aldi conduct programs for different field so that workers can find new easy
solution to do task. There is also evaluation of appraisal as been done in which Aldi give
achievement, promotion to its employees (Messersmith and et. al, 2011). Appraisal can be done
negatively and positively. The employees those who are not performing well company give
negative appraisal by fired them or decreasing their salary structure.
CONCLUSION
HRM is important concept for every enterprise. All organisation need to concern their
employees to get success. Employees are major factor those who decide enterprise failure and
success. There are many different practices which comes under HRM. This help workers to
improve their performance and business organisation can earn more revenues. Employees
relation is another important concept comes into picture. Firm make decision according
employees welfare so that they do not face any problems. Management need to establish strong
relation with their workers so that they can understand their needs effectively. While planning
for human resources legal legislation take place which business unit need to follow so that
equality should be maintain and very work get same treatment and opportunity.
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