Human Resource Management Practices in Aldi: A Comprehensive Analysis

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HRM
Human Resources Management
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HRM
Executive Summary
The current report analyses various aspects of HRM in context of prominent retail company
Aldi. In the first section, the roles and responsibilities of HR functions are mentioned. The
strength and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection strategies are presented. The
functions of HR in Aldi are outlined. In the second section, the ideology of employee
engagement, flexible work and employee relationship are analysed. In the third section,
SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Aldi is presented. In addition, the impact of legislation on
HR policies is outlined. In the last section, implementation of HRM practices in a work-
related scenario is presented.

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HRM
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................5
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................5
LO1: Description of purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in context of
resourcing the organization........................................................................................................5
Overview of Aldi....................................................................................................................5
Explaining purpose and functions of HRM............................................................................5
Three important functions of HRM........................................................................................6
Roles and responsibilities of HRM and their functions..........................................................6
Ways roles and functions help in enhancing skills and talents..............................................7
Assessment on the functions of HRM regarding provision of talent and skills for business
objectives................................................................................................................................8
Strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches.........................8
Strength and weaknesses of requirement and selection in ALDI.........................................10
LO2: Evaluation of effectiveness of key elements in HRM....................................................10
Explaining the benefits of various HRM measures for employer and employee.................10
Evaluating effectiveness of several HRM practices in context of profit and productivity. .11
Exploring various HRM methods used within ALDI...........................................................11
LO3: Analysis of internal and external factors affecting HRM...............................................11
Analysing importance of employee relation regarding decision making by HRM..............11
Identification of elements within employment legislation and its impact upon decision-
making..................................................................................................................................13
Evaluate the main aspects of employee relation management and employee legislation....13
Employee connections and the rules....................................................................................14
Task 2 (Portfolio).....................................................................................................................15
LO4: HR management in the work-related context.................................................................15
Job description......................................................................................................................15

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Person specification..............................................................................................................16
CV for a customer service assistant......................................................................................17
CV for a security officer position.........................................................................................17
CV for a driver......................................................................................................................18
Job offer to the candidate.....................................................................................................18
Rationale for the application of HRM practices...................................................................19
Conclusion................................................................................................................................21
References................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
Human resource management (HRM) forms to be an inevitable part within the commercial
scenario as it helps in fulfilment of objectives and safeguarding interests of the employees.
Proper human resource policies are governed and affected by many legislative conformations
and these are made according to the culture and work ethics of the workforce population.
Proper HRM ensures employees are motivated and productivity of company is increased. The
current assignment analyses various aspects of HRM within Aldi. The purpose and scope of
HRM are mentioned along with strength and weaknesses of various selection processes. In
addition, a description of various internal and external factors that affects HRM within Aldi is
mentioned.

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Task 1
LO1: Description of purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in context of
resourcing the organization
Overview of Aldi
Aldi forms to be one of the notable grocery retailers within the international market and has
about 7000 operational stores within 70 countries. The company originally began its
functions in Germany in the year 1913 and currently employs 20,000 people worldwide
(aldi.co.uk, 2017). In UK, Aldi forms to be the fifth largest superstores with around 837
stores in the year 2017. The growth in revenue generation for Aldi increased about 10.4%
since the year 2014 and the growth rate never decreased from 7.7% (dailystar.co.uk, 2016). In
terms of recruitment and selection, the company aims to expand the number of colleagues up
to 35000 by the year 2020 (aldi.co.uk, 2017). Certain strategies such as employee referral and
interviews are applied for selecting qualified employees. However, over the last three years,
the employee turnover rate has been increasing by 3.4% and there is a growing dissatisfaction
amongst employees regarding HRM policies.
Explaining purpose and functions of HRM
Description of HRM
HRM involves the practice of recruitment, hiring and deploying qualified and experienced
employees within a particular organization. As per the views of Noe et al. (2017), HRM helps
in creating a balance between fulfilling necessities of the employees and at the same time
fulfilling objectives of the organization. The HRM treats employees as assets of company and
along with other assets make effective use of their talents, reduce risk, and ensures maximum
returns on investments. HRM can be broken down into two strata, pre-employment, and
employment phases. It is evident that HRM play an important role since recruitment of
employee up to their whole duration of service.
Three important functions of HRM
Planning and Organizing
Planning and organizing helps in establishing appropriate procedures for achieving objectives
of the organization. In this context, the HRM plans certain personnel programs that can
improve skills of employees and satisfy requirements of the organization. The HR managers
in Aldi provide certain vocational training to store managers in order to interact with

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HRM
customers and understand their demands (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In addition, programs
such as planning job requirements and identifying sources of recruitments involves proper
planning from HRM.
Moreover, grouping of personnel according to their expertise and allotting them specific
functions are initiated by HRM. Delegation of authorities and coordination of various
activities by employees are initiated by HRM for organizing structure within company.
Directing
This involves motivation of employees and directing them proper measures for fulfilment of
targets. The directing functions of HRM include motivating employees and encouraging them
to work willingly (Albrecht et al. 2015).
Controlling
In this function, all the activities of the employees are monitored on a regular basis and
compared to the set standards. In case any deviation is observed, they are rectified after
identifying the source of problem. This is done through appraisals, audits, and business
statistics of organizations.
Roles and responsibilities of HRM and their functions
The roles and responsibilities of various officials in HRM include the following:
One of the main responsibilities of HR department is proper hiring and selection processes of
the employees. As seen in the case of Aldi, it is important that employees with proper
experience and skills be employed within the stores in order to meet the demand of
customers. In addition, it is important that hiring processes are cost effective and done within
short time period. As mentioned by Bratton and Gold (2017), it is the role of the HRM to a
lot specific designation to employees according to their skills for smooth functioning of the
organization. Moreover, HR officials have to create a proper organizational structure. This
will enable employees to interact with upper hierarchy on facing difficulty at workplace.
It is the responsibility of the HRM to motivate employees for putting their best efforts. As
mentioned by Kianto et al. (2017), motivation is a continuous process as demands and needs
of employees change within the organization. HRM within Aldi have to identify needs of
employees such as needs for holidays and appraisals for improving the quality of
performance.

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In order to control the performance quality, it is role of HRM to set standards for employees
and provide them directions to work accordingly. The standards are based on current working
protocols and HRM responsibly compares them with the rival companies (Mahmood, 2015).
Therefore, HRM helps in providing competitive advantage to organization by creating a
proper workforce.
Figure 1: Role and responsibilities of HRM according to functions
(Source: Learner)
Ways roles and functions help in enhancing skills and talents
Proper recruitment and selection measures help in creating a proper taskforce within
organization. As mentioned by Gorman et al. (2017), organization of employees in
appropriate departments help in utilising their skills and involve in fulfilling objectives of the
company. Assigning proper team leader helps in monitoring activities and performance of
employees and their difficulties can be overcome in an effective manner. As far as
improvement in skills and talents is concerned, HRM includes certain induction programs.
This helps in motivating employees and helps them excel professionally. Monitoring
functions of employees help the organization to performs according to their rivalries and
fulfil their targets.
Planning and
Organizing
Recruitment
Selection
process
Directing
Motivating
employees
Appraisal and
holidays
Controlling
Setting
standards
Comparison
of
performance
with rivals

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Assessment on the functions of HRM regarding provision of talent and skills for
business objectives
Objectives of ALDI
The main objective of Aldi is to increase its market share by increasing number of stores
within the country and fulfilling grocery demands of customers by providing European
products within feasible price.
Role of HRM in fulfilling Objectives
The HRM within Aldi plays a critical role in fulfilling objectives of the company by
recruiting professionals for properly carrying out logistical duties, maintaining records and
storage functions. Moreover, the employees need to interact with the customers in a proper
manner for identifying their needs and providing appropriate products. The HRM within Aldi
provide induction programs for all the employees for every six months in order to train them
with changing norms in competitive market. Moreover, performance based appraisals are
given to employees.
Strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches
Importance of approaches by HRM
Planning forms to be the critical aspect in HRM as all the functions of workforce and
allotment of resources are based upon it. It has been stated by Stone and Deadrick (2015),
that proper planning of functions help in mitigating risks and improves retention rate of
workforce. The development and training programs help in improving skills of employee and
instil a sense of importance within them. This serves the purpose of motivating employees.
The performance management system helps in constant monitoring of activities of employees
and enables HRM to compare them with rival companies (Velmurugan and Sankar, 2017). In
addition, any shortcomings that affect the performance of the employees are easily identified
by HRM through such measures. Development and training by HRM helps in improving
talents of employees and subsequently improves their contribution within the organization. It
also improves involvement of employees, their interaction, and develops professionally.
The strength and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection process are mentioned in
the following table:
Recruitment Description Strengths Weaknesses

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approaches
In house recruitment The decision of
recruitment are made
by the organization
and not from external
recruitment agencies
Encouragement
among employees
Turnover rates are
reduces
Employee
involvement
improves
Various resistance
can arise in
employees
Employee referral A working employee
makes referral for a
potential candidate
regarding vacancy
(Tweedie et al. 2019)
Saves time and cost
Increases motivation
among employees
The selected
candidate may not
have required
experience and
expertise
Selection Approaches
Interview A Formal interaction
is made with
candidate and
questions are asked
Authentication of
candidates is ensured
Job description is
made clear to
candidates
Interview experts
have to be hired
Time consuming
Background check All the information of
candidates are cross
checked and validated
(Gabriel et al. 2016)
Only right candidates
with no fraudulent
backgrounds are
selected
Time and cost
consuming
Table 1: Strength and weaknesses of various requirement strategies
(Source: Learner)

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Strength and weaknesses of requirement and selection in ALDI
Within Aldi, employees are selected on basis of employee referral. This helps in saving cost
and time as employees nominates candidates for the vacant position. However, this leads of
biasness. Consequently, a wrong candidate can be selected and this might impair performance
of the workforce. Similarly, interview is conducted for all the candidates in Aldi irrespective
of position. This ensures that all the data and information provide by them are corrected and
their skills are pout to test (Gabriel et al. 2016). However, this forms to be a time consuming
process. In addition, company has to pay a portion of revenue for hiring interview experts.
LO2: Evaluation of effectiveness of key elements in HRM
Explaining the benefits of various HRM measures for employer and employee
Employee relationship indicates the partnership and working protocols between employer and
employee. A proper HRM practice ensures that a meaning relationship is established wherein
employee is benefited professionally and monetarily and employer is benefited in terms of
profits. Employee engagement indicates the measure of dedication that is put by employee for
fulfilling objectives of organization (Jiang et al. 2017). This enables the employer to utilise
talents of employees for fulfilling assigned tasks and obtain competitive advantage.
Flexibility of work enables employees to confer schedules of wok according their preferences
and fulfil them in an independent manner. Proper HRM practice provides flexibility and
employees are benefited, as they do not feel pressurised and subdues under hierarchy.
Employer of choice refers to application of proper and favourable HRM practices in order to
engage qualified employees from talent pool (Schmidt et al. 2018). This forms to be
advantageous for employers as more candidates apply for post and a competitive advantage is
achieved within market.
Evaluating effectiveness of several HRM practices in context of profit and productivity
Employee relationship: In the recent scenario, many organizations undertake interaction
programs and cultural events for improving their relationship with employees. In addition,
routine meeting also enable HR department to identify problems of employees.
Employee engagement: In order to improve employee engagement, various practices such as
performance based appraisals, certification of work and insurance facilities are provided by
HR department. Moreover, HR department also provide mental support to employees in case
of problems.

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Flexibility of work: Within multinational companies, the HR policies are created according to
the working ethics and culture of the employees (Inkinen, 2016). In this regard, introduction
of flexibility options, such as work from home and deciding the quantity of work help in
improving involvement and performance of employees.
Exploring various HRM methods used within ALDI
Within Aldi, the employees are provided induction training for six months according to their
jobs and duties. This helps in improving their skills and consequently, employees are more
engaged towards fulfilling objectives of the company. Moreover, they are given flexible
working schedule that is they can select from morning or afternoon duties. However, they are
required to fulfilled minimum of 8 hours of duties for maintaining standards of stores. The
HR managers conducted a bimonthly meeting with all the employees of stores within a
particular province in order to identify their problems and mitigate them on time. This helps
in establishing proper relationship with the workers.
LO3: Analysis of internal and external factors affecting HRM
Analysing importance of employee relation regarding decision making by HRM
SWOT analysis of Aldi
Strengths
Low cost of products
Products confer to European standards
Huge workforce
Maximum number of stores
Sales model is innovative
Weaknesses
Inefficient customer service professionals
Many of employees not adaptable to
computer usage
Poor store aesthetics
Opportunities
Expansion of market in US and Australia
Inclusion of organic products
Expansion of urban presence
Threats
Large number of competitors such as Coles
Increase in logistical process
Changes in taxation and employment laws
Table 2: SWOT analysis of Aldi
(Source: Learner)
PESTEL analysis