Human Resource Management at ALDI: A Comprehensive Report

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Human resource management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
1. Overview of ALDI...................................................................................................................2
2. An explanation of the purpose of the HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of
the HR function. Also, assess how the functions of HRM can provide talent and skills
appropriate to fulfil business objectives......................................................................................2
3. An assessment of the approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection,
development and training, performance management and reward systems. Critically evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection, supported
by specific examples....................................................................................................................4
4. The approach to and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement, and
comment on the adoption of flexible organization and flexible working practice and ‘employer
of choice’. Also, explore the different methods used in HRM practices, providing specific
examples to support evaluation within an organizational context...............................................5
5. Carry out analysis of internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including employment legislation within which the organization must
operate with. Also, evaluate the key aspects of employee relations management and
employment legislation that affect HRM decision-making in the given scenario.......................7
6. Critically evaluate employee relations and the application of HRM practices that inform and
influence decision-making in an organisational context. In addition, evaluate the key aspects
of employee relations management and employment legislation that affect HRM decision-
making in your given scenario.....................................................................................................9
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
Job specification or description for customer Service assistance at ALDI...............................10
Interview questions....................................................................................................................11
Interview notes on criteria of selection......................................................................................12

Justified decision of selecting the one candidate.......................................................................12
Job offer letter............................................................................................................................13
A CV for each student, tailored to apply for one of the positions advertised by another team.14
Carry out evaluation of the process and the rationale for conducting appropriate HR practices.
...................................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: HRM functions.................................................................................................................3

Introduction
Human resource management is essential an organization to plan the resource and to attain the
business goals effectively. ALDI, a leading supermarket also has significance of the human
resource management to ensure effective performance and management to meet the strategic
goals. The report will discuss the purpose and function of the human resource management. The
recruitment and selection process also will be discussed with the strengths and weaknesses. Also,
the benefits of the human resource practices for the employee and employer will be discussed
along with their capabilities to drive the competitive advantages and profitability for the
business. The report will discuss the employee legislations and employee relations and their
influence on the decisions making at human resource management. The report will include the
reflection on the application of the human resource management practices.
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Task 1
1. Overview of ALDI
ALDI is a supermarket chain owned by two German family that have more than 9500 stores
across more than 20 countries with a diverse product ranges from food products, household
products, drinks and beverages, sanitary products, etc. The estimated turnover of ALDI is €50
billion. The rank of the organisation is 61st among the top organisations in terms of turnover and
63rd in terms of employment. The working of ALDI is performed in two shifts to help staff to
manage their work pressure and stress. ALDI has established its different stores with the
contribution of more than 55000 employees in its two separate groups, named, ALDI North and
ALDI south. There is variety and diversities of employees at ALDI and they are paid in
accordance to their performance and responsibility towards their job (ALDI, 2019). The
organisation is well known in different countries for its services and quality products that
ultimately help to meet out its objective of customer satisfaction and better customer
experiences.
2. An explanation of the purpose of the HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of the
HR function. Also, assess how the functions of HRM can provide talent and skills appropriate to
fulfil business objectives.
HRM and its functions
Human resource management (HRM) is a function of management which is associated with
staffing, maintaining, compensating, training, motivating, and rewarding employees. Hence, the
prime goal of HRM is to satisfy the workforce of ALDI to grab their high contribution towards
organisational success. Some of the HRM functions include:
Recruitment and selection: HR manager is needed to perform recruitment function by arranging
the pool of human resources that are eligible for the selection at one of the vacant position at
ALDI. Later the out of the potential candidates, the best one is selected on the basis of some of
the criteria (Brewster, 2017).
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Remuneration administration: The determination of wages, remuneration and other monetary
and non-monetary benefits of employees are done by HR management of ALDI. All such
compensation and salary are prepared on the basis of employment contract entered with each of
the employees at the ALDI.
Labour relations: Employees satisfaction is the major goal of HR management and therefore,
they are responsible to ensure positive and healthy relations are developed with the staff. It can
be maintained through appropriate provision of trade unions and communication channels
available to the staff members.
Figure 1: HRM functions
Roles and responsibilities of HR department
 HR management is the core competence for the ALDI success. Therefore HR manager is
responsible to develop strategic plans and involve in the relevant process so that it can
offer high competitive advantage to the organisation (v et al., 2005).
 The needs of human resources at ALDI are required to be estimated on a timely basis so
that shortage or excess of staff does not hamper the success and growth of the
organisation. Hence, HR managers are the responsible one to forecast the requirements of
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staff within different departments of organisation to improve the sales and productivity of
ALDI.
 The role of HR department does not end at the forecasting, but it is started with it, as after
forecasting, the entire process of recruitment and selection is carried out. HR manager
identifies different recruitment and selection methods and apply it according to the
requirements.
 The selection of new employees requires appropriate training, mentoring and familiarity
with the organisational policies of ALDI (Schuler and Jackson, 2008). Hence, HR
department is needed to arrange induction program to provide new staff necessary
guidelines in relation to organisational culture and working. Also, the existing employees
are also provided with the growth opportunities through training and development
sessions.
The objective of ALDI is to deliver the best and quality product to their customers that assure
customer satisfaction and high revenue. Hence, the above HR management functions are the
crucial for the management of workforce and its relevant planning. The better management
assures high employee satisfaction and ultimately leads to better customer service outcome.
3. An assessment of the approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development
and training, performance management and reward systems. Critically evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection, supported by specific examples
The prime function of an HR manager is the recruitment of potential candidates and the selection
of best one of them for the ALDI. However, effective outcome of recruitment and selection
requires effective workforce planning.
Workforce planning
It is the framework in which the present and future needs of employees at ALDI is identified and
accordingly fulfilled with a specified plan to attain the defined organisational goals. It is a
strategic process in which all the recruitment and selection procedure is specified that support the
organisation in supplying the well qualified and experienced candidates for the vacant position.
The planning also includes training and development aspects which is intended to improve the
overall efficiency of existing as well as new employees and helps to develop better
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understanding among them in relation to their duties and tasks (Cascio, 2015). Performance
appraisal is also an important part of workforce planning that helps to evaluate the performance
outcome of workforce according to specified standards. It also improves productivity and
profitability of individual employees as well as of ALDI. Workforce planning also focuses on the
reward system that assists HR manager in assessing whether the targets of employees are
accomplished or not. Employees those who attain the targets within the specified deadlines are
awarded with appropriate rewards and incentives.
Approaches of recruitment and selection and its strength and weaknesses
Internal approaches to recruitment: ALDI has large number of stores, and therefore it can adopt
internal recruitment approach in which employees can be promoted or transferred to other stores
to fulfil the required vacant position. This approach is beneficial as it involves employees’
referral in which existing employees refer their relatives and family members for the vacant jobs
at ALDI. Hence, it saves time and cost of the organisation. However, it does not bring new
experienced and skilled input within the organisation (Breaugh, 2008).
External approach to recruitment: this approach focuses on the external sources of recruitment
in which job description and specifications is developed and candidates are pooled and selected
as per the selection criteria. For example, ALDI advertises the job of customer service assistant
in the newspaper to hire eligible people within the organisation. This approach has a merit of
hiring candidates that best fit the vacant job and bring creativity with its experiences in their
work. However, hiring procedure is expensive and requires high and valuable time of experts
(Branine, 2008).
Selection methods and its strength and weaknesses
One of the traditional and easy methods of selection that ALDI can adopt is the review of
application forms. The form contains all the details pertaining to the skills, education,
knowledge and qualification of candidates and therefore, this method can be beneficial for the
appointment of candidates at the inferior position. However the officer level position and other
managerial position cannot be fulfilled with only review method. Ability tests is one of the
important selection method in which the ability of candidates pertaining to verbal, written,
presentation, general intelligence, etc is analysed and matched with the required standards
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(Piotrowski and Armstrong, 2006). Only those candidates are selected under this method that
required skills and ability as per the vacant job. Interview is another significant selection method
in which a list of questions are prepared and asked with the candidates to judge their potential.
This method is beneficial for ALDI as helps the HR management to personally meet and analyse
the body language, and potential of the candidate, however, its negative impact can be seen with
the biased decisions and outcomes.
4. The approach to and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement, and
comment on the adoption of flexible organization and flexible working practice and ‘employer of
choice’. Also, explore the different methods used in HRM practices, providing specific examples
to support evaluation within an organizational context
ALDI has to manage the employee relations to ensure effective engagement in the business
operations and decisions making whereas it also helps the organization to retain the employees
and to ensure effective execution (Leat, 2012). Therefore, employee relationship is the relation
between employer and employees so that both can exchange the benefits and share the values.
The employee engagement means to the practices to engage the employees into business
decision making and operations. The organization also considers the flexibility at workplace
regarding choices to select the work shift, to manage a few personal works within business hours
and to attain calls and known people during the work. The organization also has to become
‘employer of choice’ which means to provide the fantastic workplace culture so that skilled and
capable employees can be attracted and retained (Gill and Meyer, 2013). It is required to increase
the satisfaction of the existing employees and to attract the new candidates within business to
achieve competitive growth and performance.
Employee relations are considered on priorities in the organization. For example, the
organization can use the psychological approach to manage the employee relations, engagement
and flexibility at work. The employer and employees might have differences for the perception
on position and dependence within business structure (Awadh and Saad, 2013). Also, the
dissatisfaction with job, pay issues and workplace conditions are essential to consider so that the
organization can control the strikes and lockout at workplace.
Sociological approach is also effective to define the relations with the employees. For example,
the human resource management of the organization can consider the housing, transportation and
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other social issues and can address them or can support the employees to enhance their
satisfaction. The organization can provide additional support and allowances to ensure their
effective engagement within the business operations. Human relation approaches including
freedom to express ideas and concepts and behavioral support helps to improve the employee
engagement and relations (Persson and Wasieleski, 2015). ALDI can consider the good working
conditions and pay and security of service to engage the employees effectively. In comparison of
the other approaches, it is cost effective and easy to implement to address the expectations of the
most of the employees.
ALDI can improve the employee relations with consideration of the several approaches. For
example, the organization can communicate the goals and vision to the employees effectively
and can support them through proper training and development to attain the business goals. The
organization can promote the work life balance and can recognize the performance and quality
effectively through establishment of the transparent business controls and measures (Bell and
Menguc, 2002). The human resource management within ALDI can provide the career
development opportunities to the employees because it can help them to develop the personal
and professional skills and competence which also can help the business to improve the quality
and to retain the employees with high satisfaction (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). The organization
also can use the rotation of the several work jobs so that the flexibility can be delivered to the
employees and their engagement in the business operations can be improved.
5. Carry out analysis of internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including employment legislation within which the organization must operate
with. Also, evaluate the key aspects of employee relations management and employment
legislation that affect HRM decision-making in the given scenario
SWOT analysis
Table 1: SWOT analysis
(Source: Brandes and Brandes, 2012)
Strengths Weaknesses
-The organization provides effective pricing on the
products so that the demands of the products are
improving.
-Limited number of the goods offering
-Customer services need improvement
whereas the organization has to focus on the
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-The organizational lean production and low cost
production is also significant to achieve profitability.
-Innovative sales model, store location and layout and
good business environmental policies are driving
efficiency.
-Positive work culture
size of the stores, ability to stock products
and adoption of the technology to meet
efficiency in the operations.
-Higher focus on the quality and customer
engagement is required.
Opportunities Threats
-The organization can explore the new markets at global
level
-The organization can focus on the customer perception
and relationship whereas training and development can be
considered on priorities to attain the business efficiency.
-The adoption of the technology can reduce the cost and
can engage the customers and employees with high
satisfaction.
-Pricing still needs improvement to compete
with other larger businesses and local
service providers.
-The changing legislations are impacting the
business environment.
-The decreasing brand loyalty is a point of
concern for business.
Pestle analysis
Political changes are supporting the business through subsidies and low fuel cost so that the
organization has high profitability on the operation whereas there is no change in the zoning laws
and import costs. However, the organizational decisions have impact of the regulations and
licensing. The economic factors such as low fluctuations and higher exchange rates are
impacting the business positively but increasing cost to compete with market and to conquer the
market saturation is impacting negatively (Emsell, 2011). The organization also has good socio-
cultural support for the healthier food preferences is increasing sales but the internal
management is facing the issue of the wages to the employees. However, the overall influence of
the factors on the business is favorable. However, the organization has to focus on the
technological advancement to reduce the cost and to improve the marketing whereas the
environmental factors such as waste management and optimized use of the raw material are
impacting the business practices for sustainability. There is neural impact of the legal aspect on
the business.
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