Human Resource Management Report: ASDA Case Study, HRM Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within ASDA, a major UK supermarket. It begins by outlining the purpose, roles, and responsibilities of the HRM function, emphasizing its strategic importance in recruitment, training, and maintaining a positive work environment. The report then delves into ASDA's approaches to workforce planning, recruitment, selection, training, performance management, and reward systems, highlighting the methods used and their effectiveness. Different HR practices, including internal and external recruitment methods, and training programs, are examined through case studies. The report further explores employee relations and engagement strategies employed by ASDA, including sociological and human relations approaches, assessing their effectiveness. The report also touches on employment legislation and its impact on decision-making and business objectives, and concludes with an evaluation of the use of technology in enhancing recruitment and selection processes, along with job descriptions and offer letters.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Purpose of HR function along with its roles and responsibilities in ASDA......................1
2.Approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development and training,
performance and reward system.............................................................................................2
3. Different methods used in HR practices.............................................................................5
4.Approach and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement.................5
5.Key aspects of employment legislation within the organisation.........................................7
6.Evaluation of employee relations and employment legislation in decision making and
meeting business objectives...................................................................................................8
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
7. Job description, Job Offer letter and personnel specification of an organisation..............9
8. Evaluating use of technology on improving the recruitment and selection process........11
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
.......................................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to a main function of an organisation, without which
it cannot build an effective workforce. The main key roles of this function is to give recruitment
to most eligible people, provide training to make them familiar with business operations, give
timely appraisals for improving their performance level and more (Arputharaj, 2012). It also
concerns with providing workplace safety where people can feel safe while performing different
activities. The present report is going to explain importance of HRM function. For this purpose,
ASDA is taken which is a well known British Supermarket of UK. It offers a wide range of
products related to grocery items which are available on its number of stores. Here, present
report discuss purpose of HRM and approaches used for conducting different-different functions
of same. Furthermore, key aspects of legislations and its evaluations in terms of employee
relations also elaborates.
TASK 1
1. Purpose of HR function along with its roles and responsibilities in ASDA
HRM within an organisation mainly emphasises on hiring, managing and directing the
people who work in it. This function deals with certain issues which are related to job
employment, compensation, safety and wellness of people, performance management,
organisation development and more. In context with ASDA, it is considered as the second largest
supermarket in UK that serves its customers by both online and offline procedures. It includes a
number of superstores, supermarket, petrol filling stations, super-centre and depots which serve
products across territorial boundaries (Ajayi, 2013). In addition to this, it also offer product or
services at relatively lower price including a tag-line which states “Save Money, Live Better”.
As, this company establish business in 1949 in retail sector. Therefore, its history reflects a wide
experience of customer satisfaction and its high quality of services. This could have achieved
only through contribution of HR practices, which plays a strategic role in developing an effective
workforce, managing workers and maintaining positivity in environment.
Some major roles and responsibilities of HR functions in achievement of business goals
can be described in following manner:-
Recruitment and selection: It is considered as main responsibility of HRM function,
where managers of ASDA use both online and offline sources for recruiting most eligible
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candidates at workplace. Under this process, they design criteria which meets requirement of
specific job description.
Training and development: After recruitment, it is another main responsibility of HR
managers of a company to provide specific training to new recruiters. Here, in ASDA, human
resource department organise apprenticeship training usually. This would aid to make employees
familiar with working organisation (Amberg and McGaughey, 2016). Along with this, respective
company also use to provide training while introducing new technologies in business, for getting
high satisfaction of customers.
Maintaining work atmosphere: In order to gain efforts and contribution of workers
towards success of business, another main responsibility of HR managers of ASDA is to create
positive working environment. Here, they allot group task generally to workers in order to
develop relationship among them. This would help in developing effective atmosphere at
workplace and bring collaboration among employees as well.
Significance which HR practices plays in ASDA for acquiring best talent:
Improving and increasing effectiveness of workplace by introducing best employees and
giving appraisals to retain them for longer period. Here, HR practices help in developing
effective culture at workplace by hiring employees of different background and bringing
collaboration among them.
Along with this, Providing timely appraisals, reward and compensation to workers, aid
ASDA in boosting their morale and gain high commitment for achievement of business
objectives. Implementing effective HR practices also develop a strong relationship among
workers and managers.
2.Approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development and training,
performance and reward system
Human Resource Management plays a strategic role in ASDA in improving and
developing effectiveness of major activities. It includes ability of recruiting and selecting,
training and development, workforce planning, performance and reward system (Arputharaj,
2012). This would help in placing right employee on right job for providing best services to
customers. For this purpose, different-different approaches are used for improving abilities of
such functions. It can be described in following manner:-
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Work Force Planning- It can be defined as a plan to align requirement and priorities of
business in appropriate manner for achieving certain goals and objectives. It is generally planned
as per nature of job where, in ASDA its managers adopt strategic and operational approach. This
approach helps in framing effective workforce planning for recruiting best employees and place
them on right job (Bitkowska, 2015). For instance: In order to conduct promotional activities,
HR managers use strategic approach for recruiting people having marketing knowledge in
marketing and sales department. This approach of work also helps in developing collaboration
among workers. Major benefit of this type of workforce planning is that, HR manager fills the
vacant seats in ASDA in specific time frame. Through this, ASDA may also improve profit
margins as well.
Recruitment and selection Process- In order to attract eligible candidates and provide job
employment to them, HR managers of ASDA use systematic approach. This would help in
conducting recruitment and selection procedure in systematic manner. It includes proper job
analysis, frame job-description, give advertisement related to vacancies on job-portal, then
screen resumes and take interviews for further selection procedure. One of the main benefit of
this kind of approach is that, recruitment could help HR manager in recruiting right candidate for
correct job in specific time frame.
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Training and Development- For developing skills and abilities of workers and make
them able to give best performances as per requirement of business, training and development
refers to a best practices of HRM. Under, ASDA managers use system approach for organising
training for workers according to their roles and responsibilities. Training given by HR manager
of ASDA would directly help staff members in reaching to new heights. Since, training is a vital
term when it comes to make alterations, it has become very much important for ASDA to grab a
good position at marketplace.
Performance Management and Reward system- For measuring performance and give
appraisals according, HR managers of ASDA use attribute approach (Brunstein, 2016). This
would help in reducing occurrence of unfair appraisals and giving reward and compensation to
best performers. Here, in respective company managers also provide some incentives to low
performers for encouraging them to work more efficiently. This type of recognition, made by HR
manager of ASDA could help employees in improving both talent and skills of staff as, reward
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Illustration 1: Recruitment process

given to individuals based on their performance would directly motivate staff. Through this,
employees will help ASDA in reaching to new heights.
3. Different methods used in HR practices
For developing and managing workplace, it is essential for a company to implement
effective HR practices. In context with ASDA, in order to gain high contribution and efforts of
workers for increasing customer satisfaction, its managers use different-different human
practices. It can be described as through following case studies:-
Recruitment and selection: For hiring candidates, a company can used a number of
methods like giving promotion to workers from internal environment, place advertisement on job
portal, recruit candidates through campus placement or more. These methods are classified into
two main aspects as internal and external recruitment.
Internal and External Recruitment Method:
Recruitment
Methods
Description Strengths Weaknesses
Internal Method In this method, a
company can hire a
candidate from its
internal organisation
either by transfer or
promotion.
The main advantage of
this method is that
hiring employees from
internal environment
reduce the need of
training program.
It doesn't provide new
talent or fresh ideas.
External Method Under this method, a
company can hire
candidates from
external environment
by campus placement,
recruitment agencies,
job portal and more.
This method helps in
obtaining a list of
talented candidates, so
it becomes easy to hire
best among them.
For hiring candidates
from external
environment, a
company has to make
a large investment, so
this method is not cost
effective.
In ASDA, applications for hiring new employees from external environment, managers
use online recruitment system (Effective recruitment and selection, 2019). This would help in
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getting a large pool of applicants where they shortlisted for further interviews, after proper
screening their resumes. For this purpose, two main vital components are used as- Job
description and personal specification. Under job description, managers entails roles and
responsibilities for a specified position. For measuring skills of selected candidates, HR team use
assessment tool which is known as 'ASDA Reality' where each respondent has provide
opportunity to show strength and capabilities. Major strength of this element is that, it could help
ASDA in gaining a good position at marketplace as it will aid them in recruiting candidates that
are very much talented. On the other hand, weakness of this element is both cost and time which
an organisation cannot afford.
Training and development: Here, for making people able to work as per business
requirement, HR managers of ASDA provide four week induction program (Chao and et. al.,
2017). It is based on three key stages of system approach that includes- Step In, Step On and
Step up. These kind of training programs are varied as workers' role and responsibilities in
different-different departments. Strength of this factor is that employees would start improving
their skills and through this ASDA may gain competitive advantages. Along with this, weakness
of this element is that, ASDA would require to spend a lot of money in order to train individuals
at marketplace.
4.Approach and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement
In order to develop effective and positive atmosphere at workplace, it is essential for a
company to develop strong relationship among employees, managers and all associated people
(Gill, 2017). This would aid management to make appropriate decisions for improving and
developing productivity of business. Having good relationship among employer and employee
aid ASDA in boosting performance level of workers. It ultimately leads to enhance growth and
success of business. Employee relations generally describes a procedure for developing
collaboration among employees and employers, in order to conduct task more effectively (Kraja,
2013). Therefore, for developing positive culture at workplace and improve employee relations,
HR managers of ASDA use following approaches:-
Sociological approach- It assists managers of ASDA to develop a proper value systems,
which helps in reshaping the behaviour of all employees. It also aid in reducing skill gap among
employees by providing same training to workers.
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Human relation approach- Under this approach, managers of ASDA used to provide
equal pay scale to workers and ensures that no discrimination takes place (Naser and Al Shobaki,
2016). By giving equal opportunity to workers to show their capabilities, aid in developing
effective relationship among them.
Effectiveness
Implementation of above mentioned approaches, aid ASDA in maintaining flexibility at
workplace, which leads to reduce occurrence of conflicts and negativity among workers. It also
help managers in getting high commitment of workers for achievement of business goals and
objectives.
Ineffectiveness:
Above approaches of HR practices do not cater the particular style of functioning,
therefore, nature of interdependence is not defined.
Employee engagement
It refers to a condition, where for optimising resources properly, a company needs to
engage each worker in accomplishment of an activity. By developing employee engagement,
workers can work in collaboration and support each other for completing a task, in given period
of time. It would leads to achieve business goals more successfully (Neamtu and Neamtu, 2016).
For this assistance, managers of ASDA use effective leadership theory like system approach, for
encouraging workers to work in collaboration. It also aid to motivate employees to give their
participation in effective decision making process as well. For this process, they can use
following approach of employee engagement:-
Motivation Approach- By giving proper compensation, incentives, flexible working
hours, high pay scale, managers of ASDA can motivate workers to give best performances. This
approach therefore, also helps in getting high retention of talented workers for longer period of
time.
Effectiveness
Motivation approach aid ASDA in implementing effective HR practices like reward and
compensation, flexible working hours etc. This would aid to reduce staff turnover rate as well as
increase productivity of workers also. Engaging employees in group task also help in utilising
resources more effectively and motivate workers to give best performances.
Ineffectiveness
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After implementation of above approaches, workers of ASDA may focus on giving
quantity instead of quality. Along with this, they can also resist for any changes as well.
On the other hand, effectiveness and ineffectiveness of HRM Practices can be seen
through different factors like, Sharing, collaboration, proper direction and more and these are
given below:
Sharing and collaborations: When the international companies or people started
showing interest in collaboration with the enterprise and interacting with them, then the firm
started using these policies for increasing the productivity and market share. ASDA started using
these strategies which helps in developing good policies which helps in associating with
outsiders and international client.
Proper direction setting and execution: In an organisation, managers and leaders of the
firm plays an important role in setting goals, targets and objectives of the firms. ASDA ensures
that they hire effective managers in different sectors of business who can take their organisation
into higher levels.
5.Key aspects of employment legislation within the organisation
Employee legislation is very important law that helps in control the activities and
functions of employment in organisation. It influence activities of both employee and employer
to directly (Pukienė, 2016). ASDA's manager and other higher authorities adopt some rules and
regulations to give effective results. These laws and regulations are as follows:
Anti-discrimination act 1946:
This act design to prevent employees from various harassment and inequalities that
happen in organisation on regarding of gender, caste, creed and on basis of religion. It gives
safety about that employees feel safe and secure at workplace and all people should be equal in
eyes of laws (Oussama, 2012). In case of ASDA act equally with their employees by adopting
different HRM practices so that they feel motivated and get satisfaction.
Minimum age act 1961:
This law states about that an employer have to set a minimum wage rate to satisfy their
needs and wants in proper way (Tanjila, S., 2017). In case of ASDA it follows that law and pay
attention on equal and fair wages and behave in ethical manner in context of work and salary. It
enhance their moral and satisfaction level and they can be deliver their best efforts in growth.
Wage and hour act 1998:
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this act defines about that an employer have to frame and build wages with pays
according to hour that devoted by an employee. If an employee give extra hour of work then
organisation have to pay overtime, weekend pay and extra benefits to them. In case of Asda they
build policies to enhance employee morale and satisfaction to give reward according to their
work. That greatly influence their work and behaviour and they become motivated to give their
best in organisational development. These laws are strength of organisation because it increase
their morale and motivation in case of Asda.
6.Evaluation of employee relations and employment legislation in decision making and meeting
business objectives
Employment legislation plays a crucial role in developing effective relations among
employees in a company. It also aid in developing effective decision making as well as meeting
requirement of business in prescribed manner. In context with ASDA, as this company due to
different legislation laws this company has faced various issues. It includes mass legal action
where, women who work under its stores, have claimed that they are not get equal salaries as
compared to male employees (ASDA faces mass legal action over equal pay for women. 2014).
Therefore, to resolve this issue, its HR managers have implemented effective human resource
practices by concerning some effective legislations. It includes Equal Pay Act, Equality Act and
more. This would help in ensuring that no discrimination will take place with employees on the
basis of their age, sex, religion, gender and more (Woolliscroft and et. al., 2012). This would also
aid ASDA in developing employee relations and gain their participation for taking effective
decisions, to meet business objectives. In addition to this, having strong employee relation and
concerning employment legislations aid managers of ASDA to provide job satisfaction among
staff members. It leads to improve their performance level and enhance productivity of them, to
achieve goals of business in given period of time.
TASK 2
7. Job description, Job Offer letter and personnel specification of an organisation
Job description entails the main roles and responsibilities of a person for specific position
in a company. While Job offer letter provide description about business rules and
responsibilities, date of joining and certain condition of termination procedures (Xiuna,
Xianyuan and Juan, 2012). It entails the entire details of organisations, through which people can
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