Human Resource Management at Asda: A Comprehensive Report

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ASDA

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................4
LO1............................................................................................................................. 5
P1 PURPOSE AND THE FUNCTIONS OF HRM, APPLICABLE TO
WORKFORCE PLANNING AND RESOURCING AT ASDA...................................6
M1 IDENTIFICATION AND EXPLANATION THE HR FUNCTIONS TO FULFILL
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF ASDA......................................................................7
P2 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION.........................................................................9
M2 EVALUATE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION.......................................................................12
LO2........................................................................................................................... 13
P3 BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES WITHIN THE COMPANY FOR
BOTH THE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE..........................................................13
P4 EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES..........................................................................................................15
M3 DIFFERENT METHODS USED IN HRM PRACTICES...................................17
LO3........................................................................................................................... 19
P5 THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN RESPECT...................19
P6 EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION AND HRM DECISION MAKING....................21
M4 KEY ASPECTS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS MANAGEMENT AND
EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION.............................................................................22
LO4........................................................................................................................... 23
P7 ILLUSTRATE THE APPLICATION OF HRM PRACTICES IN A WORK-
RELATED CONTEXT, USING SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.........................................23
M5 A RATIONALE FOR THE APPLICATION OF SPECIFIC HRM.......................28
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 29
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................30
2

INTRODUCTION
This report contains detailed and elegant information on every single aspect of
Human Resource Management. The report is going to cover that what is HRM, how
it affects the employees and the internal environment of the company, how HRM can
help a company to grow, what are the main roles of HRM and a lot of such things.
The report has a practical implementation of all the logic on the company Asda
Stores Ltd. The further sections contain information and approaches to selection and
recruitment. The middle parts of the report also have discussions on the benefits of
different HRM practices for employees and also on the whole Asda Stores. Later
sections cover the impact of employee relations on HRM decisions. At last a
practical implementation of HRM processes is done like the implementation of the
job description, job letter, CV and notes for an interview for the understanding of
HRM practices in a more graceful and keen manner within the Asda environments.
3

LO1
INTRODUCTION TO ASDA
Asda Stores Limited is one of the biggest British supermarket retailers in the UK
which was founded in 1949. The company has its headquarters in Leeds, West
Yorkshire. The company is owned by a retail giant Wal-Mart. The company serves
groceries, clothing, entertainment products, household products, pet’s products,
home furnishing, bathroom accessories, health insurances, travel services and a lot
of other common services. Asda has over 145,000 stores and over 18 million walk-in
customers. Asda also provides online services through its websites. Asda launched
a separate clothing range for all age groups which was named as ‘Asdale’ which was
later replaced by ‘George Davies’ later (Asda, 2019).
Figure 1 – Asda Logo
Source - AL
4

P1 PURPOSE AND THE FUNCTIONS OF HRM, APPLICABLE TO WORKFORCE
PLANNING AND RESOURCING AT ASDA
There are various functions and purposes of HRM that our application to the
workforce planning and resourcing at Asda which are discussed below.
HRM
HRM stands for Human Resource Management. From its name, it is clear that this is
something related to managing humans. That is what HRM is; it is the recruitment of
employees for the company and then their training, providing benefits, deciding
wages, managing their vacations and work days, their orientation, motivating them
for their daily tasks, making proper connection from other parts of the company for
smooth flow of information, maintaining their trade unions etc. (Boxall and Purcell,
2011).
PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS OF HRM
The main functions and purpose of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing Asda are divided into two parts
 Recruiting or hiring individuals for accomplishing the goals of the company.
 Designing and analysing the type, the position and the structure of job that
would be offered to new employees (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
 Analysing the performance of the employees regularly.
 Providing training to the individuals in the company.
 Deciding the wages for different positions and work structures (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014).
 Providing facilities for the wellbeing of employees.
 Handling trade unions.
 Organising the goals of the company and the employee’s tasks.
 Planning the current requirement and the future need for staffing.
 Providing instruction to employees and motivating them for achieving the
company’s goals (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
 Controlling the whole structure of the employee network.
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M1 IDENTIFICATION AND EXPLANATION THE HR FUNCTIONS TO FULFILL
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF ASDA
There are six main functions of an HR that can fulfil the business objectives of Asda
and which gets divided further. Those main functions are:
Training and Development
The HR must provide the proper and well training to the hired employees so that
they can understand the rules and the regulations of the Asda organization and also
learn the work ethics of the internal environment. The employee must be prepared
able to understand what company’s goals are and what the primary tasks are that
he/she has to perform to accomplish those goals (Noe, et al., 2017).
Recruiting and Hiring
The main function of HR is to conduct regular hiring and recruitment programs
whenever the company needs the employees. They must set proper criteria and the
tests according to the vacant job position and conduct those tests on the basis of
hire proper and skilled employees (Noe, et al., 2017).
Maintaining Employee Relations
The employee relations include the participation of the employee in all the programs
and other activities of the company. The HR must look over these activities and
analyse them properly. HR also maintains a proper relationship between the
employee and the management department (Noe, et al., 2017).
Providing Benefits to Employees
The different benefits and the incentives are also the responsibility of an HR that
should be maintained by him properly on the basis of the work ethics of employee
and its performance. The employee must get informed through HRs about the
schemes and the benefits launched by the government (Noe, et al., 2017).
Handling Employee Compensation
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Employee compensation is the responsibility of HR. The HR should analyse the
proper payroll of the employee and provide that payroll to the employee on time after
applying proper benefits and the deductions (Noe, et al., 2017).
Legal Matters
The HR also looks over the legal matters of the employee. The HR is responsible for
applying the legal laws like Labour and employment laws given by the Government
and set fair payrolls and work hours for the employees (Noe, et al., 2017).
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P2 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
The strength and the weakness of different approaches that are being used for the
recruitment and selection depend on various factors. First, let us understand what is
recruitment and selection.
RECRUITMENT
It is the process of identifying, attracting and selecting the right candidates for the
vacant jobs in any company. IT can be also defined as hiring the right individual, at
the right time and for the right job position. Recruitment attracts many individuals and
the organization selects the right one among them for the vacant position (Keep and
James, 2010).
Recruitment is divided into two parts:
1. Internal Recruitment – This refers to the recruitment of the employees within
the organization i.e. the employees working within the organization and
seeking a different position (Keep and James, 2010).
2. External Recruitment – external recruitment refers to the hiring of new
employees for the vacant job positions within the organization (Keep and
James, 2010).
APPROACHES FOR INTERNAL RECRUITMENT
 Hiring Former Employees.
 Internal Job Publishing.
 Referrals through Employees.
 Transfers.
 Promotions.
 Previous Applications (Keep and James, 2010).
APPROACHES FOR EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT
 Direct.
 By Publishing Advertisements.
 Through Recruitment Agencies.
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 Campus Recruitments.
 By Mouth Advertising (Keep and James, 2010).
SELECTION
Selection is the process of interviewing, analysing and picking the most qualified
person for the vacant job. It is different from recruitment in recruitment we attract the
individuals to fill the vacant jobs while in the selection we find and pick the right
individuals for filling the vacant job (Keep and James, 2010).
APPROACHES FOR SELECTION
 By Turn – Chooses a person who walks in the company.
 Impact – Chooses a person who walks emotionally feels right.
 Technical – Chooses a person who suits the post.
 Systematic – Chooses a person who matches the criteria (Keep and James,
2010).
Sr.
No. APPROACH STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1
Internal
Recruitment
Approaches
The internal approaches
require fewer efforts and save
financial resources.
The transferred employee’s
previous position may
remain empty.
The hired or promoted
employees already know
work ethics.
The company may remain
deprived of the new ideas
that are developed in
fresher’s mind (Keep and
James, 2010).
2
External
Recruitment
Approaches
The fresher can get new
chances. It costs a lot of resources.
This helps in promoting the
brand value of the company
(Keep and James, 2010).
This process takes a very
long time and the salary and
other benefits must have to
be high.
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3 Selection
Approaches
The technical and systematic
approaches find the best
candidate for the company.
The casual approaches like
a walk in and impact are not
relevant.4
Can be used both in the
internal and the external
environment.
Require huge investment of
time and resources.
The company can emerge in
new technologies and new
ideas (Keep and James,
2010).
The new employee needed
to be trained and the
company has to teach work
ethics to him.
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M2 EVALUATE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
The HRM system has many different approaches that can affect the company’s
growth and development directly. As the strengths and the weaknesses mentioned
above states clearly that what will be the benefits of using a single approach and
what will be the downfalls that the company can face by them. A better approach is
to use all of these approaches and wherever the need is to apply the proper
approach. Asda can get many benefits by applying all the approaches smartly at the
right places and at the right time (Noe, et al., 2017). This will not only provides a way
to save resources but also brings skilled workers/employees to the organization. The
main focus of the company should be on getting the highly skilled employees that
can suit the vacant job position even if the payrolls for the employees get a little
higher because it is an employee who makes the company reputation increase on
the decrease (Noe, et al., 2017). The analysis of the strengths and the weaknesses
of the different approaches of recruiting and selection it is clear that the proper tests
and interviews must be taken if the company wants a skilled employee, and on the
other hand walk-ins and direct hiring must be prevented.
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LO2
The main components of Human resource Management generally revolve centrally
around the main objective of increasing the productivity and profits of any
organisation. According to the different contexts, there are a various school of
theories followed. One of them is the theory of "best practices".
P3 BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES WITHIN THE COMPANY FOR
BOTH THE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE
Adoption of best HR practices can be referred to a group of universal human
resource activities that lead to exceptional business performance. According to this,
the implementation of these activities can lead to competitive advantage in the global
market irrespective of the organizational setting or industry (Bowen, 2016). Thus in
the following subsections, we discuss the benefits of different HRM activities one by
one.
1.) EMPLOYMENT SECURITY
a) Due to the increasing volatility in the global market, financial security is
the number one priority for most people. This concept is most vital among
all and emphasizes almost all the activities that HR performs indirectly.
b) But in the times of changes, (for example restructuring or layoff) one can
notice an immediate disturbance through the entire organisation.
Whenever the process of layoff is done, it is the organization which loses
the most. It is due to the reason that hiring involves an investment of
money, time and effort in the selection and skill guidance of employees.
c) If the organization don’t form HR practice of giving job stability then its
employees are more likely to quit and work for the competition which
certainly is of no good to the company (Voegtlin and Greenwood,2016)
2.) JUDICIOUS HIRING
The second practice of importance is choosy hiring. This allows incorporating
only those employees who add value.
The difference between the performance level of an average employee and
that of a high performer is enough to put the organization out of or in the race.
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