MOD003486 - HRM Proposal: Strengthening Employee Relations at M&S

This report presents a Human Resource Management business proposal with a specific focus on strengthening employee management at Marks and Spencer. It explores techniques and strategies to enhance employee involvement and engagement, including managing work-life balance, recognition and rewards, effective feedback communication, and promoting healthy work habits. The report also examines communication approaches to facilitate greater employee voice, highlighting communication as transmission, ritual, publicity, and reception. Furthermore, it discusses the benefits of employee voice for both employers and employees, such as protecting against negative emotions and improving organizational agility. The proposal includes training and development considerations to enhance managers' and employees' understanding of roles and responsibilities, ultimately aiming to improve productivity and efficiency within the organization. Desklib is your go-to platform for accessing a wealth of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments.

You are required to
develop a Human
Resource Management
business proposal with
specific focus on the
approach to managing

employees that can
strength

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
Techniques and strategies that can be used to enhance employee involvement and engagement
.....................................................................................................................................................1
Communication approach that will assist greater Employee Voice............................................4
Training and development considerations in Marks and Spencer proposal to enhance both
managers and employees’ understanding, roles and responsibilities..........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
References:.......................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to the broad strategy which is necessary for all
business organisation to adopt in order to manage the people, environment and culture of
organisation. Its major focus is on employees to make them effective which result in the
improvement in their productivity as it help the management in attaining the organisational goals
and objectives in an effective and efficient manner. The members of Human Resource
management is responsible for providing training, talent management oversight, knowledge,
legal advice and many more (Borchers and Enke, 2021). The chosen organisation for this report
is Marks and Spencer. It is a British multinational retailer which deals with the food products,
home products and clothings having headquarter in London, England, United Kingdom. This
report shall discuss about the strategies and techniques which are being used by the HRM to
enhance the employee engagement and the theories of employee voice with their benefits for
both employer as well as employee. Along with this, it also include training and development
proposal which help the employer and employees for understanding the roles and
responsibilities.
TASK
Techniques and strategies that can be used to enhance employee involvement and engagement
Employee engagement is consider as an approach in an organisation which leads to the
creation of correct situation for the employees working at work place. It helps in motivating them
towards the organisational goals and objectives. In other words, it is also defined as a technique
which also result in the connection of employees with their employer and work as well.
Sometimes, it is also consider as the feeling of strength of mental and emotional connection
which generate a strong feeling related to the work, teams and the whole organisation. On the
other hand, the involvement of employees refers to that working culture which permits all the
employees of business organisation to put their input in decision making process which also
bring improvement in the working performance of employees (Valitova and Besson, 2021).
Assuring the employee engagement at work place is the responsibility of Human
Resource Management. Engagement and involvement of employees helps the organisation in
retaining their valuable employees. The productivity of organisation can be enhanced by high
employee engagement which also result in the higher profitability. In order to enhance the
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employee engagement and involvement, various techniques and strategies are being developed
by Marks and Spencer. Some of them are given below:
 Managing work life balance: It refers to the stages of priorities between professional
and personal life of employees. Work life balance focus on knowing about the ways, in
which the employees are spending outside the work. Outside the work and
organisation, the employees have to fulfil their responsibilities towards their interest,
relationships, friends, family and other hobbies (Bratton and et. al., 2021). The feeling
of motivation can be developed in the employees through managing the work life
balance as the employees can enjoy their life beyond work.
 Recognition and rewarding the employees: The engagement of employees can also be
enhanced by appreciating them at work place. Through providing recognition, the
management can motivate their employees which also result in the improvement of
overall performance of employees. Along with this, the management can also develop
some reward distribution system under which they can provide reward and credit to the
individual employee or the entire team on the successful completion of any particular
project.
 Communicating the feedback in right way: It has been analysed that stronger the
internal communication system of organisation helps the management in improving
their working performance. The employees are to be heard, recognized and informed
regarding the working procedure in an effective and efficient manner. Enhancement of
engagement and involvement of employees can be done by creating a safe channel for
their employees which help them in sharing the honest feedback. Their engagement
and involvement can be ensured by communicating all the needed informations with
them (Eibl, Lang and Niessen, 2020). For the same purpose, Human Resource
Management develop a system of open communication at work place which provide
the clear and honest feedback to employees.
 Promote healthy work habits: this technique has been adopted by the management in
order to develop good and healthy habits in the organisation. The management can
develop the feeling of more cared in employees by providing them breaks in between
the working hours. It leads to the increase in comfortableness at work place. Along
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with this, it also retain the employees towards the organisation and improving their
engagement & involvement.
 Regular feedbacks from employees: This technique help the employees in evaluating
their own performance along with improving the relations or connections among
employees and managers.
The management of Marks and Spencer is adopting the technique of providing protection to the
mental health of employees working in the organisation. The management is also hosting several
events in order to enhance the employee engagement and involvement at work place. The
employee involvement at the work place of Marks and Spencer can be enhanced by developing a
better communication system among them. An effective relationship can be developed between
employees by focusing on the development of teams and groups which result in the employee
engagement.
It is recommanded to the Human Resource Management of marks and Spencer to adopt
the strategy of of protecting healthy work habits by providing breaks to the employees between
work (Elsaied, 2019). This strategy leads to the development of employee engagement and
involvement at work place along with achieving the organisational goals and objectives in an
effective and efficient manner. Advantages and disadvantages of respective strategy in the
context of Marks and Spencer are given below:
Advantages Increase productivity: Employees work in a much better manner after taking breaks
which result in improvement in the productivity. Breaks help the employees in gearing
themselves and boosting their level of work.
 Decrease stress: Development of negative behaviour can be take place in the situation of
stress. During break, employees come out from the issues and problems and start working
again after their mental state gets normal (Sun and Bunchapattanasakda, 2019).
Disadvantages Wastage of Time: During breaks, the employees do not perform task and stop working, it
means that providing breaks to the employees also result in the consumption of more time
in completing the operations or tasks. During the performance of tasks, the employees
will take the break and the task will consume higher time in completing.
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 Development of higher informal relations: An informal relationship among the
employees has been developed during the break time. It also leads to the less efficiency in
working performance.
Communication approach that will assist greater Employee Voice.
Employee voice is defined as the opportunity under which the employees of organisation
are permitted to express their ideas and perspectives with authenticity by avoiding any
consequences of work place (Xu and et. al., 2019). Marks and Spencer also allows their
employees to participate their decision making process and influence their decisions. In simple
words, employee voice is a procedure through which the relationship of communication has been
build among the organisation and employees. Effective communication at work place also result
in the effective employee voice. Through the process of employee voice, the organisation get to
know about the problem and issues of employees which they are facing in the organisation while
performing business operations. Marks and Spencer is allowing their employees to present their
ideas in front of management in an openly manner (Jia and et. al., 2018). It also help the
management in making the effective decisions. If the management take the decisions on the basis
of employee voice, it will result in the enhancement of productivity and efficiency in the overall
business performance. In short, it can be said that the productivity and profitability of marks and
Spencer can be improved by focusing on the employee voice. Below mentioned are the several
approaches of communication adopted by the organisation: Communication as transmission: This approach define communication as the process of
transmission of information as deliberate by the source. Starting of communication
process is an important element for communication to take place. Most of organizations
adopt this approach of communication. It also involve several terms such as imparting,
sending and transmitting or giving information. Communication as ritual: As per this approach of communication, it is defined as the
process of participation. This approach defines the communication with the use of
different terms such as participation, passion of common faith, sharing, association,
fellowship and many more (Sandhya and Sulphey, 2020). This approach is business
organization is being used for the purpose of sharing values and believes. It involve the
active role of both sender as well as receiver.
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 Communication as publicity: It is well known approach of communication under which
the mind of other people are influenced through sharing information and message. It
plays an important role in gaining the attention of users. Hence, this model is also known
as the audience capitalizing or display attention model (Rahayu, Rasid and Tannady,
2019). This approach majorly focus on controlling the audience through communication
along with grabbing the attention of general public.
 Communication as reception: The idea of this theory of communication has been drives
from the critical theory and reception analysis. Highly essential part of this approach is
audience because it is the source which provide meaning to the message and information.
While performing the process of communication, decoding and encoding are also found
as the essential part.
The voice of employee is related to bringing sustainability in the success of business
organization. It also help the management in understanding the concerns and problems of
employees in openly and honestly manner. Marks and Spencer has develop participatory
management at their work place, so that the management can get open and honest concerns from
the side of their employees (Kang and Busser, 2018). They also make important decisions after
knowing about the opinion of their employees. Several of benefits of employee voice, in the
aspect of both employee and employer are given below:
Benefits to employer Protection against the wild ranking impact of negative emotions: In the case, if
employees of organization are not able to show out their thoughts, negative emotions has
been developed. Employees feel resentment and anger bubbling up, which result in the
negative effect on the productivity of employees. In addition to this, it also result in the
psychological damage. If the same feeling has been developed in all of the employees of
organization. It will result in the higher downfall of entire performance of organization.
 Improvement in organisational agility: In order to perform the business operations as
per the changing trends of market, the management of Marks and Spencer require to
know about the real problems and thoughts of employees. It help the employer in
adopting the quick changes in the organization. It helps the management in maintaining
the honesty and transparency among the employees and employer in the organization.
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Human resource department of Marks and Spencer also develop the strategies related to
incentives on the basis of the information which are gathered through employee voice.
Benefits for employees Boost morale of employees:In developing the morale of employees, it is necessary for the
management to listen the aspects and thoughts of their employees as well. If the
employees of organization are able to keep their ideas in front of management in an open
manner, it will enhance their morale. Improvement in the morale of employees also result
in the improvement of overall performance of organization. Employees feel motivate and
take the culture of organization in a positive manner.
 Empowered employees: When worker of firm found that their problems are really
impacting the management, it result in the creation of feeling of empowerment in them.
They can easily ask for the resources adaptability or any other assistance which they
require from the leader (Kim, 2021). In addition to this, they also feel motivated towards
the organization as they found that they are the crucial portion of management and their
ideas plays an important role in the success and growth of organization.
Training and development considerations in Marks and Spencer proposal to enhance both
managers and employees’ understanding, roles and responsibilities
In order to introduce the effectiveness and efficiency in the working performance of
employees, training and development is consider as the critical aspect. Providing training and
development is advantageous for both employer as well as employee because employees are
going to be develop their skills and capabilities after attending training sessions. Employees of
Marks and Spencer use the advance skills and capabilities in completing their assigned tasks
which help the business organization in achieving the organizational goals and objectives.
Formal training and job experience are the two modes which are being used by the business
organization in order to improving the skills. Through providing training to the employees of
marks and Spencer, the productivity of employees can be enhanced. Training is also provided in
two manners i.e. on the job training and off the job training (Paposa and Kumar, 2019). It is
recommended to the Marks and Spencer to adopt on the job training for the purpose of providing
training to their employees as it help the business organization in saving the cost and time and
the employees can get training meanwhile performing their assigned operations. Along with this,
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there are several more reasons behind the suggestion of on the job training. Some of them are
given below: Faster training with real experience:The traditional modes of training involve
theoretical knowledge only which is not enough for the employees to develop their skills
and gain the real experience. On the job training help the employees in getting the actual
experience of skills and the employees can adopt the skills in their functioning as well. It
helps them in gaining the effective training and experience as well (Macke and Genari,
2019). The employees can ask the questions on the same point of time while they are
adopting the new skills in completing their tasks. Faster adaptation to a new job:In the context of Marks and Spencer, this mode of
training and development help the management in boarding and accepting the higher
performance level. On the job training is found as one of the fastest learning method.
Hence, it also leads to the better and faster adoption of new and updated skills. Financial benefit: This type of training sessions are being arranged on the daily working
days of employees. Hence, it require less time to deliver to the employees as compared to
the other training modes. The management of Marks and Spencer can also save the
money through providing on the job training because it is different from the traditional
modes. The employees of Marks and Spencer have to perform their daily operations in an
effective and efficient manner while getting training. This training is provided on the real
work place and employees learn the skills by applying them in their day to day
operations.
 Attract the right people: During the training procedure, the employees of Marks and
Spencer perform the tasks and management observe their way of performing operations.
It help the management of Marks and Spencer to analyses the right employee for the right
task (Noe and Kodwani, 2018). By providing on the job training, the employer is able to
know about their potential employees who are performing well at work place and their
performance is too good in the organization.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that the employee engagement and
involvement is crucial for both employer as well employee. Continuous development of
employees in the organisation result in the overall improvement of organisation. Various
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strategies and techniques have been adopted by the business organisations in order to ensuring
the higher employee engagement and involvement. These strategies include managing work life
balance, recognition and rewarding the employees, promoting healthy work habits and many
more. Motivation is found as the best way of motivating employees in an organisation as it
directly influence the working performance of employees. In addition to this, it has been also
analysed that the training and development at work place leads to the development of skills and
capabilities of employees. In order to bringing the effectiveness and efficiency in the
performance of employees, it is necessary for the management to focus on the training and
development as it will clear the roles and responsibilities to each and every employeeof
organisation.
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References:
Books and Journals
Borchers, N.S. and Enke, N., 2021. Managing strategic influencer communication: A systematic
overview on emerging planning, organization, and controlling routines. Public
Relations Review, 47(3), p.102041.
Bratton and et. al., 2021. Human resource management. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Eibl, B., Lang, F.R. and Niessen, C., 2020. Employee voice at work: The role of employees’
gender, self-efficacy beliefs, and leadership. European Journal of Work and
Organizational Psychology, 29(4), pp.570-585.
Elsaied, M.M., 2019. Supportive leadership, proactive personality and employee voice behavior:
The mediating role of psychological safety. American Journal of Business.
Jia and et. al., 2018, June. A conceptual artificial intelligence application framework in human
resource management. In Proceedings of the international conference on electronic
business (pp. 106-114).
Kang, H.J.A. and Busser, J.A., 2018. Impact of service climate and psychological capital on
employee engagement: The role of organizational hierarchy. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 75, pp.1-9.
Kim, Y., 2021. Building organizational resilience through strategic internal communication and
organization–employee relationships. Journal of Applied Communication
Research, 49(5), pp.589-608.
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Noe, R.A. and Kodwani, A.D., 2018. Employee training and development, 7e. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Paposa, K.K. and Kumar, Y.M., 2019. Impact of training and development practices on job
satisfaction: A study on faculty members of technical education institutes. Management
and Labour Studies, 44(3), pp.248-262.
Rahayu, M., Rasid, F. and Tannady, H., 2019. The effect of career training and development on
job satisfaction and its implications for the organizational commitment of regional
secretariat (SETDA) employees of Jambi provincial government. International Review
of Management and Marketing, 9(1), p.79.
Sandhya, S. and Sulphey, M.M., 2020. Influence of empowerment, psychological contract and
employee engagement on voluntary turnover intentions. International Journal of
Productivity and Performance Management.
Sun, L. and Bunchapattanasakda, C., 2019. Employee engagement: A literature
review. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 9(1), pp.63-80.
Valitova, A. and Besson, D., 2021. Interpersonal communications at core of conflicts' escalation
in organization. The interplay of interpersonal communication escalation, people's
habitus and psycho-sociological processes are more important than contextual
factors. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Xu and et. al., 2019. Supervisor-subordinate proactive personality congruence and psychological
safety: A signaling theory approach to employee voice behavior. The Leadership
Quarterly, 30(4), pp.440-453.
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