Human Resource Management: Employee Engagement at Marks & Spencer

This essay examines the employee engagement strategies employed by Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading retail brand. The analysis covers various approaches, including fostering coordination among internal stakeholders through daily huddles, implementing lifestyle programs offering flexible work arrangements and volunteer leave, and empowering employees through participation in decision-making. Additionally, the essay discusses the mentorship and buddy systems used to support employee development and teamwork. The study highlights how these strategies contribute to increased employee engagement, motivation, and, ultimately, improved service quality and organizational effectiveness for Marks & Spencer. The essay references several academic sources to support its claims.

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Human resource management
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Introduction
Employee engagement programs help the business organizations to increase the
motivation level of their internal stakeholders. This is much important in the current business
scenario due to fact that the more will be the level of employee engagement, the more will be
their productivity in the organization (Albrecht et al. 2015). However, the approach of the
employee engagement strategies is different in different organizations based on their business
factors and environment. The core objective of initiating employee engagement programs is to
have lesser employee issues and enhanced organizational productivity and effectiveness.
Marks & Spencer is one of the leading retail brands in the world with having their
operation in different states around the world. Apart from their huge operation, they are also
known for their effective and extensive human resource approaches. This essay will discuss
about the strategies used by Marks & Spencer in engaging their employees. In addition, the
benefits that are being gained by them from the initiation of the employee engagement strategies
will also be discussed.
Coordination among the internal stakeholders
According to the human resource management of Marks & Spencer, coordination and
relationship among the internal stakeholders are much important and primary step in having
effective internal business environment. They have the initiated the concept of motivating the
employees along with their immediate supervisors in conducting huddles on daily basis (Miller
2017). Though the effectiveness of the huddle is limited to certain employees but maintaining the
culture of conducting huddle among the employees and the supervisors helps them to have more
relationship between the employees and their supervisors. This enables the employees to get their

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issues communicated to the upper level and creating a sense of brotherhood among them.
Furthermore, conducting huddle on daily basis also involve the employees in their workplace
more effectively (Bedarkar and Pandita 2014). Thus, delegation of the issues of the employees is
further increasing the productivity of them that is creating more opportunities for Marks &
Spencer as an organization.
Lifestyle program for the employees
Marks & Spencer follows a wide range of lifestyle programs for their employees. This
includes flexible working shifts, job sharing facilities and leave for volunteering services.
According to the human resource approach of Marks & Spencer, employees will get more
engaged in their workplace if they can be provided with increased level of freedom and
flexibility in their workplace. In accordance to this approach, employees of Marks & Spencer are
being offered the facility of flexible work shifts that enable the employees to change their
working hours according to their convenience (Galea, Houkes and De Rijk 2014). In addition,
employees are also being provided with the facility of leave for volunteering service such as
joining in the political process or in public duties or services. Employees are being given long
term leave in these occasions. All these facilities are enabling Marks & Spencer to engage their
employees in the organization and motivate them to perform better. Considering the personal
requirements of the employees also leads to have positive impression among them and they tend
to perform better in the organization (Zareen, Razzaq and Mujtaba 2013). This is leading to the
gaining of higher level of service by Marks & Spencer.

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Employee empowerment program
There are number of activities under the employee empowerment program are being
practiced by Marks & Spencer. The main objective of initiating employee empowerment
program is to increase the level of employee involvement in the organization. Employees are
being motivated and encouraged to participate in the decision making process with their
innovative thinking and ideas (Men and Stacks 2013). Hence, the more will be the importance of
the opinion of the employees in the organizational decision making process, the more will be
their level of involvement and engagement in the organization. On the other hand, initiating
employee empowerment is also helping Marks & Spencer to let the employees to take decisions
to some extent in the lower level management. Thus, employees are more motivated in having
the freedom in taking their own decision (Namasivayam, Guchait and Lei 2014). With having the
decision making power among the employees, Marks & Spencer is getting benefited from swift
and effective process of decision making in place. The average service quality for Marks &
Spencer is getting enhanced by this concept.
Mentorship and buddy concept
Marks & Spencer follows the mentorship and buddy concept in their organization.
According to the mentorship concept, employees are being provided with proper mentors in their
respective sectors. The major objective of providing mentors for the employees is to assisting
them in enhancing their individual performances along with assisting in case of difficulties
(Bergelson 2014). Thus employees in Marks & Spencer are having helping hand at any point of
time. This is also enhancing the level of engagement of the employees. On the other hand, buddy
concept helps the employees to have more coordination with their peers in the organization. This

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is also being done in order to encourage them in team working. Thus, initiation of the team
working concept is helping Marks & Spencer to have more coordinated approach in their internal
management as per their human resource management approach. Marks & Spencer is benefiting
from having more effective internal business environment and engaged employees in place that
is in turn leading to improved service quality for them.
Conclusion
The major discussing part of this essay includes the strategies initiated by Marks &
Spencer for the engagement of their employees. One of the major strategies being initiated by
them is empowering the employees in decision making process. This is helping them to have
empowered employees in place. In addition, they are also more focused towards maintaining the
coordination and cooperation among the employees. This helps them to effectively identify the
issues and challenges faced by the employees and rectifying accordingly. All these factors
resulted in having high level of engagement and motivation among the employees. In this essay,
it is also being discussed about how Marks & Spencer is benefiting from their employee
engagement strategies. It is concluded that the average service quality of Marks & Spencer is
getting enhanced with the help of implementation of these strategies.

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Reference
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Bedarkar, M. and Pandita, D., 2014. A study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting
employee performance. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp.106-115.
Bergelson, M., 2014. Developing tomorrow's leaders: Innovative approaches to
mentorship. People and Strategy, 37(2), p.18.
Galea, C., Houkes, I. and De Rijk, A., 2014. An insider's point of view: how a system of flexible
working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1090-1111.
Men, L.R. and Stacks, D.W., 2013. The impact of leadership style and employee empowerment
on perceived organizational reputation. Journal of Communication Management, 17(2), pp.171-
192.
Miller, N., 2017. Plan implementation and coordination: Case management in an Employee
Assistance Program. In Social work case management (pp. 141-150). Routledge.
Namasivayam, K., Guchait, P. and Lei, P., 2014. The influence of leader empowering behaviors
and employee psychological empowerment on customer satisfaction. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(1), pp.69-84.

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Zareen, M., Razzaq, K. and Mujtaba, B.G., 2013. Job design and employee performance: The
moderating role of employee psychological perception. European Journal of Business and
management, 5(5), pp.46-55.