Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices at H&M

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at H&M, a British multinational retailer. It explores the purpose and scope of HRM in resourcing talent, evaluates the effectiveness of key HRM elements, and analyzes internal and external factors affecting HRM decision-making, including employee legislation. The report details H&M's recruitment and selection processes, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external approaches, and discusses the benefits of different HRM practices for both the employer and employee. It also examines the importance of employee relations and illustrates the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, concluding with insights into maintaining a healthy work-life balance and addressing employee concerns. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing in your chosen
organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfill business objectives.........................................................3
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................3
LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organisation..........6
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both employer and employee.....7
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation in terms of raising
organizational profit and productivity....................................................................................................................8
LO3 Analyze internal and external factors that affect human resource management decision-making,
including employee legislation..........................................................................................................................10
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making................10
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision- making. 10
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision- making. 12
LO4 Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context.................................................14
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples....................14
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................21
Reference List....................................................................................................................................................22

LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing in your
chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfill business objectives.
Introduction
The report is based on the human resource management of H&M. The successful human resource management
of H&M has contributed towards becoming a British multinational retailer with employee strength of around
84,939. The detail report portrays the purpose and scope of the company’s resourcing talents, the different
strengths and weakness of their methods related to the recruitment and selection process. How the company has
benefited with the different human resource management practices, how the internal and external factors have
affected the human resource management’s decision-making and employee legislation. The report also has an
example of the application process of employees, the grounds and merit on how they have been selected.
P1 Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing of and
organisation
HR Departments of M&S
The human resource department of H&M follows certain hr related practices, which has led to the successful
resourcing and development. The purposes of human resource management of Mark and Spencer are described
below (Hendry et al., 2012).
HR Business Partner-The human resource department of H&M is related to the other internal department of
the organisation like employees, stakeholders, shareholders. The human resource of H&M is responsible for
filling up job vacancies; share HR objectives with employees to assure that they are imposed across the
organisation, promoting overall harmony and productivity in the work place.
Change Agent-The human resource department of the company informs about the organisation changes of the
company to its employees. The human resource department provides training to the employees so that the
employees can develop and adopt the new skills required as per the changing business environment to achieve
the new business goals and objective.
Administration Expert-There are certain administrative changes in the organisation related to regulation,
occupational health and safety rules, labour or trade laws. The administration expert is responsible for
organizing personal employee information and making sure that it is up to date.
Employee advocate -The human resource department takes care of the employee’s interest and ensures that the
employee’s interest is protected. The human resource personal of the company gauges the employee confidence
and satisfaction, spot shot comings in the company culture and ensures that the managers are fair and equal to
all employees. The human resource department is also responsible to boost the employee morale and employee
experience, providing the employees with training for development and ensure that the internal employees have
the opportunity to apply for new job promotions within the company (Bratton et al., 2012).

The human resource department of H&M have different functions related to the sourcing, induction, training,
motivating of the employees of the organisation.
Sourcing-The human resource department advertises about the different job vacancies of the company in the
local newspaper, television and other job portals. Based on the applications received from the applicants they
carry out the interview and selection process (Cavusgil et al., 2013).
Induction-After successful selection of the employees the human resource department conducts the induction
function, where they are provided a detail introduction about the company’s goals and objective, different rules
and regulations of the company, work ethics, leave policy, admin policies.
Training-Post induction, the human resource department arranges training for the new hired employees. The
department handover the employees to different training teams and batches where they are provided training
about the different skills and knowledge required to carry on the organizational work (Costen et al., 2011).
Handover to the operations-After successful training program the human resource department then handover
the employees to the designated departments or areas of operations.
Reward and reorganization-In order to motivate the employees the company’s human resource department
organizes function and reward ceremonies to reward the employees based on their performance. Rewards may
include hike in salary, position, or other rewards like prizes, mementos, certificates.
Welfare of Employees-To retain the company’s employees this is a very important function of the human
resource department of H&M. The company’s human resource department takes care of well-being of the
employees and because of that reason the company as a present employee strength of around 84,939 (Iverson et
al., 2011).
P2 Explain the strengths and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
There are two kinds of recruitment processes followed by H&M. These are internal and external recruitment
process. Both the recruitment process of the company has certain advantages and disadvantages, which are
mentioned as follows (Armstrong et al., 2014).
Internal Recruitment process-The human resource department promotes their existing employees to a higher
position through internal job posting methods. In view of this, the company faces certain advantages and
disadvantages.
Strength Weakness
Cheaper and Quicker- The recruitment
process becomes quick since the human
resource team does not have to spent for
advertisements of vacant positions there by
making the recruitment quicker and cost
effective
Limitation-The different internal
candidates may not be potential in terms of
skills and knowledge.
Familiar work environment-The people are No Fresh Ideas-Internal recruitment can

already familiar how the company operates limit the flow of new ideas from outside
Promotion- Internal recruitment helps in the
employee promotion, which can be
motivational for the internal employees.
De-motivation- The internal candidates
who are not promoted may get de-
motivated.
Knowing the potentiality-The company
already knows the potentiality
Crisis in existing position- When an
internal employee is promoted, it creates a
vacancy of candidate in the existing
position.
External Recruitment process-The human resource department hire candidates from outside the company
through different job vacancy advertisements. There are certain advantages and disadvantages of external
recruitment process.
Strength Weakness
New ideas in business-Recruitments of
candidate from outside may bring fresh ideas
in business.
Longer process-The process can be longer
because the selection process may take a long
time from application to the interview and
selection process.
More scope-There is a big scope to recruit
from a variety of different candidates with
varied knowledge and skill and experience.
Expensive-The process can be expensive as it
involves different advertisement process for
the recruitment purpose.
The company follows internal recruitment methods in general but in context to this the company’s recruitment
process becomes simpler and cost effective when they do internal recruitment. Sometimes the company does
not get fresh new ideas in business because of their internal recruitment.
The selection process of any human resource management can include two main practices like the best fit and
best practice method.
Best-fit supports the belief, that the firm’s reward system should be associated with organization policy. This
also helps in attain competitive gain (Cummings et al., 2012).
Best Practice supports a bundle of human resource policy, which includes a reward system. The set of practices
introduced lead to high inspiration and better employee commitment (Huselid et al., 2011).
There are certain advantages of the best fit and best practice method.
Best Fit Strength Best Fit Weakness
The best-fit approach is directed towards the
fulfillment of the goals of the organization.
The disadvantage of the best practice
approach is the goal of the company in

respect of the business environment keeps on
changing for which the selected talent may
sometimes become insufficient.
Best Practice Strength Best Practice Weakness
The best practice approach of human
resource department is the kind of practice
followed by some firm, which has proved
effective.
The disadvantage is that the practice does not
always consider the various requirements of
the organization.
In general H&M follows both the best fit and best practice methods for their selection process. Owing to the
different strength and weakness in both the approaches the here is a small analysis in respect of H&M’s
practices.
Best Fit- Following the strength of the practice the company’s selection process includes the skill level of the
candidate that matches the candidate’s goal, however sometimes the selected talent becomes insufficient in
respect of the changing goals of the company. To tackle this company has to provide additional training to its
employees to enhance the skill level.
Best Practice-The Company’s best practice approach though has proved successful to a certain extent but it
does not always consider the various requirements of the organization.
Conclusion
The human resources look after different aspects relationship between employees and the organizations. These
include, but are not limited to employees’ salary credit should happen in time, the employees if they are granted
leave as per the company’s leave policy, if leave is provided to the employee during their emergency,
addressing employee complains and look if the employees are working in an environment where there is a
healthy work life balance. The report also has an example of the application process of employees, the grounds
and merit on how they have been selected.
LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organisation
Executive Summary
Employee relations cover the areas of human resource management where direct relationships with employees
or collective efforts in trade unions play a role. The success of Mark and Spencer requires a healthy working
relationship within an organization. Good relationships with employees are based on a safe and healthy work
environment, greater participation of all employees, incentives for employee motivation and an effective
communication system. Strong relationships with employees lead to more skilled, motivated and useful people
who increase the overall income of Mark and Spencer.
Introduction

Employee relation features the areas of human resource management that involves relationship with the
employees directly or collective efforts in respect to trade unions. Healthy employee relation in an organization
is required for Mark and Spencer’s success. Good employee relation depends on safe and healthy work
environment, increased involvement of all employees, incentives for employee motivation and effective
communication system. Strong employee relations lead to more capable, encouraged and useful employee,
which will help in increasing the overall sales of Mark and Spencer.
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both employer and
employee
Positive employee relation shows that the employee should feel good about their identity, the importance of
their job role and the feeling of being a part of the company. There are certain factors, which effect the relation
of employee and management (Armstrong et al., 2014). These are as follows,
 Indiscipline among employees-Some employees do not behave as per organizational norms. Incidents of
absenteeism, bad performance and grievances are all forms of employee indiscipline. Therefore the HR
team of the organization should obtain adequate policies to reduce absenteeism and increase involvement of
employees.
 Grievance among employees-The employees expect from the management that they get safe and good work
environment, proper incentives for their performance, but when the management fails to impart these
requirements then it leads to employee grievances. It is the duty of the HR team ensures proper work
culture within office premises.
 Employee stress-Too much workload, pressure from surroundings like behaviour from co-workers, nature
of job, lack of promotional activities can lead to employee stress.
All the above organizational factors, influencing the employee’s relation needs to be carefully handled.
Different strategies to improve employee relationship can be stated as follows:
 Involving team members - Employees must feel themselves important for the organization. They should
be fairly treated by the management. There should not be any biasness.
 Work should not be monotonous -The human resource department has to ensure that the employees
work should not be monotonous in nature. The work needs to be assigned in such a way that the employees
should find it interesting. Employees should be given additional responsibilities like mentoring the junior
employees.
 Employee interaction-The human resource management must take appropriate measures to update the
employees with the different company procedures and decisions. This will help the employees to remain
focused and motivated. This will give them a feeling that they are a part of the organization.

 Appreciation and rewards-The human resource management should ensure that frequent programs are
organized to motivate the employees. Programs like reward ceremonies need to be organized to reward the
successful employees who have achieved their targets of have done something beyond expectations.
 Employee Feedback-The human resource management should make provisions for sufficient employee
feedback. They should address the employee grievances related to their hierarchy (Giacalone et al., 2013).
 Conducting organizational events-The human resource management should conduct events like peer
workers birthday parties, Christmas and New-year parties.
 Impact of Trade Union and collective bargaining- Trade union is formed by a team of employees
whose goal is to preserve the interest of the employees. This is achieved by collective bargaining with
employers. Collective bargaining takes place when the trade union makes a negotiation with the employer
on behalf of employees regarding the salary and wages and other conditions of employment. The human
resource department can give importance to the trade union when the question of collective bargaining
appears. The human resource department can do a fair negotiation with the trade union in the settlement of
disputes of employees (Schalk et al., 2013).
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation in terms of raising
organizational profit and productivity
Certain employment laws in United Kingdom are designed to protect the rights of the employees. The law
covers the entire employee and employer relationship. The employers have to abide by the rules and regulations
to avoid employment lawsuits. The purposes of employment laws can be related to industrial relations, health
and safety of work, standard of employment. Few elements of employment legislation are their impact on HRM
decision-making is discussed below.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975- The act created by the Parliament of United Kingdom, protects the interest of
men and women from discrimination based on marital status or sixths act has helped the human resource
department to protect individual rights of the employees irrespective of their marital status or sex in regards to
employment. H&M makes sure that the human resource department cannot decline to hire an employee based
on discrimination of sex or marital status.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995- This act was formed by the parliament of United Kingdom as measure to
avoid discrimination of people in respect of disability related to the employment. This kind of act allows the
employer to provide necessary accommodation to the disabled employees to perform their job, like provisions
of wheel chair, special restrooms for the disabled employees. H&M has special provision for disabled
employees in respect of recruitment for desk related jobs (Goodley et al., 2011).
Employee Relation Act 2004 - One part of this act is employees now have statutory protection against
employer encouraging them not to be or to be a member of trade union, not to take part in the activities or make
use of the services of the union. This kind of act will not allow the employer to encourage or force the

employees to be a part or not to be a part of trade union. The employer cannot force the employee not to take
part in any trade union campaign or use the trade union services. H&M knows that retaining efficient
employees of the industry is the biggest challenge for the management. Therefore, the company focuses on
four factors such as Opportunity and Well-being, Trust, Involvement and Pride in the company.
The Equity act 2010-This act was formed by the United Kingdom parliament and has the same goals as the
four main EU equal treatment directives. As per this, the employer has to provide equal access to employment
irrespective of age, disability, gender, marital status, race, religion.
Conclusion
Certain employment laws in United Kingdom are designed to protect the rights of the employees. The law
covers the entire employee and employer relationship. The employers have to abide by the rules and regulations
to avoid employment lawsuits. This is achieved by collective bargaining with employers. Collective
bargaining takes place when the trade union makes a negotiation with the employer on behalf of employees
regarding the salary and wages and other conditions of employment.

LO3 Analyze internal and external factors that affect human resource management decision-making,
including employee legislation
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making.
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-
making

Internal and External Factors
Importance of employee
relations and Key element of
employment legislation
Employee relation features the areas of
human resource management that
involves relationship with the
employees directly or collective efforts
in respect to trade unions. Healthy
employee relation in an organization is
required for Mark and Spencer’s
success. Good employee relation
depends on safe and healthy work
environment, increased involvement
of all employees, incentives for
employee motivation and effective
communication system. Strong
employee relations lead to more
capable, encouraged and useful
employee, which will help in
increasing the overall sales of Mark
and Spencer. Positive employee
relation shows that the employee
should feel good about their identity,
the importance of their job role and the
feeling of being a part of the company
(Goodley et al., 2011). There are
certain factors, which effect the
relation of employee and management.
Indiscipline among employees-Some
employees do not behave as per
organizational norms. Incidents of
absenteeism, bad performance and
grievances are all forms of employee
indiscipline. Therefore the HR team of
the organization should obtain adequate
policies to reduce absenteeism and
increase involvement of employees.
Grievance among
employees-The
employees expect
from the management
that they get safe and
good work
environment, proper
incentives for their
performance, but
when the management
fails to impart these
requirements then it
leads to employee
grievances. It is the
duty of the HR team
ensures proper work
culture within office
premises.
Human Resource & Management

.
P6 Identify the key elements of
employment legislation and the impact
it has upon HRM decision- making.
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to accompany a photo.
All the above organizational factors, influencing the employee’s relation needs to be
carefully handled.
Different strategies to improve employee relationship can be stated as follows
 Involving team members - Employees must feel themselves important for the
organization. They should be fairly treated by the management. There should not
be any biasness.
 Work should not be monotonous -The human resource department has to ensure
that the employees work should not be monotonous in nature. The work needs to
be assigned in such a way that the employees should find it interesting. Employees
should be given additional responsibilities like mentoring the junior employees.
 Employee interaction-The human resource management must take appropriate
measures to update the employees with the different company procedures and
decisions. This will help the employees to remain focused and motivated. This will
give them a feeling that they are a part of the organization.
 Appreciation and rewards-The human resource management should ensure that
frequent programs are organized to motivate the employees. Programs like reward
ceremonies need to be organized to reward the successful employees who have
achieved their targets of have done something beyond expectations (Schalk et al.,
2013).
 Employee Feedback-The human resource management should make provisions
for sufficient employee feedback. They should address the employee grievances
related to their hierarchy.
 Conducting organizational events-The human resource management should
conduct events like peer workers birthday parties, Christmas and New-year
parties.
Trade union is formed by a team of
employees whose goal is to preserve
the interest of the employees. This is
achieved by collective bargaining with
employers. Collective bargaining
takes place when the trade union
makes a negotiation with the employer
on behalf of employees regarding the
salary and wages and other conditions
of employment. The human resource
department can give importance to the
trade union when the question of
collective bargaining appears. The
human resource department can do a
fair negotiation with the trade union in
the settlement of disputes of employee.
Certain employment laws in United Kingdom are designed to protect the rights of the employees.
The law covers the entire employee and employer relationship. The employers have to abide by the
rules and regulations to avoid employment lawsuits. The purposes of employment laws can be
related to industrial relations, health and safety of work, standard of employment. Few elements of
employment legislation are
I IMPACT OF TRADE
UNION AND COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING