Strategic HRM at Glaxo Smith Kline: Practices, Benefits, and Impact

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) in the UK, focusing on the scope, purpose, and effectiveness of HRM in relation to organizational objectives. It explores the functions of HRM, including workforce planning, recruitment, performance appraisals, and training and development. The report evaluates different approaches to recruitment and selection, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external approaches. It examines how HRM practices benefit both management and employees, utilizing Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory to explain motivational factors. Furthermore, the report assesses the impact of HRM practices on organizational profit and productivity and analyzes the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making. Finally, it identifies key elements of employment legislation and their effects on HRM at GSK, illustrating the application of HRM practices in a work-related context with specific examples from the organization.

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 - The scope and purpose of HRM in terms of an organization’s resourcing with
suitable skills and talents necessary to fulfill appropriate business objectives..........................4
P1. Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resources in your chosen organization.......................................................................................4
P2. Using examples from your chosen organisation, explain the strengths and weaknesses of
different approaches to recruitment and selection.....................................................................6
P3. Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of your
chosen organization....................................................................................................................9
P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation in
terms of raising organisational profit and productivity..............................................................9
P5. Analyse the importance of employee relations in your chosen organisation in respect to
influencing HRM decision-making..........................................................................................11
P6. Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision-making in your chosen organisation..........................................................................12
Task 4 - Application of HRM in a work-related context.........................................................13
P7. Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples from your chosen organization................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
Human resources management (HRM) refers to the formal systems that are devised
for the management of people within an organization. While it aims at maximizing the
employer’s performance, it involves processes like the selection and hiring of staff, induction
and provision of orientation, relationships managing, focus on the employees’ health and
safety measures, as well as ensuring that there is a full compliance with employment laws of
the land. According to Skripak (2016), HRMentails of all activities that a company can
entice, improve, and maintain quality workers (p.243). Generally, HRM plays a strategic role
in the management of individuals, the settingand the culture at the workplace. This study will
focus on the human resources management at Glaxo Smith Kline in the UK.

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Task 1 - The scope and purpose of HRM in terms of an organization’s resourcing with
suitable skills and talents necessary to fulfill appropriate business objectives.
P1. Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning
and resources in your chosen organization
Human resource planning can be referred to as the procedure, which involves the anticipation
and the identification of the needs of human resources working within a firm in order to meet
the current objectives of the firm as well as its future objectives (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Workforce planning in an important purpose for which human resource management is
adopted in an organization. The main purpose for which Glaxo Smith Kline uses human
resource management is the maximization of productivity of the company through optimizing
the efficiency of the employees of the company. Another purpose of HRM in Glaxo Smith
Kline is to acquire, develop as well as retain talented workforce within the organization.
Another purpose of using HRM in the organization is to facilitate its employees in achieving
the objectives of the organization.
Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) is among the leading research-based healthcare pharmaceutical
companies around the world. The UK’s international healthcare organization is involved in
the development and research in an expansive range of inventive products in Consumer
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines.
While human resources management is the pillar of the organization, the most important
functions that it performs includes employees’ recruitment, performance appraisals, human
resource development, and observation of safety and health. In overall, the human resource

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management team partners with the organization to initiate policies and processes that
develops and executes change.
Recruitments
In recruitment of workers, Glaxo Smith Kline has a comprehensive assortment
process that it employs in ensuring that only the most driven and devoted applicants are taken
as part of the company. As such applicants are required to complete the company’s job
application forms online, and then they will be vetted through the verbal reasoning test,
interviews and assessment. Upon a successful completion of the required steps, the suitable
candidate is hired.
Appraisal of performance
Glaxo Smith Kline rejoices their employee’s successes and rewards them for their
involvement towards the organization’s improvement. The Company’s compensation plan is
based on recognition of workers who perform well while assisting in the delivery of strategic
priorities with the values. Generally, the reward package of Glaxo Smith Kline is
benchmarked against standards in the industry and is designed to improve the organization’s
overall performance.
Performance development
Through HRM, the company has a performance and development plan for each
worker depending on performance. By employing this process, the HRM is able to match the
employee’s success to that of the organization.
Training and Developments
Training and developments at Glaxo Smith Kline is a constant process that is aimed to
improve organization’s performance through enhancement of competency on the workers. In
case a new staff is hired by the company, it is the duty of the human resource manager to plan
for the orientation of that specific staff based on the designation. Though the company

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enables the new employee to initially collect all the details regarding a number of sectors and
also it is useful in comprehending the cultural values, norms,and processes of Glaxo Smith
Kline. For that worker who is already employed by the company, an appropriate training plan
is usually scheduled once a year for each worker depending on the standard. Therefore, the
company continues to invest in future frontrunners through development and training.The
common methods of training employed by the Company’s HR include job rotation,
mentoring, coaching, job instruction, understudy,and apprenticeship. Through the use of
online portals, GSK staffs can freely access the career innovative zone where they can
receive a wealth of interactive tools and tips that enable them to improve their potential
career directions.
Job Enrichment
The human resource management at GSK helps workers by increasing the interest in
their work and efficiency. It is involved in the design of jobs that provide employees a
superior independence to enable them plan and control their own performances. As such, the
department strives to improve efficiency, tasks, and satisfaction by developing into
individual’s occupations, a scope for individual accomplishment, and recognition, more
responsible and challenging work as well opportunities for personal development.
Job design
In job design processes, the HRM at Glaxo Smith Kline organizes, duties, tasks, and
responsibilities into one unit to achieve the organization’s specific objectives. It does this
through the provision of techniques, systems, and procedures as well as molding the
relationships between job holders, supervisors, subordinates and colleagues.
In the initial adjustment period, the human resources management presents employees
the company’s history, mission, vision, and a handbook that is detailed with the

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organization’s norms. Besides, it positions training in full swing, clarifies their roles and
ensures self- efficacy.
P2. Using examples from your chosen organisation, explain the strengths and
weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
The ‘Best Fit’ vs. ‘Best Practice Approach’
Best Practice Best Fit
The best practice provides that various human
resources procedures ought to include a
recompense system
Best fit considers a reward system that should
be associated with that of the organization’s
policies.
In best practice, human resource directs to
improve the employee’s commitment together
with their motivations.
The best fit leads to the attainment of the
firm’s competitive gains.
Generally, the Strategic Human Resources Management has two styles. These include the
hard and soft variants of HRM. In the HRM, the key features include short-term adjustments
in employees total, less communiqué with the senior authorities, and enough compensation in
terms of recruitment and maintenance of workers. According to Härtel and Fujimoto (2015),
Hard HRM focuses on the achievement of high performances using a coherent planned tactic
that is based on the trust that employees ought to be controlled so as to realize the
organization’s bottom line.
There are various approaches of recruitment and selection of employees. The two main
approaches are internal approach and the external approach (Cascio, 2018). Both these

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approaches are used in the Glaxo Smith Kline for recruitment and selection. The following
are the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches -
Approach Strengths Weaknesses
Internal approach  Quite simple and cost
efficient in nature
 The employees recruited
with the help of this
approach are already
familiar with the
organization’s
management
 Leads to employee
motivation
 The organization is also
aware of strengths and
weaknesses of employees
 The number of candidates
are limited
 There are barriers in
terms of introducing new
ideas
 Can be causing
resentment among
candidates appointed
External approach  Helps in bringing in new
concepts and ideas
 More number of options
are available for
recruitment and solution
 The range of experience
among candidates are
also higher
 The procedure is longer
 This approach is also
quite expensive
 The process of
recruitment and selection
is also not enough for
choosing the best
candidate among a large

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number of options
available to a company

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Task 2 - An evaluation of the effectiveness of the key essentials of HRM in a Company
P3. Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of
your chosen organization.
A HRM Practice consists of Recruitment, training & development, Reward System and
career management. Glaxo-Smith Kline approach these practices using the Maslaw’s
hierarchy of Needs and using Herzberg’s Two Factor theory. In the Recruitment Process, the
internal approach include employee promotion. This approach helps the organisation to
satisfy the Esteem Needs and act as a Motivator towards increasing their performance.
However, Promotion is also a Hygiene factor for the employees who have not received the
reward. The organisation addresses this factor through the provision of Referral programs
which provides Monitory benefits as a Motivator (Tzabbar et.al., 2017). The GSK Training
program incorporates One-to-One Session between the trainee and the mentor. This increases
the feeling of Belongingness and helps the trainee to develop. Further, this approach also acts
as a motivator in the form of ‘personal growth and achievement’. Similarly, the reward
system includes Extrinsic as well as intrinsic rewards (Donate et.al., 2016). While the
extrinsic rewards in the form of incentives and shopping voucher satisfies the security needs
as well as increases the sense of belongingness, the intrinsic needs in the form of employee
support service provides satisfaction to the employees. Further, the Career Management
incorporate Job rotation and Job Simplification allows the employees to pursue the personal
objectives of an employee (Foss, et. al., 2015). This critically acts as an intrinsic need
satisfaction for the employees of GSK. Hence, the HRM practices of the organisation
effectively benefits the employees in terms of employee satisfaction. It also helps the
management in terms of extracting increased performance and in turn increases the revenue
generation.

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P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen organisation in
terms of raising organisational profit and productivity
It is clear from the above discussion that the present HRM practices effectively increase the
satisfaction level of the employees through intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation;
through satisfaction of the security, need for belongingness and Self-Esteem needs. This
increases the sense of achievement. It can be argued that an employee with increases sense of
satisfaction effectively increases the productivity of the employees (Foss, et. al., 2015).
Increased performance of employees clearly means that the productivity of the organisation
also increases. An increased performance further improves the revenue generation and in turn
maximizes the profits of the organsiation (Chowhan, 2016). Hence, Glaxo-Smith Kline can
effectively increase its profitability through maximizing the utility of the available human
resource. It is clear that this is possible due to the versatile Human resource practices.
It can be argued the management of an organsiation is also challenged through employee
grievances. Employee grievance only decreases the productivity of the organsiation but also
negatively affects the business process and the critical decision-making. This is because, in
case of employee dissatisfaction, the risk for employee turnover increases. In the case of
employee turnover, the organsiation’s knowledge resources gets serious affected (Para-
González, et.al., 2018). It has been argued that low employee turnover also increases the
Managerial ability to conduct efficient business because the management does not have to
invest time and effort toward recruitment, training and development activities. Hence,
through effective HRM practices the management is benefited by decreased operational cost
and seamless execution of Business activities.

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Task 3 - Analysis of external and internal factors that affect HRM’s decision-making,
including the legislation on employment.
P5. Analyse the importance of employee relations in your chosen organisation in respect
to influencing HRM decision-making
In the previous section, it has been described that Human resource management plays the
major role in terms aligning employee performance with the organizational performance. In
order to drive marketing operation, human resources are considered as the most important
organizational resource. In order to drive an organization human resource management
(HRM) needs to undertake different activities, which are reliable not only from the constant
growth and development of organizational performance, but also for accomplishing welfare
of the employees within an organization. Hence, the effective HRM is must in terms of
establishing a good relationship between employee and employers. Another major influence
for maintaining a good relationship between employees and employers, employment
legislation in the UK plays a major role. Some of the important employment legislation act is
going to be described here with significance.
Common law and equity
With this legislation act, the UK government leads the companies in the UK to give the
employees equal opportunity in terms of advancing their career. Considering the impact of
globalization, nowadays in any company it has been found multicultural employees as they
belong from different geographical background. In addition, in a workplace it is also found in
different speaking people. An organization requires to respect the culture and faith of every
employee. In most of the cases, it has been found that race, religion and caste lead employees
to be biased in the organization. This law restricts the organizations in the UK to discriminate