Evaluating HR Planning Process and Strategic Approach at Sainsbury

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of HR planning within Sainsbury, a major UK supermarket chain. It begins with an executive summary and introduction to the business environment, emphasizing the significance of HR planning. The main body delves into the analysis of HR planning, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of a strategic approach, and best practices such as providing security, training, and self-managed teams. It also evaluates the HR planning process, outlining the seven key steps, including determining goals, analyzing manpower inventory, forecasting demand and supply, and developing action plans. The report further examines internal and external factors influencing staffing needs, supply and demand issues, and offers recommendations for talent development. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for Sainsbury to enhance its HR planning and strategic management to improve its market position and success. The report references various academic sources to support its findings.

HARVARD

TABLE OF CONTENTS
.........................................................................................................................................................1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
1. Analysis of HR planing and advantages and disadvantages of strategic approach.................4
2. Evaluating HR planning process.............................................................................................6
3. Internal and external factors for staffing needs and supply and demand issues in market and
recommendations........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report has evaluated about the HR planning process which has includes the current
staffing conditions in the company. Further this report has described about the internal and
factors that are needed to be considered and will also include the supply and demand issues in
the market. Also, the strategic HRM advantages and disadvantages along with identifying the
best HR practices within the Sainsbury had also been described in report. At last this has
provided some recommendations to have the talent development in the company.

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is termed as the sum of all the external and internal factors which
used to have impact on the business. The current assignment is based on Sainsbury, it is one of
the largest supermarket chain in UK. The company used to have 14.9% share in the retail
industry. This report will indicate the definition, analysis and best practices of the HR planning
by stating the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Further this report will outline the
process of HR planning by including the methodology to have better staffing conditions.
Moreover, this report will put focus on the internal and external factors in order to forecast the
future staffing needs. This will include the supply and demand issues and recommendations to
have proper management in the company. By stating the talent development recommendations it
will help the company grow in the competitive market.
MAIN BODY
1. Analysis of HR planing and advantages and disadvantages of strategic approach
HR planning is the systematic and continuous process of ensuring optimum utilization of
human resources to achieve certain predefined goals in the future. Also, such type of planning
ensures that organization is able to get the best fit for carrying out various task within the
workplace in well-defined manner (Atries and et.al., 2021). Furthermore, it avoids the manpower
shortages within the firm and also avoid the unnecessary cost in long run. Also, there are various
best practices that are included within the HR that need to be followed on regular basis within
the Sainsbury to ensure that maximum revenues are generated. Some of them are been described
as follows:
Providing the security: Employees work in the organization for primary motive of
earning salaries and wages. Hence, its duty of the HR managers of Sainsbury to provide the best
packages and security to employees so that they are motivated to work harder for the firm.
Training in relevant skills: One of the best practices of HR is to provide timely training
to all levels of employees working within the firm so that they are able to develop certain
competencies and skills that are needed for the personal and professional growth.
Self managed teams: HR managers are responsible for ensuring the best practices
through developing the employees to that level that are not highly competitive but are also self

managed to handle all the complex task independently in positive manner. Thus, this would
assure greater profitability and competitive advantage of Sainsbury in long run.
Making information easily accessible: Another HR practices is making the information
available in all the employees easily without facing.
Thus, all these practices ensure that Sainsbury is able to earn maximum revenues and also
it is able to operate in various regions in systematic manner (Rodríguez-Sánchez and et.al.,
2019). Furthermore, HR planning is crucial within Sainsbury as it includes analysing labour
supply and forecasting labour demand so that right quality of employees conduct various
operation within business. Also, in Sainsbury HR department helps in balancing the labour
demand and supply so that there is optimum utilization of organization resources. However, HR
strategic management approach is currently followed in Sainsbury had certain advantages that
are as follows:
Identifying opportunities and threats: The strategic HR approach helps firm in
identifying the potential threats in the future so that risk could be minimized. Also, through
strategic approach Sainsbury is able to grab the best opportunities so that company if able to
reach greater height of success in different target markets.
The Best business strategy: Helps in development of clear business strategy and vision
for the future so that work within the firm could be carried out systematically (Opengart, Ralston
and LeMay, 2018). Also, through best business strategy employees remain motivated to work
harder and achieve certain short and long term goals within time-frame.
Meet expectations: Strategic approach within Sainsbury helps in meeting certain
expectation of the customers in well-defined manner. Furthermore, it helps in closely analysing
the needs and preferences of each customers so based on that certain products and services might
be suggested to the firm.
Retain competent people: HR strategic approach helps in retaining the best people
within the firm so that certain objectives are achieved on timely manner. Also, it develops
various incentives and promotion schemes that allows the employees to remain connected with
firm for longer time-frame. Also, such strategic approach is needed to retain the qualified
individuals' that is essential to accomplish certain complex task on time
Ensuring higher productivity: HRM strategic approach within Sainsbury allows in
ensuring that higher productivity in working operations is achieved so that unnecessary cost and

time could be avoided. Furthermore, it ensures that all employees issues are addressed in timely
manner so that more engagement is maintained and team work in collaborative approach though
this strategy is good but it is not necessary that every time it works out effectively in long run as
it can be said that Sainsbury while adopting the strategic approach might also face some
disadvantages that are described as follows:
Interdepartmental conflict: it can be said that strategic HRM approach sometimes
might be reason of the interdepartmental conflicts and it could create conflicts with employees
that have differences in opinions (Salleh and et.al., 2020). Thus, it would only result in the
negative working culture and lack of the productivity that is not good for the firm in long run.
Diverse workforce: In the current time when there is the diverse workforce that is
appointed for various job roles it can be said that strategic HRM approach might not be able to
unite all the efforts towards one direction. Furthermore, diverse workforce could also have
conflicts in opinions that would further result in mismanagement within the workplace.
Limited time and resources : Strategic management approach would not work at that
point when the company is having limited time and resources that will not allow the HR
department to develop the best strategies and policies.
Thus, it can be said that HR planning of Sainsbury might fail when external factors of the
company are not known or analysed properly (Pius, Alharahsheh and Sanyang, 2020). Also,
strategic HR is very crucial for the company as it allows in maintaining the progress and keep the
organization up to the required standards' so that competitive advantage is maintained for longer
time. Furthermore, having the strategic vision Sainsbury had been able to influence and create
variolous HR policies so that stated goals and objectives could be met in the effective way
through support of employees
2. Evaluating HR planning process
HR planning refers to the continuous panning of the process that helps the company to
have and achieve the optimum utilization of the human resources. It is very important for the
company to have the good HR planning which provides them better profits and profitability. This
planning is fit for the employees and their job in order to give best in the market (Berk and et.al.,
2019). Sainsbury must do the HR planning as this enables them to meet their current and future
demand for having the best talent. This also allows the human resources managers to have the
development in the skills of the human resources in the company. By having the proper planning

balances the staff in order to have the set of skills and large number of personnel in the company.
The HRP helps the cited company to have the forecasting of demand and supply of employees in
the coming future. There are basically seven steps of the HR planning process that is described
below:
1. Determining the goals of HRP: This is the first step of human resource planning
that used to determine the objectives for which the process must be carried on.
There must be precise planning in order to have the manpower in the company.
Sainsbury must make the goals that helps them to determine the goals in order to
have the best human resource planning. The planning for each department is
varied as function of each department is different.
2. Analysing Current manpower Inventory: In this next step the cited company
should analyse the manpower supply in the company by having the information
(Nalla and Varalaxmi, 2018). The information related to manpower includes the
experience, skills, proficiency, etc. that helps the company to grow in the market.
This step also helps to estimate the future vacancies that helps them to recruit the
best staff in the organization. By this it can be ensured that the retaining of the
talent in the organization is important in order to meet the vacancy arising.
3. Forecasting the demand and supply of HR: By having the inventory of talented
manpower the next step is match the demand of the employees that is rising in the
future. This helps the cited company to have better supply and have the proper
availability of resources in the organization (Human Resource Planning Process,
2022). In this step the cited company used to check the required skills of the
personnel for that particular job as that are matched with the job description or
not. This helps the company to know about the proper skills of the manpower that
helps the organization to grow.
4. Analysing the Manpower gaps: By forecasting the demand and supply, the gaps
of manpower can be evaluated. If the cited company has the high demand more
than the supply it refers to the deficit and it has to hire new candidates. On the
other hand if the company has less demand as compare to supply, so they have to
do termination of employees from the company.

5. Employment or action plan: After selection of the manpower the next step that
need to be followed by cited firm is to formulate the action plan so that things
could be carried out in uniform and systematic manner. Furthermore, if the action
plan is not possible to be formulated than the Sainsbury have the option to go for
recruitment, training and interdepartmental transfer plans so that goals are
achieved timely (Fahd-Sreih and El-Kassar, 2018). Moreover, the action plan
ensures that there is no additional wastage of resources and also work by each
employee is carried out in systematic manner. Also, action plan is formulated by
looking all the resources and the strategy that is currently working within the firm
so that not many difficulties are faced while making certain decision at end.
6. Training and development: This is step where the training programmes are been
executed by the Sainsbury especially for the new joiners within the firm so that
they are able to know how the work is carried out and also well-equipped to
handle all the technologies at the workplace. Furthermore, the training is not only
concerned with new joiner but is also provided to old employees that want to
upgrade certain skills and competencies (A Complete Guide On Human Resource
Planning, 2022). Hence, it is very much required that training needs are well
identified in advance so that growth and success of the firm is assured and also
later not working does not become more complex. Also, it is required that
employees upgrade their skills from time to time so that firm is able to survive in
the changing business environment and also able to sustain in the market against
the top competitors
7. Appraisal of manpower planning: It is last stage where the effectiveness of
manpower is been identified through comparing with actual implementation so
that it is able to identify the availability of number of employees for various job
roles. Furthermore, this strategy is one where complete analysis is done by the
firm so that success of the plan might be identified and if any deficiencies found
than corrective action might be taken on time.
Thus, it can be said that HR planning is the continuous process that need to be followed
by the Sainsbury so that feedback from the employees might be gathered . Moreover, HR

planning within the Sainsbury had helped in facilitating the expansion programs and allowed in
properly managing the diverse employees so that maximum revenues are generated in the future
3. Internal and external factors for staffing needs and supply and demand issues in market and
recommendations.
The internal and external factors are the most affecting factors which used to have great
impact on the working of the company. There must be full focus on the internal and external
factors that helps the company to have better profits in the market. The internal and external
factors that are needed to be considered in the staffing is as described below:
Internal factors: The internal factors are those factors that can be controlled by the
company as they are within the organization (Silva and Lima, 2018). The internal factors that are
needed to be considered in order to have proper staffing in the cited company:
1. Promotion policy: This is one of the most important internal factors that must be
considered by the company in order to have the proper forecasting. Sainsbury
HRM must be skilled and trained that makes them know about the policies related
to promotion. This helps them to have proper forecast of the staffing needs in the
company.
2. Future growth plans: As staffing in the company is also affected by the future
growth plans of the company (Manomenidis, Panagopoulou and Montgomery,
2019). So cited company must consider this internal factors in order to have better
forecasting of the needs of staff. In order to have expansion of the business the
company must select the skilled and expertise to have profitability in the market.
3. Image of the organization: In order to forecast the needs of staffing the company
must have the good image in the market. As the cited company has the good
image and reputation it helps them to maintain the better policies and practices
related to staffing. This involves training and development, work culture, job
security, etc.
External Factors: The external factors include the things that are outside the control of
business and used to have negative impact on the success. The external factors that are needed to
be considered in order to forecast the future staffing needs is below:
1. Labour laws: This is one of the most affecting external factor that is related to
staffing policy of the organization. Sainsbury must consider this factor in order to

have better staffing needs and management. As they must not have the child as
the labour as child labour is prohibited and person cannot have child as staff.
2. Technological changes: In this factor, there are continuous changes in the
technology which used to have effect the working of employees (Naidoo and
Gasparatos, 2018). The cited company must have the skilled and trained staff that
helps them to adopt the new technology. This motivates the staff in the working
and helps the company to have more employees in order to work.
3. Competition: There is huge competition in the market related to the skilled and
qualified staff. In order to forecast the needs of the staffing the company must
also focus on the competition in the market. By having skilled and efficient staff
helps the company to have better profits and productivity.
The company used to face the demand and supply issues in the market. This is just
because of happening of COVID-19 which has decreases the profitability of the company. The
demand issues in the current market is growth and prices. As there is continuous growth in the
market and because of that the prices of products used to rise (Gulyaeva And et.al., 2018). This
has decreased the demand of the products and affected the profitability of the company. As due
to changing in the technology will use to have impact on the demand of the company and this
will also affect the supply. There are many suppliers in the market and due to COVID the
company used to have negative impact in the working.
Talent development recommendations
Talent development is the important part for the company that they must do in order to
have the development. There are some recommendations to Sainsbury that they can follow to
have the best talent:
1. It is recommended to the company that they must provide the on-the- job training
to the employees. This helps the company to have retention of the employees in
order to have proper management of the work.
2. It is also further suggested to the company that they must hire the qualified staff.
This helps the company to have the better productivity and profitability in the
company. By hiring the skilled manpower motivates them to have better
functioning in the market.

3. It is suggested to the company that they must measure the working and
effectiveness of the employees (Ibarra, Ganzarain and Igartua, 2018). This makes
the company to have the development of the talent and manages the productivity
in the company.
4. It is also suggested to the company that they can provide training and mentoring
to the employees which helps to retain the employees. This used to have
coordination and collaboration in the company and helps to have the best talent in
the company.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that having the best HR practices have helped
the Sainsbury to achieve various goals and target in well-defined manner. Also, the report had
described in detail about the benefits and demerits of strategic HRM approach that is been
followed within the firm over the years. Also, through the strategic HRM the company had been
able to hire and retain the best employees to solve the complex task dependently. Furthermore,
the study had also highlighted the importance of HR planning process in achieving various short
and long term objectives in the future in well-defined manner. Moreover, through such planning
process it had been able to ensure optimum utilization of resources and avoidance of unnecessary
costs. Lastly, report had also identified internal and external factors for forecasting future needs
along with had provided certain suggestions for best talent development strategies in the future.

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