Effective HRM Practices at Harrods: Analysis and Recommendations (HRM)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Harrods, a luxury department store. It begins with an introduction to the organization and an overview of HRM functions, including workforce resourcing, planning, appraisal, training, and recruitment. The report then assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Harrods' recruitment and selection processes, exploring both internal and external methods, along with their advantages and disadvantages. The benefits of HRM practices to both employers and employees are examined, covering career flexibility options, time-off policies, and time banking. Furthermore, the report evaluates the effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing profits and productivity, emphasizing HRM planning, employee training, and motivation strategies. The analysis extends to employee relations, examining how HRM decisions impact workplace quality, handling complaints, and the influence of regulatory and legal frameworks. Finally, the report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for optimizing HRM practices at Harrods.

hRM practices

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Organization....................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
P1 Functions and the purpose of HRM applicable to the workforce resourcing and planning in
the concern.......................................................................................................................................2
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to recruitment and selection at Harrods..............3
P3 Benefits of HRM practices to employers and employees..........................................................4
Career flexibility options.............................................................................................................4
Time offs at Harrods....................................................................................................................5
Time banking...............................................................................................................................5
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices for increasing profits and productivity...................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Employee relations and HRM decisions....................................................................................6
P6 Impact of regulatory and legal frameworks on the HRM decision by Harrods.........................7
P7 Business practices.......................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
1

Introduction
It has been rightly said that people are the greatest assets of any organization and they are
considered to be more valuable than the buildings, machinery or any other capital investment
which is made by the companies. The employees of an organization can become a source of
competitive advantage to any company and the employees provide the organizations a unique
asset in the market in the terms of the character, personality and the distinct decisions making
capabilities. The unique capabilities of the HRM cam cause a huge difference to the success of
the organization. The report has attempted to discuss the various aspects of HRM in a world
famous organization Harrods. Various kinds of analysis are made in the study to enable the
readers to get a comprehensive view about the HRM practices in the organization.
Organization
The organization which is taken for the study is Harrods which is a departmental luxury store
and is located in London. The store is existent on a 5-acre big size area and it has about 330
departmental stores which cover about 1 million area of retail space. The main intention of the
store is to provide people all the things at all the places and some of the departments of the store
are well known across the world.
Task 1
P1 Functions and the purpose of HRM applicable to the workforce resourcing and planning in
the concern
Human resource management is a coherent and strategic approach to the management of an
assets of an organization which are the people who contribute collectively and individually for
the achieving the objectives of the company. The human resource management is changing
rapidly and this overall deals with the techniques of managing human resources in the most
efficient manner. The HR management includes many activities and the most important of all is
to decide about the staffing needs of a company, training the employees, make sure about their
performance and ensuring the management and personnel practices which conform to regulations
(Hoffmann, 2014). The main goals of the HR department are only to maintain and attract the
employees in the organization. About 12000 employees work at Harrods and so the organization
needs to have a proper HR team in place to run the organization successfully.
2

The functions of HRM at the organization are discussed below:
 Appraisal: They indulge in doing performance appraisals of the employee’s
performances, this forms the basis of promotion the employees and make decision about
their salary increase. This forms an important ingredient at Harrods.
 Development and training: The employees after being selected have to be taught about
the how to do work effectively and they need to be trained for this. This is vital for
making sure about the success of the employees at the work. Harrods tried to make sure
to provide various opportunities to the employees to train and then develop themselves to
be able to perform better at the work and then they are build their career in the
organization.
 Recruitment and selection: then the employees need to be recruited using various sources
and then they are selected based on the number of applications received.
 Motivating employees: then they need to keep motivating employees so that the
performance of the employees keep son becoming better as the times progress.
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of the approaches to recruitment and selection at Harrods
Comparison of the recruitment and selection processes
All the organizations make use of a systematic approach for the management of the human
resources but many times some of the organizations have their own set of policies which effect
the HRM practices by a company. The company Harrods is making use of international
standards for the recruiting and selecting process of the employees. The company tries to recruit
the employees by the promotion of the company or by holding demo sessions ("Human
Resources | Harrods Careers", 2018). Then they also have their reliance on the internal sources of
recruitment in the company. Such kinds of practices in which the entire HRM process is flexible
the company is able to make sure that that they are able to employ only capable candidates at the
company. The recruitment and selection process of the company is very much effective and it
has aided the company to build such a big manpower resources in an easy manner. Some of the
recruitment processes may be internal like job analysis, job descriptions, competency
frameworks and some are external sources.
Advantages of the internal recruitment process
3

 Easy to inform the prospective employees
 More cost effective
 Many people are increasingly becoming tech savvy so the reliance on the traditional
methods
Disadvantages
 HR department has to remain very vigilant
 Recruitment process is very rigid
Advantages of external recruitment processes
 Availability of the qualified personnel
 Ample choice available
 Availability of talent
Disadvantages
 May cause dissatisfaction level among employees
 Lengthy processes
 Very costly way to recruit
Various methods of selection also exist like categorization, interviewing, based on experience,
instincts. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages and disadvantages are
being seen for the online tests and interviews.
Advantages of selection methods (interviews and online tests)
 More effective in cost and time
 Makes the entire process of selection easy
 HR department can concentrate on many other areas for the betterment of employees
 Good usage of technology
Disadvantages
 At time is not suitable for all the job positions
 Candidates may get rejected who have good potential but they can’t perform good at the
interviews
4

 Requires the integration with the IT department
P3 Benefits of HRM practices to employers and employees
Many HRM practices exist which may be available at organizations and they intend to provide
the employees and employer’s different set of benefits. The HRM practices may be related to the
career flexibility options, time offs, time banking and many more.
The company also makes use for some of the flexible working practices which has provided
many advantages of the employees and to the employers of the company. Some of them are:
Career flexibility options
Employees: the employees are able to get a chance to maintain a balance between their personal
life and the career ambitions and they can even plan of pursuing higher education in the future.
Employers: They are bale to retain the high skilled professionals so that people with right urge
can be acquired by the organization and such people are able to improve their competencies at
professional level. The company is able to make use of the acquires skills for the benefits for the
organization.
Time offs at Harrods
Employees: The employees when get the time offs they become happier. the morale increases
and even their stress levels go down. They tend to develop job satisfactions and this way better
perceptions are developed by them about the supervisors and the management. They would be
able to get relief form their responsibilities without getting disloyal to the company. They give
the employees a proper time to fulfill their responsibilities towards their family, friends and
many more and also care more about their personal health (Success, Offices, engagement, Hays
Recruitment & be., 2018).
Employers: They get a better commitment from the employees towards the organization. The
employment replacement and the turnover cost also gets reduced to a great amount.
Time banking
5

Employees: They tend to enjoy better time luxury when they are spending time with their
families and even they are able to pursue all the activities which are of their interest. The
employees while doing this are able to get entitlements for the employment benefits and also get
job security.
Employers: Harrods are able to employ more female workers in the concern with this facility
Harrods may keep the repriced work force at the company and even the retired employees may
also be able to continue with their commitment levels towards the organization.
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices for increasing profits and productivity
HRM planning: Harrods has a proper HR planning in place which has aided the concern to
increase its productivity and profitability position. The human resource helps in linking the needs
of an organization to the strategic plan of the organization. This HRM planning includes many
functions like this allows the staff members team work, help them scale up the career ladders and
also make use of the best abilities in them. The HRM planning is a key to success for the
business in many ways (Lange, 2013). The goals of the organizations are achieved only through
the employees. The business sat Harrods is able to run smoothly because of the presence of the
employees at the company. They have helped in uplifting the brand image of the company.
Employee training: The HR department reduces the employee turnover rate which is directly
related to the increased productivity and profitability of the companies. Even when Harrods
discovered that the they have high employee turnover rate then they conducted a comprehensive
employee survey so that they are able to get an insight about the state of mind of the employees.
This survey became the bias of the Human resource management program at Harrods. They also
made strategic plans based on this survey do that the employee engagement levels could be
increased.
Motivation: Then the increased productivity levels are also linked to increased productivity of
the employees as the motived employees are expected to work fully in the organizations and they
take many steps so that they can contribute towards the goals of the organizations. The company
has made use of many practices which helps in in assuring that the employees are able to
contribute to the best of their abilities (Sabharwal, 2018). They have been able to take advantage
6

of many offerings to the employee’s o that they are able to contribute for the best developments
of the organizations. The HR department works for the best interest of the organizations.
Besides this the recruitments and selection processes are designed in a way which makes the
employees happy and increase their performance.
Task 2
P5 Employee relations and HRM decisions
The human resources department helps in making the employees relationship in the workplace
better and this is done by making sure that the all the standards of the workplace are met and that
all the employees requests and the concerns are timely understood by the companies. The HR
department has to perform many functions in relation to the employee relations and this may
range from the approving of the requests of relocation and to the assistance of the employees to
get an increase in the wages. Some of the aspects of this which can be linked directly to the HR
department are as follows and they are the stages which are directly linked to the HRM decisions
making.
 Workplace quality: This refers to the safety and the comfort level at the workplace. The
quality of services in the organization is dependent upon the employee’s effectiveness.
HR has to keep in mind of the relations with the employees along with the also at the
same time take care of their safety. Though HR department is not authorized to bring
sweeping changes in the organization but still they bring many changes which may
change the current conditions of the employees and by paying due attention to the
concerns and the thoughts of the employees.
 Complaints: They also handle the complaints of employees from time to time. This may
come in the form of the issues of manager and co-workers. the department has to follow
the policies so that the differences which occur between the employees can be settled
easily and even the employees feel comfortable at the workplace. Employees have to be
handled in a sensitive manner.
 Relocation: The employees who even want to get relocated to another location or
departments may make use of the HR to get authorization. The department of HR gathers
7

information from the other sources and then takes a decision to relocate the employees or
not.
 Raises: Then Human resource department are not only engaged with raising salaries of
employees but they have to consult the other departments before taking any decisions.
Even the approval from the business owners are received through the HR department.
They also review the performance evaluations and the pay rates of the employs before
taking a decision about the raise in the salaries. The other employees must be guided in a
way so that they don’t get demotivated.
 Employee assistance: the companies also have EPAs which is specially for the aid of the
employees who are facing some problems and the HR department help them to overcome
the problems. The department has to enroll the employees in the program and has to keep
adjusting the progress of the employees and has to keep finding ways in which employees
may be encouraged to increase their performance.
P6 Impact of regulatory and legal frameworks on the HRM decision by Harrods
The company in order to maintain a positive and ethical image, the hotel organization has mad
ensure that they follow and apply the regulatory and legal framework which protect the
employees’ rights and this also helps the company in motivating the employees for unfair
practices:
 Discrimination Act: As per the legal framework of UK the originations have to follow the
discrimination Act in which the management cannot discriminate against any candidates
due to religion, age, gender and based on race.
 Privacy Act: They also protect the personal details and the information about the staff
members working in the organization as per the Privacy Act. The HR managers must not
share any vital information with anybody in the concern and this overall has appositive
impact on the information sharing of the support and the staff done by the company and
this has helped the company to maintain their ethical image in the market.
 Equal pay Act: The HR department at Harrods makes sure that the staff members
working at the concern get equal pay as per the nature of work. The HR departments as
per legal framework offer their staff members equal wages to all the people who are
working at the same positions and this law has a positive impact on the organization and
8

also this helps in developing the supportive and positive working environment and this
also avoid of the conflicts.
 Employee relations: The HR department strategies for improving and building the
employee engagement and relations. This helps in maintaining good relations with the
employees. They also manage the equal opportunities by giving job opportunities to
people belonging to various diversities. The company Harrods is not lagging behind and
is providing employment opportunities to people belonging to various diverse
opportunities.
 Employment law: The HR department at Harrods follow the employment law and some
of the aspects which are followed are relating to the dismissals, redundancies, health and
safety of the employees, employment contracts. This is to facilitate the social and ethical
responsibilities.
 Safety and health regulation: The employees try to provide a healthy ad safe workplace to
their all staff and employees. The employees are required to have an insurance cover and
personal medical cover which are offered by the employer (JONES, KALMI &
KAUHANEN, 2010). The organization also has a safety and health department which
undergoes inspection and checks and all this is done in accordance with the legislations
set.
Harrods have tried to follow all the legislations in a proper manner and as the company is so big
and sometimes they have to face issues regarding the employment opportunities to all, the
company has accepted it and have tried to make sure that such happenings don’t occur in the
company.
P7 Business practices
Various practices exist which help in motivating the employee’s Various theories exist which
explain that what motivates the employees. Maslow’s theory, X factor theory and the bottom-line
of all is that they get motivated either by getting a high pay check or by doing work which
actually makes them proud. Even at Microsoft many policies exit which offers incentives to be
employees to achieve something new in life and this way the employees get a chance to prove
their worth. Sometimes employees get motivated by the workplace in which mutual respect is
9

favored. Some of the practices are even followed at Harrods to motivate the employees and these
are:
 Follows Guest model: The company not only recognizes the guest model but also has
tried to adopt it. Through this they are bale to integrate the employees to the operations of
the businesses. In this model the halving of psychological relationships with the
employees and by the goal sharing, the employee management can be increased.
 Coaching and mentoring programs: Harrods has many coaching and mentoring programs
in place to keep advising people to make the developments. Then they have made talent
spotting as an integral part of the organization.
 Atkinson’s flexibility model: Then most used approach in the case of Harrods is of
Atkinsons flexibility approach This is applied in various ways like the functional
flexibility is applied in situations in which the employees are redeployed smoothly and
quickly. Then the employees are given flexibility in the organization to take their own
decisions (Wickramasinghe & Samaratunga, 2016). The organization uses numerical
flexibility where they make changes to the number of employees increased or decreased.
Then is the flexibility which is followed in the pay scales of the company and this is due
to this fact that the rates of wages which are prevailing in the company are just the same
as the market rates.
 Flexible working practices: Harrods is also world famous for their encouragement of the
flexible working practices. The company has made up the settings and the structures so
that a flexible working environment may be promoted and at the same time the
employees working in the company also make sure that they are able to reach closer to
the goals while enjoying the flexibility being advanced to the, they have actually adopted
people oriented culture and the comfort of the workers are kept in mind by the company
in all possible ways. They have reduced the administrative layers so that the low level
manager may become powerful and could easily approach the top level management.
This way HR department at Harrods have tried to follow the working practices which may
encourage the workers to contribute significantly to the goals of the company.
10

Conclusion
Harrods is a famous luxury brand which keeps on attracting the attention of many due to its
strategic HR practices. The company has over the years mastered the skill of maintaining a high
level of quality and class in the handling of the issues relating to human resources in the
organization. The company has changed its practices especially after it was took over by the
Qataris and the company changed their approached to the HRM functions. The company has
become much more generous toward sits business and have realized that the success of the
business can be done if the employees are given more decision making powers. With the sue of
various strategies and programs the organization has not been able to achieve high financial
benefits but it has also become a favorite place to work with by the employees of the company as
the employee satisfaction rate of the company has increased tremendously.
11

References
Hoffmann, K. (2014). Measuring HRM Effectiveness as a Challenge to Contemporary HRM
Scientists (HRM Context). Kwartalnik Ekonomistów I Menedżerów, 33(3), 7-24. doi:
10.5604/01.3001.0009.4590
Human Resources | Harrods Careers. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.harrodscareers.com/human-resources-jobs
JONES, D., KALMI, P., & KAUHANEN, A. (2010). How Does Employee Involvement Stack
Up? The Effects of Human Resource Management Policies on Performance in a Retail
Firm. Industrial Relations: A Journal Of Economy And Society, 49(1), 1-21. doi:
10.1111/j.1468-232x.2009.00584.x
Lange, T. (2013). Evidence‐based HRM: a scholarship perspective with a difference. Evidence-
Based HRM: A Global Forum For Empirical Scholarship, 1(1), 4-15. doi:
10.1108/20493981311318584
Sabharwal, V. (2018). Harrods boss to step down after 10 years - Retail Gazette. Retrieved from
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2016/03/harrods-boss-to-step-down-after-10-years/
Success, C., Offices, M., engagment, H., Hays Recruitment, & be., D. (2018). Case Study:
Increasing employee engagement through the HRM (Harrods) - Engage for Success.
Retrieved from http://engageforsuccess.org/case-study-increasing-employee-engagement-
through-the-hrm-harrods
Wickramasinghe, V., & Samaratunga, M. (2016). HRM practices and post-promotion managerial
performance. Evidence-Based HRM: A Global Forum For Empirical Scholarship, 4(2),
144-161. doi: 10.1108/ebhrm-08-2014-0019
12