Human Resource Management Practices at Boots Pharmacy

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Human Resource Management
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Executive summary
Major purposes and vital functions of HRM was discussed by taking consideration of
Boots pharmacy. Strengths of best-fit method was found. The study pointed some
weaknesses of it too. Analysis of best-practice method was done. This gave out some
advantages for using it and weaknesses of it. Weaknesses of internal method and
external method of recruitment as well as their strengths have been highlighted.
Enlargement process and enrichment method of job design has been evaluated. Some
methods of training, which are used in Boots pharmacy was given. These methods are
simulation, role-playing and coaching technique. Importance of performance
management for incrementing profit by having more productivity was discussed.
Flexible working was found to be very important for organisation. Meaning of employee
relations in context to organisation was provided. Few roles played by trade union was
given. Few laws affecting HRM decisions were discussed. Lastly, job description of HR
manager was given, interview questions and a CV was made. Offer letter from Boots
pharmacy was provided.
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 5
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 8
LO3................................................................................................................................ 12
LO4................................................................................................................................ 16
Reference list................................................................................................................. 20
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Introduction
An explanation regarding purpose of HRM relating to planning workforce and resourcing
will be discussed. Different recruitment methods and some selection procedures will be
discussed by outlining weaknesses as well as strengths of them. Benefits, which a
company can have due to HRM practices, will be explained. Effectiveness of these
practices for increasing both profit as well as productivity will be assessed. Analysis will
be provided on importance of maintaining relation with employees and its effect of
decisions of HRM. Some major legislation for employment and their influence in
decisions of HR department will be analysed. HRM practices will be applied to create
job description, CV, interview questions and offer letter.
Boots pharmacy is taken as the company for this study. It is a pharmacy company
based in UK. John Boot founded this organisation in 1849. They have 56000 employees
and 23.4 billion pounds is their current revenue. They sell beauty, skin care, medicines
and adult toys (boots.com, 2019).
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LO1
Introduction
This section will give a definition of HRM, which is provided by an author. Then
according to some authors, purpose, function of HRM is going to be discussed in this
section.
P1
Provide at least one definition for ‘Human Resource Management’.
As per Noe et al. (2017), method of recruitment, selection, giving training, developing
employees, providing orientation, managing compensation, giving motivation to
employees is known as human resource management. Therefore, management
process of human resources is known as HRM.
Explain the ‘purpose’ of human resource management. What is the main objective
of HRM? You may mention one or more than one purpose based on opinions of
different scholars.
Bratton and Gold (2017) says that there are several purposes related to HRM in Boots
pharmacy. People associated with HRM try to achieve organisational objective by
implementing method to increase efficiency of every department. This serves various
functional areas and helps in achieving maximum efficiency. HRM performs different
functional objectives but ensures that it does not cost more than benefit the company
can render. They try to achieve personal objectives for company such as acquisition,
development and utilisation of talent. Some societal objectives, such as maintaining
legal and ethical practice in Boots pharmacy come under their purpose.
Cascio (2015) believe that HRM has some purposes like maintaining staffing needs.
They hire, train and allocate workforces inside Boots pharmacy. They ensure that
orientations of employees are proper. HR department maintains compensation records,
which is another purpose of HRM. This includes setting salaries, managing promotions
and demotions. They help in performance appraisal for employees in other
departments. They manage benefits for employees but while doing that they try to
minimise cost for Boots pharmacy. Another purpose is to see if every employee is
complying with business laws. They ensure that departments are following different
laws applicable to Boots pharmacy.
Discuss at least four ‘functions’ of human resource management (for example:
job design, recruitment, compensation, health & safety)
Job design
HRM focuses on designing job by specifying special needs according to category of
jobs. They define responsibilities of every role and set out some specifications, which
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are necessary for Boots pharmacy. These job designs are according to departmental
needs but it considers organisational objective (Böckerman et al., 2019).
Recruitment
HR department does HRM and it has connection with recruitment process. They design
recruitment methods and set out requirements, which are used in creating job
advertisement for Boots pharmacy. HR employees often take interview of candidates.
They modify recruitment procedures to find best candidates (Russell and Brannan,
2016).
Compensation
Another function of HRM is managing compensation. HR department creates salary
structure for employees according to their designation and experience. Different
benefits such as increment in salaries, health benefits are a part of it (Taylor, 2016).
Health and safety
Health of employees and their safety is a responsibility of HR department. This is an
important function for HRM. It is their duty to ensure that law such as “Health and safety
at Work act of 1974” is in practice. They add safety measurements inside organisations
to maintain healthy workplace (Holt and Allen, 2015).
P2
Explain A) the ‘Best Fit’ approach to recruitment and selection
This approach emphasises HR strategies according to various circumstances inside
Boots pharmacy. According to these circumstances, candidates are hired and this is
known as best-fit approach.
B) Discuss the ‘strengths/advantages’ of the ‘Best Fit’ approach to recruitment
and selection
This method allows hiring of best candidate according to specific needs of Boots
pharmacy in a situation, which helps in gaining competitive advantage. This allows both
internal recruitment for internal type system and external hiring for market type system.
Therefore, company can select from various types of processes, which allows in better
hiring. These are strengths of this approach (Boon, 2016).
C) Analyse the ‘weaknesses/disadvantages’ of the ‘Best Fit’ approach to
recruitment and selection.
It is difficult to find competent candidates according to situations of Boots pharmacy.
Therefore, it may not become a successful approach in variable situations. This requires
hiring employees on continuous basis as circumstances of organisation may change
over time, which changes requirement too. Internal recruitment method of this approach
may not be sufficient to supply Boots pharmacy with good employees. These are some
weaknesses of this approach (Al Ariss and Sidani, 2016).
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Discuss A) the ‘Best Practice’ approach to recruitment and selection.
This approach is related to some universally proven method for hiring employees.
These are some processes that are proven to give desired result for hiring process.
B) Explain the ‘strengths/advantages’ of the ‘Best Practice’ approach to
recruitment and selection.
This approach uses best methods, which are recognised universally for hiring
candidates and this helps in selecting best employees. This may let Boots pharmacy
use hiring software to select candidates. It helps in analysing position inside Boots
pharmacy and requirements of it during selection process. This clearly defines factors,
which attracts candidates. Therefore, these are some advantages of this method
(Brewster et al., 2018).
C) Analyse the ‘weaknesses/disadvantages’ of the ‘Best Practice’ approach to
recruitment and selection.
These selection processes may not be effective in future, as requirements of Boots
pharmacy are changing. It is difficult to find unique talent by applying this method.
Therefore, hired candidates may not have any special talent. Therefore, these are some
key weaknesses of this method (Sparrow et al., 2016).
Analyse A) the ‘Internal Recruitment’ and the advantages and disadvantages of
‘Internal Recruitment’.
Internal recruitment is a method for filling vacancies by using existing employees inside
an organisation. Internal recruitment allows Boots pharmacy to hire employees, who
are already familiar with work culture of this company and it is an advantage. This can
increase retention and boost morale of employees. This does not allows Boots
pharmacy to have a fresh perspective, which can become a disadvantage. This creates
stagnation in recruitment and lacks from diversity, which is disadvantageous (Cascio,
2015).
B) Discuss the ‘External Recruitment’ and the advantages and disadvantages of
‘External Recruitment’.
External recruitment is a hiring procedure, where companies select candidates from
outside of company through various methods. Due to more availability of candidates,
there are more chances of finding better candidates. There is a chance for bringing
fresh ideas by recruiting fresh talent and these are great advantages. This procedure is
highly time-consuming, can cost a huge amount of money to Boots pharmacy, and can
be a disadvantage (Yang, 2016).
Conclusion
Some purposes was discussed, which are related to HRM. Some functions have been
discussed such as recruitment, maintenance of health and compensation system.
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Strengths or advantages and weaknesses or disadvantages for best fit, practice,
internal as well as external hiring was discussed.
LO2
Introduction
Some HRM practices will be discussed in this section. Job designs and benefits of it will
be understood. Benefits of training, performance management, flexible working will be
discussed.
P3
Mention some of the major ‘HRM practices’ such as job design, training &
development, flexible working, and performance management.
Job design
This is a function of HRM by which HR department sets specification of jobs by
describing relationship of these with organisational objective (Daniels et al., 2017).
Training and development
Training is provided to employees for developing skill. HR department hosts many
training workshops for employees to ensure that they are well aware of pharmacy
business (Bournois et al., 2017).
Flexible working
In Boots pharmacy, flexible work schedule is maintained. They believe in balancing life
and work of employees. They have proper number of holidays according UK law. They
have different shifts and lets employees work in random shifts to ease pressure ( Chung
et al., 2018).
Performance management
HR department manages performance of employees by monitoring them. They give
suggestion to employees for managing their work schedule properly.
Explain A) the practice of ‘job design’ by analysing at least two of the job design
methods/approaches such as ‘enlargement method’ and ‘enrichment method’;
give examples of using these methods in one organisation [preferably in your
chosen firm].
Enlargement method
This method is used for designing jobs by adding additional tasks to a job role. This
expands tasks and does not allow simplification of jobs. This helps in effacing monotony
in jobs and helps in increasing interest. In Boots pharmacy, managers are given charge
for screening new ideas brought by employees to measure its reliability (Carpini and
Parker, 2016).
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Enrichment method
This is a kind of job designing, where employees are provided with autonomy. They can
plan and control their performance. Main aim is to improve tasks and increase efficiency
of employees. This design method increases responsibility of an employee. Managers
at Boots pharmacy are handling more responsibilities for giving employees more inputs
regarding their tasks (Dwivedula et al., 2017).
B) Write about benefits of good ‘job design’ for both employee and employer.
Boots Pharmacy (Employer)
 This helps in distributing tasks
properly, which helps to finish
tasks quicker.
 Due to more interested worker,
they perform better, which results
in increasing overall performance
of organisation (Daniels et al.,
2017).
Employee
 This reduces boredom in jobs and
naturally, employees are interested to
work harder, which is beneficial for
their professional life (Böckerman et
al., 2019).
 This increases chances for personal
achievement.
Table 1: Benefits of good job design
Discuss A) the practice of ‘training & development’ by exploring different training
methods such as ‘simulation’, ‘coaching’, and ‘role playing’; give examples of
using these methods in one organisation [preferably in your chosen company]
Simulation
This method involves using different simulators such as computer software for giving
them training. Boots pharmacy is developing employee’s skills through simulators. This
method projects an employee to a real life situation in business by using help of a virtual
platform. An employee is given options to choose and their decisions points out their
strong or weak points.
Coaching
In this method, trainers provide training to employees for developing skills. In Boots
pharmacy, managers give training to workers (MacLennan, 2017). Managers notice
weaknesses of employees and provide various training to develop it. This gives
managers to monitor employees closely.
Role-playing
Employees are given special roles to play and once they are aware about their roles,
they act as per their role. In Boots pharmacy, this method helps in developing employee
skills by assessing them roles in an imaginary situation (Bell et al., 2017).
B) Identify benefits of proper ‘training & development’ for both
employer/organisation and staff.
Boots Pharmacy (Employer) Employee
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 Trained employees can
perform organisational tasks
better, which signifies benefits
of training.
 Skill development of
employees can help
organisation to utilise new skill
in competitive market
(Srivastava and Dhar, 2015).
 If an employee has developed
new knowledge, then there
might be some additional fresh
ideas in business, which they
may bring. This can help an
organisation to increase
organisational performance.
 An employee can show high
performance due to training.
 Development is beneficial for their
career for reaching bigger heights in
professional life (Kraiger and Cavanagh,
2015).
 If an employee has developed skill, then
that person will become valuable to
Boots pharmacy, as this person may
provide more inputs for organisation.
Therefore, company may retain this
employee, which can be beneficial for
this person.
Table 2: Benefits of training and development
P4
Explain the two HRM practices of ‘performance management’ and ‘flexible
working’.
Performance management
HRM practice for performance management includes appraisal. This is a direct
evaluation of employee’s performance. This helps in employees to understand their
performance according to standard set by company. Goal setting is another practice,
which helps employees to understand their goals. This decreases ambiguity of tasks,
which helps to manage performance (Buckingham and Goodall, 2015).
Flexible working
Job role interchange is a practice of flexible working. Exchange of job roles between
employees helps in breaking monotony. Another practice is having flexible work hours.
Interchange of schedule between employees helps them to work at different shifts and it
helps to ease pressure (Bohle, 2016). In Boots pharmacy, employees are given
holidays as per norms of UK and in case of maternal and paternal issues, they provide
leaves.
Assess how a suitable ‘performance management’ by HRM may improve your
chosen company’s profit and productivity.
Performance management in HRM can improve profits of Boots pharmacy.
Performance management can bring consistency towards performance of employees.
This can result in motivation, which is crucial for better performance. Therefore, overall
performance of Boots pharmacy can increase. This ensures more productivity, as every
department works better. A system of performance management can provide feedback
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to staffs. This will let them understand their faults in work, which they can use for
improvement. Therefore, employees can find better ways to increase performance by
getting training. This helps in increasing performance of employees, which ultimately
helps in increasing profit and better productivity (DeNisi and Murphy, 2017)
Discuss how an appropriate ‘flexible working’ by HRM can increase
organisational profit and productivity in your chosen company.
Flexible working is a great practice, which can ease pressure from employees. Due to
high work pressure, employees may feel demotivated, which can harm their
performance. If employees can work in flexible schedule, then they will be able to give
time to their family. This can create a balance between work and personal life.
Therefore, employees will be motivated to work for Boots pharmacy, which will increase
individual performance. This will help organisation to boost their organisational
performance, which can result in better financial gain. Productivity will increase due to
better performances of staffs and it will result in more profit (Chung and Van der Lippe,
2018).
Conclusion
In this section, practices of HRM, enlargement method, enrichment method, benefits of
designing jobs, benefits for giving training was discussed. Performance management,
flexible working increases productiveness and profit for Boots pharmacy.
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LO3
Introduction
This study will contain importance of maintaining employee relations. Trade union’s role
will be highlighted. Major areas, which are important in HRM decisions, will be
understood. Effects of decisions from HRM on work condition, designing jobs, security
of employment and some legislation’s impact on HRM decision will be understood.
P5
Discuss the meaning and importance of ‘employee relations’.
Employee relation is referred to an organisation’s effort to maintain relationship with
employees. This is crucial for proper functioning of Boots pharmacy, as this can let
employees express about their problems to employer. This can solve their problems
quickly, which can result in better communication. This resolves many issues in their
life, which in return can help company to function properly. This is beneficial for both
employees and Boots pharmacy. This holds key for having more employee retention.
This can help company to hold great employees, which can result in betterment of
organisational performance. Therefore, it is important to maintain employee relation
(Griffin et al., 2015).
Highlight the role of trade unions. Explain at least two roles of trade unions.
Collective bargaining
An employee may not be able to negotiate with employer regarding their salary.
Employer may not listen to this person regarding issues like wage raise, working
conditions and other factors. Trade unions act as a medium, which will help in collective
bargaining by creating pressure on employer (Troy, 2016).
Consulting and informing
Trade unions participate in redundancy process regarding employees. They make sure
that organisations are consulting employees before taking such decisions. They ensure
statutory payments for employees. They manage pension of employees and sees if
employer is giving pensions properly or not. They raise issues to employer regarding
problems in workplace (Ford and Novitz, 2016).
Worker safety
Trade unions in UK ensure that workers are safe in their workplace. They ensure
companies are taking precautions to maintain safety. They provide suggestions to
employees regarding various safety measures, which can help company to take some
steps for brining changes to increase safety. They raise concerns if any company is not
paying attention to health of workers.
Identify at least three major areas of decision-making by HRM in the organisation
(such as job design decisions, recruitment decisions, training & development
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