Analyzing HRM and Employee Relations at Marks & Spencers

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks & Spencers, focusing on workforce planning, resourcing, and employee relations. It examines the purpose of HRM in recruitment, selection, and talent management, detailing approaches such as interviews, talent pool databases, and internal promotions, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The report also explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, including increased positivity, diversity, and engagement in the workplace. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making and the impact of employment legislation on these decisions, providing practical examples of HRM applications within Marks & Spencers. The analysis concludes by emphasizing the critical role of effective HRM in achieving organizational goals and maintaining a high-performing workforce.

Human Resource Management
Task A

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1. Purpose of Human resource Management.............................................................................3
P2. Approaches of selection.........................................................................................................4
P3. Benefits of HRM practises for employer and employee.......................................................7
P4. Effectiveness of HRM practises............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................14
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................14
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making..........14
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making
....................................................................................................................................................17
P7. Application of HRM practices in a work related context with examples............................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to the planning, monitoring and controlling the
activities of humans resource in the organisation (Armstrong, 2020). Practise of recruiting,
hiring, developing and managing of the employees in the workplace are also included in the
human resource management. Marks and Spencers is a British multinational retailer company
that is included in manufacturing and selling of clothing, homer products and food products
(About Us, 2021). This report will discuss about the purpose Of the human resource management
in the workforce planning and resourcing along with the approaches of selecting and recruiting
with their strength and weakness. It will also discuss the benefits of the human resource
management practises to the employees and employer in terms of profit and productivity.
MAIN BODY
P1. Purpose of Human resource Management
Human resource management an important role in the organisation. Management if the
employees becomes necessary in order to get effective operations in the business. Various plans
are made by the management to get the best utilization of the men power (Garg and et.al, 2021).
The objective of the human resource planning is to ensure the best fit between the employees and
the job position so that challenges do not occur related to the manpower shortage or surplus.
Purpose of the human resource management is to recruit and select employees.
Motivation and engagement of the employees is also a major concern to the management of the
company. The objective of the management is to get the effective utilization of the human
resource. It can be done with various HR practises that are prepared to motivate employees with
the help of rewards, learning and development of the employees. Selection is done with the aim
of filling the most appropriate job position that lead to the better utilization or resources and
increase the productivity of the business.
Planning are prepared by the management to get effective result in Marks and Spencers.
Talent planning is a crucial part in the human resource practises. It refers to the identification,
recruitment and holding the people to drive the success of Marks and Spencers. Talent planning
is done by the management to get an effective use of the talent of the employees by providing
them the most suitable;e position in the company so that the talent is fully utilized.

Talent planning is prepared by the Marks and Spencers to get combination of people
management process that employer use to recruit and retain top talent. Purpose of this planning is
to create and maintain high performing workforce in the company (Knies and et.al, 2017). There
are various talent planing that include attracting talent, identifying talent, developing talent,
engaging talent and retaining talent. Company mostly prefer to use attracting talent that refers to
the recruiting new people to fill key operational roles that help the business to meet the both
short and long term goals. Marks and Spencers makes their talent planning very effective in
order to get the best results in the organization. Majorly attention are provided to the areas of
following.
1. Getting the recruitment brief right.
2. Clear development paths and opportunities for skills management.
3. Learning and developments.
4. Keeping peace with the market.
P2. Approaches of selection
Various approaches are taken by the company to hire the employees. Recruitment and
selection process plays an essential part in the business as the people are hired to achieve the
organisational goal of the company. Following are some process of recruitment and selection of
Marks and Spencers.
Interviews: Interviews are taken by the company to get the people hired in the
organisations. Majorly consist of two steps that include writing a job description and posting a
job. People are invited for the interviews. It is a face to face meeting during which managers ask
series of questions to get knowledge about the skills and talent of the employee. Interview is
very sensitive part of the selecting process as it also help to increase the engagement of the
employees and capability of the person is measured to provide the most suitable job to the person
that will help the company to get effective operation in the business (Ogbonnaya and
Messersmith, 2019). Resume or CV is checked to get the basic information of the person such as
past job experience, education qualification, and field of interest that is utilized to get the perfect
job position of the employees.
For example- a candidate is interviewed and the conclusion of the interview has showed
that the person is very good at the communication and has marketing skills then the job position
of marketer or selling or service provider will be offered to the person that will be very helpful to

the company. Strength of the interview process include Personal interviews usually have high
yield of returns, the information in the interviews are likely to be more correct and it has strength
to find the talent by questioning the person. Flexibility in this process makes the interview a
superior technique for the exploration of the areas where there is little basis for knowing the
questions. It also helps the interviewer to observe the gesture and facial expression of the person
that are very helpful in deciding the job position of the employee. However in a critical
evaluation interview process is very costly and time-consuming. Efficiency of this process is
depend in the training and skills of the interviewer. In this method, the organisation required for
selecting, training and supervising a field staff is more complex. Effective interview need proper
rapport with the respondent and controlling of interview atmosphere in a manner that would
facilitate free and frank responses.
Talent Pool Database: This approach of the recruitment used by the marks and Spencers
refers to the expression used to describe a database with all the current and future potential job
candidates Human resource managers keeps all the information of their job candidates (Olson
and et.al, 2018). It includes all the candidates that have applied for the job, sourced, referred
candidates and people that have willingly joined the pool in an inbound way. Talent pools with
qualify candidates is very important as it reduces the time and cost of hiring. It also helps the
Marks and Spencers to have the potential to meet the company's shorty and long terms needs. It
contains the information about each prospect that include the person's skills, roles they can fit in
and whether they are a cultural fit or not.
For Example- person with their skills and qualification are added to the talent pool
database that help the company to get the best employees for the vacant job position of the
organisation. If there is requirement of accountant in the business. Talent pool can help the
organisation to find the most suitable employees with the help of talent pool database. Strength
are of talent pool database include it helps in easily review of candidate's skills, experience and
qualification. Customized pipeline processes make it easy to pre-screen shortlist, interview and
make offers. It reduce recruitment and agency cost along with the tine of hiring. This feature of
recruitment is user friendly and fast processing. It also has weakness such as Challenges of Bugs
is always there in this process of recruitment. Employees are not always ready to be hired. Talent
pool needs to be updated every moth or week.

Talent pool
Promotion and transfer: it is the interior selection process of the organisation. Promotion
refers to the movement of an employee from one position to another position of higher pay grade
or salary. Suitable candidate is found from the existing employees and the job is offered to the
person to fulfil the vacant job position. Marks and Spencers use this approach to get the better
job selection as the employees are known and promoting and transferring is very easy process.
Data related to the employees are already held by the company it helps the business to recruit the
most suitable employee. Mostly selection for the higher position are done by promotion and
transfer as human resource management cannot take risk of new employees at the higher position
(Papa and et.al, 2018). Promoting the existing employees motivate them and lead to the better
efficiency in the business. Promotion are done on the basis of the requirement of skills on the
position and talent of the existing employees. The person with the fittest talent and skills have
higher changes to fill the job position.
For example- Job position is vacant for the supplier chain manager in the Marks and
Spencers, company will find the most suitable employee in the supply chain department as it will
benefit the company to have an employee with skills and knowledge of the supply chain and the
person with the suitable talent and skills that are required will be promoted. Following are the
strength and weakness of promotion and transfer.
Benefits of promotion and transfer are Current employees already knows the rules and

regulation of the company. Employees have understanding of the way in which organisation
operates. Thus, there is no need of much explanation. Offering opportunities to internal
employees boost the morale of the staff members. It also has weakness that include no fresh or
new ideas are brought into the organisation. Promotion of an internal employee could cause
resentment among other employees in the organisation. The number of applicants to choose may
be too high or too low.
P3. Benefits of HRM practises for employer and employee.
Human resource management practises creates several benefits to the employer as well as
employee in the organisation. Marks and Spencers has seen these benefits in the organisation that
were helpful to the both employer and employees. Following are the various benefits of the
human resource management practise
Employee
Practises of the human resource management creates positivity in the workplace and that
is the major benefit to the employees. Employees are the essential part of the organisation and
positivity in the employees towards the work is necessary. HRM practises brings the positivity in
the workplace environment that is very beneficial to the employees as positivity in the workplace
increase the motivation and engagement of the employees (Rana and Sharma, 2019). Practises
increase the diversity in the workplace which help the employees to learn different cultures.
Employee survey and making changes to improve the engagement of the employees also lead to
the benefit to the employees as it help them get in touch with the management and brings the
positivity towards the work. Employees have several benefits of the human resource practises
that include Draft and revises employment policies as it keeps the employees safe with policies
made by the Human resource management in the organisation.
A well-designed orientation program make new employees feel welcome. Human
resource management conduct sessions to inform new hires about their organisation's value and
work culture. Learning and development programs by the human resource management in Marks
ans Spencers benefit the employee to learn new approaches and methods. It also increases the
knowledge and skills of the employees.
Employer
Human Resource management practises benefits the employer in several ways as it help
the employer to interact with different employees and newly hired people. Meeting with various

people increase the knowledge and help to learn new things. Interviewing the people increase the
conversation skills and help the employer to develop the more effective interview process in the
organisation.
HRM practises also benefit the employer to develop cultural knowledge. Diversity in the
workplace help the employer to get flexibility in the job (Soltis, and et.al, 2018). Team learning
and training of the employees also make the r employer learn that can be useful future training
development. Other benefits of the HRM practises to the employer include health insurance,
family and medical leave, disability insurance. Employer also develops in development of the
employee. Many things ate learned by the employer during the training of the employees.
Employer are highly motivated when the employees are motivated. Motivation of the employees
by human resource management also increase the motivation of the employer in the business.
P4. Effectiveness of HRM practises
Human resources practises are very effective in the productivity and profit of the organization.
Benefits to the marks and Spencers in terms of profit and productivity are as follows:
Increase in profit
Human resource management practises plays an important role in the increase of the profit of the
company as various approaches lead to the decrease in the cost of the company. Practises of
HRM to promote the employee lead to the zero cost if the company and increase the profit
(Turulja and Bajgoric, 2018). Hiring the employees in the most effective ways and allocating the
job that is most suitable help the Marks and Spencer to get the most effective result sand that
help the business to increase the profit. Job training of the employees increase the knowledge and
skills for improving the performance in the job that help the business to get the higher production
and profit.
Employee Retention practise of human resource management reduce the cost of the
company as it decrease the hiring cost of the company and develop the profit of the company.
Loyalty of the employees reduce the risk of employees leaving the company. Diversity in the
workplace is also helpful in the profit of the marks and Spencers as creativity reduce the work
load and develop the skills that are very useful in effective utilization of resource. Better
utilization of resource increase the profit and reduce the operational cost of the company.
Increase in Productivity
Productivity measures business performance that indicates the effectiveness of people,

industries. Higher productivity leads to higher returns. Human resource management practises
also help on the increase in the productivity of Marks and Spencers. Talent planning of the
company increase the fulfilment of effective job position (Tweedie, and et.al, 2019). Talent of the
employees are used to get better return on the work and increase the productivity of the work as
people with interest are more productive with their work. The amount of value also increase with
the effective training and HRM practises in the business. Productivity of the business is increased
in various ways from the human resource management practises as manpower is the greatest
resource of the business.
Making employees conformable and keeping them happy also lead to the increase in the
productivity as motivation and engagement help the company to get the 100% from the
employees (Salikov, Logunova and Kablashova, 2019) This practise develops the work and it
also motivates other employees to do more and hence, HR practises are very useful in the
development in the productivity of Marks and Spencers.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion in the report it can be concluded that the Human resource
management of Marks and Spencers is very effective and majorly focus on the talent planning.
Different approaches of selection and recruitment were developed by the company that included
interview, talent pool database and promotion and transfer. Talent pool database helped in easily
review of candidate's skills, experience and qualification. Practises of the human resource
management creates positivity in the workplace and that is the major benefit to the employees. A
well-designed orientation program made new employees feel welcome. Human resource
management conducted sessions to inform new hires about their organisation's value and work
culture. Effectiveness of human resource management help- the organisation to increase the
profit and productivity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M., 2020.Human resource management practice. Kogan page limited.
Garg, and et.al, 2021. A review of machine learning applications in human resource
management.International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.
Knies E. and et.al, 2017. Strategic human resource management and public sector performance:
context matters.
Ogbonnaya, C. and Messersmith, J., 2019. Employee performance, well-being, and differential
effects of human resource management subdimensions: Mutual gains or conflicting
outcomes?.Human Resource Management Journal.29(3). pp.509-526.
Olson,and et.al, 2018. The application of human resource management policies within the
marketing organization: The impact on business and marketing strategy
implementation.Industrial Marketing Management. 69. pp.62-73.
Papa, and et.al, 2018. Improving innovation performance through knowledge acquisition: the
moderating role of employee retention and human resource management practices.
Journal of Knowledge Management.
Rana, G. and Sharma, R., 2019. Emerging human resource management practices in Industry
4.0.Strategic HR Review.
Salikov, Y.A., Logunova, I.V. and Kablashova, I.V., 2019. Trends in human resource
management in the digital economy.Proceedings of the Voronezh State University of
Engineering Technologies.81(2). pp.393-399.
Soltis, and et.al, 2018. Social resource management: Integrating social network theory and
human resource management.Academy of Management Annals.12(2). pp.537-573.
Turulja, L. and Bajgoric, N., 2018. Information technology, knowledge management and human
resource management: Investigating mutual interactions towards better organizational
performance.VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems.
Tweedie, and et.al, 2019. How does performance management affect workers? Beyond human
resource management and its critique. International Journal of Management
Reviews,.21(1). pp.76-96.
Online
About Us, 2021. [Online]. Available through <https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/>

Human Resource Management
Task B

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1. Purpose of Human resource Management.............................................................................3
P2. Approaches of selection.........................................................................................................4
P3. Benefits of HRM practises for employer and employee.......................................................7
P4. Effectiveness of HRM practises............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................14
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................14
P5. Importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making..........14
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making
....................................................................................................................................................17
P7. Application of HRM practices in a work related context with examples............................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23