Effectiveness of HRM Practices and Employee Relations at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks and Spencer (M&S), a multinational retail company. The report begins with an introduction to HRM, highlighting its purpose and functions, particularly in workforce planning. It then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches, including internal and external sources, and different selection methods like online screening and interview techniques. The report further explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, focusing on training and development and flexible working hours. It emphasizes the importance of effective HRM practices, such as proper direction setting and updating employee skills. The report also examines the influence of worker relations on HRM decision-making and the key elements of employee legislation. Finally, it discusses the application of HRM practices within M&S, offering a detailed overview of the company's approach to managing its workforce. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for enhancing HRM effectiveness within the organization.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose and function of HRM applicable to workforce planning in an organisation...........1
P2 Strength and Weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection process......4
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employer and employee in a company ................................5
P4 Importance of effectiveness of different HRM practices.......................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Importance of workers relation to influence HRM decision-making....................................8
P6 Key element of employee's legislation and it's impact on decision-making process of HRM
.....................................................................................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7 Application of HRM practices ..............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a formative process that leads towards building a
effective human resources with the help of recruitment, selection, training and development,
orientation in order to achieve organisational goals in best effective way (Alfes, 2013). In
addition to this, HR manager holds a certain set of responsibilities in which they perform
activities related to, appraising employees, offering them benefits, maintaining proper
relationship with workforce, ensuring workers safety and complying labour laws. Present report
has been conducted on Marks and Spencer a multinational retail company founded in the year
1884, United Kingdom. Report includes formative decisions on the topic of effectiveness and
importance of HRM practises and employee relationship. Along with this, project includes
application of HRM practises and utilization of technology so to increase effectiveness of
selection and recruitment process.
TASK 1
P1 Purpose and function of HRM applicable to workforce planning in an organisation
Workforce planning acts as an one the key essential element in an organisation that
include formative evaluation and examination to company actual need and attain best effective
qualitative human resources that help in the attainment of predetermined goals and objectives. In
context with Marks and Spencer by ensuring proper utilization of employees abilities HR
manager can effectively able to recruit right individual at right job. HRM consist numerous set
of functions and purpose mentioned below that can be taken into consideration by HR manager
of company:
Purpose of HRM
Human-resource-management works with a purpose to effectively maintain proper
coordination among employees and company top level management in order to fulfil staffing
needs in best effective way. Human resource manager of Marks and Spencer perform their
functions with a purpose of increasing overall productivity and profitability of organisation along
with strengthening employees efficiency. In order to accomplish this, mentioned below there are
some basic activities and purposes that can be consider by company HR manager:
Create Better Organisational Culture: HR manager perform their objectives with a main
purpose to formulate effective organisational culture in within company workplace and build
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developmental relationship with organisation management and workforce. HR manager of Marks
and Spencer, operate their functions towards building positive and healthy workplace
environment which will further benefit company to increase efficiency and productivity of both
company and employees. By creating a healthy organisational culture, M&S can effectively
motivate the workforce, thereby, carrying out workforce planning to achieve the business
objectives within time.
Law: Multinational organisations like Marks and Spencer operate their business
operations in wide range of geographical locations. Each and every nation has separate laws and
legislations which are required to be abide by every organisational unit. HR manager of Marks
and Spencer effectively consider each and every required federal and state laws and legislations
that include, equal employment opportunity, labour union, employee management, wages and
conflict resolution (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016). This will further aid them to
effectively address organisational issues concerned and provide safe secure working environment
that lead towards high end productivity. By stipulating and enforcing employment and health and
safety laws, M&S can effectively execute workforce planning in a desirable manner, thereby
encouraging them to deliver enhanced performance.
Functions of HRM
Recruitment & Selection: It is a basic process within which HR manager engage in the
process of hiring and selecting potential candidates. In relation with, Marks and Spencer HR
manager effectively hire best effective individuals with the help of formative staffing plan and
estimated budget. With the help of proper planning and budget HR manager of Marks and
Spencer can effectively able to recruit potentially effective candidate by measuring cost
effectiveness of company that will lead towards productivity and profitability of organisation.
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(Source: Role of Human Resource Manager, 2019)
Training & Development: This function acts as an one the most crucial element within an
organisation that include formative training and development programmes to employees as to
increase their capabilities and knowledge. In context with Marks and Spencer, HR manager of
company offer different types of training and development programmes and organise periodical
seminars for their workforce. This benefits in increasing and improving knowledge and
productivity of employees that automatically help company to increase its profitability.
Employee Relation: HR manager of Marks and Spencer consider their workforce as a
one the strongest pillar or company that stimulates organisation continuous profitability. Thus, in
order to maintain their relationship HR manager offer numerous motivational elements including
compensation, benefits to their employees in order to increase their productivity as to strengthen
organisation efficiency and profitability.
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P2 Strength and Weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection process
Selection and Recruitment is a basic function in an organisation with the help of which
organisation gain potential and effective candidates who can works towards attaining company
objectives in a developmental way. Thus, in order to strengthen efficiency of this process Marks
and Spencer HR manager take advantage of human resource planning. Recruitment process
include functions relating to identifying actual job recruitment in a company and fill the same
with effective candidates while selection include, selecting best suitable candidates form pool of
individual. Source of recruitment and selection is described below:
Internal Source of Recruitment:
In this form of recruitment workers get hired on a particular position through the process
of employee referrals, transferring, promotions and employee referrals. Company is considering
promotions as internal sourcing of suitable candidates.
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
With the help of Promotion source of
recruitment manager can able to hire
candidates with best effective capability as
they are already familiar with their workforce
(Welch, 2011). It further helps in increase
loyalty among employees towards increasing
profitability.
It hamper organisation to get fresh blood that
affect innovation within company. Along with
this, lack of diversity acts as major weakness
for an entity.
External Source of Recruitment: In this method of recruitment, employees get hired and
selected through the mode of employment agencies, campus recruitment, direct recruitment,
professional associations, advertisements and employment exchanges. Organisation is taking
advantage of advertising form of recruitment to hire best effective candidates.
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
With the help of this mode of recruitment
company can recruit potential and best
effective eligible individuals from wide range
of locations.
There is a requirement of huge investments as
in this it become essential for company to
conduct proper verification and documentation
of individuals in order to select potential
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candidate.
Both of the methods can be considered by Marks and Spencer in order to recruit best potential
candidate that help company to strengthen their workforce. To accomplish their process in
formative manner HR manager of Marks and Spencer conduct proper documentation related to
person specification, job description, and interview and person specification.
Methods of Selection in M&S Company:
Online Screening:
HR manager of Marks and Spencer take advantage of Online screening method in order
to recruit candidates form wide range of geographical locations.
Merits and Demerits of Online Screening
Strengths Weakness
Internet allow M&S to reach out to maximum
location and recruit more qualified candidates
form wide range of pool of applicants.
It affect M&S to slip good candidates as there
are some individuals who lacks in internet
access and never respond towards online form
of job posting.
Interview Technique:
With the help of interview test selection, HR manager of Marks and Spencer hire
potential candidates who get shortlisted from internal and external source of recruitment.
Strength and Weaknesses of Interview Technique
Strength Weakness
Major strength of interview method includes
proper and exact feedback on spontaneous
time.
It requires lot of time and sometime manger
find bit difficulty to effectively evaluate
feedbacks form candidates.
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TASK 2
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employer and employee in a company
Human resource management is a most important element within an organisation with the
help of which organisation can effectively ensure proper utilization and management of
inventory. HR manager of Marks and Spencer have formative set of responsibilities that include,
employee relations, payroll, compensation management, selection, recruitment and employee
engagement. There are some formative practises that can be considered by company HR towards
employer and employee benefit:
Training and Development:
In order to increase working capability and knowledge of employees it is essential for an
organisation to make investments in different types of training sessions. Training and
development acts as a two important element of same coin. It helps company to increase work
efficiency of the newly joined and existing employees and further help in development of
personality of an employee. For an instance, if an employee take proper training and
development in an regular manner then it will benefit them to increase their work efficiency .
M&S effectively consider that each and every employee within their organisation are personally
and professionally developed for this they provide different types of training programs and make
sure each and every worker attend this on regular basis. With the help of this company can
further increase their work productivity that lead towards rise in their overall profitability rate as
productivity of their workforce increases in a effective manner.
Flexible Working Hours:
Marks and Spencer HR manager make sure that there is no such kind of time bound. HR
managers make their employees work in a flexible working. As this will help organisation to
increase innovation and proper engagement of employees within a work it further helps them to
extract best out of their employees. As if a worker performed their objective in no flex time then
they can able to work with more efficiency. Thus, providing work life balance Marks and
Spencer can effectively able to achieve targets in perfect time manner with great efficiency.
Benefits to Employees Benefits to Employers
 With help of formative training and
development employees can able to
 Training and development benefits
organisation to retain their employees
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increase expertise level.
 HRM practices effectively aid
employees to work in a discrimination
free working environment (Rubery,
and Urwin, 2011).
for long period of time.
 By selecting right potential candidate
company can able to effectively achieve
their predetermined objectives in an
efficient way along with perfect
framework of time.
P4 Importance of effectiveness of different HRM practices
Human Resource department is a most essential part in every organisation as it helps in
managing and training employees in order to increase organisation as well as workforce
productivity. Human Resource Department in Marks and Spencer provide positive work
environment to their employees in which they can improve their level of performance.
Mentioned below some of the practices that are considered by HR managers of company are:
Proper direction setting and execution
It is the basic responsibilities of leaders and managers to define formative goals and
target. Thus, It can be evaluated that with the help of Human Resource Department company can
recruit Highly Effective managers and leaders in different departments of company in order to
ensure effective and qualitative outcomes. In addition with this, it has been further analysed that
by offering proper direction Marks and Spencer can effectively able to extract best out of their
employees.
Update skills and abilities of employees
For maintaining productivity best effective workforce HRM department of Marks and
Spencer formulate strategies with the help of which they can stimulate work efficiency of their
employees. In order to accomplish these managers implement best effective communication
channels within their workplace as this will help company to attain high standard growth.
Therefore, it is evaluated that by updating skills and abilities of employees, company can
effectively increase work performance of employees which further aid organisation towards high
end growth.
Monetary and non monetary rewards
In order to improve performance of employees in order to stimulate and make continuous
growth in an employee performance Human Resource Department offer numerous set of benefits
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and rewards to their employees. That includes promotions, bonus, unpaid holidays and more.
This will help organisation to increase efficiency and work productivity of the employees that
helps company to achieve their objectives in a proper set of time frame. Thus, it has been
evaluated that by providing numerous range of monetary and non monetary benefits Marks and
Spencer can effectively able to gain employees loyalty towards organisation that further lead
towards increase ion organisational productivity and profitability.
Sharing collaboration
Organisation includes a workforce in which there are different set of individual works
who belong to different geographical locations. Thus, managers of marks and Spencer effectively
ensure that there is a positive interaction between each of their employee in order to improve
sharing and collaborative activities. It will help company to increase work efficiency of each and
every employee.
By considering all the above mentioned factor Human Resource Manager can effectively
increase performance of their employees. As by providing monetary and non-monetary benefits
will benefit company to increase motivation in their employees that will automatically stimulate
their level of performance. Along with this, by making their employees perform their task in a
collaborative manner increase work productivity and inflow of new ideas and information. It
further helps in increase in the level of workforce performance. All these practices effectively aid
organisation to improve their overall base of profit and productivity. With these, the respective
corporation aims at development of a culture whereby employee relations are of prime
significance along with employee legislations. Marks & Spencer abides by the laws such as
Equality act (2010); Occupational safety and health act (1970) etc. to facilitate a working
atmosphere whereby human resource and their welfare is of key importance. With this, the
corporation is successful in gaining support and aid from employees individually and
collaboratively thus inflating overall organisational productivity to achieve goals in a timely
manner.
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TASK 3
P5 Importance of workers relation to influence HRM decision-making
In order to stimulate long term efficiency and productivity of company it is essential for
management to maintain positive working relationship with their employees. Marks and Spencer
effectively considered employees as their most important part as they are the major source of
their high turnover (Marchington, 2016). Mentioned below there is some importance of
employee relation that helps in decision making process:
Profit maximization
Healthy and sound relationship with workforce lead towards high rate of productivity of
an company. Marks and Spencer manager take advantage of different types of Strategies and
policies with the help of which they faster smooth relationship with their employees. It further
helps company to retain their employees for long-term and increase efficiency of overall
outcome of company. This factor affect HR decision making process if there is a rise in profit of
company then employees demand for more benefit. Thus, it is essential for HR managers to
formulate numerous strategies in relation to reward.
Increase in sale
Formative relationships with management and employees effectively lead company
towards high rate in sales margin. Marks and Spencer perform their operation in retailing Sector
Thus, they ensure that company have healthy relationship with the workforce as they helps
company to satisfy their customers’ needs in a best possible way. If it is talked about its impact
upon HRM decision, than if the sales is increasing, it is may be possible that staff members
would start demanding for incentives. Here, it will be required for HR managers to make
alterations among their incentive policies so that demand of staff members can easily be fulfilled.
P6 Key element of employee's legislation and it's impact on decision-making process of HRM
It is essential for an organisation to perform their functions by taking care of all
legislations related to employees within their workplace. United Kingdom governing bodies laid
down new set of rules and regulations which is essential for each and every company to abide.
Marks and Spencer manager make sure that their company follow each and every laws and
regulations in order to continue their functions in sound way. Mentioned below there are some
laws that are considered by Marks and Spencer:
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