BTEC Level 4 HRM Report: IKEA Case Study & Employee Relations

This report delves into the core principles and practices of Human Resource Management (HRM), using IKEA as a case study. It begins by defining HRM's purpose and functions, including workforce planning, employee relations, and training. The report then evaluates different selection approaches, comparing their strengths and weaknesses. It further explores the benefits of various HRM practices, such as recruitment, performance appraisal, and training and development, for both employers and employees, and their impact on organizational profit and productivity. The analysis extends to the significance of employee relations in shaping HRM decisions, including the influence of employment legislation. Finally, the report illustrates the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, providing a comprehensive overview of HRM strategies and their practical implications.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM..........................................................................3
P2: Strength and weakness of different selection approaches.....................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Explain the benefits of different HRM Practices within an organization for both employer and
employee......................................................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational profit and
productivity..................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-
making.........................................................................................................................................8
Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision-making...........................................................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related contexts....................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management can be explained as the process of recruiting, selecting,
inducting employees and giving all of the necessary training for attaining the goals of a
company. It is one of the crucial department which helps to decide whether company will attain
their goals or not in specific time period. The chosen company for this report is IKEA which is
one of the European multinational company. It designs one of the best furniture, kitchen and
home appliances. It was founded in the year 1943.
Some of the important topics which will be covered within the file are related with the
functions and purpose of HRM. Relationship of employees is to be discussed in the file. Key
legislations will help to determine about the impact on decision taking ability on HR. In addition,
different applications to HRM will be explained in this file.
PART 1
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM
Human resources is one of the most crucial department of any business organisation which helps
to perform business activity in best possible manner (Schmoldt and et. al., 2013). It is related
with the process of recruitment of best candidate who can give their best for the purpose of
attaining the goals of an organisation. HRM is necessary in every business organisation because
it helps to manage and perform the business activity by preparing the appropriate strategies. In
context of IKEA, HRM department is one of the most important department as perform the
business activity in different where skilful employees are most important. Workforce recruitment
means hiring the professional and qualified applicants in their organization that helps to
maximise profits through the distribution of the goods. To recruit the workers, it includes various
functions like:
 Planning: It is one of the most important function of a HRM where they must do proper
planning that what are the activities they must conduct within the company so that goals
and target can be accomplished easily. In context of IKEA, their HRM team will have to
hire the right candidate for the company to meet out the targets on time (Cowling and
Mailer, 2013).
 Maintaining good working environment: It is crucial for business organisation that
they must hire the suitable candidate for the company but after hiring them it becomes

important for the company like IKEA to maintain the healthy environment. Suitable
environment will help them to work according and even chances of attaining the goals
will be high.
 Managing Employee Relationship: It becomes necessary for the HRM department of
IKEA to manage the employee relationship which directly impacts on achieving the
goals. Here, department is required to conduct various activities which can help
employees to know each other at personal and professional level so that they can work
freely within the premises of a company.
 Training and Development: It is one of the most important thing for the department of
HRM that after hiring the candidate, they should provide training to them so that they can
perform freely as per the desire of a company (Haslberger, Brewster and Hippler, 2013).
Purpose of HRM
 HRM's primary purpose is to develop strategies and laws in order to effectively operate a
business.
 • IKEA seeks to hire qualified and experienced workers so that companies profit and
productivity can be improved.
 To assign the staff according to their knowledge and skills in the role of employee which
allows to fulfil business goals.
 To fulfil the vacant place in the company for attaining the goals of an organisation.
P2: Strength and weakness of different selection approaches
Recruitment is the vital part of the HRM process that help to attract qualified individuals
to suitably approaches the company and become part of the vacant position. This process helps
the manager of IKEA company to get the wide range of options amongst which the vacant
position can be filled effectively (Meyers, Van Woerkom and Dries, 2013). There are two
sources of recruitment which are explained below:
Internal recruitment: As the name suggest the manager fill the vacant position by either
transferring or promoting the existing workforce to hold the vacant post. This is effective method
that generate zeal amongst the staff of IKEA organisation.
Advantage Disadvantage

It helps job security as well as scope of
personal growth and development due to which
they perform their tasks effective and leads to
reducer chances of absenteeism rate.
This may at-times enhances the casual amongst
the existing employee if IKEA only rely on the
internal recruitment method which leads to
stagnant growth.
External recruitment: Under this method the manager of IKEA make effort to search the
desirable candidate outside the periphery of an organisation (Thunnissen, Boselie and Fruytier,
2013). This create innovative thinking ability that give new perspective and better direction to
the company.
Advantage Disadvantage
It leads to inclusion of fresh talent which
landing up promoting the divergent thinking
ability to perform the functioning effectively.
Here the firm need to incur huge energy, time
as well as cost in order to fill up vacant post.
Also this may create negative feeling
amongst internal employees that organisation
rather than considering them hire the new
employees so it may lead to internal conflict
Selection: Once potential candidate apply for the vacant position, then comes selection
round under which only desirable person for the post depending upon the different evaluation
round goes further and become part of company.
Aptitude or written test: This test is organised to check the intelligence or IQ level of
the candidate. So it is necessary for the job seeker to pass this stages in order to gain the
desirable position (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014).
Advantage Disadvantage
In case of wide applicant IKEA can conduct
aptitude test with the objective to weed out
unsuitable ones.
Conducting selection only on the basis of
written test done not guarantee the effective
result.

Interviews: It is the most effective tool under which the interviewer ask the set of question in
order to check the knowledge and skill of the interviewee. Based on which just and unbiased
result can be taken by consigned authority.
Strength Weakness
Amongst all the external methods this is the
most suitable ones that can assist the
organisation to select the most deserving
candidate.
As it is verbal interaction round so there is no
record interview that can create confused also
in case due to negligence of interviewee if the
important question Are missed then it can
hamper overall process (Nyberg, A. J. and et.
al., 2014).
TASK 2
Explain the benefits of different HRM Practices within an organization for both employer and
employee
The main purpose of different HRM practices to strengthen the structure of an organisation and
work for the welfare of both employee as well as employer. This enhances the chances of
profitability and systematic performance of business. Some of the practices HR beneficial for
both of them are defined below:
HRM practices Benefit for employee Benefit for employer
Recruitment & Selection Within R&S process the
desirable employee gets the
opportunity to become the part
of an organisation after passing
through various evaluation
round. So this increases the
moral for selected candidate
and leads to job satisfaction as
well as high retention value.
Employer through this
practice get advantage of
employee engagement which
leads them to explicitly
perform their role and co-
ordinate with other member
in order to gain better
position.

Performance appraisal Performance appraisal is the
process to review the
performance of an employee
on regular basis so this helps
the employee to remain
motivated and perform all the
task effectively in order to get
the benefit of monetary and
non monetary incentives which
includes high remuneration,
promotion appraisal,
recognition and so on (Cascio,
2015).
Working with the potential
and enthusiastic team is
again desirable for the
employer because even they
get the opportunity to guide
the team and get promoted
to higher position within
reputed IKEA company.
Thus the employer need to
carry out this process
effectively as it helps to
attend personal as well as
organisational goals.
Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational profit and
productivity
HRM is the important part of a company which offers a variety of services for achieving
the target in specific time period This contributes to the smooth running of the firm, which helps
to improve the company's overall efficiency and productivity. Some of the effectiveness are
explained below:
Training and development: It is the practice which helps the business organisation to
improve their performance through which company gets the opportunity to secure the better
position in the market. It helps to enhances the skills and knowledge of employees through which
they can work as per the requirement of a company which helps to obtain better outcomes. As far
as the IKEA corporation is concerned, it mainly implements the changes of which they depend
heavily on development of skills so that their employees can accept the changes and new
framework used in the company. It forced the organization to lead and push the workers in the
appropriate direction in order to successfully achieve long-term efficiency and profitability
(DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016)
. Conflict resolution: There are some circumstances such as internal conflict, competitive
policies, and internal instability that are quite normal in business and can impact staff
productivity.

It is therefore the duty of IKEA director to settle business problems and help employees to
understand the value of building a successful team which can operate effectively. Therefore, the
company will encourage the worker to concentrate on the target which actually benefits the
chances of increasing efficiency and profitability for a company.
Providing security to employees: In current scenario, if company like IKEA wants to
perform better within the market then they are needed to ensure that they will provide security to
employees. Whenever any of the employees have the grantee that their company is providing
them the security and their job is secured then they can easily work as per the requirement of a
management will help to accomplish the goals of a company (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung,
2016).
Fair and performance-based compensation: Firstly, it is necessary that company
should hire the right candidate and after that it becomes necessary that HR department of IKEA
should give compensate to their employees on the basis of their performance. It will help in
uplifting the performance of the employees through which targets can be achieved easily. If in
any of the situation company gives the compensation by being biased, then there will be number
of situation where employee will not be able to perform as per the requirement of a company.
TASK 3
Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making.
Employee relationship can be understood as the concept where employer and employee shared
the bond due to which any of the decisions can be taken effectively. Whenever any of the
company gets opportunity to share the effective relationship then they are able to take those
decisions for company through which goals can be easily attainted within the given time period.
It creates a sense of commitment even through positive atmosphere that contributes to teamwork.
Also, it allows the company to bring out the positive result within the specific time period. In
context of IKEA, they are needed to conduct several activities which can help in developing the
relation between employees (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The main benefit which company will get
just because of employee relationship is that any of the problem will be tackled in best possible
manner. In addition, there are number of situation where new technologies are required to be
implemented and in that condition if there is a healthy relationship among the employees then

goals can be accomplished easily. Also, there will be job satisfaction among the employees
which allows employees to give their efforts towards the company which leads to effective
decision making.
Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-
making.
Employment legislation can be explained as the law and regulations which are needed to be
followed by the employees as well as employer for conducting any of the activity in legal
manner. It is necessary that company should formulate suitable strategy which will not create
any of the problem for any of the person who is the part of a company (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart
and Wright, 2017). Under the employment legislation, there are number of laws and regulations
which are needed to be followed by business organisation. In context of IKEA, there are number
of legislations which has been imposed upon them and it is necessary for them to work as per the
laws and regulations. Some of the laws, which applies upon the company are explained below:
Minimum wage rate: It is the law which imposes on business organisation to gives
wages to employees working in the company. It makes employer bound to follow the standard of
law where they are not allowing to give salary below the standard rate. In context of IKEA, they
are needed to understand that certain figures have been fixed by government i.e., the employee
whose age is more than 25 years must not get the payment less than 7.83 pound per hour. If any
of the employees who is working in IKEA and having the age group between 21to 24 then their
salary should not e 7.38 pound per hour and in case of 18-20, it should be 5.90 pounds. As
guidelines are mentioned by legislation which means that HRM department will not be allowed
to fix the wages among less then given guidelines else penalty can be imposed easily on the
company.
Employment relation act 1999: It is one of the law which tells that it is the
responsibility of a company to develop the healthy employee relationship. Here, the HR
department must try to find that how they can maintain the healthy relation among every
employee (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2017). But, it can be said that it is one of the law which
helps to develop positive environment within the company because it allows to discuss the thing
in detail through which decisions can be easily taken.
Equality act, 2010: It is one of the act which has been commenced by Parliaments House
for the purpose of delivering the equal rights to each and every employees working within the

premises of a company. In context of IKEA, it is necessary for their HR department to focus that
all of the employees are being treated equally. Also, salary is being paid equally to the
employees working on the same post and if in any of the situation company fails to do so then
legal actions can be easily taken. In addition, the impact of equality act is that fair opportunity
will be given to each and every employee.
TASK 4
Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related contexts
Job description is the written document that determine the in depth information
regarding the roles as well as responsibility that one need to perform after becoming the part of
specific job post. It is the structured form that specify the requires quality or the capability to
perform task effectively. The job description which is prepared by the manager of IKEA
company for the Executive sales manager is displayed below:
Company name IKEA
Industry type Retail
Job profile Executive sales manager
Location London
Experience 1.5 year
Job summary IKEA is the well known company in terms of designing,
manufacturing as well as delivering home décor item and
kitchen appliances. So the Executive sales manager is
responsible to enhance the footfall of company and bing
effective relationship with its stakeholders (Chelladurai and
Kerwin, 2018).
Skills required  Proficient communication as well as listening skill
 Innovative thinking capacity in terms of bringing
significant changes
 Comfortable in using technologies like computer
system.

Roles and responsibility  Educate the sales manger as well as customer regarding
the quality offerings of the company in order to
maintain the image if company and sustain buyers.
 Manage all the necessary details and records of the
team member for better supervision.
Personal specification consist of all the necessary details of the application which is
convenient for the manager to go though and gain academic as wells personal information. This
help to effective overview that the applicant effectively matches the requirement of vacant
position.
Name: Marshall Smith
Address: Windsor market 140, United Kingdom.
Contact number: 0710-292-721
Job Experience: I have job experience of 1.5 year by working as Sales Associate with
Morrison company.
Specialization and Skills :
 Excellent knowledge of computers and working of specialised CRM software
 Good in managing the team and attaining feasible targets
 Adequate knowledge of digital tools and techniques
Comfortable in adapting different environment (Hoye, Smith, Nicholson and Stewart, 2018)
Qualification:
 Masters of business administration and Bachelor of Business Administration from Apex
university.
 Schooling from Convent school of London
Declaration: I hereby, inform you that all the information displayed above is valid and confined
authorised can confirm the details from documents.
Date: 23/10/2019
Place: London
List of interview questions
1. Tell me something about yourself which is not mentioned in the resume?
2. What made you to apply for the Executive sales manager job within IKEA?
3. What are you changing your existing job?
4. What is the difference between recruitment and selection process?

5. Determine different employment legislation of UK?
6. How can you manage the team and adopt the changes?
Job Offer
28th Nov' 2019
IKEA
634-726 Princes Highway, Tempe NSW 2044.
Ms. Marshall Smith
We are glad to intimate you that on the basis of your different evaluable round we find you
capable enough to perform the different roles and responsibility associate with the Executive
Sale Manager. You can join the company and become part of our organisation from 2md
December, 2019 and the salary package for this post is £1,15,000. We are looking forwarad to
make you the part of our organisation.
Thanks
Process of recruitment
Recruitment is the positive process that help to pull the wide pool of potential candidate
so for which the company spread the information through online as well as offline platform.
IKEA share the vacancy post on its website and job portal (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez,
2018). Along with that it prepares the billboard and place the notice on notice board to promote
the vacant and invite suitable referrals.