Importance of Human Resource Management in Morrison Supermarkets PLC

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Running Head: IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANIZATION
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN
ORGANIZATION

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the organization..........................................................................................................4
LO1 – Purpose and scope of human resource management in terms of resource in an
organization with talent and skills appropriate to fulfill business objectives..................................5
Purpose and functions of the HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an
organization [P1]..........................................................................................................................5
Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection processes [P2] 5
Identifying the HR functions to fulfill business objectives [M1]................................................6
Evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and
selection [M2]..............................................................................................................................7
Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment and selection
[D1]..............................................................................................................................................8
LO2 – Evaluating the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organization.....................................................................................................................................8
Benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer and the
employee [P3]..............................................................................................................................8
Evaluating the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational
profit and productivity [P4]..........................................................................................................9
Exploring the different methods used in Human Resource Management practices [M3].........10
Evaluating the human resource management practices and their applications [D2].................10
LO3 – Analysis of the internal and external factors including employment legislation that affect
human resource management decision making.............................................................................11
Analyzing the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making [P5]................................................................................................................................11
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
Identifying the primary elements of employee legislation and their impacts on HRM decision
making [P6]................................................................................................................................11
LO4 – Application of Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context..........12
Illustration of the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples [P7].............................................................................................................................12
Critical evaluation of employee relations and the applications of HRM practices that inform
and influence decision making in an organizational context [D3].............................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference List................................................................................................................................15
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
Introduction
The human resource management department of any organization plays the most important role
in order to make the company function well. There are some practices that are conducted by the
HR department in order to ensure that the requirements of human assets are always full filled in
the company. These activities generally include recruitment and selection process, training and
development sessions, and administration of all the employees including workforce location. The
HR practices also include market review and formulating the strategies accordingly so that the
company can function at its best. The following study has considered a UK based organization
and as described the role of human resource management department of that company. The study
has also included different approaches that are followed by the HR professionals in order to
conduct their recruitment and selection processes. Moreover, the training and development along
with performance management and reward system have also been described in this study.
Overview of the organization
The organization considered for the study of Human Resource Management is a UK based public
retail company named Morrison supermarkets PLC. The Morrison supermarket PLC is the fourth
largest chain of supermarkets in United Kingdom which started its operations in the year 1899.
There are more than 110,000 employees working in around 500 stores in the country and serve
over 11 million customers every week. The mission of the company is freshness, service and
value for customers. The organization is currently headed by Andrew Higginson who is the
chairman of the company and the overall operations are controlled by David Potts who happens
to be the Chief Executive Officer of the organization. The organization mainly deals with foods
and drinks including packaged foods and beverages. Apart from that, the organization also
conducts its business related operations in the field of clothing as well as selling books
magazines, CDs and DVDs. The company generates revenue of over GB£17 billion according to
the latest records of 2018.
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LO1 – Purpose and scope of human resource management in terms of
resource in an organization with talent and skills appropriate to fulfill
business objectives
Purpose and functions of the HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organization [P1]
All the major activities in an organization are performed by the human assets like decision
making and handling complicated situation. Hence, it is very important that the workforce is
highly skilled and talented so that the work can be delivered without any compromise in terms of
quality. The Human Resource Management Department therefore has the most important
responsibility it of hiring and training the right it persons for different roles in the organization.
The most important purpose and function of human resource management department used to
identify the skills present in the candidate and make their opinion about the selection or rejection
of the person. In addition to this, the training and development sessions of the employees are also
planned and conducted by the human resource management department of the company (Christy,
2015). The HRM department at Morrisons Supermarket PLC has to deal with multiple operations
and therefore they need to access a wide range of skills among the employees and external
candidates in order to select the right person for the right job.
Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
processes [P2]
There are multiple approaches that can be used by the HR professionals in order to conduct the
recruitment and selection process at Morrison Supermarket PLC. The two major types of
selection and recruitment processes are direct selection hiring from colleges being the first one
and providing contract to a third party organization to conduct the hiring process being the
second one. The most important advantage or strength of choosing the first approach is that the
HR managers and professionals of the company are able to directly interact with the candidates.
Hence, they can pass on more accurate judgments on the qualities and skills possessed by the
individual based on which the selection is more likely to be an accurate selection. However, a
prominent disadvantage or weakness of this process is that it is very time consuming and
requires a huge amount of resources to be invested to carry out the process successfully
(Joutsenvirta and Kourula, 2015).
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
The second approach where an organization can choose a third party company to carry out the
selection and recruitment process has an advantage that the main organization does not need to
invest its time and money directly for selection procedure. Hence, the company can and keep its
work focused on its core operations. In this type of selection procedure, the organization
provides a list of qualities for a requirements file to the third party recruitment organizations
based on which it they conduct the selection process and make their decisions about selecting or
rejecting a candidate. Therefore, a prominent drawback of this technique of selection is that the
HR professionals of the company cannot interact directly with the candidates. As a result of this,
there is likely to be some differences in the skills that are required by the individuals in order to
work as an employee in the company (Haddock-Millar and Rigby, 2015). The Morrison
Supermarkets PLC generally conducts the recruitment and selection processes using the first
technique. However, the company also decides to go with the second technique in case it is
expanding its business and there is a second requirement of huge workforce.
Identifying the HR functions to fulfill business objectives [M1]
The main business objectives of any organization including the retail sector companies like
Morrison Supermarkets PLC include maintaining good reputation and relations with the
customers and earning more profits. In order to achieve the first objective, it is important that
those customers are able to relate with the company and identify the organization as the main
suppliers of its necessity goods (Bozic et al. 2019). Therefore, the organization must provide not
only good products and good services but also good experience to the customers. This can be
done by having a personal touch with the customers so that the most appropriate solution to their
problems can be provided. Hence, the Human Resource Department needs to hire the candidate
after considering their qualities like patience and instructiveness with the customers. Moreover,
the individuals must also be technically savvy and capable of delivering best quality products
and services so that the reputation of the organization can be held high as a supplier of good
quality products.
Another important business objective of an organization is to earn profits for the company so that
it can keep its options open to invest in new business sectors and also expand its existing
business. Therefore, the decision makers and strategic management authorities of an organization
need to be very careful about the internal and external factors before making any critical
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decision. The HR professionals also have to perform the responsibility of selecting the right
person with the adequate amount of qualification and experience in the required field. The
interview and other selection process activities that are to be conducted by the HRM department
should be designed very carefully so that the overall election is fair and entirely on the basis of
merit. This is highly beneficial for the organization in terms of meeting the business objectives of
earning profits for the company.
Evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment
and selection [M2]
The two different types of selection processes that are self recruitment from sources of potential
workforce and recruitment through outsourced methods by using third party recruiters have their
own merits and demerits. As discussed earlier, the first selection technique involves the visit of
HR professionals to different institutions from where they can hire raw talent and students. In
order to conduct this type of selection process, the HR professionals have to carry out several
activities like visiting the place before setting up the temporary establishment of selection and
analyzing the approximate number of candidates that are likely to show up for the process. On
the basis of the outcomes of the above mentioned steps, the HR professionals will arrange their
resources and design their questionnaire. This process is likely to deliver the best outcome in
terms of of quality of candidates based on skills and experience during their internships as per
the requirements of the company. However, it is also likely to take a very long time which is not
a very good option for the company because it will waste the time that it could have interested in
any other activity that could benefit the company (Gajewska et al. 2017).
The second method is also very reliable because the set of skills that are defined by the company
manager are carefully observed and studied by the recruiters that belong to a third party
recruitment company. The organization then conducts a drive by going to colleges for or picking
up the applications from different websites. The questionnaire is designed by the managers and
recruiters of the third party organization based on which the talent and skills possessed by the
candidates are assessed. The final recruitment takes place after conducting several steps of
recruitment and selection where the candidates are likely to be shortlisted depending on their
performances. The most significant benefit is that the company does not has to invest in the
entire process directly because the contracts of conducting every step and activity of the entire
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recruitment and selection process is provided to the third party organization. However, the skills
possessed by the candidates might not be exactly what is required by the company because the
company requirements are likely to change as per the changing market scenario. These changes
are generally known by the HR managers of the organization and not by the recruiters belonging
to third party recruitment companies (Lazaro-Mojica et al. 2018).
Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of approaches to recruitment
and selection [D1]
Apart from the two major types of selection and recruitment discussed in the above section, there
are two other important types of recruitment and selection processes. These are the internal
recruitment and external recruitment. The primary advantage of internal recruitment is that the
company does not have to go outside and conduct the entire selection and recruitment process
from the beginning in order to find the right candidate. On the other hand, it also has a
disadvantage that it might lead to the compromise in the quality of any project which was being
handled by the internally recruited employee (Cotton, 2015).
The second type of recruitment which is external recruitment is primarily followed by many
organizations including the Morrison supermarkets PLC where the company conducts a drive
and invites applications from interested candidates. The main advantage of this type of selection
is that the company is able to find new talents it that can be added to the workforce of the
organization making it further stronger. However, a major drawback of this selection process is
that the organization has to invest huge amount of money in conducting their recruitment drive
as well as their training and development mission for the newly recruited employees (Jaehrling et
al. 2018).
LO2 – Evaluating the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource
Management in an organization
Benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer
and the employee [P3]
There are several HRM practices that the HR professionals carry out within the organization.
The Morrison supermarkets PLC is a highly responsible company that looks after its human
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
resources very carefully. The following activities are conducted by the HRM department of
Morrison supermarkets PLC.
Security provision: The HR professionals ensure that the employees working in the company
feel secured with their jobs and do not have to worry about their salaries for promotions (Cook et
al. 2016).
Selective hiring: This means that the HR professionals have to hire the right individual so that
the different activities within the organization can be conducted without any compromise in
quality.
Training and development: The human resource management departments conduct the training
and development sessions regularly so that the skills process by the employees can be assessed
and any area of improvement can be worked upon effectively (Den Hartog, D.N. and Boon,
2017).
Effective team building: The HR professionals carry out the activities that will result into
professional team building which will be beneficial for the organization.
Motivation for the employees: The Human Resource Department also has the responsibility to
motivate the employees so that they can put in their best efforts at individual and team levels
(Evans, 2015).
Evaluating the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising
organizational profit and productivity [P4]
The above mentioned activities that are conducted by the human resource management
department of an organization result into positive outcomes for the company in terms of
productivity and profit. The Morrison supermarkets PLC conduct the selection and hiring
process in order to select the right individual so that the different types of activities like
interaction with customers, logistics handling, forming the strategies and other similar activities
can be conducted smoothly. This increases the productivity of the organization because a highly
skilled workforce can be expected to work appropriately that can fetch better profits for the
company (Siebers et al. 2015). In addition to this, motivating the employees is also very
important because motivated people put in their best efforts towards the organization. This can
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
be done by using leadership skills and announcing appropriate rewards to the best performers of
the company regularly. This increases the profit share of the company and also ensures that the
people are interested in their work. The employees feel connected with the organization if
regular activities and conducted where the employees can interact with each other on topics apart
from work. This increases the bonding between them due to which the conflicts automatically
get reduced and the productivity of the company gets enhanced (Evans, 2017).
Exploring the different methods used in Human Resource Management practices
[M3]
The HR professionals use many methods in order to carry out there normal practices.
Considering the practices of motivating the employees, the HR professionals use two major
techniques. The first technique is to verbally enhance the confidence levels of the employees.
This is generally done by delivering a motivating speech mentioning the details about the
company and how putting in their best efforts is beneficial for their own skill sets. The second
method to do the same work is to provide them the necessary monetary and non monetary
benefits (Schenk, 2017). The Morrison supermarkets PLC often comes with many schemes
where it provides extra bonus to the top two workers of the company on monthly and quarterly
with. In addition to this, some special perks are given to the best performance of the entire year.
The company also offers movie tickets and entry passes to different events like music concerts
and cricket matches for some extraordinary performers occasionally.
Evaluating the human resource management practices and their applications [D2]
The major human resources management related activities and practices are applied in case of
Morrisons Supermarket PLC. The recruitment and selection processes are conducted by the
company HR management itself in majority of cases. The company constantly keeps a track on
the existing business market based on which the strategies are amended and so are the
requirements in order to become an employee in the company. The company visits different
colleges and invites applications for internships from the students that are interested to gain some
work experience with the organization. The organization also applies the third party recruitment
when it needs to expand its business and there is a sudden requirement of huge workforce.
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IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANIZATION
The training and development it related activities are also practiced in the Morrison supermarkets
PLC on a regular basis. The organization conducts a well designed training session for the new
recruits to make them aware of the company operations and existing market. In addition to this,
the organization also provides training sessions to the existing employees to make them aware of
any new change that has happened in the market. This is very important because the employees
need to be up to date in order to deliver the best performance in the right direction (Ali and
Akter, 2018).
LO3 – Analysis of the internal and external factors including employment
legislation that affect human resource management decision making
Analyzing the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM
decision making [P5]
The employee relations are crucial factors that influence the decision making activities
conducted by HRM department of an organization. The employee relations need to be kept very
well so that it they do not engage into any e activity that might result into unnecessary delay of
any operation. The organizations where the employees are more likely to engage into conflicts
have highest chances of delay in providing the results (Sissons and Green, 2017). Therefore it is
important that the HRM department of the company is carefully analyzing the state of employee
relations among Each other within the same and different teams. Moreover, the employee
relations should also be very ideal between different designations. The Morrison Supermarkets
PLC management carefully observes the behaviour performances of the employees apart from
the statistical performances. The appraisals and promotions are delivered to the employees on the
basis of overall performance which also includes their behaviour displayed during the entire
course of work (von Bonsdorff et al. 2015).
Identifying the primary elements of employee legislation and their impacts on HRM
decision making [P6]
The HRM department has to take crucial decisions about the salary package that are to be offered
to the new recruits. Therefore, it is important that the minimum wages act according to the
British legislation is carefully observed by the HR professionals. The total amount of investment
that is to be done on the employees for recruitment and selection process depends on the salary
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to be provided to them during training as well as during their services for the company. In
addition to this, the maximum working hours allowed for a single person per week or regularly
should also be checked carefully. Hence, the HRM department has to take critical decisions
about planning on on the operation of any particular business. Moreover, the different shifts of
employees must also be plant accordingly.
Identifying the key aspects of employee relations management and employment legislations
[M4]
The two major aspects of employee relations management and employee legislations are the
minimum wages that is to be paid to the employees and the maximum amount of work in terms
of hours that is to be allocated to the employees. The employee relations significantly depend on
on the environment that they are working in (Cook et al. 2017). Hence, the Human Resource
Department must ensure that all the necessary facilities that are important for any individual to
perform to the best of his or her potential are provided to them. In addition to this, maximum
work can be fetched from minimum workforce only if the team is highly motivated and have
every aspect crystal clear in their minds. Therefore, the HRM department should be very careful
about any scope of complaint or grievances from the employees. Taking the most appropriate
action at the right time avoid any form of conflict due to which unnecessary delay is not
experienced by the team of the management. Therefore, the company can expect a better level of
productivity at personal and organizational levels from the employees (Khatri and Gupta, 2015).
LO4 – Application of Human Resource Management practices in a work-
related context
Illustration of the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using
specific examples [P7]
In order to select the right individual to perform an activity in the Morrison supermarkets PLC as
an employee, it is important that the CV is short listed on the basis of qualifications obtained by
the individual. The recruitment and selection process has a set of steps based on which the final
decision is made regarding an applicant whether he or she should be selected or not. The first
step in the selection process is there must be to advertise the vacancy of a specific designation in
the company (Murphy et al. 2018). This is to be followed by inviting applications on a particular
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