Analysis of HRM Practices: Workforce Planning at H&M

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within the context of H&M, a global clothing retail company. It begins with an introduction to H&M, outlining its mission, purpose, and core business objectives. The report then delves into the functions of HRM, specifically workforce planning and resourcing, and explains the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches. The benefits of different HRM practices, such as conflict management and training and development, are examined from both the employer's and employee's perspectives. Furthermore, the report evaluates the effectiveness of these practices in raising organizational profit and productivity. It also analyzes the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and identifies key elements of employment legislation and its impact. The report concludes with a discussion on the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples to illustrate the concepts discussed.

Human Resource Management

Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
An introduction to the chosen organisation including mission statement, purpose and core
business objectives. .....................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation...........................................................................................................3
P2 Explain the Strength and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection.....4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within H&M for both employer and
employee......................................................................................................................................6
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity.................................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making..........................................................................................................................................8
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making.........................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples....................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

Introduction
Human Resource management is a practices of recruiting, selecting, training, inducting,
appraising performance and developing policies for employees. The main aim of Human
resource management is to coordinate with staff members to achieve organisational goals and
objectives of company (Garg et. al., 2021). In this project the Chosen organisation is H&M, it is
a clothing retail company which provides clothes for women, teenagers, children and men. The
company was founded in 1947 and headquarter is situated in Sweden. The project covers roles,
responsibilities and purpose of Human resource management. There are various benefits of
Human resource management practices within H&M. It also includes employee relations and
employee legislation that affect HRM decision making in H&M and a rationale for the
application of specific HRM practices is also covered in this project.
TASK 1
An introduction to the chosen organisation including mission statement, purpose and core
business objectives.
The purpose of H&M is to provide best Fashion and quality products at affordable price
to their customer. H&M Mission statement is to create positive change and improve the living
conditions of people and communities by investing in them with their innovative ideas (Ansari,
Farrukh and Raza, 2021). The objective of organisation is to make their business sustainable by
offering their customers more sustainable clothes.
P1 Explain the purpose and functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing
an organisation.
Human resource Management is an department which helps to manage the employees so
that they can accomplish their task with effective performance.
Purpose of Human Resource Management
 Hire right employees-
The main role of human resource management is to hire right candidate for vacant job
position. They are responsible to schedule interviews, coordinate hiring efforts and on boarding
new candidates (Shanock and et. al., 2019). Through workforce planning process H&M can
identify current and future personnel needs, they can also explore cost effective method to recruit
right employees for the job role.

 Policy Update-
For successful Work force planning and resourcing human resource management have to
update the policies or examined policies in a year (Cheng and Hackett, 2021). It is a job of
Human resource management to update and make changes in policies when they are no longer
serving H&M or the employees of organisation.
Roles and Responsibility of Human Resource Management
 Recruitment-
It is a responsibility of Human resource management to recruit personnel for job position.
They have to plan and organise a campaign for recruiting right candidate according to the
required job description. With the help of Work force planning H&M can identify how many
employees are required in the organisation. This function helps H&M in workforce planning and
to plan for new job positions and hire a suitable candidate that helps in meeting business
objectives.
 Performance appraisal-
For motivating employees, performance appraisal is the best way to encourage them for
work and give their best output. The HR must provide feedback on their work as it gives clear
view what they are delivering to H&M. Through workforce planning HR manager of H&M can
identify the skill imbalances of employees early and helps in improving the performances
through which they can achieve the objective of company (Agarwal, 2021).
P2 Explain the Strength and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment
Recruitment generally means seeking out suitable employee for vacant job position. It
includes entire hiring process starts from inception to recruit integration into organisation. There
are two types of recruitment through which H&M can recruit employees they are internal
recruitment and external recruitment.
Internal Recruitment-
Internal recruitment is the process to fill vacant job positions with their current staff
members. They hire employees from other department or teams instead of hiring candidate from
outside the organisation. There are various methods of internal recruitment they are employee
referrals, promotion or transfers.
 Strength of Internal Recruitment

The strength of internal recruitment is that it reduces time to find new candidate as they
are hiring internal employee for vacant job position. H&M can recruit internally as it reduces
their time.
 Weakness of Internal Recruitment
Internal recruitment sometimes creates conflicts amongst the colleagues as new shift in
roles of co-workers can leads to jealousy and unhealthy conflicts. Internal recruitment also
results in inflexible culture as employees of H&M can get too comfortable, if new faces will not
have hired staff members may become resistant to change (Cooke, Xiao and Chen, 2021).
External Recruitment-
External Recruitment is a process of hiring the candidate from outside the organisation.
H&M must carefully analyse the vacant position and use appropriate methods to fulfil job
requirement. The methods of External Recruitment are casual callers, walk-ins, advertising and
various other sources.
 Strength of External recruitment-
It provides an opportunity to find fresh and new talent who can help H&M to meet its
objectives and diversify requirements.
 Weakness of External Recruitment-
External recruitment requires more cost to hire new candidate from outside the
organisation. Thus, H&M will also be requiring high cost to recruit skilled workers who helps in
increasing productivity and profitability of the organisation (Úbeda-García and et. al., 2021).
Approaches of recruitment Strength Weakness
Direct advertising The Strength of direct
advertising is that company
can able to reach maximum
number of audience and
provide information related to
the vacancy.
Direct advertising is
sometimes ineffective
approach of recruitment as it
sometimes fails to reach to
more and more people.
Recruitment agencies Recruitment agencies help in
getting the suitable candidate
according to the requirement
of Organisation.
Due to lack of communication
recruiters gain bad reputation.

Employee referrals It is an effective recruitment
strategy as employee referrals
provide better candidate for
the vacant job position.
The weakness of employee
referral is that company may
get less diverse job pool from
which they have to choose the
candidate.
Selection
Selection generally means selecting a right person who can give their valuable
contribution to the company. It is a method which helps to choose best candidate for the vacant
job position.
 Strength of Selection-
The strength of selection is to eliminate the employee who have less knowledge,
proficiency and abilities to perform tasks. By selection process H&M holds the ability to find out
more skilled talent who can give their best outcomes.
 Weakness of selection-
The weakness of selection is that it doesn't give true picture of employee and even
sometime they are not honest with the company. H&M might also face this drawback of
selection.
Selection Approach
Aptitude Test-
It is a way through which candidate’s ability can be assessed through different test. The
test included numerical skills, problem solving and Reasonable thinking (Allen, M., Wood, G.
and Saqib, 2021). H&M can go with aptitude test to select applicants that give their best output.
Interviews-
Interview is a process in which various applicants are invited for face to face meeting in
which employer will ask question and other person will provide answers (Vrontis and et. al.,
2021). H&M can use Interview method to select appropriate candidate for filling vacant job role.
Approaches to selection Strength Weakness
Aptitude test Aptitude test helps the HR
department of H&M, to
Sometimes Aptitude test is an
early judgement for

evaluate the candidate beyond
their resumes, it ensures that
employee must fulfil the needs
of job role.
employees it doesn't show the
clear image of them.
Interview Interview method gives high
percentage of returns as it
helps to build connection
between the employer and
employee and enable H&M to
hold effective relations with
the workforce.
Interview takes more time as
comparison to other methods
of selection and sometimes the
interviewer can be biased with
their decision of selecting
candidate. Thus, it will serve
as a weakness to the whole
process of recruitment and
selection taking place in
H&M.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within H&M for both employer and
employee.
There are various benefits of Human Resource Management that helps to create a good
relationship between employer and employee.
Conflict management-
Conflict management is a situation in which disputes get resolved by minimising
negativity. In every organisation conflicts may arise due to misunderstanding or
miscommunication between employer and employee (Zhang, Wang and Jia, 2021). In this
situation Human Resource Management act as a mediator to sort these conflicts effectively. In
H&M conflict may also arise to solve the disputes human resource team have to be mediator and
ensures that nothing gets out of hand.
 Benefit to employee-

Creates positive working environment- The benefits of Human resource management
for employee is to create a positive working environment that helps them to stand and speak up
about the problems they are facing in workplace. The HR manager of H&M must make the
workplace optimal for increasing productivity of employee.
 Benefit to employer-
To build Healthy relations- Conflict management helps employer to maintain a healthy
relationship with their employees. HR team of H&M will handle the conflicts and ensures that
strong bond must be created between employer and employee.
Training and Development-
Training and Development is an activity which helps to develop the personality, skills
and their abilities to perform better task and give productive results (Mashhady, Khalili and
Sameti, 2021). Each and every employee requires training and development at certain point to
enhance their skills and quality. The human resource department of H&M have a responsibility
to develop the skills and knowledge of employees by providing them continuous training so that
they can give their best return.
 Benefits to Employee-
Organise Learning and development programs- The HR department organises the
learning and development programs for their employees so that they can acquire or improve their
skills which helps to fulfil their roles more efficiently. H&M conducts a program through which
workers can gain knowledge and improve their skills which helps organisation to increase their
sales and growth.
 Benefits to Employer-
Increases Productivity- When H&M will provide training and development to their
employees they will give their best outcomes which leads to increases in productivity of the
organisation.
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit
and productivity.
Training and development-
H&M provides training and development to their workers to improve their skills and
knowledge through which they can handle the task calmly and patiently which helps organisation
to enhanced their productivity and profitability (Kshetri, 2021). Training and development makes

employees to know better about the latest technologies and also improves their communication
skills which leads to attract customers. If customers get attracted towards the behaviour and
personality of employee, they will acknowledge the company which increases profit and
productivity of H&M.
Conflict Management-
Conflict Management also helps to raise organisational profit and productivity as if in
there will be no conflict raised in H&M outlet the employees focus on their task which they have
to achieve. With the help of conflict management HR can establish certain strategies that could
be implemented in eliminating and resolving the negative aspects of disputes which helps to
maintain the decorum in outlet and employees can focus on their work that increases the
productivity and profitability of company.
The HRM strategy which is best for H&M is training and development as if company
organises the training and development programs for their employees they can learn new things
which increases their skills and knowledge. If they implement the new things while performing
their task it results in better output and also increases the performance and efficiency of Staff due
to which they can contribute their best effort in achieving the goals and objectives of H&M. The
effective training and development helps in increasing the profitability and growth of
Organisation as it increases the morale and efficiency of employees through which they can give
their best in accomplishing the task.
TASK 3
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.
Employee relations
Employee relations means a bond between the employer and employee which must be
managed by Company (Ahmad and et. al., 2021). The Employee relationship must be strong as it
helps to increases the productivity and growth of organisation. A healthy relationship between
employees can add stability in business which is very important for the growth of firm. H&M
must ensure that there should be good relations between the employees as it helps to develop
loyalty and increases their involvement in task. Employee relations are the backbone of the
company, if employee relations are not maintained properly it may lead to high employee

turnover. Thus, it is important to make their employees feel valued so that they can give their
fullest to contribute in the growth of the organisation.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement generally means that employee feel more passionate and
committed towards their work. When employees are engaged they produce high quality of work
and are more involved in the activities of organisation. Employee engagement can help to
increase the customer satisfaction as highly engaged employee have satisfied and happy
customers as they care about the wants and requirements of customers. Thus, H&M have to
make sure that employees must be engaged in their task or works which helps in increasing the
productivity and profitability (Almeida, 2021).
Importance of Employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision making
Motivation-
Through strong employee relations and high involvement of employee towards their
work they give more output which helps Human resource department to appreciate workers by
monetary or non-monetary rewards. If Employee is highly motivated they do not spread
negativity in the organisation. H&M have to make sure that their employees must be highly
motivated so that they can encourage other employees to work efficiently. The HR decision can
be influenced when employees are unmotivated and they have to develop a strategy in order to
attract and encourage them towards the work.
Improve Productivity-
If Employer and employee have a strong relationship it helps the organisation to leads in
productivity. Human Resource management of H&M have to create an environment where every
employee can work effectively as a good environment helps to build a healthy relationship not
for the purpose of work only they can even have a bit of fun. The decision of HR can be affected
as if employees give their productive outcomes they have to give bonus and compensation so
that they get motivated and improve their productivity.
Fewer Conflicts-
A good relationship between the manager and employee can helps to reduce the conflicts
as conflict create disharmony and also reduces productivity level (Soman, 2021). Human
resource department should encourage to create a strong bond between employees so that
conflicts may not arise which helps H&M increase their growth as conflicts create an

environment in which employees don't focus on their work they have more interest in gossiping
related to the conflicts. When there will be fewer conflicts workers could focus on their work and
give their productive. The decision of Human resource department is affected as they have to
maintain a healthy and positive working environment which doesn’t affect the efficiency and
performance of employees. So they have to take an action against the employees that create
negativity in Organisation
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making.
Employee legislation are created to protect health, rights and safety of the workers. These
laws exist to regulate relationship between employees and employer. Without legislation,
employees could suffer many problems and don't have a way to come out from that situation.
H&M must work under employment legislation so that employees have equal right and they can
work with efficient and effective way.
Equality Act, 2010-
This legislation protects the right of workers and provide an opportunity for equality in
workplace. The Equality Act 2010 prevents discrimination against someone in relation to age,
gender, religion, disability, race, etc. H&M have to take positive actions by providing help to the
workers who are facing disadvantage due to their protected characteristics (Roy, 2021). The
Human resource department have to ensures that if any employee have disability it is a duty of
HR to make some reasonable adjustment so that they can work in the environment. HR have to
make sure that recruitment decision should be taken by the two people so that no biased arise
during selection.
Employment Rights Act, 1996-
Employment Rights Act, 1996 is passed for the rights of employees they must get in the
workplace. This Act helps to cover the right of employees in certain situations such as unfair
dismissal, maternity leave, reasonable notice before dismissal, redundancy and many other
situations. H&M have to make sure that their employees must be legalised for the Employment
Right Act, 1996. The HR department must offer eligible employees statutory pay for maternity,
redundancy pay, paternity and sick pay.
Health and safety Act, 1974-

Health and safety Act,1974 is an act which covers the occupational health and Safety of
workers. For any organisation it is mandatory to take care about safety and health of the
employees in workplace (Anderson, Butt and Sarsony, 2021). H&M have to ensures that their
employees must feel safe in working environment and it is a duty of organisation to provide
healthy environment by taking care of their hygiene. The Human resource management have to
make a decision for their health and medical facilities they must offer the policies through which
employees may work without problem and give their best in increasing the growth of H&M.
A good employee relation helps to increase employee morale and job satisfaction. This
leads to enhance the abilities and reduce the stress level so that employees can achieve the goals
and objectives of H&M. The employee relations help to rely on building trust and loyalty
amongst employee. If H&M follows employee legislation it helps to attract more workers
towards the organisation which helps in meeting their objectives. Thus, Employee relations and
Employee legislations helps to meet the business objectives of H&M.
TASK 4
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples.
Job description-
Job description is a statement in which duties, responsibility, general tasks are described.
It also covers the job title and the person whom they are going to report.
Job analysis-
Job Analysis generally means to study detailed about specific job so that employee can
understand what tasks is important and how it will be carried.
Job Description
Position: Marketing Manager for H&M
Job Title: Marketing Manager
Hours: 7 Hours per day
Accountable to: Managing Director
Location: H&M, UK
Job Summary: The role of Marketing Manager is to create an awareness by developing
marketing strategies to fulfil the customer needs and enhance the profit of organisation.