HRM Report on Sainsbury: Workforce Planning and Employee Relations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Sainsbury's, a leading retail sector industry. The report begins with an introduction to HRM, explaining its purpose and functions, particularly in workforce planning and resourcing. It then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection approaches, comparing internal and external recruitment methods and discussing aptitude tests and interviews. The report further explores the benefits of various HRM practices for both employers and employees, including training and development, and organizational culture. It evaluates the effectiveness of these practices in terms of raising organizational profit and productivity. Employee relations are examined, analyzing their importance in HRM decision-making, followed by an identification of key elements of employment legislation and their impact on HRM. The report concludes by illustrating the application of HRM practices with specific examples within Sainsbury's context.

Unit 3 - Human
Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
LO1..............................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an
organisation.............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection..........5
LO2..............................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer and
employee.................................................................................................................................................6
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and
productivity.............................................................................................................................................7
LO3..............................................................................................................................................................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.....................................................................................................................................................9
LO4............................................................................................................................................................10
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific examples......10
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is the process which is adopted by each of the entity for
hiring the employees and providing them all of the required training so that goals can be
accomplished. It is a mandatory process which is to be adopted as it allows to enhance the skills
and capabilities of employees which is quite effective in attaining the goals and target. Here,
HRM department has to take the responsibility to provide all of the necessary training to each of
the hired employees as per the requirement of situation. The selected organisation for the project
is Sainsbury which is a retail sector industry performing in the market. In this particular project
there are some of the specified topic which will be discussed in which relates with different types
of approaches to the recruitment and selection process. Benefits of HRM practices will be
considered along with different legislation for employees in the entity.
LO1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation.
Overview of Sainsbury- It is an British retail sector industry performing at its best in
current scenario and it was incorporated in the year 1869. It was founded by John James
Sainsbury who established its headquarter in London United Kingdom. Around 115000
employees are connected with the company in current scenario.
Mission- The main mission of the company is to provide qualitative products to the
customers as per their willingness (Rodríguez-Sánchez, Mora-Valentín and Ortiz-de-Urbina-
Criado, 2019).
Vision- The vision of Sainsbury’s management is ensure that they are able to lead the
market from the front to become the giant of market.
Objective- Setting of objectives is always an important for any of the entity and even
Sainsbury has decided that they will try to provide qualitative services to its customer and proper
working environment to each of the employees so that goals can be accomplished.

Human resource management is explained as the crucial process for business where it
is essential to understand that manpower, different types of assets and many more aspects are
included to improving the skills and ability of the employees.
Purpose of HRM- Entity having HRM department gets additional benefits in performing
any of the work. Here, employees are being given higher priority in order to ensure that they do
not faces any of the problem while performing any of the task. In addition, it motivates the
employees to perform their task in an effective manner where motivation is being uplifted
through the process of bonus, incentives and many more.
Importance of HRM: Some of the importance of HRM are listed below in pointwise:
 Its main importance is that it allows to provide proper training to each of the employees
according to their skills and capabilities (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley, 2016).
 If any of problem arises between the employees or group of members then their efforts
can play the vital role in resolving the problems.
Functions of Human Resource Management
 Training and development: It is among the most important function of HRM
department of Sainsbury where they needs to ensure that they are able to provide proper
training to each of the employees. If this can be done in a successful manner then goals
can be accomplished easily in a very short time period. In addition, providing effective
training always gives additional area to attain targets.
 Maintaining relationship between employees: This need to be understood that
maintaining relationship between employees is a crucial function that needs to be
performed by HRM department of Sainsbury. In order to develop healthy relations
different types of activity are conducted and even team work is performed so that
coordination can be formed (Kew and Stredwick, 2016).
 Recruitment and selection: Among other functions of HRM, this is being given the
higher priority because employees needs to be hired in this particular process. It is
essential to understand that HRM department of Sainsbury must hire the suitable
candidate which can perform according to the requirement of company so that goals can
be accomplished easily.

Workforce planning: It is essential that organization like Sainsbury must do proper
workforce planning where they need to ensure that how any of the employees should be trained
so that requirement of business can be met. Also, HRM has the option that planning can be done
after analyzing the situation as well as skills of the employees so that necessary requirements can
be fulfilled.
Importance of workforce planning
 This enables to provide proper training process to each of the employees through which
better outcomes can be obtained.
 It provides to training as per the requirement of situation which means company gets the
option to deal with any of the situation.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment is explained as the process through which business hires the right
applicable for performing the business activity. It is among those process which is essential
because it certainly provides the idea that which category of employees is required in the
organization. In context of Sainsbury, two different approaches are being considered such as
interior approach and the second one is external approach.
Internal recruitment: It is conducted between the existing employees of the company
where their past performance is majorly considered (Wilton, 2016).
Promotion – It is the process where the existing employees is promoted to higher position on the
basis of their capabilities and talent.
 Strengths- The employees working in Sainsbury gets motivated to perform more
effectively because their performance will play the crucial role in any of the future
promotional activity.
 Weaknesses- Sometimes, individual being promoted do not fit for the position due to
which workload upon the organisation increases significantly.
External recruitment: Here, Freshers or experienced candidates are hired in the
organization on the basis of different job role.
Advertisement- It is the specified process which is being adopted by the company where they try
to hire new employee through the process of newspaper, digital platform and many more.

 Strengths: These types of advertisement can easily allow to determine about necessary
requirements within the candidates they want to hire (Kehoe and Collins, 2017).
 Weaknesses: It is among those respective process which is one of the time consuming
and lengthiest process where Sainsbury may have to pay unnecessary charges.
 It causes a lot of time and cost to the company as use of social media and other tools for
promoting vacancy in company can be an expensive job.
Selection: It is the crucial process which is conducted within the organization where HRM
department needs to examine the candidate for selecting them on the basis of their qualification
and skills.
Aptitude test: In this particular test, knowledge of candidate is being analyzed to determine that
how capable they are in performing any of the task.
 Strengths- The main strength of aptitude test is that it can easily allow the organisation
like Sainsbury that whether applicable is suitable to work on specified position or not
(Korff, Biemann and Voelpel, 2017).
 Weaknesses- Here, proper program and each of the activity should be managed in a
systematic manner due to which lots of time is consumed which reflects that it is a time
consuming process.
Interview: The interaction between management and the application on specified topic
through different communication channel or even face to face interaction is known as interview.
Here, answers need to be given by applicant to employer.
 Strengths- Here, HRM department gets opportunity to understand that behaviour of
applicant which makes easy to decide that whether candidate should be selected or not.
 Weaknesses- Its main weakness is that each of the work should be performed according
to plans and assumption and if it doesn’t go around then it becomes difficult for the
applicant to be selected (Chaudhary, 2018).

LO2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer
and employee.
It is essential to understand that HRM is one of those department which plays the
essential role in attaining the goals and target of the company but at the same time, they have
huge responsibility which they must be able to perform. Human resource management has the
option to consider different types of HRM practices in context of employer and employee
through which goals can be accomplished. Considering the requirement of question, some of the
HRM practices has been listed below:
Training and development: It is among the most crucial HRM practice which can be
practiced by both employer and employee. In context of Sainsbury, it is those practice which can
certainly uplift the performance of the organization in an easy manner. Here, training and
development process can be important for employer because they will bring out the best out of
existing employee for attaining the targets (Hee and Jing, 2018). In addition, if employee will be
given training on a daily basis, they will surely get the opportunity to learn something new
through which performance can be improved.
Organizational culture: In an entity, culture always plays the vital role in obtaining the
positive result. In context of Sainsbury, HRM practice like organizational culture can be crucial
because it will allow to motive each of the employee working within the premises of a company
for attaining the targets. Talking about employer, they give focus towards weak zone within the
premises so that performance can be enhanced and contribute towards attaining the targets.
From the above discussion, it is quite clear that HRM practices can be beneficial for the
entity as employer and employee, both will get equal opportunity to contribute towards the
organization. The main reason behind the success through HRM practices is that area where
improvement is required will be focused the most.
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit
and productivity.
Human Resource management is only the department which hires and provide training to
the employee but eventually it works in the manner through which organization can earn profit.

The main reason behind generating the profit is quite simple as it can suggest the management
that how any of the work needs to be done by utilizing the resources properly (Zhao, 2018).
Some of the most crucial HRM practice in context of Sainsbury has been listed below:
Management of conflicts: There are number of situation due to which conflicts among
the employees may arise and in this respective situation, it is necessary for HRM to find out the
effective way through which dispute can be resolved. In context of Sainsbury, whenever any of
the this situation arises, HRM manager is able to resolve the conflicts with best possible solution
through which company is able to perform each of their task in smooth manner. This simply puts
small efforts to attain the goals by maximizing the profit.
Minimizing threat of employee turnover: The employee turnover ratio is also the
problem due to which organization may have to suffer in some of the cases. It is essential to
understand that HRM department of Sainsbury can easily enhance the profit ratio for the
company They can conduct some of the motivation related technique through which employees
can be retained for long time period which can directly benefits the entity in generating higher
profit.
LO3
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.
There are number of situation where problem may arise to maintain relation between
employer and employee. But initially it needs to be understood that employee relation has the
huge importance in attaining the goals in influencing the HRM decision. Some of the importance
of employee relations in context of influencing the decision making HRM has been considered
below:
Employee satisfaction: Whenever any of the organisation is able to develop health
relation between employer and employee the chances of attaining the goals increases
automatically but at the same time it is also gives higher satisfaction level to employees. In
context of Sainsbury, employees have developed healthy relation with HRM due to which
satisfaction level among worker can be seen easily (Chaudhary, 2019). Even HR manager takes

decision on the basis of skills and capabilities of the employee due to which they do contribute in
a healthy manner towards the entity.
Employee retention: It is necessary for the organisation to retain their employee so that
maximum positive result can be obtained. If company like Sainsbury is able to retain their
employee then effective communication process can be processed through which HR department
can take favourable decision through which goals can be accomplish easily. In addition, effective
decision-making process will provide additional benefits to the entity where they can decide that
how entity should perform in any of the situation for attaining the goals.
In short, it can be said that whenever any of the entity is able to develop healthy relation
between the employees the chances of attaining the goals increases automatically in it as Human
Resource manager can take positive decision. This decision will be in the favour of entity.
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making.
Performing the business activity is always crucial but it is equally important that laws and
regulations should be followed in any of the situation. In context of the business, there are some
of the employment legislation commenced by legislative body which plays supportive role on
conducting business activity (Haak-Saheem and Festing, 2020). Considering the requirement, it
is necessary for the management of Sainsbury that organization follows all of the necessary rules
and regulation which are necessary for form on a regular basis. Some of the important laws
which are needed to be considered has been listed below:
Equality Act, 2010: The law which has been commenced to provide equal rights to each
of the candidate performing within specified area is known as equality act. It is one of those act
which has a huge importance where on one has the right to discriminate any of the member
within the organisation. In context of Sainsbury, it is necessary for their manager to ensure that
each of the employee is being treated equally. It has a impact upon HRM decision-making where
they must ensure that in any of the situation
Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974: In any of the business there are certain terms and
condition which needs to be followed. It is essential to understand that HR manager of Sainsbury
to follow the guidelines of health and safety at work place. The decision making of HRM always

gets affected because of the law where it is crucial for the business to follow the guidelines.
Here, proper safety and security must be given to employee while they perform any of the work.
Employment Contracts Law: It is one of the laws which discusses about contract which
should be formed between employer and employee. Here, certain terms and condition are
including which must be considered in any of the situation (Oluwatayo and Adetoro, 2020). In
context of Sainsbury, HRM decision-making will have an impact because in any of the situation
HR manager will not be allowed to take those decision due to which terms and condition of
contract gets breached.
After looking at different laws and regulations that has been mentioned above, it is quite
clear that any of the organisation must be able to follow rules and regulations. Entity following
the rules and regulation in a systematic manner gives additional advantages in attaining the target
on specific time period and even any of business process do not get affected from it.
LO4
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples.
Job Specifications is a specified document where each of the necessary information are
mentioned related to the candidate which they are looking to hire in the organization.
Job Specification
Company: Sainsbury
Job Designation: Search Engine Optimisation
Job purpose: Modern era focuses upon digitalisation and considering this company wants to
hire SEO who attract more customers.
Roles and responsibilities:
 Must have the technical knowledge.
 Changes should be made to the website and information should be updated as per
changes in trends and situation.
Required skills and experiences:
 Must have qualified degree in the field of digital marketing

 Bachelor and Master in Computer Application is necessary.
 Person must be familiar with technical terms.
Job Offer Letter: It is the situation where company provides rights to candidate to join
the entity on the basis of skills and capabilities. Job offer letter includes some of the necessary
terms that relates to the work are mentioned below:
Offer Letter
Entity Sainsbury
Job position Search Engine Optimisation SEO
Location Church Street, London
Reporting person Marketing manager
Roles & Responsibilities  Must have the technical knowledge.
 Changes should be made to the website and
information should be updated as per changes in
trends and situation.
Working Duration 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Accommodations for employees Proper working environment will be provided to SEO
who can perform their task to attain the targets.
Sound condition of work with optimistic culture that
expansion their working execution in business so
representatives can achieve its focused on objectives.

In short, whole of this process was conducted through interview process where number of
question has been asked related to SEO post. A short information about the employee was also
asked by the HR team to start the conversation in positive manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that any of the entity performing in the
market must ensure that they have the knowledge that HR department plays the crucial role in
attaining the targets. It is equally important that proper laws and regulations must be followed as
it impacts upon decision making policy. Job Specification and Offer letter plays the vital role in
business entity before appointing any of the employees.