Human Resource Management Practices: A Sainsbury's Case Study (Unit 3)

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DAVID GAME COLLEGE
Unit 3: Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
(a) Define HRM and explain the purpose of HRM in an organisation........................................4
(b) Identify and list from your reading about HRM, the various functions of HRM in an
organisation..................................................................................................................................4
(c) Select two from your above list and explain them in detail...................................................5
(d) Identify various approaches of recruitment and selection.....................................................5
(e) Select two approaches among each of recruitment and selection and explain them in detail
highlighting the strengths and weaknesses..................................................................................6
(f) You are to select an organisation and identify various HRM practices in that organisation
and list them.................................................................................................................................7
(g) Select more than one practice and explain the benefits for both the employer and employee
providing appropriate examples for each type within an organisational context........................8
(h) Now give details of how your selected practices will benefit your selected organisation in
terms of profit and productivity. Justify your answers with examples........................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
The HRM is the important department of any organization. It does the job of managing the most
important resources that is the human resources. It manages and defines the work that the people
do in an organization. This department makes sure that the employees do the work in a positive
environment. In this project Sainsbury’s is considered for understanding the working of the
HRM. It is the work of HRM to make sure that the employees are not in any kind of pressure and
feel any burden upon them, so that they can provide efficient result. They hire new employees
that possess knowledge, skills and experience so that they can be proved to be advantageous.
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Task 1
(a) Define HRM and explain the purpose of HRM in an organisation.
Human Resource Management is the system that manages the workforce in organisations. It does
the job of recruitment and management of the employees and makes sure that the employees are
having a proper communication with each other in the workplace.
The purpose of HRM in an organisation is to increase the rate of productivity by the analysis of
working efficiency of employees. The functioning of the HRM is recruitment and retention of
employees. They manage the human resources by assigning them work according to their skills
and knowledge so that they can provide improved results and help the organisation achieve its
objectives (Courses.lumenlearning.com, 2018). They consider employees to be an important
asset for the organisation. For gaining an advantage in the competition HRM considers and
focusses on the sources that they have in the organisation. For them the most important asset of
any organisation is the workforce and to manage the communication, level of motivation and
leadership among the employees (Richard, 2016).
(b) Identify and list from your reading about HRM, the various functions of HRM in an
organisation.
The main functionality of HRM in an organization includes:
 Recruitment and training of employees
 Employee coordination
 Maintain job satisfaction among employees
 Employment life cycle
 Human capital management
 Management of resources and objectives of business
 Implementation of labor laws
Sainsbury’s is one of the top retail companies in the UK. Effective human resource management
strategies should be considered by the organization of this scale, so that the departments
functions properly. The responsibility of the HRM department is divided among two major areas
that are individual as well as organizational level. In Sainsbury’s the major problem is of low
payment of the employees. The strategy that they should implement is to manage the cost to
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company in different areas so that the employees get paid according to their work. Also, one
important and key strategy that needs to be implemented effectively is the implementation of
reward system for the employees (Inc.com, 2018).
(c) Select two from your above list and explain them in detail.
The two major functions of human resource management department in an organization are:
Recruitment and training of employees and to maintain job satisfaction among employees.
 Recruitment and training of employees
When there is a need of an employee that could fit a specific position in the organization
then the organization starts the recruitment process. The process involves choosing a
candidate who is appropriate for the position, they sort the required candidates from a
pile of applications, and then group discussion and interviews take place that leads to the
selection of an appropriate candidate for the position.
After the recruitment, training of the selected employees is done on the basis of structure
defined by the organization. The employees are then trained to work on the technologies
on which the organization works. This training helps the employees to gain new skills
and implement their knowledge effectively (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018).
 Maintain job satisfaction among employees
For the organization to achieve the goals and objectives it is very important for them to
maintain the high level of job satisfaction among employees. The HRM department
considers reward system for the employees so that they stay motivated and do their work
with more passion.
To mitigate any issue in the workplace HR department asks for feedback from the
employees that contains review about the organization and the higher authorities. They
should also give proper recognition of the work done by the employees (Rouse, 2018).
(d) Identify various approaches of recruitment and selection.
For the recruitment and selection of candidates the HR department follows a systematic
approach. Firstly, description of job is designed and advertised on various platforms such as
newspapers, televisions, online advertisement and through banners and hoardings. The job
description includes details about the post, pay scale, job responsibilities and reporting essentials
(Alam, 2018).
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Systematically, the method includes posting job advertisement, location of advertisement,
using social media for job advertisement, use of agencies of recruitment and giving the right
candidate right offer that they cannot say not to.
 Job Description:
It includes:
 Title of the job
 Pay scale
 Working hours
 Reporting information
 Job responsibility
 Qualifications
 Any extra demand that the organization requires
 Skills Requirement:
Various organizations works on a technology that they need the candidates to have some
knowledge about. They choose the right candidate on the basis of skills and knowledge that
is required by the organization.
 Strategy of Job Posting:
For the process of recruitment and selection of employees to be systematic, job posting
should be considered to be important. Posting a job at specific places reduces the job of
sorting of candidates. Job posting should be done by focusing on specific areas, like online
job portals, television and newspapers.
(e) Select two approaches among each of recruitment and selection and explain them in
detail highlighting the strengths and weaknesses.
Posting job on online portals and recruitment through agencies are the two important approaches
for recruitment and selection of candidates.
Posting job on online portals: It is very useful way of recruitment for the agencies that are not
much known. They post their job offerings on online portals so that candidates can know about
the job posting. Although, organizations have specific section for job offerings on their websites
it is very useful for them to post on job portal websites (Ingram, 2018).
Strength Weakness
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 This is cost effective method.
 It takes less time for completing the cycle
of recruitment.
 This method has a worldwide reach and
is very much helpful for the organizations
that has global market.
 Provides recruiters with candidates that
are right for the job.
 If description of the job is not to the point
then this method provides large number
of applications to sort.
 Technical issues can remove applicants
that have the potential for the job.
Job Recruitment Agencies: This type of recruitment and selection provides well deserved
candidates for the job.
Strength Weakness
 Provide recruiters that do not have the
knowledge of recruitment with right
candidates for the job.
 Response speed is high.
 Candidates provided by these agencies
have already passed several tests so they
have required skills and knowledge.
 It is preferred by the candidates.
 These agencies have a single database
thus they advertise for the position
without the knowledge of the
organization.
 Some candidates wants to contact the
recruiter directly.
 It is a costly way.
(f) You are to select an organisation and identify various HRM practices in that
organisation and list them.
The organization selected for this purpose is Sainsbury’s, which is a leading retail company in
the UK. It has an extensive number of supermarkets in the UK. (Ashe-Edmunds, 2018) The
various practises that the Human Resource Management department of the Sainsbury’s have are:
 Training and development
 Selective Hiring
 Extensive training
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 Information sharing
 Job security
 Self-managed teams
 Employee Satisfaction
Figure 1: HRM Practices
(Source: Researchgate)
(g) Select more than one practice and explain the benefits for both the employer and
employee providing appropriate examples for each type within an organisational context.
All the practices have their significance in the organization but for the benefit of employee as
well as employer practices such as Job security and self-managed teams are important.
 Job Security: The job security is an important factor for both employees as well as
employers as if employees have the job security than they will be more focused on their
jobs and will provide good outcomes. Similarly, if the employees are performing better
then it becomes easy for the employers and they can count on the employees for any job
(BrightHR, 2017).
 Self-managed teams: Team work is an important aspect for achieving the objectives. For
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the success of any organization they needs to have team whose performance rate is high.
If the teams are self-managing then the employers do not need to worry about the quality
of outcomes (HRTool, 2018).
(h) Now give details of how your selected practices will benefit your selected organisation in
terms of profit and productivity. Justify your answers with examples.
For Sainsbury’s self-managed teams and job security are very important HRM practices. The
profit and productivity will eventually increase for the organization if they follow these HRM
practices effectively.
Self-management within the teams of Sainsbury’s is very important as they will not need any
external interference in the team and thus the team will work effectively (Digital HR Tech blog,
2018). It will increase the productivity for the organization as the employees within the teams
have higher productivity levels. If the teams are performing better than the profit of the
organization will eventually increase.
Job security for the employees of Sainsbury’s has similar effects on the team performance and
productivity. The employees who are assured of their job perform better.
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Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the human resources management
department has a significance role. They ensure that the working of the organization is smooth.
The employees do not get burdened and the productivity of the organization remains increasing.
The productivity and the performance of the organization depends on the working of the
employees, so it is the role of the HRM to manage the working of the teams effectively.
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Bibliography
 Alam, M., 2018. Human Resource Management Practices: A study on Recruitment &
Selection process of Digicon Technologies ltd.
 Ashe-Edmunds, S., 2018. How to Maintain Employee Satisfaction. [online] Work.chron.com.
Available at: https://work.chron.com/maintain-employee-satisfaction-1013.html [Accessed
13 Feb. 2019].
 BrightHR, 2017. Best HR Approaches to Recruitment | BrightHR. [online] Available at:
https://www.brighthr.com/articles/hiring/recruitment [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018. Recruitment and training Recruitment and selection
business studies and business english | Business Case Studies. [online] Available at:
https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/people/recruitment-and-training.html
[Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 Courses.lumenlearning.com, 2018. Purpose of Human Resource Management | Boundless
Management. [online] Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
management/chapter/purpose-of-human-resource-management/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 Digital HR Tech blog, 2018. 7 Human Resource Best Practices | A Mini-Guide to HRM.
[online] Available at: https://www.digitalhrtech.com/human-resource-best-practices/
[Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 HRTool, 2018. Different Recruitment Methods: Advantages & Disadvantages - WorkPocket.
[online] HR Tool: Employment Advice, Tips & Case Studies – WorkPocket. Available at:
https://www.randstad.co.uk/workpocket/finding-candidates/different-recruitment-methods-
advantages-disadvantages/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 Inc.com, 2018. Human Resource Management. [online] Available at:
https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management.html [Accessed 13 Feb.
2019].
 Ingram, D., 2018. A Systematic Approach to Recruitment & Selection. [online]
Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/systematic-
approach-recruitment-selection-10941.html [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
 Richard, L., 2016. Human Resource Management at Tesco and Sainsbury’s. [online] Perfect
Writer UK. Available at: https://perfectwriterukblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/human-
resource-management-at-tesco-and-sainsburys/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
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 Rouse, M., 2018. What is human resource management (HRM)? - Definition from
WhatIs.com. [online] SearchHRSoftware. Available at:
https://searchhrsoftware.techtarget.com/definition/human-resource-management-HRM
[Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
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