Analysis of HRM Practices: Sainsbury's Case Study Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Sainsbury's. It begins with an introduction to HRM, outlining its purpose and functions, including staffing, compensation, employee benefits, performance appraisals, and employee motivation. The main body of the report examines the strengths and weaknesses of various HRM approaches such as workforce planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, and reward systems. It then explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, focusing on recruitment, training, compensation, employee relations, and performance appraisals. The report further discusses the effectiveness of HRM practices in terms of productivity and profitability. It also delves into how employee relations impact HRM decision-making, and the influence of employee legislation. Finally, the report concludes with a look at HRM practices within a work-related context.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM..............................................................................................1
P2 Strength and weakness of various approaches of HRM practices .........................................3
P3. Benefits of HRM practices....................................................................................................6
P4. Effectiveness of HRM practices in terms of productivity and profitability..........................8
P5. How employee relations impact on HRM decision making................................................10
P6. Employee legislation and its impact on decision making...................................................11
P7 HRM practices in work related context................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the plan that directs and coordinate the administration
of an organisation. Their main responsibility is to oversee the process of recruiting, planning
organising and staffing. Sainsbury’s is the third largest supermarket chain in UK, it covers the
16.9% of the total retail market founded by John James sainsbury’s in the year1869. It has total
1,86,900 employees till the year 2018. This report contains the functions of HRM and its purpose
and scope in the Sainsbury and also contains the weakness and strength of the approachews of
human resource management.
MAIN BODY
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM.
Human Resource Management view the people as an assets of the organisation and internal
customers and tries to create the work satisfaction among the employees so the effectiveness and
efficiency can be increase (Berman and et.al., 2019). One of the purpose of HRM is to
concentrates on internal sources of competitive advantage.
Functions of Human Resource Management
Staffing needs
Human resource department plays an vital role in recruitment and selection of employees.
As staffing is one of the primary function of the department, HR managers must give the equal
opportunity to everyone without any discrimination of gender, caste, sex, culture etc. recruitment
is the process in which the potential applicants is being given the invitation through newspaper,
social media, television etc. to fill up the job vacancies. Recruitment of employees is being
administered in two ways that is internal sources or external sources. Internal sources means
giving the opportunity to the employees who are working with the organisation and external
sources means recruit the people outside the organisation.
Compensation
Compensation means giving the payment, salary, wage, remuneration, but grammatically
there is a difference in nomenclature like compensation as this is being given against the
payment in case of death of an employee in the course of employment (Morgeson Brannick and
Levine, 2019). Remuneration and salary can be used interchangeably and even they have to give
the wages on the daily basis. Remuneration is the fundamental duty of human resource manager
and compensation of remuneration is the basic motivating factor of any employee.

Employee benefits
It is one of the core function of human resource manager is administration and
management of benefits of employees, it is another form of benefits to the employees to
compensate the employees to perform the work effectively and these benefits are divided into
compulsory or statutory benefits and discretionary and voluntary benefits, compulsory benefits
are those which must be provided to the employee by the employer and if the employer fails to
provide this than employee has the right to take action.
Performance appraisals
Performance appraisals are important task in which the human resource manager
monitors the employee performance and they are responsible or the administrating and
developing the performance appraisal system (DeCenzo Robbins and Verhulst, 2016). They
assess the performance of the employees and establish the performance standards,
communication standard and then measure the actual performance with the standard set in the
appraisal form.
Motivating employee
It is basic feature of human resource management that they have to motivate the
employees at the same also identify the factor which causes the demotivation in employees and
try to overcome this factor which demotivates them. Motivation of employees can be done
through following factors:
Pay and benefits: employees always wants the justified payment to an employee for the work
done as paying the salary is the fundamental duty of an employer but employees need the
handsome salary to motivate the employees (Brewster and et.al., 2016). Even employers must
provide the other benefits like free food, maternity benefit, paid vacations, payment of gratuity.
Working condition: it is expected by every employee of the company that in workplace they
must give maintenance and good working condition to motivate employees.
Company policies
Whatever will be the policies of company but there policies should not be conflict in
between the labour law and natural justice. The motive for making the policies is to make the
employees feel encouraged and perform well to achieve company targets.

P2 Strength and weakness of various approaches of HRM practices .
Workforce planning
It is one of the method that identifies the employee current needs in the organisation to
ensure that right employee is being deployed in the company at right time at right places. The
three workforce planning are:
Workforce approach: It evaluates the current workforce of occupation and projects and also
find the number of jobs and number of employees need to fulfil this job at particular point of
time.
Workload approach: This approach is mainly concern on type of work which the company is
having and the employees should not be overburdened of work.
Competency approach: It is based on the education and training which the company has to be
given to the employees of the company (Bratton and Gold 2017). The employees is being
evaluated according to their profile and skilled and then the trainings is to be organised.
The following approaches is being practice for work force planning and this approaches
are various strengths and weakness that are
Strength Weakness
Employees who possess high skills and
qualification are employed.
To appoint this criteria of candidate cost high
comparatively to others.
Recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection is having two approaches that is recruitment done on internal
basis and external basis, in internal basis the organisation gives the opportunity within the
company and in external basis the organisation hires the candidate from outside the company

(Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). Promotion and transfer are the internal sources and hiring the
employees from recruitment agency is external approach.
Strengths Weakness
The branding of the company is increased from
the external sources.
Company can choose the best professional
from large number of pool of applicants.
It is time consuming process.
It is expensive in monetary basis also.
Training and development
Training and development is also being carried by two ways that is on job training
method and off the job training method. On the job training method is that in which the training
is provide in the course of his employment it includes job rotation, coaching etc. off the job
training method means the training given outside the premises of sainsberry that are
brainstorming, vestubile schools etc. sainsberry give the on job trainings to its employees.
Strength Weakness
It makes the employees more skilled.
It also increase the efficiency and productivity. It is expensive in terms of time and cost.
Reward system
A reward is being given in two ways that is monetary and non-monetary. Monetary
rewards includes the incentives, perks, bonus etc. non-monetary rewards are those which
includes film tickets, membership of gym, cab facility, lunch in office etc. Sainsberry gives the
reward in both the ways as according to the situation.

Strength Weakness
It serves as a tool of motivation. It is an additional cost to the company.
P3. Benefits of HRM practices
HRM managers have great responsibility of providing benefits to the employers and
employees. For employers they help in maintaining employee relations by cutting labour cost
and for employees they help in protecting their rights and laws like labour and employment law
within the scope of organization.
HRM practices Employers Employees
Recruitment and selection For employers of Sainsbury,
this practice benefits in
finding good quality
employees who are
enthusiastic about their work
and jobs (DeCenzo Robbins
and Verhulst, 2016). It will
help in saving time and money
in training with the help of
proper selection and also
reduce employment related
legal issues.
The right recruitment and
selection process will help in
boosting the motivation of
employees, productivity and
enhance on-the-job
performance. This practice
will benefit the employees in
increasing their enthusiasm
and commitment level and
directly influence on their
engagement.
Training and development Sainsbury uses this practice
which helps employers to
measure the staff’s progress
and measurable improvements
to the organization. By
providing right training
programs it will help
employers to retain more
employees as they will feel
The training and development
programs provided in
Sainsbury give benefits to
their employees by enhancing
their skills and knowledge
related to their field so they
feel worth in what they are
doing. It also helps in gaining
additional experience which

motivated by developing their
skills and knowledge and also
reduce the recruitment costs. It
will help employers to nurture
talent to grow their business.
The employers will get
positive environment in
workplace which will improve
business performance and
profitability.
can help them to pursue their
future opportunities.
Sainsbury provide excellent
training programs through
which employees feels
appreciated and challenged
through opportunities which
make them satisfied with their
jobs and helps in improving
their performance
Compensation and benefits By providing compensation
and benefits, employers can
hold onto the staff and will
help in improving their work
performance. Sainsbury
policies and procedures define
appropriate workplace
behaviour which help them to
attract top talents and reduce
the conflict resolution between
employers and employees.
Employers will get benefits in
productivity and profitability
by providing the right
compensation and benefits
package which includes
salaries, incentives, bonuses
and commission structures.
Sainsbury properly
compensate their employees
so that employees feel valued
and do better job. It helps in
enhancing employee’s morale,
motivation boost loyalty when
they are paid well and given
bonuses or incentives they are
willingly to stay with the
company. The right
compensation plan like giving
flexible working hours and
holiday bonuses creates
stronger sense of satisfaction
and employees will be
rewarded in putting their
efforts.
Employee relations Employers in Sainsbury
maintain employee relations
who help them to gain loyalty
Employees will get
opportunity to work in the
environment where they will

of employees as the
employees don’t experience
discrimination and harassment
(Noe and et.al., 2017). This
practice benefits the
employers to gain the support
of their employees and help in
better communication or
understanding with their
employees. By maintaining
the employee relations,
employers will get positive
environment in the workforce
and employees will do their
jobs well.
not judge by their gender, age,
religion and harassment within
the organisation. They will get
support of their employers if
any rights have been violated.
Sainsbury employers and
employees relations reduce the
conflicts. Employees will
benefits in making good
relations with their managers
which overall improve the
business environment for
employees and will likely to
work for the organization
Performance appraisals Sainsbury uses this practices
to benefit employers in
measuring the performance of
the employees and can provide
feedback on their work
whether they are working with
the needs of the business and
how effective and efficient
they are completing their
tasks. Sainsbury uses balance
score card to keep the track of
their employee’s efforts so
that they can monitor the
success of the organization.
Performance appraisals can
provide the employees a most
important benefits i.e. self-
development which will allow
them to provide feedback on
the areas where they need
improvement. They can also
ask to managers for
development training to
improve their skills. It will
help them to understand their
roles and status in the
organization regarding their
job performance.

P4. Effectiveness of HRM practices in terms of productivity and profitability.
The main objective of Sainsbury is to raise the productivity and profitability so they hired a
good human resource team to enhance the performance of their staff with the help of planning
and development programs. HR practices like workforce planning, training and development,
recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, performance appraisals have been adopted
by Sainsbury to enhance the productivity and profitability. The productivity depends upon the
input and output given by the employees in accomplishing the organizational goals. By investing
in training and development can raise the effectiveness of organization by helping employees to
learn skills and knowledge about how to use resource efficiently in completing company’s goals.
Another HR practice called human resource planning helps in boosting the organizational
performance by ensuring that the staffs is effective and efficient. It also uses for determining
costs of staffing in hiring qualified candidates and various budget purposes. It is very important
practice because when the organization wants to expand and grow they will need a diversify
workforce which can help in raising sales and profitability (Morgeson Brannick and Levine,
2019). It will also inform about the requirement of the additional workforce to increase company
revenues. By panning proper workforce it will tells about the area where large number
employees require training sessions and well trained employees can boost the productivity and
accomplish organizational tasks rapidly. HR panning process will help in analysing the net worth
of all departments. HR panning is directly proportional to the organization performance, the
better will be the planning, the better will be the organization performance.
Recruitment and selection is one of the important HR practice as it will help in providing
good qualify candidates which are enthusiastic about their work and help in accomplishing
organizational goals (Importance of Effective Recruitment & Selection, 2019). This HR practice
can give the right person who want to increase the company’s reputation by doing their jobs well
and helps in increasing productivity and profitability for the betterment of organization.
Sainsbury always recruit qualified people who are always better for the jobs.
Training and development can enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees which
involves change in attitude and improvement in the behaviour in order to raise the overall
performance or productivity. It helps employees to get ready for their responsibilities by gaining
experience through training and development programs. A systematic training program can help
the employees to gain experience and contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of an

organization. It increase the motivation level of employees by making them uninformed to
informed employees and it changes unskilled or semiskilled employees to the employees who
can complete their tasks as instructed by the organization.
Compensation and benefits boost the effectiveness of Sainsbury in raising productivity as
they provide various benefits to their workforce like incentives, salaries, bonuses, flexible
working hours which helps to gain the employees loyalty and they are likely to work with the
organization and do their jobs well in achieving targets given by the company within the given
time framework which overall raise the productivity and sales. Performance management
practices help the Sainsbury to measure the employee’s productivity and performance in terms of
organization goals (Reiche and et.al., 2016). It gives feedback or review to the employees and
employers where they can improve their skills in the particular area where their performance is
lacking. Employee’s relations can also boost the productivity in creating the positive
environment within the organization where they can work with full potential and also enhance
the profitability.
P5. How employee relations impact on HRM decision making.
Maintaining good relations with employees in an organization is a prerequisite for business
success. For high productivity and people's satisfaction, a close relationship with employees is
needed. Relationships between employees are generally related to avoiding and resolving
problems related to people who might work or influence the decision making of HRM. Close
relationships with employees depend on a healthy and safe work environment, involvement and
commitment of all employees, incentives for employee motivation, and effective communication
systems within the organization. Healthy employee relationships produce employees who are
more efficient, motivated and productive, which in turn leads to increased sales. A good attitude
among employees means that employees must feel positive about their identity, their work, and
the fact that they are part of a great organization (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). When relation
between employee and manager improves it directly impact the decision making of HRM as it
enhance the workplace relationship, motivation, retention rates and increased revenue. The good
employee relation will help in the decision making process by contributing positive environment
within the workforce and provide innovative ideas or suggestions which can help the
organization for the betterment of future.