Comprehensive HRM Report: Squire's Garden Centres, HR Strategies

This report analyzes Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Squire's Garden Centres, a medium-sized family-owned business. The report begins with an introduction to HRM, emphasizing its strategic role in achieving competitive advantage. Task 1 explores the purpose of the HR function, its importance, and the advantages and disadvantages of current recruitment methods, comparing them to alternatives. Task 2 focuses on creating a job description, person specification, and an advertisement for a customer service assistant role, along with recommendations for additional recruitment mediums and interview questions. Task 3 evaluates the benefits of apprenticeships, employee development opportunities, and the range of rewards and benefits available. Finally, Task 4 examines employee engagement, recommends effective engagement strategies, and explains the influence of UK employment legislation on HR decision-making. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and recommendations.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Compile a report explaining the:............................................................................................1
a) Purpose of the HR function and its importance to this organisation, given the size and
nature of this business and its plans to become an employer of choice.................................1
b) Advantage and disadvantage of the current recruitment and selection methods used by
Squire's Garden Centres and compare it to other methods of recruitment and selection.......3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
a) Create a job description and a person specification for a customer services assistant.......5
b) Create a advert for the customer services assistant role suitable for Squire’s website......7
c) Recommend at least 2 other medium that may be appropriate for this vacancy and justify
your recommendations...........................................................................................................7
d) Provide a minimum 7 question which could be asked at the interview for the customer
services assistant, which would help to improve the selection decision-making process......8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
a) Evaluate the benefits of Squire’s offering Apprenticeships to both the organisation and to
potential apprentices...............................................................................................................8
b) Explain the development opportunities available to employees........................................9
c) Review the range of rewards and benefits available to staff............................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
a) An explanation of what is meant by employee engagement and its importance to employee
relations................................................................................................................................11
b) Recommend ways of engaging workers more effectively within Squire’s. ....................12
c) An explanation as to how UK employment legislation influences human resources decision
making .................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
.......................................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management consider as a strategic approach of managing people within
the organization that support to business in attaining competitive advantage. Mainly, it help in
maximise the employee performance at workplace by making them enable in handling
organizational activities. In this context, HR department play a significant role in overseeing
employee benefits design, employee recruitment, effective training and development and reward
management. All these aspects are help in enhancing workers productivity at workplace towards
the job activities (Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014). One of the main purpose of human
resource management is to provide benefits to workers in order to motivate them so that they can
easily perform their task. By this manager can maintain proper relation with employees at
workplace. Thus, it is important for HR manager is to evaluate workers performance to make
them productive. By this, they can attain their set goals and objectives in stipulate time frame.
Current report is based on Square’s Garden Centres, is medium sized family owned business
founded in 1936. The main aim of this organization is to attain success by serving quality
services to its customers. Project is going to discuss about purpose and function of HRM that
help in attaining organizational objectives. Furthermore, strength and weaknesses of current
recruitment and selection methods is also mentioned in this project. Along with this,
applications of HRM practices is includes in this report. At last, effectiveness of key elements of
HRM is mentioned in this project that support in retaining employees within the organization for
longer period of time.
TASK 1
Compile a report explaining the:
a) Purpose of the HR function and its importance to this organisation, given the size and nature
of this business and its plans to become an employer of choice.
Human resource management is a process of recruiting, hiring and providing training to
employees. The HR executive and professionals by using their skills and expertise attempts to
find talent for the vacant positions and simultaneously making effort to retain them for long
term. Squires garden centre also posses HR department whose primary objective is to maximise
employee performance. This department consist following functions-
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 Recruitment and Selection – It involves finding the right candidate and hiring qualified
candidates by using proper procedure of recruitment approaches (Albrecht and et. al.,
2015). The undertaking of recruitment and selection approaches assure that
organisational goals and objectives are fulfilled through appropriate hiring of suitable
candidates.
 Training and Development- This refers to providing On boarding training to new
employees and developing skills and capabilities of existing employees (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014). Squire garden centre provide training through undertaking approaches
such as training, coaching, discussion and seminars and develop the employees through
proper evaluation of their performance and suggesting step to improve the performance.
 Compensation- It is the basic pay that employee receives in return of the effort given
in company. The department sets fair and competitive wages and salaries and include all
type of benefits. Squire garden centre provides many benefits with basic pay which are
paid leave, insurance and retirement plan to increase the satisfaction level of employee.
The payment of fair wages along with offering benefits is effective when it comes to
attracting candidates towards the organisation and enhancing market reputation. This
function is definitely helpful in making sure that organisational goals are fulfilled.
 Maintaining Good Working conditions- The Human resource department is
responsible for providing good working conditions. To the employees to make them
familiar with the work environment it is essential to support the same with appropriate
working conditions along with guidance. This function leads to more productive
environment within the organisation which further leads to attainment of targets set by
the business.
 Managing employee relation – Employees are the mainstay of the company and
managing relations among employees bridges coordination and cooperation. Squire
garden centre influences behaviour of employees and form good employee relation by
organising activities to know employee more and it helps in planning to form strategies
for maintaining good relations (Birasnav, 2014). The presence of ideal relations between
employee and employer assures that workers are contributing productively to the
operation and sharpen their skills regularly for achievement of business objectives.
Purpose of Human resource Management-
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The purpose of HRM is to maximise the company's performance by hiring right
candidate who posses right skills, abilities and knowledge. This recruitment and selection can be
done using various procedure to employ right talent and help employees to fulfil their roles and
responsibility. The following major purpose are-
 Staffing needs- After recruitment and selection, it involves making announcement
regarding position of employees and identifying duties and responsibility by
understanding their skill level and requirement which are needed for position (Bratton
and Gold, 2017). Squire Garden centre personally screen the applicants by taking various
test like administering test and ensure that no laws are violated. The determination of
staffing needs assists in finding suitable candidate for the organisation leading to
fulfilment of targets.
 Performance Appraisal- The department work with other department to evaluate the
performance of employee. This department involves using performance appraisal system
such as BARS and 360 Degree appraisal system to appraise the performance which
occurs annually in company. Squire garden centre ensures that all employees understand
this process and qualified employees receives the reward and equitable practices are used
as appraisal system for promotion, retention and termination of employees. The crucial
purpose behind this is that employees are able to overcome their weaknesses and
contribute collectively towards vision of the business.
 Law compliance- The department is formed to assure safety and equitable treatment to
employees. There are various laws which protects the interest of employees. If company
comply the health and safety rules then there will be less chances of injury and illness.
Squire Garden centres comply all the rules formed to protect the interest of employees
by disseminating information and creating procedure for evaluation of compliance of law.
The formation of secure and safe climate within the organisation assures that operations
are fulfilled in an effective and efficient manner.
b) Advantage and disadvantage of the current recruitment and selection methods used by Squire's
Garden Centres and compare it to other methods of recruitment and selection
Recruitment and selection play a vital role in recruiting a skilled and capable person
within the organisation who has ability to effectively perform all the allotted task activities in
effective manner. Thus, it is important for manager to recruit right candidate for right place so
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that all the set target can be easily accomplished (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). For attaining
the same, Squire Garden centres adopt various methods of recruitment and selection that can be
understood by following points;
For recruiting skilled candidate, currently business organization advertise their vacancies
in every garden centre on its own websites and in local newspaper as well with the aim of
inviting people towards its vacant job activities. One of the main advantage of using this way,
company can easily find talent for their business who have knowledge about the vacant place.
After that applicant is responsible for answer a series of questions (Chelladurai and Kerwin,
2018). This will help in determining that whether they are permitted to completed the process of
formal application of not. If candidate easily completed the application form than they eligible
for uploading their CV within the Squire Garden centres. Furthermore, HR manager reviewed
and shortlist the applicants on the basis of their qualification and experience as well. This will
contribute in increasing the chances of recruiting a capable candidates who is able to effectively
understand the job responsibilities within the organization.
Apart from this, Squire Garden centres can recruit candidates through educational
institutes, casual callers, private employment and many more. For this Squire Garden centres
use campus placement to recruit new candidates towards the specified job role. The main
strength of this method is that it includes new and innovative ideas which may contribute in
improving performance of the company. On the other side it required huge cost to recruit
candidates from the campus. Apart from this, Squire Garden centres can also use alternative
approaches that can be replace the current one like:
 Recruitment agencies are the most effective alternative way to recruit candidates. In this,
agency recruiter do this activity by researching open roles, identifying qualified people
and also provide better support to employer of company at the time of selection of new
candidates.
 Search consultants are the person who will actually work with job searching in which
they provide different option to manager of company to hire the best candidates.
 Press advertising is consider as a recruitment communication and agency that includes all
the interaction used by company to invite talent to work within the company. Along with
this, press advertising may be the first impression of business for many job seekers.
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 Professional referral schemes is provide cost effective way to find the skilled and talented
candidate in which firm offer a financial reward to staff who suggested someone to their
manager who is subsequently hired within the company.
 Social media is also consider as an important approach of recruitment which includes
online recruiting efforts. Along with this, it also includes different kind of social channel
which should be used by company to invite candidates who are looking for a job within
the company.
All are the alternate ways that can be used by company to recruit skilled and talented
candidates within the business organization.
On the other hand, For selecting capable candidate, interview is one of the important
method which refer to the face to face meeting or conversation to hire people to fill the vacant
position. For selecting skilled workers interview will be taken by two managers. They ask
various questions based on job roles from the recruited candidates to analysis their effectiveness
towards the job activities. In this context, the main strength of this method is that Squire Garden
centres provide detailed information to people about their job activities at workplace (Cooke,
Saini and Wang, 2014). On the other side, some time HR manager fail in recruiting right people
because of they does not find their capabilities about the particular job role.
TASK 2
a) Create a job description and a person specification for a customer services assistant
Job Description
Job role: Customer services assistant
Department: Marketing
Division: Squire Garden centres
Job summary:
Currently, organization is searching for reliable customers service assistant to interact with their
clients on a daily basis, making sales, and fielding questions. To become a successful in this
post, needs to be self motivated and knowledgeable with a friendly yet professional behaviour.
Roles and responsibilities:
 Customers service assistant is responsible for influencing customers towards company
services.
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 Give all the report about customers experience to market department.
 Meet all the customers needs and exceed expectations.
 Maintain accurate and up to date customers record.
Required qualification:
 At least 3 year experience in marketing field
 Knowledge about customers laws and legislation
Required tools:
 MS Office
 Basic computer skills
 Customers service software FAQ
Person Specification
Category Essential Job
Requirements
Desirable Job Requirements Method of Testing
Job Related
Skills and
Knowledge:
 Able in delivering
quality customers
services.
 Effective
communication
skill
 Able to influence
others
 Proper knowledge
about local authority
services.
 Woking knowledge of
data box
Interview and
application form
Experience  Experience of
marketing and
business
customers based
service role.
 Experience working
within the marketing
field.
 Experience in
handling customers
queries.
Interview and
application form
Education /  Minimum work
experience in
 Qualification in
customers service
Application form
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Qualificatio
ns:
marketing
 3 year experience
in customers
service.
 Certificate of
communication
skill
field.
Other
Requiremen
ts:
 Reliable and
consistent.
 Positive about
change
 Flexible attitude
to working
practices and
demands
Previous work history
and interview
b) Create a advert for the customer services assistant role suitable for Squire’s website.
Job Advertisement
Job title: Customer services assistant
Date: 14the June, 2019
This position offers big opportunity for growth, positive environment along with fully paid
benefits package. The candidate will be responsible for the various activities like analysis
customers demand, influencing customers towards company services and many more. Interested
and eligible candidates are allowed to apply for the post before 18th of June, 2019. Candidates
have to mail their CV to organisation registered Mail Id. For further details, contact to the
administrative department of the organisation.
Required skills:
Experience in marketing field, better communication skills, advertising skills and many more.
HR Manager
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Squire's Garden
c) Recommend at least 2 other medium that may be appropriate for this vacancy and justify your
recommendations.
Other than news paper advertisement there are many modes which an organisation use to
place their advertisement. The another two methods those can be used by the HR manager of the
organisation is known as social media and hiring of the external recruiting agency. Both these
alternative methods have their own and different benefits in comparison to newspaper
advertisement.
Social media is an effective way to recruiting candidates within organization, as it is cost
effective and time saving through which manager can reach candidates faster. In this regards,
social media channels help company in positing job roles on social media sites through which
candidates can easily applied for it. Mainly, it includes various sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and
Twitter on which recruiter for positing advertisement of job vacancies to invite capable
candidates.
External recruiting agency is also an effective way for recruiting candidates within the
organization as it help in saving organization time and efforts. By this way, company can easily
find the best candidates for the job roles and responsibilities as well. In this, external recruitment
agency provide support to organisation to find suitable candidates.
d) Provide a minimum 7 question which could be asked at the interview for the customer
services assistant, which would help to improve the selection decision-making process.
Interview questions
Q1) What skills are required for Customer services assistant?
Q2) How to handle unhappy or dissatisfied customers?
Q3) As per your point of view, is customers satisfaction important for business?
Q4) Are you aware about to consumers legislation and laws?
Q5) What customers service techniques do you have experience with?
Q6) Do you have any idea about how to influence customers towards the services?
Q7) How to gain confidence of customers?
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TASK 3
a) Evaluate the benefits of Squire’s offering Apprenticeships to both the organisation and to
potential apprentices.
Apprenticeships consider as a training system which allow individual to learn a specific
skills and set of skills that help them in making enable to perform job role. Along with this, it is
also refers to a work placement that provide practical on the job training. With the help of this
employees do a proper job at workplace with the aim of attaining their set target in an
appropriate manner. With the help of Apprenticeships, apprentices work in a business alongside
talented staff to complete a real work and activities as well (Festing and Schäfer, 2014). Along
with this, it is related a formal training that provide by Square’s Garden Centres to their workers
to enhance their valuable work experiences at the time of their learning at workplace. On of the
main benefit of apprenticeship is to give opportunities to the staff members to learn the skills that
needed for completing task activities. In this context there are some benefits of Apprenticeship to
both the organisation and to its potential apprentice are as follows:
Benefits for Square’s Garden Centres:
In organisational context, Apprenticeships play a significant role in developing learning
activities of workers and make them productive so that they perform their task with higher
efficiency. This will contribute in enhancing the overall performance of the company. Provide skilled workers for the future: One of the main benefit of apprenticeships is to
improve employees skills at Square’s Garden Centres that may support organization for
longer period of time. As it also ensure that developed skills of workers matched the
future needs of the company. With the assistance of this company can easily attain
success at market place.
 Increase staff loyalty and retention: Apprenticeships play a vital role in making workers
more productive and loyal towards the organizational activities (Govindan and et. al.,
2014). Employees who have been trained in Square’s Garden Centres highly motivated
and committed towards the company because it help in encouraging them to put improve
their skills and perform task accordingly. This will directly support in increasing
retention of existing employees and at the same time also reduce its recruitment cost.
Benefits for Employees:
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For improving workers qualities and skills, apprenticeships is very important as it provide
support to them to making them enable to enhance their productivity level.
 Enhancement in skills: Apprenticeships is a term that is beneficial for workers who are
still learning at workplace. By carry out this activity, Square’s Garden Centres easily
enhance employees skills and abilities to do something well at workplace. By this,
employees can do their best and tries to attain all the set targets in stipulate time frame.
 Employment opportunities: It is also an effective for employees because it provide job
opportunities to the workers who are still learning within the organization. In context of
Square’s Garden Centres conduct apprenticeships activities in which potential workers
take participate to enhance their skills and capabilities to effectively execute their
working activities at workplace. This will directly contribute in making them productive
towards the organizational goals and objectives.
b) Explain the development opportunities available to employees
In business organization, various development opportunities are available in which
employees can easily develop their growth level. By this, workers can easily attain their target by
improving their overall performance at workplace in Square’s Garden Centres. In this context
there are some development opportunities for employees are as follows:
Training and development: It is one of the important opportunity for employees within
the Square’s Garden Centres as it help in enhancing skills and competencies by providing them
training and development activities as per their performance level. With the help of this, workers
of Square’s Garden Centres can easily expand their skills and abilities to perform their task and
develop their career growth as well.
Mentoring: It is also a another way of developing opportunities for employees
(Hornstein, 2015). In this, manager of Square’s Garden Centres analysing workers performance
at workplace and provide them guidance. By this they easily eliminate the issues that can be arise
at workplace. This opportunities make employees more productive and enable to enhance their
capabilities. It may directly contribute in enhancing growth level that support business
organisation to attain success.
c) Review the range of rewards and benefits available to staff
To motivate employees at workplace, company provide various benefits and rewards that
make them loyal and motivate towards the job activities and company values as well. Thus, it is
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