HRM Strategies for Sustainable Performance at Volkswagen Group

This report examines the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in creating sustainable organizational performance within the Volkswagen Group. It reviews various HRM areas, including staffing, compensation, health and safety, employee relations, training and development, recruitment, and payroll, highlighting their contributions to organizational performance. The report analyzes the impact of strategic HRM in a changing business environment, focusing on necessary changes in HRM skills and knowledge. It also evaluates the influence of external and internal factors on HRM decision-making related to organizational development. Furthermore, the report applies HRM practices in a work-related context, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and provides a sample job advertisement with person specifications and a job description. The analysis emphasizes performance management, employee-employer relationships, and recommendations for improving sustainable organizational performance within Volkswagen.

Human Resource
Management
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1:...................................................................................................................................5
The impact of the role of HRM in creating sustainable organisational performance and its
contribution in recruiting and retaining talent and skills to achieve business objective..................5
A review of the different HRM areas and departmental scope with their contribution to
organisational performance....................................................................................................5
An examination of strategic HRM in relation to the changing effects on organisations and its
business environment.............................................................................................................6
Importance of HRM for resourcing, recruiting, selecting, and retaining required employees in
the workplace from the labour market....................................................................................8
As part of the report, you will Critically Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of HRM in
terms of its contribution to business success. You are also required to use other organisations
as examples to support your analysis of the HRM activities................................................10
CHAPTER 2:.................................................................................................................................11
The effect of external and internal factors on HRM decision making in relation to organisational
development...................................................................................................................................11
Conduct research and explain the internal and external factors that affect the decisions made
by HRD in the business........................................................................................................11
Evaluate how the identified external and internal factors affecting HRM in turn affects
organizational development..................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 3..................................................................................................................................14
Applying HRM practices in a work-related context for improving sustainable organisational
performance...................................................................................................................................14
Determine strengths and weaknesses of HRM practices in practical business world for
improving organizational performance. In relation to your chosen company highlight
performance management and employee employer relationships with recommendations of
how the practices illustrated can improve sustainable organisational performance.............14
As part of the application of HRM you are to prepare a sample job advertisement for your
company making use of Person specifications and Job Description....................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
To run the business operations smoothly, proper management of the staff according to
there skills and experience is considered as main factor. As the name indicates, human resource
management is the process of managing the working staff within an organisation(Stone, Cox and
Gavin, 2020). It includes recruitment and selection, training and development, relations of
employees and the owner, maintain culture of the company and others. Sustainable human
resource management simultaneously provides a positive economic, social, human and
environment outcomes.
Human resource management plays a great role in sustainable development (Macke and Genari,
2019). The following report is based on the Volkswagen group which is basically a German
Motor vehicle manufacturing company whose headquarters is situated in Wolfsburg, Lower
Saxony, Germany. The respective firm was established in 1937 by German Labour Front.
This report will cover the main areas of human resource management and their contribution in
creating sustainable performance. As it is known, HRM has the responsibility of setting
organisational mission, vision and objectives, any change will impact the decision-making
process of HRM. Organisational change could force the human resource to put efforts in
handling the management of staff. There are the effects of changing nature of organisation at
human resource skills and knowledge. Human resource management have different practices.
This report will explain the practices of recruitment and retention of employees in achieving
business objectives.
This report will cover the external and internal factors affecting decision-making of HRM in
supporting organisational development. At last there will be application of HRM practices in
context to work with suitable examples for present improvement in sustainable organisational
performance. Sustainability is very important for the company and recruitment, training and
other will make improvement in the sustainable development of the company.
CHAPTER 1:
Organisational structure of the Volkswagen group: -
Volkswagen group is basically a well-known as well as leading multinational brand within the
automotive industry. The structure of the company is divided in different business arena. The

passenger cars business arena paid emphasis on the development of vehicles, engines and
vehicle software. The commercial vehicle business arena focus on the development of the
trucks and buses along with its sales. The next arena is power engineering business arena
which paid focus on the large-bore diesel engines, turbomachinery, special gear units and
many more.
Within the business organisation the responsibilities are divided into eight board management
position. The board of management is comprising of volume brand group and the other
position of board members are Components and Procurement, Finance and IT, Human
Resources and Truck & Bus, Integrity and Legal Affairs, Premium, Sport & Luxury. The
brand board of management manage all the Volkswagen group.
The impact of the role of HRM in creating sustainable organisational
performance and its contribution in recruiting and retaining talent and skills
to achieve business objective
A review of the different HRM areas and departmental scope with their contribution to
organisational performance
HRM can be viewed as the functional activity that plays a great role in any organisation.
Human resource management has the responsibility to manage the staff in the organisation either
by hiring, positioning, training and others (Bratton, Gold, Bratton and et.al., 2021). Human
resource management should have the understanding of their work as they play a great role in an
organisation because what type, what number and in which department, which type of candidate
is hired and positioned all are comes under the responsibility of a human resource management.
The objective of the Volkswagen company is to become most attractive employer in the
automotive industry. Their main aim is to recruit the best employees and have the best team in
the respective industry. In context to the VW group role key roles of HRM are discussed below: - Staffing: - this can be defined as the process of continuously finding, selecting and
building good working relationship with the existing as well as future employees. In
context to the Volkswagen company the main role of the HRM department is to find the
candidate by evaluating their skills as well as knowledge. Along with this, they also paid
focus on the activities of workers, how their time is spent and many more.

 Reward and compensation: - It is the process of providing extra benefits by measuring
the performance of employees at the work place. There are various methods to appraise
the performance such as: management by objective (MBO), behavioural anchored rating
scale (BARS), 360-degree appraisal and many more. In relation to the VW group, the HR
manager is responsible for evaluating the performance of its employees and provide
reward as per their extra efforts (Pichler, 2019). This will allow the workforce in
improving their performance and motivate others to work hard.
 Health and Safety: - Every worker wants their safety at the workplace either it is
physically or emotionally. The HR manager of the respective company make sure their
job security and ensure them that they will be behaved and treated. Along with this they
also provide safe working environment and first aid if any employee gets injured. All
such responsibilities come under the human resource department. Employee Relation: -It is very necessary to maintain good relations at the work place. An
employer or the manager (HR) should properly behave and communicate with its staff. In
context to the Volkswagen it is the responsibility of human resource management to
maintain good terms with the staff and also in between employees. Well coordination will
help the employees to work comfortably with each other, helping one-another in
achieving any organisational goal as well as objectives. Training and development: It is very important for any organisation to have well trained
employees. It will help the organisation in achieving organisational goals at time and in
the overall success of the company by gaining overall revenue. In relation to the VW
group, the HRM has the responsibility to train and develop the existing or new employees
as per their requirement. They are also responsible in checking their activities and
working on a regular basis which will allow them in having the idea about whom will
need to be trained. Recruitment and selection: It is the responsibility of a human resource department to
search or find out appropriate candidates for the organisation. They search for the
candidates through different job portals such as: LinkedIn, Indeed, Shine and others.
After finding the candidates they have the responsibility to get the knowledge about them
by scheduling interviews for them and after interviewing they have to choose or hire a
well skilled and suitable employee according to the job position.

 Payroll: It is the process of deciding and providing salaries to the employees. Payroll for
any hired staff is depends on the policies of the organisation, job position, candidate's
skills and experience and the performance of employee in the interview. Human resource
department has the responsibility to decide salary to the candidates. They have the
responsibility that every employee should get the proper salary in their accounts.
An examination of strategic HRM in relation to the changing effects on organisations and its
business environment
Strategic human resource management plays a very crucial role within the business
organisation, this assist in linking the people management and development practices with the
long term goals of business. Business organisations are spreading everywhere, which leads to
enhance its customer base and enables the companies in having variety of people. Globalization
allows the companies in having relations with other countries too which enables companies in
having sales and purchase across the globe also enhancing consumer base and other policies of
the companies. In relation to the VW group, there are frequent changes at the business and
operating climate which could affect the role of HRM in various ways as HR department has the
responsibility to manage these things at organisation. Following are some of the major effects of
changing organisations at skills and knowledge of HRM:
Changing nature of organisations at HRM skills
Following are the changes which could be take place in any organisation and its impact
over HRM skills: Leadership style: For the managers, leadership skill is very necessary they are
responsible to guide, motivate, manage and many others to the employees. If there is any
change in the policies of the organisation regarding leadership style, a leader also has to
make necessary change in their skills. In context to the Volkswagen, if the firm hires a
leader who has the knowledge of democratic style but due to some reason the company
changes its leadership style to strategic then the leader has to adopt the new environment
and change its leadership skills. Decision-making: Decision-making is also involved in the functional skill of HR. They
have to take decisions according to the situations and conditions of the organisation. It is
very important skill as the future of the company depends on this. In relation to the
Volkswagen, if there is any unfavourable situation comes across in front of organisation

or if there is any change in the policies of company, then HRM have to take strong and
effective decisions so that the company could overcome that situation or could follow the
new policies of the workplace.
 Computer skills: If an organisational information or data changes then there will be
requirement to change the skills of HRM. In context to the respective firm, if organisation
launches any new app for storing the data of the employees, clients, customers and others
then the HRM department have to learn that skills. It means any change in technology
will impact the skills of HR.
Changing nature of organisations at HRM knowledge
Following are the changes which could be take place in any organisation and its impact
over HRM knowledge: Planning: HR is responsible for the planning of organisational goals and other business
operations. Proper planning will lead in achieving the goals effectively. It enables the
management of Volkswagen in having a direction towards the future set aims. If there is
any change in the objectives, goals and aims of the company then the HRM will also
have to take the knowledge about the changed planning. Data driven: It enables an organisation in having the knowledge about company's data so
that they could have proper information about employees, customers, consumers, profit
and others. HR department of the VW group is responsible for exploring, storing,
securing and analyse the data of the organisation. If there is any change in organisational
nature such as change of policies, change or development of new product and others
which might change or add some new consumers, HRM have to change their knowledge
about collecting such a new data.
 Interpersonal intelligence: It is the ability of a HR to understand others and keep
interacting with them. Good communication, relationship with others, problem solving
and others comes under this knowledge. If the team members of a HR manager changes
or if there is new hiring in the VW group, HRM have to change their interpersonal
knowledge according to the members or new employees. HR manager have to actively
listen them and solve their problem accordingly.
As it is known, there is a continues development in technologies due to increased
globalisation. There is a huge change in the process of telecommunication and the information is

spreading more fast in comparison to past scenario. These changes lead the businesses to change
their policies and business operations. This changing policies of VW group will lead HRM to
change its various skills and knowledge such as: leadership, decision-making, data driven,
interpersonal intelligence and others. This is very challenging for a HR to make changes in
knowledge and skills or adopt the change in new environment of organisation.
Importance of HRM for resourcing, recruiting, selecting, and retaining required employees in the
workplace from the labour market
Sustainability is the stability of the firm in market, against competitors using effective
strategic planning. HRM practices are responsible to improve the sustainability of organisational
performance. Sustainability in HRM refers to a positive and favourable environment to human
resource. Importance of the HRM practices with in the workplace are discussed below: - Setting organisational goals: Every organisation has some decided goals to be achieved
in future for the success of the business. These goals are the responsibility of HRM and
effective goals will be helpful for the stability of the businesses. If Volkswagen wants to
gain sustainability, there should be perfect set objectives of the company to be achieved
in future. It comes under the sustainable HRM practice leading to the stability of the firm
in the market. Recruitment and selection: HR has the responsibility to search or find appropriate
candidate for the company. It will also help in maintaining sustainability of the firm. The
good the employee, good will be the outcome of their working and hence the stability of
the firm became enhance. An effective employee will be willing to work and do it
accurately. This will help the company in achieving business sustainability. Performance appraisal: It is the process of measurement of working performance of
employees. It enables the companies in having the idea about the capacity of its
employees and then accordingly the company decides whom to promote, give incentives
or rewards or whom to give further training. This will maintain the stability of the VW
group as if there is the knowledge about employees and work, the company will be able
to provide responsibilities to well skilled employees. Training and development: Training leads to give the knowledge about the organisation
goals and working of the company. Development is the overall improvement of an
individual. It is the responsibility of respective company HRM to find out which member

needs what kind of training and development and accordingly implement it over them.
Effective training and development results in having more confident, motivated and
knowledgeable employees which leads to stability of the firm (Basu, Banerjee,
Bhowmick and et. al., 2022).
 Rewards and incentives: Providing rewards and incentives to the employees who are
performing well or achieving set targets is the responsibility of HRM. There will be
saving of time and efforts over such employees as they are performing well. It helps in
enhancing the motivation and confidence of the employees and they will work with more
of their efficiency leading to the overall growth and stability of the organisation.
Every business wants to be more stable than its competitors as each of them wants to get
name, fame, profit and strong customer base. As it is known HRM department is responsible for
the sustainability of the firm as he has the responsibilities of recruiting and hiring, training and
development, rewarding and others which enables the organisation in having well skilled,
trained, motivated and confident employees. This will allow the companies to achieve the goals
effectively on time and achieving success and sustainability. Offer letter, Job description,
candidate evaluation forms, reference check guide are some of the documents on which
Volkswagen company has to paid focus.
As part of the report, you will Critically Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of HRM in terms
of its contribution to business success. You are also required to use other organisations as
examples to support your analysis of the HRM activities
Recruitment: - this is the process of hiring the best candidate for the required job profile.
The process of recruitment started from inviting the application and ends when the candidate is
selected and hired for the job. In context to the Volkswagen, they focus on recruiting the
employees by using the internal as well as external approach which result in saving their time,
cost and efforts.
Internal approach: -
Transfer: - this may be defined as the change in the job responsibilities and profile. This is
basically the horizontal shift of staff member from one process to another with similar package
and status.

 Strength: - this assist the employees to gain the success as well as knowledge in other
field which result in new responsibilities and development of new skills. This helps the
organisation to attain success in the market.
 Weakness: -sometime, transfer can’t be suitable for the employees because of the quick
adjustment. The pressure of performing the new responsibilities may affect their
productivity which may result in affecting the company performance.
External approach: -
Educational Institution- Under this, the organisation goes to the colleges to hire fresh
talents for their company.
 Strength- this assist in hiring the fresh candidates with more confidence and ideas that
assist in development of Volkswagen. Weakness- It is sometimes a bad option because the candidates lack in experience to
work.
CHAPTER 2:
The effect of external and internal factors on HRM decision making in
relation to organisational development
Conduct research and explain the internal and external factors that affect the decisions made by
HRD in the business
HRM plays a crucial role in supporting the effectiveness of organisation. It is also helpful
in maintaining business sustainability by improving the overall performance of the organisation.
It is the responsibility of HRM department of Volkswagen company to hire proper staff who
could effectively run the business operations properly. It will assist in maintaining the overall
stability of the organisation. HRM is also helpful for the companies in improving the
effectiveness of corporate governance and solving ethical issues. Corporate governance is that
system in which companies are directed and controlled. It is responsible for creating rules and
regulations of the company and a good corporate governance depends on human resource
management (Назаров, 2021). Ethical issues are the issues including harassment, technological
abuse, data privacy and others. Prevention or control over such issues are the responsibility of
HRM. The proper HRM practices make a huge difference in improving the working efficiency

of the organization. They contribute in enhancing the internal capabilities of the firm which
allow the organisation to deal and face the challenges in appropriate manner.
Various areas of HRM has the responsibility of staffing, reward and compensation, health
and safety, employee relation, training and development and many other areas. As it is known
that stability in the market is the basic requirement of any firm. These HRM areas plays a major
role in maintaining business stability as the “effective the employees, effective will be the
operations of the business” resulting in developing good image of the organisation. It has the
responsibility to handle corporate governance and prevent ethical issues to be happened. In such
way, sustainability has been maintained at the organisations by HRM.
Labour market is the place where the employees interacts with each other. Here
employers is responsible to hire best ones and employees tries to give their best for their job
satisfaction. HR is responsible for recruiting and retention of right candidate within the
organisation. They should have proper skills and knowledge about recruitment as the success of
the organisation depends over the working of the employees and their stability. Recruitment of
right employees will also impact labour market positively as if there are right people, they will
make good relations at the work place and are adaptable for working in teams.
HRM is very complex department than one's understanding about it. It is provided with
various tasks and responsibilities. It is also responsible for decision-making process of the firm.
Decision-making is the process of selecting the most appropriate determination for the
organisational development. There are various external and internal factors that affecting
decision-making in context to support the HR practices of VW group. Following are some of
them:
External factors Political factor: It is one of the aspects which is influencing the recruitment process. As
government keeps on changing plan and policies. So hr department should give more
focus on following the rules so that, they can run the operation of the company very
effectively and efficiently. Through this the company will be able to utilise the available
manpower in an appropriate manner. Economic factor: This aspect is one of the essential one as many individual seeks high
pay scale in order to increase the standard of living. So, HR department should give