Human Resource Management Analysis: Marks and Spencer Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks and Spencer (M&S). It begins with an introduction to HRM, its purpose, and functions, particularly in workforce planning and resourcing, focusing on M&S's approach. The report then explores the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection methods, including internal and external sources, and various selection techniques like interviews and personality tests. The second task delves into different HRM practices beneficial to both employees and employers, such as training and development, fair evaluation systems, and flexible working arrangements. The report also analyzes how these practices can increase profit and productivity within the organization. The report concludes with an examination of the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and the impact of employment legislation. The application of HRM practices is illustrated with specific examples from M&S, offering insights into its strategic approach to human resource management.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation..........................................................................................................1
P2.Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
.....................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3.Different HRM practices in an organisation which can help employees as well as
employers....................................................................................................................................4
P4.Different HRM practices that help an organisation to increase in profit and productivity...5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.........................................................................................................................................6
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making..........................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P7.Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples......................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management also known as HRM is the practice of organising and
managing people within a business concern. Main aim of human resource management is to
enhance skills and expertise of individuals which further helps in ensuring effective business
practices in a company. This is a quite strategic approach which provides a competitive
advantage to firms and also helps in maximising profits as well (Noe and et. al., 2017). This
report has been framed based on Marks and Spencer which is UK based multinational retail
business entity founded in the year 1884. Marks and Spencer operates in clothing as well as food
and home products as well. This report further encloses various elements such as purpose and
function of HRM practices along with strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and
selection approaches as well. Also this report studies benefits of employees and employers with a
significance in relation to employee relations.
TASK 1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation.
Human resource management is a practices of hiring, and motivation of an employee in
an organisation. It helps an employee for doing work effectively and efficiently for achieving
organisational goal. Human resource management main purpose is to optimum utilisation of
resources.
FUNCTIONS OF HRM
Recruitment and selection: In an organisation the main purpose of HR manager is
recruitment and selection. Recruitment is a process of attracting and hiring a suitable candidates
for an vacant position of an organisation. Whereas selection is a process of choosing or
identifying aright person for filling up the vacant position in an organisation. In context of M&S
company they placed or hiring a right person for the right job. It includes online questionnaire
and telephonic interview for recruitment process.
Training and Development: In human resource management training and development
in a very important function (Cascio, 2015). In training the main role of HR trainer is to give and
enhance employees knowledge and skills for performing their task of job very effectively and
efficiently. some organisation prefer development programmes which helps an employee for
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high level of responsibilities in an organisation. In context of M&S they provide training and
development programmes to their staff which helps them to performing task very effectively and
efficiently.
Performance appraisal: The main role and purpose of performance appraisal is to
monitoring or evaluating a performance of an employee in an organisation. In context of M&S, it
measuring actual performance of an employee with their standard performance which helps in
identifying the gaps in their performance (Wright, 2018).
Purpose of HRM: Main aim or purpose of HRM practices is to enhance skills and
capabilities of employees which further help in timely achievement of goals and objectives as
well. This further helps in developing a stable and healthy brand image of the company along
with effective relationship building between employees. Hence in this context, HR manager of
Marks and Spencer will need to develop goals and objectives for their company. These goals can
be both long term as well as short term which includes high sales volume and labour
requirements as well. Long term goals include framing strategies and policies that help in
business and its growth. The two main approaches of HRM functions has been stated as under:
Hard approach – Hard approach of human resource management focusses on developing
a more effective and efficient workforce. Decision making in this case generally lies in the hands
of senior managers whose main aim is to increase productivity of business concerns. Marks and
Spencer does not consider this approach as they believe on treating employees as their resources.
Soft approach – It is a behavioural approach of human resource management which
focusses on human aspects which helps in treating employees as assets or resources. Managers
in this approach focus on skill enhancement of their employees along with developing their
expertise level as well. Marks and Spencer treats its employees in such a way that they are more
important (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Also they adopt planning and promoting strategies that
helps in organisational and as well as personal growth of employees.
Soft approach should be considered by managers of Marks and Spencer so as to develop
effective communication between employees as well as employers which help in effective
communication. Also it will help in resolving issues and conflicts.
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P2.Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
HR managers of Marks and Spencer consider various methods of recruitment and
selection which helps in hiring skilled and efficient employees. These recruitment and selection
methods have further been mentioned as under:
Internal source – Sources which focus on hiring employees from within the organisation
are known as internal sources (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016) . Managers of M&S
promote candidates as per their skills and knowledge.
Strengths Weaknesses
It helps in raising motivation level of
employees in a business thereby leading to
increased productivity as well.
Promoting one employee may dissatisfy
another employee which leads to conflicts
within a business.
It is a time and cost effective method. Expectations of employees tend to rise and it
hampers their growth in case their expectations
are not fulfilled.
EXTERNAL SOURCES:
This method is used for hiring a suitable candidates which includes various external
sources such as advertisement in newspaper, online recruitment, educational institutions,
employment exchange, field trips and so on. The main purpose of this method is to attract more
and more applicants towards their organisation. In context of M&S, they used online recruitment
for attracting candidates towards their organisation. Strength and Weakness of this methods are
given as below:
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
It attracts fresh skills and more talented
persons.
It consumes more time and decreases a morale
of existing employee because there is an less
chances for their promotion.
It also helps a company for their growth by the
generation of new innovative ideas (Wilton,
2016).
When a company hire a new candidate then
there is an chances of new candidates for less
understanding of an environment of the
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company.
SELECTION METHOD:
Selection is a process of choosing or identifying aright person for filling up the vacant
position in an organisation. It includes various methods such as employment interviews, aptitude
test, references and biographical data, personality test and so on. In context of M&S, they used
personality test and employment interview for selecting a right candidate for right job in their
organisation (Guest, 2017). Strength and weakness of this method are given as below:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
There happens to be an ease of comparison. It demotivate the candidates because of
rejection.
It is easy to identify the right person for their
vacant position through their good
communication skills and presentation.
Sometimes candidates get nervous at the time
of interview.
TASK 2
P3.Different HRM practices in an organisation which can help employees as well as employers.
Human resource management happens to be a backbone of a business concern in today's
scenario. It is quite important in enhancing or improving relations of employees as well as
employers within an organisation. It is an important function as well as department that focusses
on growth of individuals. Various HRM practices which have been considered by managers of
Marks and Spencer are stated as under:
Recruitment and selection: Recruitment refers to a process that focusses on screening,
examining and selecting potential and skilled candidates in an organisation. In context of Marks
and Spencer, it has been examined that they adopt effective recruitment and selection practices
as a per of their organisational culture. Also they follow a structure process for this.
Training and Development - Training and development are both quite important
processes for an organisation. Also they are known to be two sides of the same coin ( Björkman
and Welch, 2015). Training deals in providing skill development sessions to employees which is
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for a quite shorter span of time. Development on the other hand focusses on overall growth of
individuals by adopting effective tools. It is generally a long term process.
Fair Evaluation System: The fair evaluation of performance of an employee can be
considered as crucial as it determines the manner in which organisational goals are fulfilled.
Marks and Spencer have undertaken a self rating systems which empowers employee to evaluate
their own performance. Along with this approach, cross functional feedbacks are offered so that
performance could be improved.
Flexible working: It has been one of the crucial factor which determines the quality of
the work done in the organisation. The HR practices in context of Marks and Spencer provides
an opportunity to its employees to integrate life and work which results in higher flexibility to its
workers. The work in flexible working practices is offered in a way that suits needs and schedule
of employees which leads to higher productivity and commitment.
Benefit to employers:
 Providing training and development seminars to their employees proves to be quite
beneficial for the employers as it will be assuring an improvement in the quality and
quantity of the work done by them.
 The undertaking of selective recruitment practices assure that suitable candidate is
selected for a particular job profile. Hiring of right candidate assures that there is a
requirement of limited investment of time and resources on candidate and productive
results can be expected out of him.
 The undertaking of a fair evaluation system makes sure that employee's performance is
judged appropriately and further provided with a opportunity to improve. This will
directly improve individual output and contributes collectively to better results.
 Another benefit of flexible HRM practices is that it reduces employee turnover. This
reduction in staff turnover states that employees work with the same company for longer
period of time and that too with higher effort and commitment.
Benefit to Employees
 Training and development is beneficial to employers as such efforts improves the
working culture of a company along with achievement of positive outcomes. The efforts
relating to training and development will assure higher profits are achieved.
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 Adopting healthy HRM practices will help Marks and Spencer such as Flexible working
hours assures that employees can work according to their needs and schedules in a day
and can simultaneously maintain work life balance (Yahiaoui, 2015).
 The use of fair evaluation helps in identifying the areas which needs improvement and
further supported with opportunities. This HR practices is beneficial to employees as it
support career and skill development.
P4.Different HRM practices that help an organisation to increase in profit and productivity.
In present day context, human resource management happens to be a quite important
subject that helps in managing and dealing with employees working in an organisation. Also this
process lays a quite significant impact on productivity as well as profitability of a business
concern. Human resource management further encloses a number of activities such as hiring and
training of an individual, providing a free and fair work environment to employees and so on.
Furthermore a number of HRM practices have been mentioned that help Marks and
Spencer in achieving their organisational objectives as well:
Selective Hiring – It is a quite important human resource management practice that deals
with hiring of employees who can further perform in an effective and efficient manner towards
achievement of goals and objectives. In context of Marks and Spencer it has been observed that
managers choose candidates that are effective and skilled with a well developed knowledge
base. The undertaking of this approach have proven to be quite useful for Marks and Spencer in
creating self managed and organised teams that can perform with greater efficiency and skills.
The formation of right teams assure that organisational productivity increases along with
improvement in efficiency in operations. However the concept of selective hiring is expensive in
terms of time and cost as managers have to put an extra efforts to select and hire suitable
candidate for the job (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2017).
Sharing Information –Sharing data and information is quite important in an
organisation. This proves to be guiding tool for employees as they get information about how to
perform a certain organisational function and who is to achieve it as well. This is an important
area which requires the highest amount of focus. Hence in this context, managers of Marks and
Spencer have adopted this practice in their organisation and have undertaken numerous
approaches through which information is being offered to people. This approach of managing
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human resources have been proved to be beneficial in the organisation as employees feel more
connected and concerned towards the organisation and its decisions. Also it helps in developing
an effective flow of information along with a decrease in status differences that exist between
employees. On the contrary, information sharing slows down the decision making in the
organisation. It can finally said that sharing of information contribute positively towards
organisational productivity and profit (Popescu, Comanescu and Sabie, 2016).
TASK 3
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.
Employees or workforce in an organisation is its most important and valuable asset which
no company wishes to loose as they help them in achieving their organisational goals and
objectives as well. Employee relations is a quite simpler term which means to develop and build
a strong relationship between employees as well as employers in a business concern. It has also
been observed that every company that has well knit relationship with their employees tend to
achieve their targets quite easily rather than others. This relationship also affects or impacts
decision making of managers as well. Whenever an employee performs above their level or
exceptionally well, then it is a responsibility of mangers to provide them rewards which will
further develop their motivation level.
Doing this will be quite helpful as decisions taken by employers will be completely
acceptable to employees in their good faith which will further provide a quite stable working
environment in a business. Hence importance of maintaining healthy relations between
employees has been stated as under:
 An effective and strong relationship among staff members and management will help an
HR manager in developing an understandability regarding needs and requirements of
their employees. By doing so, managers of Marks and Spencer will be able to take
decisions that are helpful as well as beneficial for their organisation and employees
working there (Newell and Scarbrough, 2017).
 Managers of Marks and Spencer consider views and ideas of their employees while
practising decision making practices as these are the people who are most affected by
these decisions.
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 Also development of effective relationship between employees in a business help in
reducing conflicts and disputes in working environment of Marks and Spencer thereby
promoting a healthy and stable work culture.
Hence it has been examined that HR managers of Marks and Spencer should focus on
adopting effective strategies which promote effective relationship with employees as well as
their staff members (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016). This further enhances growth and
effectiveness in an organisation. Also it proves quite useful for Marks and Spencer in timely
achievement of their goals and objectives. Lastly, it has been observed that managers should
timely conduct meetings for their employees so as to check if they are facing any issues or not.
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making.
Employee laws or legislations comprises of various kinds of laws and legislations which
helps in maintaining a healthy and stable work environment in an organisation. Also these laws
focus upon adopting fair and ethical business practices and enhancing overall productivity of a
business concern. Various laws which have been considered by managers of Marks and Spencer
has been stated as under:
1. The Employment Act – This act was passed by government of UK to provide basic
rights to employees while they are working in an organisation. Various different types of
rights include right to privacy, fair compensation, discriminatory rights etc. By adopting
such a regulation employees will feel valued which will improve their overall
productivity and profitability.
2. Sex Discrimination Act 1984 – As per this act there should be no discrimination among
employees base on their sex, marital status or gender. Each and every employee should
be provided equal opportunities for growth. In M&S, managers have a separate
department which deals with all such issues.
3. Equality act, 2010: This act was passed in the year 2010 in UK which deals with
removing any sort of illegal or unethical business practices that may occur within a
business concern (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2017). This act in Marks and Spencer is
considered so that employees can be protected form any sort of unethical or illegal
business practices as well.
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TASK 4
P7.Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context, using specific
examples.
Marks and Spencer is a retail sector business entity which operates in retail sector and is
almost present all over the world. It has been observed that managers need to hire skilled and
efficient employees so they have used the below provided documents for this purpose.
Job Advertisement
Job Advertisement
HR generalist required:
Marks and Spencer invites all skilled and developed applicants who imbibe well
developed knowledge and expertise level ass well regarding human resource sector. Also they
should be trained so as to handle various business operations in an effective manner. Also they
should be capable in handling or resolving issues and conflicts that employees have thereby
providing them a stable and healthy working environment as well.
Skills required in a HR generalist
Candidates who pursue the below given skills and attributes inn the righteous manner are
eligible to apply:
 Applicants should pursue around 3-5 years of experience in HR generalist sector.
 Also they should be quite eligible when it comes to managing day to day of a business
concern.
 Candidates should have apt knowledge regarding new and innovative trends in HR so as
to ensure effectiveness as well.
 Also, candidate should be able to assist or help management of a company with
evaluation of budget requirements as well as payroll issues is another important factor.
The salary package of the company is quite attractive with huge incentives as well.
Interested candidates can send in their queries and applications at the below provided mail id:
[e-mail] or contact at 0140-9766643.
Time-scales for all the basic activities have been mentioned as under:
Inviting applications from candidates 5-7 March, 2018
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Short listing of applications 9-11 March, 2018
Call for HR round 12 March, 2018
Interview date 15-18 March, 2018
Person Specification
Post: HR generalist
Department: HR department
Key: This show that what is required when like an evidence:
(A): Application form, (I): Interview, (R): Role
Attributes Essential Desirable
Qualification & Experience Diploma or Post-graduation in
management field from
any college. Minimum 3
years of working
experience as working in
a HR department
Experience of working in HR
departmental filed in
relation to management
sector
Skills or knowledge Effective communication
skills in both written and
verbal. Exceptional phone
etiquette
Ability to learn changing
product line and keen
attentiveness to treat
employees at best.
Creation of Structured Interview – From the above provided job advertisement it is quite
clear that managers of Marks and Spencer will be able to influence and attract huge amount of
applicants. This advertisement can be provided through online portals or in newspapers as well.
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Furthermore, managers will also have to prepare a set of questions for candidates which will be
helpful in choosing the right candidate.
 Provide ways in which you will handle disputes of employees?
 What are the main roles and responsibilities of a HR generalist?
 How will you promote employees in your organisation?
 What made you choose Marks and Spencer?
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that human resource
management happens to be a backbone for every business concern. It is a process which deals
with hiring and providing job to individuals based on their skills and area of expertise ass well.
This report considers a number of tools and elements such as job advertisement and person
specification. Also this report considers various employment laws and regulations such as
equality act, employment act etc. Various approaches of workforce planning has also been
mentioned in this report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Noe, R. A., and et. al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Cascio, W. F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Wright, P., 2018. Fundamentals of human resource management. Management. 5. p.27.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
DeCenzo, D. A., Robbins, S. P. and Verhulst, S. L., 2016. Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Guest, D. E., 2017. Human resource management and employee well‐being: Towards a new
analytic framework. Human Resource Management Journal. 27(1). pp.22-38.
Björkman, I. and Welch, D., 2015. Framing the field of international human resource
management research. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management. 26(2). pp.136-150.
Yahiaoui, D., 2015. Hybridization: striking a balance between adoption and adaptation of human
resource management practices in French multinational corporations and their Tunisian
subsidiaries. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 26(13).
pp.1665-1693.
Wiegmann, D. A. and Shappell, S. A., 2017. A human error approach to aviation accident
analysis: The human factors analysis and classification system. Routledge.
Popescu, G. H., Comanescu, M. and Sabie, O. M., 2016. The role of human capital in the
knowledge-networked economy. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource
Management. 4(1). p.168.
Newell, H. and Scarbrough, H., 2017. Human resource management in context: A case study
approach. Macmillan International Higher Education.
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