Human Resource Management Report: HRM in John Lewis - Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within the context of John Lewis. It begins by explaining the purpose and functions of HRM, focusing on workforce planning and resourcing, and then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches, differentiating between internal and external methods. The report subsequently outlines the benefits of different HRM practices, such as recruitment, training, employee motivation, and workplace flexibility, for both employers and employees, and evaluates their effectiveness in terms of enhancing organizational profit and productivity. It also examines the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making and identifies the key elements of employment legislation and their impact. Finally, the report illustrates the application of HRM practices within John Lewis, providing specific examples to support its analysis, and concludes with a summary of its findings.

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 weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection..3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
P3. Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the
employer and employee..............................................................................................................5
P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM Practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity.................................................................................................................6
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................7
P5. Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.........................................................................................................................................7
P6. Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making..........................................................................................................................9
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................10
P7. Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context, using specific
examples....................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource in an organisation is a vital resource for obtaining organisational goals,
thus, their management and coordination is essential. Human resource management leads a
crucial role in managing the human resource working in a organisation. Moreover, Human
resource management help to improve brand image and to sustain in the market for long. Human
resource management is designed in a company for maximising the employees performance in
accordance to the employer's strategic goals (Abbasi and et.al, 2020). Therefore, the following
report outline the function, role and scope of the HRM in a company for achieving strategic
goals . Moreover, the presented study highlights the key elements of The HRM in an
organisation. John Lewis is underlying for addressing the case scenario in accordance to the role
of HRM. Furthermore, this report throw light on the various internal & External factors that
affect the HRM decision making. At the end, following report present the HRM practice in John
Lewis.
Task 1
P1- Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation.
Human resource management is the concept of managing people in an organisation.
Importance of HRM in context of John Lewis is that the company is working from more than
150 years and have more than 80,000 employees. Hence to handle large amount of workforce
they need good HRM policies. With the help of HRM only their business spread worldwide.
Functions of HRM in the company-
 Recruitment and selection-
John Lewis recruit skilled employees which is suitable for particular positions on regular
basis. Company firstly conduct online test if candidate clear this then they conduct a online
interview and then they call the candidates to their office for further interviews, and then they
select best candidates among all. Recruitment and selection process in company is very tough
because they require best employees for their business (Shipper and Hoffman, 2020). Training of employees-
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Company provide training to their new employees as well as their existing employees at
timely basis. They trained new comers under very experienced employees so the best training
should be given to them. They also provide payments for their trainees. Motivating employees-
In the month of march at every year they share bonus to their employees. Company offer
competitive pay rates which means they can earn more with the help of their good performance.
They follow contribution pension scheme which is almost 4% after three years working
performance in company. They mostly focus on culture of employees and work according to that
to make sure that employees should feel free to work in the office (Rabenu and et.al, 2018). Handling problems-
Time to time meeting were held on human resource issues to handle the grievances in
organisation. HR works very closely with line managers of the company. They believe that 90%
of HR work is done with the help of line managers. They are the managers who directly contact
with senior managers to tell them about the working of workforce. Additional Facilities
Company provide holiday facilities to their employees like 22 days holidays for new
employees and 30 days holidays per year for the employees who work more than 10 years and 6
month holiday with full payment to employees who worked for more than 25 years. Healthy
foods and drinks were available in the office at affordable prices which tells that company take
care of the health of their employees.
Human resource planning is concern with future aspect that in case of any uncertainty
how a company manages their employees and assets to overcome that loss. HR planning of John
Lewis focus on survey and Research & Development department to know that where they need
more workforce and what are their future opportunities. They make budgets and keep funds for
uncertainties like- sudden defect in machines. They allow their employees for any suggestions
related to growth of company and if the idea is good then that employee will be appreciated and
awarded (Jabbour and de Sousa Jabbour, 2016).
Purpose of HR basically defines as activities which involves in maximising productivity
of company with best performance of their employees. They allow their employees to work in
formal as well as in informal uniform, to make their employees comfortable to give their best
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performance. They provide time to time training with payment helps them to gain more
production with skilled labours.
P2- Explain the strengths and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Efficient workforce is the biggest asset of any company.
The biggest asset of any organisation is efficient employees. And this asset is only
obtained by recruitment and selection process. Recruitment is the process of attracting more
candidates to apply for job in the organisation (Liu, Qingqing and Liu, 2021). Internal and
external are two different approaches of recruitment. some of the approaches of recruitment are
discussed below:
Internal: Internal recruitment are those recruitment which takes place within an organisation like
transfer, promotion, etc. Internal recruitment is helpful in saving time. Most of the organisation
follow this recruitment to increase the efficiency of their on job employees. Some of the
examples of internal source of recruitment are-
Promotion: If a employee is posted on a higher designation of company because of
his/her good performance then this is called promotion.
Transfer: If a employee is posted from one location to another location of the same
company then it is called transfer (Apergis and Georgellis, 2018).
Strengths Weakness
 It save time to provide training to
known employees.
 It is helpful in increasing the efficiency
of existing employees of John Lewis.
 It motivate the employees to perform
good which helps in increase in
production of company.
 Lack of new ideas will effect the
company and they may lack behind to
use advanced and new technologies.
 Conflict may occur within the
organisation because sometimes
employees feel why others get
promoted and not them.
 If this method is applied then outsiders
will not apply for the job next time if
company need freshers.
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External recruitment are attracting candidates to apply for job from outside the business. Some of
the examples of external recruitment are-
Campus recruitment- When a company go to different universities and find the suitable
candidates for their company then this is called campus recruitment.
Employment agencies- employment agencies have the list of candidates with different
skills. Companies approach to these agencies and tell them about their job vacancies then these
agencies help companies by suggesting few applicants who is suitable for the job profile.
Strength Weakness
 New ideas with new candidates will the
company to adopt new procedure of
doing work which will be more
effective (BLŠTÁKOVÁ and et.al,
2019).
 Less conflict within the company
because new candidate is appointed for
the job.
 It is an time and cost consuming
process for John Lewis.
 It is high risky because candidates are
unknown. A small mistake of new
candidate may effect a big loss to
company.
Selection is the process of choosing best candidates from the list of candidates who
applied for the job. Selection process takes place after recruitment. Some of the types of
selection are-
Interviews- in this method candidates have a direct face to face interaction with manager
or they interact indirectly with managers through video calls.
Online test- in this method company conduct a online test and set a score limit and if
candidates passes that score limit then they were selected for the job.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Direct interaction with candidates in
interviews help the John Lewis to know
verbal and personality skills of an
candidate.
 With the help of online test John Lewis
may save time for training because the
 Companies are not able to know the
personality and verbal skills of
candidates in online tests.
 Sometimes candidates become nervous
in interviews and they perform less
than their actual abilities (Mackeand
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skills is already tested in online tests. Genari, 2019).
Task 2
P3. Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer
and employee
Human resource management at John Lewis has a wider scope of their operations. The
functions and role of HRM in John Lewis is not only bound to the employee growth and
development but they are also beneficial for John Lewis in many ways. The effectiveness of
HRM practices provides benefits to both employer and employees in following manner:
HRM Practices Benefits to employees Benefits to employer
Recruitment &
Selection process
Internal recruitment is beneficial for
the employees of John Lewis who
get higher position just because of
their higher performance and
contribution in achieving strategical
goals of John Lewis. Moreover,
external recruitment is beneficial for
those outsider who wants to get an
opportunity to be apart of John
Lewis because of their potential
talent and knowledge (DeCenzo,
Robbins and Verhulst, 2016).
It has argued that John Lewis gain
advantage of internal recruitment in
a form of employee retention and
low labour turnover. With external
recruitment, it enables John Lewis to
acquire fresh and latent talent in
their organisation.
Training &
development
Training and development of the
personnel is the foremost function of
HRM practices. Training gives
proper learning about the
administrative work of John lewis.
Moreover, training program helps an
employee to explore their hidden
Training the employees is beneficial
for John lewis to strengthen their
relationship with the employees.
Proper training to employee can
boost the productivity; thus, more
revenue can be generated. Moreover,
training the employee assist John
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potential. Training enhances the
productivity of the employee and
they learn the various skills which
can be used in future to tackle
various challenges.
Lewis to retain the potential
employee for long duration.
Employee
motivation
Employee motivation is beneficial
for the acquisition of the employee.
John Lewis can use Reward and
Recognition (R&R) strategy
motivates employees to go extra
miles for their services. Higher
motivation can delivers more job
satisfaction, thus productivity will be
increased.
Motivating employees will add as
the strategical benefit for John
Lewis as motivated employee work
with efficiency then less motivated
one. Increasing the motivation helps
the company to minimise the
recruitment cost. Moreover, it has
argued that motivated employee is
more loyal to the firm and its goals.
Workplace
Flexibility
Flexibility in working is beneficial
for employee to spent more time
with the family and friend.
Flexibility in working helps
employee to create a stable balance
between personal and professional
work. Furthermore, Workplace
flexibility at John Lewis enhances
the effectiveness of employee.
Flexibility in workplace adds
benefits to John Lewis to have
happier employees on the store.
Moreover, flexibility provide job
satisfaction, thus employee work
with more effectiveness to generate
more revenue (Roslender, Monk and
Murray, 2020).
P4. Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM Practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity.
HRM practices in John lewis has leveraged to attain the strategical objective i.e. to
achieve the higher profit by utilising the performance of employees to a certain level to gain the
higher productivity. The different approach of the HRM practices to enrich the profit and
productivity are as follows:
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Organisation profitability: John Lewis can enhances their profitability by lowering the
unnecessary cost spend in the organisational functioning. Through recruitment and selection
process, John Lewis can fill up the vacant post so that work can be done effectively in order to
meet the market demand to earn more sales revenue. Training & Development is an another
HRM Practice that is additional benefit to enhance the profitability (DeCenzo, Robbins and
Verhulst, 2016). This is because a trained employee work with full potential and this accelerate
John Lewis business performance, hence higher degree of performance will produce higher
profit. Moreover, it has been proposed that the cost of recruiting new talent indulges some cost,
when employee turnover ratio is high then the ultimate cost of training will be waste. In that
sense, John lewis have different aspect for employee rewards to maximise their profitability by
retaining them employees to avoid the cost of hiring new potential. Flexibility at workplace
provides more job satisfaction, therefore a happier worker will work with full efficiencies and
effectiveness. Efficiency and effectiveness in working generates more revenue.
Organisation productivity: Recruiting and selecting a potential candidate would be
beneficial for John Lewis to acquire a new talent with more ability and capability. This will
lighten up the productivity of the company as new candidate try to put their all potential on the
role to get permanent place in the firm. Training the employee is an ultimate strategy of HR
manager to boost the hidden skills of the employees so that they can learn the skills that are
necessary for future course of action. Motivating employees is the ultimate strategy of the HR
manager for enhances their productivity and increase employee retention. The Reward and
Recognition (R&R) strategy is beneficial for John Lewis to argue their employees to move extra
miles for their efforts (Delery and Roumpi, 2017). This will motivate employees to work more
to earn reward based on performance such as performance linked reward. Moreover, a flexible
working-culture promotes the productivity, this is because a happier employee work with all
potential.
Task 3
P5. Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision
making.
It has been found that a firm that maintenance healthy relationship with their employees
tends to enjoy more benefits. John lewis can enjoy benefits like better employee engagement and
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motivating the workforce easily. However, a great employer and employee relationship are
subjected to the productivity and profitability aspect. Following are the benefits of of a great
employee relationship that impact the HR manager decision making:
 Employee engagement:
It has been found that a company with greater employee relationship tends to have higher degree
of employee engagement. Employee engagement is often subjected to the job satisfaction, hence
when an employee at John Lewis is less engaged, the individual will be less satisfied with the
their role and they are turning to be as liability for the firm. Hence, HR role in this aspect is to
greater the employee engagement by a way of communication. Communication harness the
process of employee engagement. The more engaging employee the more the productivity. This
is because a more engaging and satisfy employee boost their productivity (Zaid, Jaaron and Bon,
2018).
 Increased communication:
When an organisation have good superior and subordinate relationship, the gap between the flow
of information can be shorten. Thus, important administrative information can be communicated
to the employee so their work should be in direction to the set policies so that maximum
productivity can be delivered by maintaining the organisation work at John Lewis smoother.
 Less conflict:
When an employee at John Lewis is more engaging and communication is established in
effective manner, then there are less chances of the arise of conflict at the workplace. Only an
effective employee relationship is liable to minimise the chances of the conflict at the workplace
(Guest, 2017). When there is less conflict, more time can be focused on developing the ways to
harness the productivity.
 Healthy working-culture:
When an organisation witness the less conflict, effective communication and more employee
engagement, these all are outcomes of the good employee relationship. Hence, a greater
employee relationship creates a healthy and positive working culture that further motivate other
employees to work with the same level of dignity.
 Low labour turnover ratio:
High labour turnover ratio is the major problem that HR manager of John lewis have faced in
their functioning. High degree of labour turnover ratio reduces the profit of John Lewis. So, to
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decrease the ratio, HR manager of John Lewis need to take decision regarding the retention of
the employee. A good employee relationship reduces the chances of leaving the organisation.
This is because when an employee have good relationship, this will motivate them to be part of
the firm for many years.
P6. Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision making
Employee legislation act are obligatory rules and regulations that a firm have to follow to
obtain sustainable business performance. The government of UK had enforced many labour laws
and regulation to safeguard the employee working at John Lewis from any unethical and misuse.
Thus, the main of role of HR manager in the company to adopts these employee legislation with
aim to avoid any legal actions against them. This is because when an organisation voids the
following law, they are punishable as per the law of UK parliament. Following are the some
employee legislation that impact the HRM decision making at John Lewis:
 The Civil Right Act of 1964
The Civil Right Act 1964, protect an individual from discrimination and prejudice based on the
gender, sex, colour, racism, religion and nation of origin. However, John Lewis have
multinational operations through out the globe, hence they have diversified workforce, so this
right safeguard the individual from any form of discrimination (Järlström, Saru, and Vanhala,
2018).
 The Equal Pay Act
This is the one of the significant regulation in the employee legislation implemented by the
parliament of UK to safeguard an employee from getting under wage for their services. Under
this act, John Lewis is liable to pay equal wages to the same position or level employees. It will
be illegal if they make discriminate on compensation based on the gender and age.
 Data Protection Act
Data Protection Act comes into the existence by the 1998 in throughout the UK to safeguard the
personal information of the employees from getting unethically used. Under this law John lewis
is legally bound to not disclose the personal information of the employee to any third party
except the government bodies of UK.
 Employment Act 2008
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Employment Act 2008 enforced by the government of UK to provide the solution of the
employee disputes like full compensation to be provided by the John Lewis in case of
underpayment to an employee. Employment Act also include the subsection like minimum
wages to be paid to the employees for their services in an organisation (Stewart, and Brown,
2019).
Task 4
P7. Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context, using specific
examples.
By identifying the present requirement of the firm, there is vacant post of the marketing
manager within the John Lewis. The requirement for this post require following steps begin with
drafting job description.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title- Marketing Manager
Reported to whom: Marketing Head
Job Summary : At John Lewis, marketing is all about getting in the shoes of the employees to
understand the what does they feel when they come in our stores. Marketing manager of John
Lewis should have innovative approach to promote company's product and services. The
marketing manager should possess with managing the store and market and develops the
strategical and tactical planning for the store.
Responsibilities:
 Increase customer conversion for generating more revenue.
 Coordinate with the sales department
 Do planning and market research
 To develop successful marketing campaign from the ideation to its execution
 To build strong strategic relationship with various partners, stakeholder and vendors To Promote the John Lewis product and services on various omni channel platform
Qualification:
 Bachelor degree in the marketing specialisation
 Master degree in the marketing is an additional advantageous
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 Diploma and certificate of digital marketing is an additional advantage.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential Skills:
 At least 3 years experience as a marketing manager
 Ability to deliver, manage and analyse the campaign
 Strong communication skills
 Branding experience Analytical and problem solving skills
Desired skills:
 Willingness and ability to travel
 capability to deliver successful integrated marketing campaign by using social media
network
 Experience of working in a retail industry
 Coordination and management skills
Preparatory notes of interview
Interview plays a significant role to analyse the ability and capability of the candidate. In
order to fill up the vacant post of the marketing manager, HR manager of John Lewis prepares
some question that would be asked in the interview. They are as follows:
Q1. What do you think the essential three skills for a successfully marketing manager
are?
Q2. What type of management style do you prefer and why?
Q3. How much you familiar about our targeted marketed?
OFFER LETTER
JOHN LEWIS PVT. LTD.
February 12, 2020
LMN
Dear XYZ,
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We are grateful to inform you that you are hired as the full time marketing manager in our firm
as you cleared the all the phase of interview and we are delighted to have on this role.
As per our discussion, we hope that you joined us before February 15, 2020. If you are curious
about this role, please revert us back on our email address. Also please attached all your
academic and experience documents in the same mail and brings hard copy for the cross
verification.
If you face any issue please reach to us on our email and contact number
Regards,
HR Manager,
John Lewis
CONCLUSION
As per the carried out study, it has been concluded that HRM in an organisation is
essential for achieving strategical goals by maximising the employees performance and
effectiveness. The following assignment also concluded that there are certain factor that affects
the HR manager decision making including the legislation factor such as The Civil Right Act of
1964, Employment Act 2008 and Equal Pay Act. It has been also analysed HRM leads a vital
role in the effective utilisation of the workforce of John Lewis for attaining long term goals.
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