Human Resource Management: A Report on Aldi's Strategic Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Aldi, a retail grocery store operating in the United Kingdom. The report begins by outlining the purpose and functions of HRM, emphasizing its role in enhancing employee performance and maintaining positive workplace relations. It then delves into different approaches to recruitment and selection, comparing internal and external methods, and discussing their respective strengths and weaknesses. The report further explores the benefits of various HRM practices for both employees and employers, focusing on positive behavior promotion, employee development, flexible workplaces, and employee motivation. It analyzes the effectiveness of these practices in raising organizational profits and productivity, highlighting the importance of effective communication, role division, and employee relations. The report also examines the significance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and the impact of employment legislation on these decisions. Finally, it offers conclusions based on the application of HRM practices within Aldi, providing a holistic view of HRM strategies and their impact on the organization's success.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Purpose and functions of human resource management..................................................1
P2. Different approaches to recruitment and selection along with their strengths and
weaknesses.............................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Benefits of different HRM practices within organisation for employees and employers 4
P4. Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising profits of organisation and
productivity.............................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Importance of employee relations in HRM decision making..........................................6
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and its impact of on HRM decision making...7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P7. Application of HRM practices.........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management (HRM) is an activity which is directly linked with the
management of organisation’s human resources (Barney, Ketchen and Wright, 2011). It is
designed by the firm in order to enhance performance of employees working within a business to
achieve desired goals and objectives. HRM department of an organisation focuses on designing
plans and policies for employee’s benefits, recruitment, selection, training and development as
well as performance appraisal. Present assignment is based on Aldi which operates its business
as a retail grocery store within the economy of United Kingdom. This assignment will help to
understand the purpose and functions of HRM within firm. Different approaches to recruitment
and selection with their strengths and weaknesses will be studied briefly here. Also, report will
help the learners to understand benefits of various HRM practices within enterprise for
employers and employees. The present report will also help to determine main elements of
employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision making.
TASK 1
P1. Purpose and functions of human resource management
Human Resource Management is directly linked with the management of organisation’s
workforce. It is mainly concerned with effective utilisation of available human resources within
firm to achieve pre-determined goals and objectives. It also helps in maintaining healthy
relations among all employees and this maintains a positive environment within business. The
HR department of organisation performs various functions and have different purposes which are
stated as below:
Main purpose of HRM: -
 Its main purpose is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of all employees.
 To develop skills and level of performance of individuals working in organisation
 It ensures a healthy relationship in between employers and employees of business.
Being a leading retail grocery store, Aldi must focus on effective human resource
management of organisation. This supports firm in gaining competitive benefits in the market
(Batt and Colvin, 2011).
Functions of HRM: -
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The functions performed by human resource management in Aldi for achieving its goals
and objectives are described as follows: -
HR planning: - It is the main function of HRM where it prepares plans for managing
available human resources at the workplace. It ensures effective working of human resources in
the business operations. This function is necessary in order to improve the performance level of
all employees (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
Job analysis and work design: - This function helps to determine the nature of job which
further supports in analysing skills and qualities required to perform the same. It supports human
resources of organisation to evaluate duties and responsibilities which is required to perform the
assigned job effectively. It also supports in recruiting effective employees according to the job
nature.
Recruitment and selection: - It is also a primary function of HRM which is directly
linked with hiring of new individuals to perform the job effectively and efficiently. HR
department of Aldi must perform this function significantly which supports in hiring of capable
employees for performing the work effectively and efficiently. This also assists the organisation
in gaining competitive advantages in market.
Training and development: - It is another important function of HRM by which skills
and capabilities of employees are increased. It is a necessary function for enhancing employee’s
level of performance which directly supports in achieving the desired goals and objectives of
organisation easily. HRM of Aldi focuses on the development of employees through training
events.
Compensation: - All the employees working within business have main objective to earn
high amount of money with respect to activities performed by them. Aldi provides satisfactory
amount of compensation to its employees which supports in influencing the individuals towards
rendering effective performance.
P2. Different approaches to recruitment and selection along with their strengths and weaknesses
Recruitment and selection; both are the key elements of hiring process conducted by
organisation (Bröckermann, 2012). Both these processes are done by human resource department
of organisation. As Aldi is the largest grocery store within economy of United Kingdom, there is
significant need of appointing more number of capable employees to perform the work
effectively which enables organisation to gain competitive advantages. There are different
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approaches to recruitment and selection of individuals for organisation and these have some
strengths and weaknesses which are described as follows: -
Internal approach: - It is an effective approach to recruitment and selection which
supports in recruiting employees internally (Campbell, Coff and Kryscynski, 2012). The internal
hiring of employees is done in different ways. For example, Aldi can fill the vacant place by
transferring existing employees from one position to another. In this approach, promotion is the
best one for filling up vacancy. This approach allows existing workforce to provide references of
their friends and family for filling up the vacant position.
Strengths: -
 Helps to conduct recruitment and selection process effectively within a short time frame.
 It eliminates the risk of hiring unqualified employees.
 It supports in hiring of more efficient employees. It does not incur high cost to Aldi for hiring of new workforce.
Weakness: -
 It leads to demotivation of other employees who are not promoted for new position.
 It has limited opportunity for hiring of new innovative and creative employees.
 This approach may lead to discrimination.
External approach: - This approach hires employees from the external sources. The
applications can be received by making an advertisement on various media for job vacancy. This
approach is much time consuming but it has positive results (Recruitment & Selection Hiring
Process, 2015). It supports organisation in hiring capable and innovative individuals from a large
number of applicants. This benefits organisation in gaining competitive advantage and enhances
the productivity of Aldi as well.
Strengths: -
 It supports Aldi in hiring new capable and innovative employees.
 It supports organisation in its external promotion.
 It ensures high productivity of cited business. It allows large number of applicants to apply for the job (Cloke and Park, 2013).
Weakness: -
 Requires more time in the process of recruitment and selection.
 It leads to high cost for the organisation.
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 It has more risk in hiring of unfitted employees.
TASK 2
P3. Benefits of different HRM practices within organisation for employees and employers
Both; the employees and employers are benefited by effective practices of HRM.
Performance management is involved in HRM practices of organisation (Coff and Kryscynski,
2011). It is not possible for the firm to achieve desired goals and objectives without coordination
of activities and tasks with workforce. The benefits of different HRM practices for employees
and employers are being described as follows: -
Promoting positive behaviour: - It is the most significant HRM practice of Aldi that
supports organisation to influence the behaviour of employees positively towards performance. It
is the best practice of HRM within organisation which helps employees in building healthy
relations with all employees by changing their behaviour.
This helps to increase the productivity of employees that directly supports to organisation
in achieving desired goals and objectives,which is the main benefit to employer. It supports the
employer to provide quality services to customers. This supports in promoting loyalty among
employees which helps in operating business for longer period of time.
Development of employees: - Employees of organisation are the key elements of business
who supports in attaining goals and objectives effectually. Development of employees is a
significant practice performed by HRM. This practice is having great benefits for employees as
well as employers.
Training is provided to employees of organisation for their development which helps in
developing their skills and abilities to perform the activities assigned. This helps in increasing
the productivity and profitability of organisation which is a significant benefit for employer.
Apart from this, it benefits employees by developing their skills and abilities which is essential
for their personal and professional life. It also proves to be advantageous for the employer by
developing business competencies which support in competing with competitors (Fine, 2012).
Creating flexible work place: - In today's world, all the employees expect to work in
different shift timings as per their convenience. HRM practices help in creating flexible work
environment for the workforce. This enhances the dedication of employees towards work
assigned and increases productivity of firm as well. Creation of flexible work environment is the
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core benefit for employees whereas increase in productivity due to this is beneficial for
employer.
Motivating employees: - It is also a practice carried out by HRM of business. Motivation
helps to influence the attention of employees towards effective performance. It can be achieved
by paying high salary to the workforce and another non-monetary benefits (Gatewood, Feild and
Barrick, 2015). This helps organisation in increasing the performance level of employees and
directly leads to enhance productivity of firm. It supports in increasing profitability of
organisation which is the main benefit to employees as well as benefits by providing extra
monetary and non-monetary advantages.
P4. Effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising profits of organisation and
productivity
HRM of Aldi provides significant knowledge to all of its employees which is essentially
needed for carrying out the assigned job activities easily. It supports employees of organisation
in attaining complete knowledge about organisation’s plans and policies. This supports them in
order to work as per the business plan and assists in attaining goals and objectives effectively.
This directly enhances the productivity of organisation and leads to increase profits.
The effective communication with organisation helps to eliminate miscommunication
among employees which supports in enhancing productivity which directly leads in raise the
level of profits of Aldi.
Division of roles and responsibilities among all the members of organisation helps in
performing activities effectively and efficiently. The effectiveness in performance directly leads
to increase the productivity which assist in gaining more profits out of it.
HRM of organisation mainly focuses on building a healthy relationship between
employees at workplace. This effectively supports in increasing the profitability and productivity
of enterprise.
HRM supports in motivating employees towards effective performance by providing
certain monetary and non-monetary benefits to its workforce (Gruman and Saks, 2011).
Development of employees with the help of training session helps to improve the skills
and capabilities of workforce which supports them in performing the assigned jobs effectively
and efficiently. This supports in increasing productivity and leads to earn more profits for Aldi.
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The significant human resource management practice within business helps in declining
employee turnover to a high extent. It can hamper the organisation’s level of performance.
Increase in employee turnover within business leads to generate high cost to human resource
department. This HRM practice within Aldi supports in increasing the profits of organisation
(Jackson and Parry, 2011).
Apart from this, decline in labour turnover supports organisation to retain skilled and
capable employees for longer period of time which enhances the productivity of organisation
directly. For maintaining labour turnover ratio, Aldi provides flexible working environment to its
employees which helps in creating high level of job satisfaction which supports in retaining them
for a longer period of time. Thus, HRM practices help Aldi to increase its profits and
productivity.
TASK 3
P5. Importance of employee relations in HRM decision making
Maintenance of healthy relations with all employees is the most essential factor which
states the success of an organisation. Healthy relations among all members support organisation
in increasing productivity which directly increases the profits of Aldi. This also helps in raising
employee’s job satisfaction along with the efficiency. Strong relations in between employees and
employers is the only factor which assist in solving problems and conflicts arise.
Building healthy relation among employees at workplace depends upon many factors like
working environment, communication channel and behaviour of managers as well as motivation
and many other factors. These factors must be considered as important which in future helps in
developing strong relations. All these help in increasing the productivity and sales which support
in earning high profits out of business operations.
Aldi can follow some strategies for developing a strong relationship between employees. Some
of these are described as follows: -
Communication: - The organisation must provide complete information to its employees
through proper communication channel which helps gaining effective performance. The proper
information provided by Aldi to its employees help in enhancing its productivity and
profitability. This is also an important factor which helps in maintaining effective and strong
relations among employees (Kinicki and et. al., 2014).
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Career development opportunities: - All employees working within organisation have
great expectations towards their career development. Aldi must provide effective career
development opportunities. The business must have commitment with employees that they will
be promoted based on their level of performance. This will directly support in motivating
employees towards effective performance and supports in building a strong relationship between
employers and employees (Oechsler, 2011).
Motivation: - It refers to influence all employees of organisation positively towards
effective performance for achieving the desired goals and objectives. Employees of enterprise
can be motivated by providing some monetary and non-monetary benefits to them. If ALDI
provides some extra monetary benefits such as incentives, bonus and rewards, it helps in
developing effective relations among employees. This also helps in increasing the productivity
and profits of business.
Good health: - The employers must ensure safe working environment and good health of
employees. Aldi provides healthy and safe workplace to its workforce which helps in
maintaining the health of all employees. It also provides safe equipment to its workers for
effective working. This helps Aldi in maintaining a strong relationship between employers and
employees.
The strong employee relations in Aldi helps organisation positively. It also supports in
enhancing the productivity and profits of firm.
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and its impact of on HRM decision making
The decision making of human resource management is directly affected by different
employment legislation. These are described as follows: -
Equality Act 2010: - This act is a combination of two acts framed by the government of
United Kingdom. It combines Race Relation Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
According to these acts, organisations must provide equal opportunities to all of its employees at
the workplace. This act protects individuals from getting discriminated with respect to caste, sex,
race, gender and religion. Aldi must follow all the rules laid down under this act. If organisation
fails in this regard, the court of law has complete authority to terminate the operations of
business.
Employment Protection Act 1978: - The act defines that business must provide proper
structure of salary, working hours and facility of pension on retirement (Ployhart and Moliterno,
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2011). As per the act, human resource manager of Aldi must provide effective salary structure
and other facilities as mentioned by act. If organisation fails to comply with this, court has
complete authority to declare it as breach of law.
Dismissal and employment Contracts: - According to this, both employees and
employers have complete authority in relation to termination of jobs. The employee uses
resignation whereas employers use dismissals. But, it is necessary for both the parties to comply
with the framed legal rules and regulations (Seibert, Wang and Courtright, 2011). The employees
of organisation must present resignation letter before one week and same must be followed by
the employer.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974: - According to this act, employer must ensure
employee’s good health at the workplace. For instance, Aldi’s business provides proper working
environment to its employees and ensures good health of each individual. Also, it provides safe
instruments to them. This supports Aldi in maintaining healthy relations with the employees.
As per the following act i.e. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Aldi must consider the
below mentioned points: -
1. Aldi must ensure effective working condition and proper operational system.
2. It must have primary treatment aids.
3. The business must provide significant training to its employees with respect to health and
safety management.
TASK 4
P7. Application of HRM practices
Different aspects of human resource practices can be described with the support of hard
and soft model of HRM. These are described as follows: -
Hard model of human resource management Soft model of human resource management
This model of HRM significantly focuses on
the individual’s performance with respect to
achieving desired goals and objectives which
support in enhancing the efficiency of
organisation (Soltis and et. al., 2013).
This model makes focus on the needs of
employees at workplace, motivation and
behaviours in regard to strategic approaches.
This supports to motivate the employees
towards their effective performance and also
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helps to achieve desired goals and objectives.
Job satisfaction is important and it must be considered by the organisation. If the
employees of business are satisfied with their job, it will ultimately increase their interest
towards effective performance. This directly supports the organisation in attaining desired goals
and objectives effectively and efficiently. Apart from this, it supports business in its growth and
profitability.
The employee’s positive commitment towards effective performance in work helps in
increasing profitability of business and supports in enhancing competency which enables to
compete with the competitors (Wilson and et. al., 2012).
For instance: The training provided to employees by organisation supports in improving
skills and capabilities of workforce in order to improve their work effectively. This supports in
attaining the determined goals effectively and results in gaining more profits (Wilson and et. al.,
2012).
Example: Aldi had executed Hard Models at work place in order to evaluate performance
of all employees so they can easily achieve growth and success in there business operations. If
the employees are facing difficulties and they are not able to achieve there targets in desired time
frames then managers should develop strategies in order to resolve the issues.
 HRM practices are the most useful in providing motivation to employees by enhancing
their skills and abilities which are necessary to perform work effectively.
 HRM practices help in creating healthy work environment within organisation and this
supports in enhancing the productivity. This also supports in equal treatment to all
employees and reduces discrimination at the workplace (Soltis and et. al., 2013).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that human resource department of
organisation plays an important role in hiring of skilled and capable employees who can perform
assigned tasks effectively and efficiently. This helps in attaining the organisational goals and
objectives of Aldi significantly. It also concludes that effective practices by human resource
management helps in increasing the growth of firm and enhancing productivity as well. Reports
state that there must be a strong and healthy relationship between employees and employers
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which support positively in the decision making. Business plans and policies help employees to
work effectively in order to achieve the desired goals. It has also been concluded that there are
various rules framed by the government which protects employees from unlawful activities
carried out by employers.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barney, J.B., Ketchen Jr, D.J. and Wright, M., 2011. The future of resource-based theory:
revitalization or decline?. Journal of management. 37(5). pp.1299-1315.
Batt, R. and Colvin, A.J., 2011. An employment systems approach to turnover: Human resources
practices, quits, dismissals, and performance. Academy of management Journal. 54(4).
pp.695-717.
Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Bröckermann, R., 2012. Personalwirtschaft: Lehr-und Übungsbuch für Human Resource
Management. Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag für Wirtschaft Steuern Recht GmbH.
Campbell, B. A., Coff, R. and Kryscynski, D., 2012. Rethinking sustained competitive advantage
from human capital. Academy of Management Review. 37(3). pp.376-395.
Cloke, P. and Park, C.C. Eds., 2013. Rural Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
Coff, R. and Kryscynski, D., 2011. Invited editorial: Drilling for micro-foundations of human
capital–based competitive advantages. Journal of Management. 37(5). pp.1429-1443.
Fine, S., 2012. Estimating the economic impact of personnel selection tools on
counterproductive work behaviors. Economics and Business Letters. 1(4). pp.1-9.
Gatewood, R., Feild, H. S. and Barrick, M., 2015. Human resource selection. Nelson Education.
Gruman, J. A. and Saks, A. M., 2011. Performance management and employee engagement.
Human Resource Management Review. 21(2). pp.123-136.
Jackson, B. and Parry, K., 2011. A very short fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about
studying leadership. Sage.
Kinicki, A. and et. al., 2014. Management: A practical introduction. McGraw-Hill Education
Australia.
Oechsler, W. A., 2011. Personal und Arbeit: Grundlagen des Human Resource Management
und der Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Beziehungen. Walter de Gruyter.
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Ployhart, R. E. and Moliterno, T. P., 2011. Emergence of the human capital resource: A
multilevel model. Academy of Management Review. 36(1). pp.127-150.
Seibert, S. E., Wang, G. and Courtright, S. H., 2011. Antecedents and consequences of
psychological and team empowerment in organizations: a meta-analytic review.
Soltis, S. M. and et.al., 2013. A social network perspective on turnover intentions: The role of
distributive justice and social support. Human Resource Management. 52(4). pp.561-584.
Wilson, A. and et. al., 2012. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm.
McGraw Hill.
Online
Recruitment & Selection Hiring Process. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://hr.ucr.edu/recruitment/guidelines/process.html> . [Accessed on 14th July 2017].
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