Human Resource Management Report: Aldi's Practices and Functions

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Aldi, a German-based supermarket chain operating in the UK. The report begins by outlining the core functions of HRM, including workforce planning, recruitment, training, and retention, specifically within the context of Aldi's operational model. It then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment methods, such as internal and external sourcing, and the use of third-party agencies. The report further explores the benefits of different HRM practices for both the employer and the employees, highlighting how these practices contribute to a positive work environment and employee satisfaction. Finally, it assesses the effectiveness of HRM practices in enhancing organizational profit and productivity, examining the impact of training, development, and effective recruitment on Aldi's overall performance. The report uses examples from Aldi to illustrate how HRM strategies can be effectively implemented to achieve business goals. The report is a comprehensive guide to HRM in the context of the retail industry.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: work force.................................................................................................................2
Illustration 2: Recruitment sources..................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The human resource management is the horse power of the company which gives it the
workforce to run (Lindström, 2013). The HRM is concerned with the employees and their
smooth functioning int an organization. The report includes the function and practice of the
HRM in an organization. The company chosen for this report preparation is Aldi, it is a German
based supermarket chain in UK which deals in food products. Aldi focuses on selling products at
low prices to maximize sale. The report will evaluate the functions and practices performed by
the HRM of Aldi and the factors effecting its working and decision making process.
Task 1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organisation.
The primary purpose of human resource management is to plan, develop and introduce
policies that regulate the working of the human resource of Aldi. The department is responsible
for facilitating the operating of employees in the firm. The human resource management main
concern is to take care of the people at work and their relationship with the people. Workforce
planning refers to the plan made by the human resource department about the number of hiring
process of the workers. i.e. the number and time of hiring the new employees. This planning is
really important to Aldi as the company is running on its human force (CHUANG, 2010). The
main functions of human resource management are.
 Planning : Planning refers to the function of HR department in which it handles the job of
finding the vacant spots and new seats for the company to fill. In short the HR
departments finds the vacancies in the company to recruit the new staff. The department
also focuses on finding the employees in the particular period of time.
 Recruitment : recruiting of the personnel for the company is the primary function of the
HR department. The companies have the HR cell to make sure that the employees which
are recruited by the company are completely suitable for the job. This function of the HR
department involves the hiring of employees with skills according to the requirement of
the company. The recruitment is done by meeting a bunch of eligible candidates for the
job and then selecting the right suiting candidate.
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 Training and performance : Another function of the Human resource department is to
conduct training session for the new recruits in order to give them a over view about the
company's background, the kind of work it does and the job he is hired to do for the
company. Aldi trains its employees to work in the supermarket which requires attention
to the work and clear understanding of the products they are offering in the sections of
the market.
 Retention : The human resource department is responsible to take steps to facilitate the
working of the employees in the company (Purce, 2014). When the working environment
of the work place is positive and the employees feel satisfied. In this way the Hr
department is able to retain the employees of the company and job loyalty can be
achieved.
P2 Explaining the strength and weaknesses of different approaches and methods to recruit and
selection for the business.
The companies follow a number of approaches for the recruitment and selection of the
employees. These approaches have their own ways of hiring the staff. Companies choose the
way of hiring their staff according to their needs for the resources.
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Illustration 1: work force
(source : Workforce planning. 2017. )

 Internal sourcing : This kind of recruitment refers to recruiting inside the organization,
i.e. the company finds the right candidate inside the organization and promotes the
employees to higher position (Sheehan, 2011). This approach of recruitment is the most
important way of recruitment. The employees get motivated under this approach of
recruitment as they are of the mind set that their performance will be considered for the
promotion. They work even harder to get promoted. This approach also creates an issue
for the company as for getting the promotion there is a competition among the colleagues
which on some instances gets ugly and politics takes over the competition.
Strength:
This process of sourcing helps company to get existing staff and talented employee as
well. On the other side its gives negative point as well sometimes existing employees will not
contribute their best efforts and take duties negatively.
In this process of internal sourcing it requires less cost and company know person better
to get promoted to the next position. It helps company to attract more employer satifaction.
Weaknesses
Internal sourcing may arise conflict amongst employees and other team members,
through which there can be arise negative environment at the work place. In internal resourcing
for recruitment of new employees company does not have enough sources. For that it require one
person in the company who replace the person who get promoted.
 External sourcing : This is another way of recruitment which is practised by the
companies to hire the employees. Under this method of recruitment the companies recruit
the employees from the outside the organization. The selection is by the source of
meeting in which the candidate is made to give several tests and interviews, the
recruitment is done on the basis of the skill set of the candidates. To pass the bar the
candidate must clear all the stages of recruitment process. This process of recruitment is
very effective as the best man is hired for the job, When recruitment is done with this
approach the moral of the existing employees of the firm gets down. They feel
demotivated which can result in depletion in their performance.
Strength
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External source is to get fresh and talented employees in the organisation, on the other
side at the time of external sourcing provide the advantages large pool of applicant which
increases the possibilities to find the more talented person for the job.
External recruitment provides the opportunity for a fresh individual through which
company maintain competitive level.
It also helps company to compete with rival firms through getting talented employees.
Company also get more qualified and skill full person for the vacant profile.
Weakness
External source is fresh employee needs training and development programmes and
sometimes organisation cannot full fill this task effectively. Along with that external factor take
longer time and cost in the company. Adding to more at the first meeting employer cannot judge
the individual weather it is capable or not.
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 Sourcing via third party : Under this approach of recruitment the company hires its
employees with the help of third party. The process of finding the candidates is
outsourced to a third party. The company gives a contract to the placement agencies to
find the specialized candidates for the company. The company interviews the candidates
of the merit list sent by the agency. This list takes the burden of the shoulder of the
company to short list the employees for the interview (Armstrong, 2014). The merit list
employees are scrutinized to find the best candidate for the post. This approach has a
demerit that the company has to pay the agency for the process and this increases the cost
of recruitment.
Strength
Third party source is to get employees without putting any efforts through third party.
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Illustration 2: Recruitment sources
( Source : Sources of recruitment. 2017. )

Recruiter helps company to select best candidate for the company. They filter the all best
selected candidates for the company. It also helps to check the entire work background of the
candidate. They make quick decision for the organisation to select talented candidate
Weaknesses
Third party source is organisation needs to pay huge amount to third which is not
effective for the organisation.
It is very difficult and challenging for the company to believe on the working of third
party. Overall it involves heavy risk and uncertain factors in working with third party.
It requires time and cost which is not possible for the company to provide. May be
sometimes many of the third party are fraud and artificial.
Task 2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within the chosen organization for both the
employer and employee.
The human resource department is responsible for several activities which facilitate the
working of the employees and the making the environment of the work place health and positive.
There are many benefits of the human resource department in a company.
 To the employees : The human resource department is set up to take care of the working
staff of the company. The employee facing any issue in the operating of Aldi can visit the
human resource department to keep forward the problem faced by him. The HRM makes
policies to facilitate the working of the employees of the firm (Strohmeier, 2014). Under
the HRM incentives are provided to the employees with high or exceptional performance,
this policy is to award the employee for giving performance in the company. The human
resource management is also responsible for motivating the employees which increases
the over all performance of the employees in the organization. The training exercises
given to the employees by the department helps them to excel in their work which makes
them experts in their field. The HR department of Aldi has a system for the employees to
register their complaints with the executives of the HR and also gives suggestion to the
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company to improve the working environment for the employees. The department makes
the relations of the management of the company and the employees better.
 To the employer : The employer is highly benefited from the human resource department.
The department is responsible for recruitment for the staff of the company. It takes care
of the time type and the number of employees to be recruited, this facilitates the employer
as the employees in the company are never out of number at any point of time which
keeps the production force of the company at the top all the time. The human resource
department also takes care of the facilities provided to the employees and environment of
the place positive which enhances the performance of the work force making the overall
performance of they company improve (Björkman, 2014). These practices also motivates
the employees to work harder which in turn enhances the production of Aldi. The human
resource department also by all these practices create a environment in which the
employee relations are build. The training provided by the HR department to the
employees make them experts in their fields which makes their productivity high which
overall benefits Aldi by making its sales high.
P4 Evaluating the effectiveness of HRM practises in respect of increasing the organisation profit
and productivity in business organisation.
The human resource management does practices facilitating the working of the
organization. The department is a part of the company which is function to increase the
productivity of the company. The HR management is responsible with a number of practices in
order to increase the productive ability of the organization which finally leads to increasing the
profit earned by the organization.
 Training and development : The HR management makes various plans to train the
employee of the organization. The training process makes them develop their skills in the
field they are going to work in, the training process pushes the to excel in the work and
they become an asset for the organization. The increased productive ability of the
employees increases the overall sales of the Aldi. Which, increases the profit of the
company.
 Recruitment and selection : The HR department is burdened with responsibility of
recruiting employees for the company (Bučiūnienė, 2012). The department hires the best
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candidate from the lot of many candidates after going through a lot of interviews. The
company make list of the vacancies and recruits employees according to the list and on
the proper time. The hired candidate is the best, and the employee provides best services
which helps in increasing the profit of Aldi.
 Work life balance : providing the employees with the schedules to follow, making the
communication better and the assignment supervisors to find the stress level in the
employee. The balance in life and work is provided by the HR department to the staff of
the company. This provides them with a better environment to work which originate
results which in turn leads to increase in the profit of Aldi.
 Rewards : The HR management monitors the performance of all the employees of the
Aldi. The employees are rewarded by the management for the good performance
provided by them. The performance may awarded by hike in the salary or promotion
which motivates the employees to work hard for the company which in the end increases
the productivity of the Aldi and the profit earned by the organization is enhanced.
Task 3
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-
making.
The human resource department is the bridge between the management and the workers
of the company. They are one which contact with both the parties and make decision between
them. The employee relations pay a very important role in the working of the organization, the
company with good employee relation have higher productivity in comparison to the company
with adverse employee relations. The HR management are vital to creating a healthy relationship
between the employer and employee. The decision made by the HR team makes a route for the
solid relations between the staff and the management (Cao, 2013.). The HR department is in the
position to providing the employee with a healthy working environment which creates positive
vibes in the workplace. The positive environment motivates the employees to work harder which
makes the productivity of the firm increase which makes the relation between the management
and employees good as they both are satisfied. During the conflict situation between the
management and the staff of the organization the HR department helps to resolve the conflict.
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