Human Resource Management Report: M&S HRM Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks and Spencer (M&S). It begins with an overview of the company and its mission and vision. The report then delves into the core functions of the HR department, emphasizing recruitment and selection, training and development, and the maintenance of effective working conditions. It explores various approaches to workforce planning, recruitment, and selection, including internal and external recruitment methods, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, the report examines employee relations and engagement, highlighting their importance in fostering a positive work environment and enhancing productivity. The report also identifies key employment laws that Marks and Spencer must consider. The assessment includes a job specification, CV, interview documentation, and job offer, with an evaluation of the recruitment process. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and insights regarding the effectiveness of HRM at Marks and Spencer.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1. Overview of Marks and Spencer........................................................................................3
2.The purpose of HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of HR function...........3
3. Approaches to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development and training,
Performance management and reward system in Marks and Spencer...................................5
4.Effectiveness Of Employee Relations And Employee Engagement...................................8
5. Key employment laws Marks and Spencer needs to consider...........................................8
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
1. Job Specification..............................................................................................................10
2. CV.....................................................................................................................................11
3.Interview documentation...................................................................................................12
4. Job Offer...........................................................................................................................13
5.Evaluation of the Process..................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
Books and Journals: ......................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is the strategic approach to the effective management of
people in an organisation in order to gain competitive advantage. In organisation there is Human
resource department which is designed to maximise the performance of employees strategic
objectives (Collings, Wood and Szamosi, 2018). Human resource management is the backbone
of organisation as the entire functioning of the company is depended on this department.
Employees gain support from the human resource department of the organisation as all the issues
or concern are addressed by the HR manager. The present report will be based on Marks and
Spencer company. It is a retail multinational organisation in UK. Further this report will present
the effectiveness of human resource function within Marks and Spencer, researching the role,
scope and functions of HR. In addition to this, the process of recruitment and selection will also
include in this assessment.
TASK 1
1. Overview of Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group Plc is also known as M&S is a major British multinational
retailer organisation in United Kingdom. It is a public limited company which was founded in
1884 by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Its headquarters are located in London, United
Kingdom. M&s is specialised in selling clothing, home products as well as food products. The
revenue of the company in 2017 is £10.622 billion (Bratton and Gold, 2017). At present Marks
and Spencer have 979 stores across United Kingdom in which 615 only sell the food items. The
present employee's status of company is 84,939.
Mission of M&S- To provide the best quality of products and services to customers.
Vision of M&S- To be the most highly valued business by: the customers we serve, the
communities in which we operate, our loyal and committed colleagues and of course, our
shareholders.
2.The purpose of HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of HR function.
Human Resource management is very important function of the company as it is called
the backbone of the company. It is true that none of the work can be accomplished without HR
department. The HR department of Marks and Spencer is very effective and efficient as they
manage all the activities of the company especially in managing employee's is outstanding

manner. They are bringing better outcomes by smartly utilisation of available resource. The
fundamental purpose of human resource management are as follows-
 Maximising the productivity of the organisation by raising the effectiveness of the
employee's working in the organisation (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
 Better employee's engagement building a good relationship with employees.
 Human resource manager is also accountable for the development of employee's.
Raising the performance of all employee's within organisation to the highest level
because the productivity of company is directly depends on the performance of
employee's.
 They are also responsible for maintaining a good culture within organisation and in
workplace.
Functions of Human Resource department also plays a vital role in the company. These functions
are ought to perform in Marks and Spencer are as follows-
Recruitment and Selection- This is the most important function which is carried by
human resource department of the company. The process of fascinating, screening and selecting
qualified candidates suitable for the particular job is called as Recruitment. It is the fundamental
function of the human resource management (Biley and et.al., 2018). In Marks and Spencer it is
very essential to have the best candidates so that company can achieve success by having
productive work.
Organising Training and Development- It is also one of the most important function of
Human resource management. It is duty of HR manager to organize training and development
programmes in order to improve the performance of employees or increasing the skills and
knowledge of workforce.
Maintaining effective working Conditions- It is also very important that in the
organisation their should be a good and effective working conditions so that production work can
be gained. It is the duty of Human resource manager that they should provide a good working
condition to employees so that they will motivate by the working environment. The working
condition a Marks and Spencer is very effective as HR manager put their best efforts to motivate
their employee's.

3. Approaches to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development and training,
Performance management and reward system in Marks and Spencer.
There are various approaches of human resource management which is followed by the
managers of Marks and Spencer. These approaches are very important as it designs the entire
system and function of human resource management. Here are following approaches which are
as follows-
Workforce Planning- It is the strategy which is used by the employee's in order to
anticipate the needs of workers and deploy them effectively and effectively, usually with the
advance technology of human resource. It is the continuous process used to make a good
alignment with the needs and wants of employees within organisation. Marks and Spencer has a
large operation which is very critical thus, manager of company use Enterprise Resource
planning system, (ERP). It is the best software to manage the activities of business and many
back offices functions (Reiche, Harzing and Tenzer, 2018). This is the best way to design the
best performing management of employees so that company can achieve its desire goals.
Advantages Disadvantages
 Smooth functioning of organisation by
efficient organisation of employee's.
 It supports the process of budget of the
organisation.
 It also supports the strategic planning
of business.
 Skills gaps is also identified by
workforce planning.
 Workforce planing also avoid delays as
well as disruption in the work.
 It is time consuming process.
 Sometimes it becomes rigid and
inflexible which is also not good for the
company.
 It raises the cost of operations, it is
expensive process.
Recruitment and Selection- This is also one of the most important human resource
function which are carried out by the manager of human resource manager. In Marks and
Spencer, the HR manager mostly uses the both internal and external recruitment approach.
External Recruitment- It is the methods of hiring and selecting employee's from outside
the organisation. The applicant or candidates are those who are not known to the company.

Marks and Spencer used various methods such as media advertisement, employment exchange,
factory gate recruitment, casual callers, E-recruiting etc.
Advantages Disadvantages
 Encourage employees with innovative
ideas to enter the organisation.
 It boosts better competition.
 Company can get better skills (Guest,
2017).
 Expensive for of recruitment.
 It is long processed.
 Time consuming.
Internal Recruitment- It is the method of hiring employee's from inside the organisation.
Marks and Spencer also use this technique to fill the vacancy from old employees. Internal
recruitment can be done through promotion as well as transfers. As compare to external
recruitment.
Advantages Disadvantages
 It is cost effective approach.
 Time saving method.
 Simple method of recruitment.
 Moral and retention of employees is
increased.
 Less paperwork.
 No need of induction (Lussier, and
Hendon, 2017).
 Lack of Diversity.
 Lack of new talent and skill.
 High chances of partiality and bias in
transfer and promotion.
Training and Development- In today's era, it is very important for organisation to
organize training and development for the raising the skill and knowledge of employees within
organisation. It is also one of the most essential function of HR as it is the best tool to keep
employees motivated. Marks and Spencer used to organize programmes called Training of
Trainers (TOT) in which they used to called experts from outside and provide training to
employees. This is one of the best approach which can motive as well as raise the performance

and skills of employees of the company (Johnson and Szamosi, 2018). It is fact that the cost of
training never go away.
Advantages Disadvantages
 It is expensive approach of training.
 It can reduce employee turnover rate.
 Experts training reduces the long term
staffing cost.
 It is cost effective method as it leads to
positive impact on the performance of
employees.
 The skills of employees can be taken
for competition (Ones, Viswesvaran
and Schmidt, 2017).
Performance Management and Reward System- This is also very important for
Human Resource manager as the entire productivity and profitability of company is depended on
the performance of employees. On the other hand, employee's performance is directly linked
with the rewards and incentives or any other tools for motivation. In order to manage the
performance of employees Marks and Spencer use Key Performance Indicator to check and
monitor the performance on regular basis. With the help of key performance indicator Marks and
Spencer provide reward and incentives. HR manager of company had made a link in both
performance management and in reward system (Eaton, 2017). They used to check the
performance of employee's and then provide rewards to them. Both monetary and non-monetary
rewards system is followed by company.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Key performance Indicator
Advantages Disadvantages
 Easy to provide rewards and incentives
of employee's.
 Easy to define the benchmarks.
 It reduces the unnecessary cost.
 The quality of work or performance is
improved.
 KPI provides shorts term results.
 It is very complicated process as HR
manager have to match and set the
indicator with external factors before
measuring the performance.

4.Effectiveness Of Employee Relations And Employee Engagement
Engagement of an employee refers to such type of situation where the employees are
completely engaged in their working and are not getting any time for gossiping and spreading of
rumours. So, in this way an employee being completely engaged in the work will enjoy a warm
relationship with his colleagues and the team members (Bratton and Gold, 2017). So, both these
terms are having a direct relationship with others. On the other hand the term, employee
relations refers to the handling of grievances; taking care of query of the employees at the
workplace and it could be anything that ranges from the handling of the interpersonal skills of
employees to their personal problems that affects the working life balance or will inhibit them to
give their 100% efforts in it. In Marks and Spencer the employees are being given a proper
training in the respect of doing their assigned task in the same manner as it is asked from them to
do.
Here are the importance of employee engagement:-
Keeps the employees engaged:- The employee engagement is playing its role of importance by
keeping the employees engaged in the organisation at their workplace. Marks And Spencer is
playing a very important role in keeping the employees engaged at their workplace by assigning
them the important tasks that is very important for them to perform in a well and organised
manner (Johnson and Szamosi, 2018).
It enhances the productivity of employees:- Marks and Spencer is playing a critical role by
implementing the employee engagement in the organisation, the productivity of the employees
has boosted with a sudden change in it. All the employees that are succeeding and feeling good
in respect of their contribution towards the organisation. Naturally, feels proud and get motivated
in doing the assigned tasks.
5. Key employment laws Marks and Spencer needs to consider.
There are various types of legal rights that every employee is entitled to according to UK
legislation. Each and every organisation needs to work considering these rights and laws to
ensure employees welfare and benefits (Rees and Smith, 2017). These rights can be described as
below –
Employees right

According to the law, al the employees have a number of rights that have been effectively
developed and imposed to make sure each and every individual is fairly treated by the employers
or companies.
Statutory rights
 Employees must be paid at least national minimum wage, that is around £6.70 per hour
for employees of age 21 or more (Guillaume, 2018). Each and every organisation needs
to consider this employee right in order to avoid any kind of legal dispute with their
employees.
 After two months of job it is essential for the employer to provide a written statement
consisting basic details and the main terms and conditions of the employment. It must
also include title of the job, expected working hours, monthly wages, sick leave
entitlement and paid holiday, details of any applicable pension scheme, minimum notice
period, disciplinary procedures and process for reporting grievance.
 Health and safety laws also states that employers have statutory duty to ensure the health
and safety of their employees by offering a clean working environment to work in,
protective clothing, equipment, washing facilities, drinking water and providing safe
machineries (Van Wingerden, Derks and Bakker, 2017).
Contractual employee rights
Each and every employee has certain rights that are set out in terms and conditions of the
employment or the employee contract, other than those needed by law. These are also called as
contractual employee rights. The terms of contract may vary the terms of the employment and
may also offer addition rights beyond the statutory limits. Such as employer or company can
offer paternity and maternity leave at full pay. An essential element to consider related to the
contractual rights is that an employment contract can provide additional rights to an employee
but they can not offer them fewer rights or fewer rights than those offered by statue law
(Dumont, Shen and Deng, 2017).
Special duties regarding disabled employee rights
According to the equality act 2010, employers or company can not discriminate against
employees at any stage if they are suffering from any kind of physical or mental disability. If an
employee is qualified for the job and an employer or the company is aware of employee’s
disability, they have a duty to make effective and reasonable adjustments in the workplace. In

order to make sure that a disabled employee have access to all the facilities offered by the
company to non-disabled employees.
TASK 2
1. Job Specification.
JOB SPECIFICATION FOR HR EXECUTIVE
Job Title Human Resource Executive
Location 8EP, Kensington Square, London W8 5HH, United Kingdom
Department Human Resource Management
Reports To: Human Resource Manager
Standard Work
Hours
Monday to Saturday 9:00am to 6:00pm however overtimes might be
required in time of peak periods and organisational promotions
Purpose of Position To oversee the work done by the departments staff and also observing the
department is working as expected
Key Accountabilities:
 Executing the team and making decisions to take it further
 Allocating Tasks
 Observing team members performance
 Observing team efficiency
 Handling payroll, employee relations etc.
Qualifications and experience: Excellent communication skills, to be able to work
independently, detail oriented, multi-tasking, one who enjoys interfacing with, possesses MBA
and a bachelor degree.

2. CV
CV
Personal Profile: A highly talented individual looking to work for an organisation that
provides the best experience. I have good communication skills, efficiency in managing time,
good marketing skills etc. I tend to perform well in difficult situations and can work under
pressure.
Achievements:
 Football team captain
 Gold medal in Capital Marathon
 Charity for child's development
Skills:
 Fluent in English
 Fluent in French
 Time management
Work Experience:
Human Resource Assistant, Adidas September 2014-July 2018
Worked as a Human Resource Assistant (HRA) at Adidas outlet in Birmingham. Below
mentioned were my roles and responsibilities:
 To recruit new employees
 Creating strategies
 Training new employees etc.
Education:
Master of Business Administration, St. Paul's college, Birmingham, United Kingdom
I've completed my MBA from the above college from 2012-2014
Martha Wayne School of Children's 2006 – 2012

English A*, English Literature A, Biology B, Physics A, French B
I hereby declare that the above details are correct as per my understanding.
3.Interview documentation
INTERVIEW DOCUMENTATION
Preparatory Notes
 The candidate must have good communication skills
 The candidate must have good grooming
 He/she should have good knowledge of the organisation and Human Resource
 He/She should maintain eye contact while communicating
 10 questions will be asked to employees in order to make a judgement of their knowledge
or skills
Selection Criteria
 The candidate would be selected on the basis of his understanding of Human Resources
and its management. He/she should have detail knowledge about the human resource
management and its workings.
 It is important for him/her to know about the importance of Human Resource in an
organisation.
 The candidate should be having good listening skills and management skills to manage
the overall department and its functions
Justified Decision:
 The candidate is going to be selected after the observation of his communication skills
which needs to be excellent.

 The candidate will have to answer at-least 7 question out 10 to get selected.
 The candidate overall understanding of the Human resources and its management would
make him able to pass the interview.
 It is important for the candidate to have a brief understanding of organisational goals and
strategies required to achieve them for his selection.
4. Job Offer.
Job Offer for Marketing Executive
Dear Peter,
Marks And Spencer is very excited to bring you on board as a Marketing executive.
We are just a few formalities away from getting to work. Please take time as per your comfort
to review our formal offer letter. It includes all the details in respect of the compensation;
benefits; and all the terms and conditions of your anticipated employment with Marks and
Spencer.
The organisation is offering you a pay rate of $15000 or annual base salary that you will be paid
on per year basis.
Please accept this offer of agreement by signing and dating on or before 31/12/2018.
5. Evaluation of the Process.
The evaluation done by the HR is helpful for the Marks and Spencer in such a way that, it
suggests that, whatever, is being done by the Human Resource department of Marks And
Spencer is completely in an organised manner (Dumont, Shen and Deng, 2017). The HR, first of
all set the objectives in respect of hiring of the candidates. Not only this, the members of the
personnel department also works in the respect of what type of questions are required to be asked
from the candidates and also by managing all the assigned tasks that are required to be
completed. It is the duty of the HR department to clear the queries of the recruited person (Van
Wingerden, Derks and Bakker, 2017).
CONCLUSION
The project report concludes about the importance of Human Resource Management. It
lays focus on the evaluation and the importance of the role of HR manager in Marks And
Spencer. Further the report focus on together offer letter that is required to be given to the

selected candidate. In addition to this, the assignment also helps in analysing the effectiveness of
the HR Personnel in the organisation as it leads in achieving long term success and huge
profitability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bailey and et.al., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in European human resource
management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical
approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Dumont, J., Shen, J. and Deng, X., 2017. Effects of green HRM practices on employee
workplace green behavior: The role of psychological green climate and employee green
values. Human Resource Management, 56(4), pp.613-627.
Eaton, J., 2017. Globalization and human resource management in the airline industry.
Routledge.
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.
Guillaume, P., Sullivan, S.E., Wolff, H.G. and Forret, M., 2018. Are there major differences in
the attitudes and service quality of standard and seasonal employees? An empirical
examination and implications for practice. Human Resource Management.
Johnson, P. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. HRM in changing organizational contexts. In Human
resource management (pp. 27-48). Routledge.
Lussier, R.N. and Hendon, J.R., 2017. Human resource management: Functions, applications,
and skill development. Sage publications.
Ones, D.S., Viswesvaran, C. and Schmidt, F.L., 2017. Realizing the full potential of
psychometric meta-analysis for a cumulative science and practice of human resource
management. Human Resource Management Review, 27(1), pp.201-215.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Reiche, B.S., Harzing, A.W. and Tenzer, H. eds., 2018. International human resource
management. SAGE Publications Limited.