Unit 3 HRM Report: Aldi's Human Resource Management Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Aldi, a German discount supermarket chain. It begins with an overview of Aldi, including its history, organizational structure, and global presence. The report then delves into the purpose and functions of HRM within the company, outlining key responsibilities such as staffing, compensation, law compliance, and workforce planning. It examines various recruitment and selection approaches, including internal and external recruitment methods, as well as interview and testing processes. The report also explores the benefits of different HRM practices for both employers and employees, such as training and development programs, conflict resolution strategies, and the importance of maintaining positive employee relations. Furthermore, the report discusses employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making, and it concludes with an application of HRM practices within the specific context of Aldi's operations. The report leverages academic sources to support its analysis and provides valuable insights into the strategic role of HRM in a global retail environment.

Unit 3 Human Resources
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM.............................................................................................1
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection...................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P3 Benefits of different HRM practices for employer and employee.........................................4
P4 Describe the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising the Aldi profit
and productivity...........................................................................................................................5
P5 Discuss about the importance of employee relation with respect to influence Human
resource management decision making.......................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P 6 Employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making.......................................7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................7
P 7 Application of HRM practices at ALDI................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

TASK
Human Resource Management (HRM) can be defined as practice of recruiting, hiring,
deploying as well as managing the organisation's employees. In simple terms HRM is related to
managing of human resource and activities related to them. It is strategic approach for the
effective management of manpower within the company (De Lange, and et.al. 2015).
It's aim is to manage the people of organisation in such a way that performance of
employees is maximised in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation. In this
report, Aldi is taken as an organisation which is a German brand and a family owned discount
supermarket chainLanders and Schmidt, (2016).
Present report discusses about purpose and scope of human resource management in the
organisation and effectiveness of key elements of HRM within the company. Present report also
discusses external and internal factors which affect human resource management in decision-
making which also includes employee legislation. Also, present report includes application of
human resource management practices in work related context.
1. Organisation Overview:
Aldi is a family owned discount supermarket chain of Germany, it has operated more
than 10,000 stores in more than 20 countries and has turnover more than €50 billion. It was
founded by two brothers Theo Albercht and Karl in 1946. Its headquarters is at Essen, Germany
and the products which are offered by Aldi are food and beverages, sanitary products and
household essentials. Aldi is one of the world's largest privately owned company with more than
32,000 people working in the organisation across UK (THE ALDI SUCCESSION – LESSONS
FOR FAMILY BUSINESS. 2019).
2 Purpose and functions of HRM
HRM forms an important part of the organisation and has to fill various purposes in the
company. One of the major purpose of HRM in Aldi is fulfilling the staffing needs, as human
resource department is responsible for recruiting the skilled employees for the organisation.
HRM's purpose is also to provide compensation and benefits to the employees of the
organisation. Another purpose of HRM in Aldi is that it has to deal with law compliance in order
to protect employee's rights (Nankervis and et.al., 2016).
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Effective work force planing is also the important purpose of the HRM as it is the
continuous process which is used to align priorities and needs of the company with those of its
work force. HRM also ensures that regulatory, legislative, production and service requirements
and organisational objectives are efficiently met.
In order to achieve the objectives of efficient human resource planning, HRM have to
perform various functions in Aldi. HRM to meet the objectives of the organisation, it requires
appropriate talent and skills which can be explained below:
Planning: It is import for HR manager to plan for the work force in order to achieve the
organisational goals. Planning may include anticipating the hiring needs for the company and
planning the ways of recruiting and selecting skilled and appropriate employees for the company.
Planning may also include job descriptions, job requirements and also determining the different
sources of requirement (Managerial Functions of HR. Manager, 2019).
Organising: Once a plan is formulated, then another function to be performed is design
and develop different structure to carry out the various operations of Aldi. The structure may
include delegating authorities and tasks to employees of Aldi and then coordinating the activities
and grouping of personnel activities into positions or functions.
Directing: HR manager of Aldi can develop a plan but implementing of plan totally
depends on people of the organisation. Directing function of HRM may include encouraging
people to work effectively and efficiently to achieve the organisational goals. Functions of
directing also includes guiding and motivating employees for achieving different tasks of
organisation (Delery and Roumpi, 2017).
HR manager can motivate employees of the organisation by boosting their morale
through providing incentives, proper career planning, providing job security and safety. It is also
the function of HRM to identify the needs of employees in an organisation which can help HR
manager in directing them easily.
Controlling: It is also one of the major functions which is performed by HRM of Aldi.
Controlling relates to regulation of activities of employees within the organisation as per plans
formulated which are based on the objectives of Aldi. It is most important function of HRM
which completes the cycle of functions of HRM in the company. By having proper control on the
recruitment and selection process of the organisation can help in hiring and selecting talented and
skilled staff for the company
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3 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
Recruitment may be defined as the process of identifying and attracting the potential
workforce in order to fill up vacant positions within the organization. While, Selection may be
defined as choosing the appropriate candidate for the vacant position within the company. In
simple terms, selection is the process of picking a right candidate with prerequisite qualifications
and capabilities in order to fill vacant positions in an organisation. There are different approaches
for recruitment and selection process which can be explained below:
As per the views of Goldstein and et.al., (2017) there are different approaches of recruitment
which can be used by Aldi. One of the most common approach is internal recruitment, it is an
approach where candidates are attracted internally for the particular post in the organisation. It is
the process of filling the vacancies within the organisation from its existing workforce available.
Aldi can recruit the employees internally through promotion which is the most common method
of internal recruitmentLanders and Schmidt, (2016).
A person is promoted to higher position with higher responsibilities and duties to
perform. Another method of recruitment is transfer in which an employee is moved from one
location to another location with same job responsibilities and at same position. There are
various strengths of internal recruitment process like it is time saving and cost saving for
organisation. But on the other, there are also disadvantages associated with it like it may create
jealousy among the employees and may result in conflicting situation in Aldi. Also, there may be
resistance from the employee in getting transferred. It has be opined by Hunter and et.al., (2017),
another approach which can be used by Aldi is external recruitment which involves attracting
new candidates through external agencies through media, internet, recruitment agencies, etc. One
of the major advantage of external recruitment process is that it is time saving and can help the
organisation in hiring suitable and qualified employee for its vacant position. But on the other
hand, disadvantage of external recruitment is that it may prove expensive for the organisation.
It has been viewed by Marie Ryan and Derous, (2016) there are various approaches of
selection process which can help Aldi in selecting the suitable candidates for the organisation.
One of the best approach for selection which can be used by the company is interview. Interview
can be divided into two categories, face to face interview and telephonic interview. One of the
major advantage of interview is that HR manager can collect the sufficient information and can
ensure whether candidate is suitable for the post or not by checking the body language of
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candidate and can also prove to be time saving and cost saving for Aldi. On the other hand, it
has been argued by Landers and Schmidt, (2016), conducting test of the candidate is the best
approach which can be used by Aldi in selecting a suitable candidate for the organisation. It is
advantageous for the company to conduct tests as there are series of tests which can be
conducted by Aldi in short-listing and selecting a suitable candidate like aptitude tests,
psychometric tests, etc. The weakness of this approach is that it may not be so reliable for the
company as it does not give the proper information to employer.
Workforce planing approach for Aldi is managing the talent for organisational success
which consists of analysing the skills and competencies of employees in the company and
identifying the gap between the organisational force and present workforce capabilities. It also
includes the specific HR initiatives in order to address these identified gaps. In order to fill these
gaps, HRM of Aldi can conduct training and development programs in the organisation. It may
include on job training, lectures, project work and discussions. In order to manage the
performance of the employees after training Aldi can establish effective performance
management approaches in the organisation. Company can use comparative approaches or
behavioural approach or result approach in order the measure the performance of the employees
in the organisation. Once the performance of employees is measures company can provide
rewards to employees by proper rewards system through incentives, promotions,
acknowledgements, bonuses, etc.
4 Benefits of different HRM practices for employer and employee
As per the view of Edgar and et.al., (2015) Human Resource Management caries various
responsibilities within the organisation which can benefit both employer and employee too, as
there are various HRM practices which are performed in an organisation. Providing training and
developmental programs can help the employees to improve their skills and knowledge to
perform the various tasks in the organization. It can be helpful for the employee in improving
their performance which can help him/her in achieving the future goals(Jiang and Liu, 2015).
When training and developmental programs are provided by employer, it can benefit the
employer in various ways. For example, if Aldi's employees has not been able achieve their sales
target on regular basis and HRM has order for training and development programs to these
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employees and after training employees has been able to achieve their sales targets. So, both are
benefited as employees will be able to achieve their sales target as training and development
programs have increased the skills of employees and for employer is able to generate revenue for
the organisation due to improvements in sales performance of the employees in sales department.
As opined by Raza and et.al., (2017), another important practice of HRM which benefits
both employer and employees is conflict resolution as HR department acts as mediator in settling
the disputes between employer and employee. HR department helps in interpreting the policies
as well as the procedures and also defines the appropriate workplace behaviour in Aldi. For
example, if there arises a dispute between employer and employee due to unfair salary hike and
employee went for strike(Jiang and Liu, 2015).
Here HRM of the Aldi acts as mediator between the two parties where HR. managers
interprets the companies salary hike polices to both employees and employer and who ever is in
fault motivates and makes them understand how to act in this situation. Also, HRM plays an
important role in maintaining good relationship between employee and employer like it provides
support to employee if he or she feels that their rights have been violated in the organisation. For
example, if there is any case of discrimination or harassment to employee, which has resulted in
conflicting situation in organisation. Here HRM will formulate the plan and provide appropriate
conflict resolution strategies in order to manage conflicts in the organisation. So, it is the practice
of HRM to manage the conflicts in the company, which can benefit both employer and
employee. Like HRM can provide support to such employee and help in fighting for employee's
rights and provides justice to employees similarly HRM can save the company from big loss.
5. Describe the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising the Aldi profit and
productivity
Human resource management help for planning an effective strategy that help for managing
and controlling the overall business performance. It has been established the proper management
strategy to influence their employee towards the goals and targets (Jiang and Liu, 2015).
In Aldi, Human resource has some important practices in the business to analyses the
business operations and functions.
 Wages and compensation- HR manager is providing the compensation to their
employee so that they are giving the better quality of services to their customers. In
additional, HR Manager is closely involved with the daily functions of business and also
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provide the benefits to worker such as incentive, wages and other bonuses etc. In this
way, it helps the business to achieve their specific goals and objectives. It has required
for human resource manager to maintain the coordination between them (Farouk and
et.al., 2016).
 Training and development- Training and development are important practices that plays
important role for identifying the talented people those who will contribute their
knowledge or innovative idea towards the business growth and development. It is main
Human resource practices which effectiveness for the Aldi to rise their production in
global world. In ALDI, Manager is conducting the training program where they can
improve their skill and knowledge. In this way, they were putting more efforts towards
the business development. it will help to increase the production and sales in
marketplace.
 Conflict management- Employee satisfaction is another important role of human
resource manager to directly communicate with the people and identify their specific
requirement. In ALDI, HR manager always maintain the good relationship between them.
It useful for business to maintain working environment and culture at workplace. It has a
more chances to reduce the conflict between employee and management system.
 Recruitment and selection- In ALDI, Human resource manager organize the
recruitment and selection process to find the efficient candidates those who will efficient
way to handle the business task through skill or knowledge. An efficient employee to
handle overall annual performance of business and also increase the productivity or
profitability in marketplace. HR manager is attracting with the potential resources for
filling the vacant position in the organization after analysing and screening of candidates.
6. Discuss about the importance of employee relation with respect to influence Human resource
management decision making
Employee relations is the important part of Aldi that can help to build a strong
coordination between their staff members. It has required to increase the high productivity and
maintain the customer satisfaction. Human resource manager generally deals with the issues and
problem of individuals which might to influence the overall business scenario. A strong relation
mainly depends on the healthy and safe environment at workplace. It involves the employee
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encouragement, incentives, rewards and other communication system in ALDI. In this way, it
has increased the production and sales in global marketplace (Massingham and Tam, 2015).
The employee relation in the decision making process influence the Human resources
because it actively involve with worker and maintain the communication between them. In this
way, HRM understand the idea of employee and contribute towards the business operations and
functions. They also influence the outcome and results of their specific work, leading the job
satisfaction.
At workplace, Employees relations at ALDI has always been fruitful in terms of salaries
and incentives. However, participating in the decision making that gives equal opportunities to
their employee so that they can share their own idea about business development. employee
relation encourages the strong opinion towards group work between different employees. (Van
De Voorde and Beijer, 2015).
In this way, it influences the HRM decision making to collect the information related
worker as when how they are working in team and find that where training and development
session may be required. In this way, it leads to increase the production and sales in global
marketplace.
On the other hand, many employees are expected from the Manager to provide them
better working environment so that they can feel free to do their work effectively and efficiently.
It always influences the human resource manager to make decision and provide them safe
working culture, proper incentive, rewards and satisfaction etc.
In Aldi, HR manager maintain the interaction with the employee and provide the
important information about the organization policies, current project and decisions. Many
employees want adopt the flexible working culture so that they can put more efforts in business
activities. HRM manager provide the choice where they can choose the working environment at
workplace. HR can make decision for planning a strategy to provide flexible working and
increasing the valuable opportunities in global marketplace(Barbieri, 2016).
LO 3
7. Employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making
The employment legislation are important in protecting the rights of employees and assist
in safeguarding the staff who are working at different locations of ALDI. Here, the role of HRM
is significant in making the decisions and policies appropriately (Barlow and et.al., 2019). Such
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laws and acts also plays an important role in maintaining the healthy workplace environment at
ALDI. It would be useful in managing the ethical standards under a structured and organised
system. The ethical standards in the organisation helps to have the healthy relationship between
the employee and the employers to have the healthy working environment.
Workplace health and safety act 1974- This act is explaining wide range of duties of
employers with in the work place. This act is all about making work place safer and secure for
employees at ALDI. This act puts the Human Resources to implement it in accordance to the
layout of the buildings or stores to protect the employees. The safety the healthy workplace for
the employer in the organisation gives the better guidelines to the companies' employee how that
they have to treat them and provide them the better condition so that the efficiency and the
effectiveness of the employee can be increased.
National Minimum Wage Act 1998- Minimum wage act 1998 creates a guideline for
employer around the United Kingdom to set a bench mark of minimum salary for each hour. In
this act, salary benchmarking is done for different age groups. It helps the HRM to give a
minimum amount of wages and follow the instructions properly. The minimum wage act
provides the right to the every employee that they have right of getting the minimum balance of
the pay scale. The awareness of the right among the employee is generated by this act.
Sex Discrimination act 1975- This act is about prevent discrimination of men and
women at the work place. The discrimination at work place based on sex or marital status is
prevented by legal body to provide safety and security to people. This act assists the Human
resources managers to provide better work place environment to male and female employees.
Through this act the government provides the right of the equality to both male and female so
that the no discrimination can take place in the company (Barbieri, 2016).
Employment Rights Act 1996- This act protects the rights of employees at work place.
This act is including rules for employees and employers regarding rewarding, reasonably notice
period, fair dismissal, redundancy and time off for parenting. Also, this act is useful for HRM to
prevent any unfair dismissal of employees. The employee gets the right against the any
discrimination. He must understand his rights to protect himself from any loss.
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LO 4
8. Application of HRM practices at ALDI
Human Resource Management practices are the most beneficial when managing the
operations and other activities at the workplace of ALDI. It has been demonstrated that the
employees' engagement and the performance are inter connected and the role of human resource'
manager is crucial in laying the foundation of trust, team work and collaboration. For instance,
when ALDI store is opening, the manager of the project along with the other workers cooperate
and make it a successful project(Barbieri, 2016).
Moreover, they also take decisions regarding the employees salaries and leaves to
maintain the smooth running of works and responsibilities as well. In addition, the major role is
to hire the right people for the right profile at the right time. This department is the bridge that
brought radical changes in the entire workplace and manage the relations through using clear and
transparent communication channels.
JOB SPECIFICATION
For the post of Customer Service Assistant
Qualification: Graduation with minimum 50 % of marks in the final year
Experience: 0-2 years in the retailing sector
Skills: Microsoft office and proficiency in English
Responsibilities:
 Managing the calls and queries of the customers.
 Maintaining the records of the daily complaints and queries.
RESUME
Name: XYZ
Contact details: 789654123
Email: [e-mail]
Objective:
To learn the new skills in the retailing sector and become an asset to the company by gaining
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knowledge about the customer services.
Qualification:
BA Honours with CGPA of 8.5
Diploma holder in Computer Applications with distinction
Additional interest:
 Received first prize in the marathon
 Took part in National level conferences and seminars
Experience:
One year of experience at McDonalds
Hobbies:
Dancing and watching movies
Personal details:
Languages known: English and Spanish
Marital status: Single
Father's Name: ABC
Address: 215, Hilton Road, Hertfordshire, London
I, thereby certify that the above information is true and correct. Thus, the furnished information
is authentic in my knowledge.
INTERVIEW NOTES
Question 1. What are your weaknesses and strengths?
Question 2. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Question 3. What is the best quality you consider in yourself?
Question 4. What is your opinion about customers?
Question 5. Has working in an organization taught you anything?
Question 6. What is your aspiration after joining this company?
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