Human Resource Management Report: HRM Practices in the Retail Sector

This report analyzes human resource management (HRM) within the context of the retail company Asda. It begins by defining the purpose of HRM functions, including operational functions such as motivation, compensation, training and development, recruitment, and job analysis, and managerial functions like planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. The report then assesses various HRM approaches, such as workforce planning, recruitment and selection (internal and external), and training and development (on-the-job and off-the-job), evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. It further examines different methods used in HR practices, focusing on recruitment strategies, flexible operations, and employee engagement to address challenges like recession, unskilled labor, and high turnover rates. The report also covers the effectiveness of employee relations and employment legislation, and illustrates the application of HRM practices, including methods to improve recruitment and selection processes. The report concludes with a synthesis of the key findings and recommendations for effective HRM implementation.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4

TASK1.............................................................................................................................................4
1. Purpose of HR function and their key roles and responsibilities............................................4
2. Assessment of the approaches.................................................................................................6
3. Different methods used in HR practices.................................................................................8
4. Effectiveness of employee relation and employee engagement..............................................9
5. Employment legislation..........................................................................................................9
6. Evaluation of employee relation and legislations influence decision making......................10
TASK2...........................................................................................................................................10
7. Illustrate the application of HRM practices..........................................................................10
8. Methods which have improved the recruitment and selection process.................................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCE...................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the function of an organisation in which human and
other resources of the company stresses on the strategic and comprehensive approaches to
managing people and workplace culture and environment. This report examines the formal
system which is used to describe management of people within a company. Organisation
undertaken in this report is Asda which was founded in 1949 and deals in retail industry which
serves products like grocery, general merchandise and financial services (Bamberger and et.
al.,2014). This report will explain the various functions of human resource management with
their purposes. This also makes assessment of various approaches. An illustration of various
methods used in HRM practices. The usefulness of employment legislation is done in detail. An
evaluation of how employee relation and legislation influence decision making. This report will
also illustrate the application of HRM practices. It will also discuss the various methods used in
improving recruitment and selection process.
TASK1
1. Purpose of HR function and their key roles and responsibilities.
Human resource management is the pattern of recruiting, hiring, deploying and managing
an organisation’s employee. It is concerned with the development of individuals and organisation
in which they operate. They are involved not only in securing and developing the expertness of
individual workers but also in implementing programs which intensify communication and
cooperation between those workers in order to foster organisational evolution (Bringezu and
Bleischwitz, 2017). This include conducting job analysis, planning personal needs, recruiting the
correct people for the right job, managing wages and salaries, resolving disputes, etc.
Significance
HRM department of the Asda will encompass the highest level of human resource
management activities. It is a program of multiple human resource policies which are internally
consistent in relation to a human resource objectives. It also refers to the integration of human
resource management and information technology to automate and facilitate human resource
activities. A good HRM system brings consistency in human resource management practices and
improves human relation in the company.
Functions of HRM

Operational functions
 Motivation : It will focus more on motivating people in the organisation. Every
individual need motivation so that they will stay connected with the work and contributes
in accomplishing goals and objectives.
 Compensation : This function is concerned with determination of adequate and equitable
remuneration of the employees in the organisation (Collings and et. al., 2015). In this
function, the individual can be compensated in terms of monitory like bonuses,
incentives, etc. and non-monitory like recognition, respect, attention .
 Training and development : It is very important function of HR department of ASDA.
This will identify the need and requirement of adequate training in the organisation which
will be useful in developing individual and contributing in overall development of the
company. This identification can be done by observing and analysing the skills and
knowledge of employees which will be useful in knowing the need of training.
 Recruitment and selection : This function of human resource department puts emphasis
on identifying and searching the suitable candidate for the vacant job. It focuses on
employing right person with required skills and knowledge at right place. Recruitment
and selection is done by identifying vacant position in the company and evaluating its
need. Then it develops the description of the job and prepare proper recruitment plan.
Then the candidates applies and are short listed. After this, interview are conducted and
selection is made by finalising the recruitment process.
 Job analysis and design : Job analyses is the process of gathering and analysing
information about the content and human requirements of jobs. This is used to describe
the placements of jobs. Whereas, job design is the process of structuring work and
designating the specific activities at individual and group level. This is useful in
determining the responsibility of an employee, scope of decision making, level of
satisfaction, etc.
 Performance appraisal : This is a systematic evaluation of the performance of the
employees and to understand the abilities of the person for future growth and
development. This is done to maintain the records of compensation packages, salaries,
etc.

 Employee welfare : It is flexible and elastic concept. This refers to the efforts made by
employers to improve the working and living conditions. It comprises of all aspects like
health, safety, comfort and general welfare, etc.
Managerial functions
 Planning : This function of HRM is concerned with developing required plans for the
various activities of the management which will help in accomplishing organisational
goals and objectives. It involves making plans for job requirements, anticipating
vacancies, etc.
 Organising : It is the managements functions which involves organising or developing
the structure of the company which consist of coordinating activities of different
employees, assigns different group of activities to various people (Deery and Jago,
2015).
 Directing : This is concerned with implementing the developed plans which can be done
with effective motivation. This involves encouraging people to work willingly and
effectively to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organisation.
 Controlling : After planning, organising and directing, performance of an employee is
required to be checked and monitored compared with the objectives of the company. This
helps in identifying that the functions are operated as per the plans and any deviation is
detected then control measures are required to be taken.
Purposes of HRM functions
 Training and development is one of the most crucial function of HRM whose purpose is
to provide guidance and training to new and unskilled employees and the established
development programs will prepare employees for higher level responsibilities within the
company (Glendon and Clarke, 2015). Their main purpose is to provide useful means of
assuring that employees will be capable enough to perform their jobs at acceptable levels.
 Recruitment function of organisation has the primary motive to search large pool of
candidates from various sources like internal and external sources for example transfer,
promotions, campus placement, online sources, social media platforms, etc. so that

organisation will have effective and efficient employee in the company who will
contribute in organisational development.
 Performance appraisal is the process of assessing employs job performance which has a
purpose of measuring their performances and giving them feedback in accordance with it.
It is useful tool in determining the salaries, promotions, dismissal, etc.
2. Assessment of the approaches.
There are various approaches in the human resource management department which are
essentially useful in the operations and management of the ASDA and they are discussed below :
 Workforce planning : It is the process of assuring an organisation, present and future
needs. For this purpose, ASDA will use workforce planning software which will enable
them to schedule employee hours and shifts by using definite labour and sales forecasting
which matches the demand with needs of the labour (Renz, 2016). The various
approaches of workforce planning are software like NMDS-SC dashboard which
provides instant access to the workforce data and act as a diagnostic tool to assure light
on issues which can affect the business.
Advantages Disadvantages
It is useful in organisation which have cyclical
business and it improves the ability to have the
correct number of persons in the right place
and time to perform the job.
This has the primary shortfall of cost. It
requires more human resources in the
organisation to regularly plan for employees
needs which involves huge amount of money.
 Recruitment and selection : As manpower is the major elements in every organisation,
so ASDA will focus more on hiring talented pool of people who can establish the
organisation to the highest level. These two terms sound same, but they have different set
of meaning and functions. Recruiting is the process of search and influencing the
candidate to apply for perspective job in the company while selection is the process when
a person is finally selected to work in the company at desired position. The approaches of
recruitment and selection will be internal and external. Internal approaches will include
transfer, promotions while external approaches will involve recruiting agencies, online
recruitment methods like job boards, social media, campus recruitment, etc.

Advantages Disadvantages
It provides cost effectiveness and latest
technology helped in managing vacancies
effectively.
The external approaches is beneficial in
attracting large pool of people from which
right person can be selected.
Internal recruitment approaches are cost
effective as it involves little or no cost of
recruitment and selection.
Internal approaches of recruitment lacks the
new talent who can bring innovation in the
organisation.
External approaches are the expensive and time
consuming as lot of stages are involved in
them.
 Development and training : This approach of the HRM is concerned with determining,
designing, executing and analysing the various educational programs in the ASDA. This
will be useful in determine the long-term profitability of the company by evaluating the
quality of employees and their level of development. In this, human resource department
will do research for analysing organisations need, kind of training required and initiate
employee development programs. The approaches of training and development will be on
the job training and off the job training (Shappell and et. al., 2017). On the job training is
a process which is useful in providing guidance to the people at the work place only and
it includes, presentations, coaching, monitoring, etc. While off the job training is a
process of providing training to the people, away from the workplace like lectures,
conference, vestibule training, etc.
Advantages Disadvantages
On the job training is effective method, which
has high productivity for developing
individual.
On the job training is simpler in performing,
economical and workplace is the only training
centre.
Off the job training is sometimes proven to be
ineffective because it is conducted away from
workplace, time consuming and expensive.
On the job training has low productivity rates,
there can be errors in production, disturbance
arises.

3. Different methods used in HR practices.
In the below scenario,
Asda, during the period of recession faced various problems. They were not able to
operate flexibly in the changing business environment. They often faced the problem of unskilled
people who were not able to identify and analyse customer needs due to which the company fails
to satisfy customer needs. During the peak season, it put pressure on the employees to work more
than the working hours. This has increased the rate of labour turnover (Harrison and Lock,
2017). It also restricted the use of technological equipment’s in their working which has
decreased the efficiency, increased the cost of production, thus leading to overall ineffectiveness
in the operations.
So, to deal with all such issues and make organisation effective, the HR will use various
methods in their everyday practices and they are discussed below :
 Recruitment : The HR will use the hiring process effectively. They will pull in large
pool of people by using various and improved tools of recruitment like technology, social
media, etc. which will influence greater number of people and enable the company with
an ease of choosing a right person with the required abilities who can effectively
contribute in developing innovative products which can reach the company to the higher
level.
 Flexibility in operations : The organisation must enable flexible working hours to the
people. This can be done by dividing the work among the people according to their
knowledge, skills and abilities so that they can complete the work on time and minimise
the labour turnover and absenteeism (Kavanagh and Johnson, 2017).
 Motivation : For effective operations in the company, HR manager will provide
continuous motivation to the people which is very crucial to influence employees so that
they work with full zeal and confidence. This can be done financially by providing them
bonuses or incentives for working over and above the working hours. Non-financial
motivation involves promotions in the organisation, transfer, receiving recognitions for
the work performed, etc.
 Training and development : The organisation will focus on identifying and analysing
the need for training. It will assess that what kind of training is required to the people and

assures them with proper guidance so that they can accomplish the goals and objectives
in the organisation.
Benefits of HRM practices for employer and employee
Employer Employee
 Recruitment and selection helps in
attracting a suitable candidate from
large pool of candidates. It helps the
employer in searching from various
people so that the qualified and
appropriate personnel who fits in the
job can be selected.
 It also helps employer in managing the
conflicts in the organisation by
adopting efficient and various problem
solving techniques.
 By providing adequate training and
development sessions in the company,
it helps employees in learning and
gaining the advanced knowledge. This
enhances their skills and learning
abilities.
 Motivation is the act of influencing
employees to work with full zeal and
confidence in the accomplishment of
goals and objectives of the company.
Effective motivation makes employees
to work harder with their full potential
to attain business goals.
4. Effectiveness of employee relation and employee engagement.
The most important element of every business organisation is people or work force
because no business can run its operations and functions without them. For this purpose, it is
considered crucial that there must be good and healthy relations between people working in the
ASDA. If there will be smooth and friendly relations among people who are working together
than they will automatically involve or engage themselves in the organisation operations for
effectively contributing in the attainment of the business objectives. This can be done in the
company by adopting flexibility. It means that company must be flexible enough that people can
respond quickly with the changes (Mone and London, 2018). Flexible organisation can deal
rapidly and quickly with the changes in macro environmental factors. Organisation by adopting
various flexible practices in their operations like flexible working hours, which will make
employees comfortable and develops employee relations that will ultimately contributes in active

participation and involvement of employees for accomplishing goals and objectives. Also,
employer of choice which means that the company has extraordinary working environment
where many candidates are willing to stay with the employer. In this, since people will be loyal,
they will stay with their employer which will enhance their relation and improves employee
engagement. Employee relation is often presented by various elements which describes that there
is good and smooth relations between the people working in the organisation. It is presented by
good and smooth communication between employees, proper involvement in the activities of the
organisation, various rights and interest of employees, proper discipline which eliminates the
illegal practices from the company.
 Employee communication : It is the act or discipline to communicate with employees in
an organisation effectively. There are various channels for employee communication in
the company which must be followed to avoid the chances of conflicts.
 Employee participation : This process involves employees in decision making process
and is regarded as an act of empowerment at workplace. Thus, it influences people to
work in team.
 Employee discipline : It is the set of certain protocols which are required to be followed
in the organisation. This helps in maintaining discipline and ethics in the organisation.
5. Employment legislation.
Every organisation is required to have legal legislations in their organisation. They are
useful in the company because to protect and prevent the rights, duties and interest of the
individuals (Nankervis and et. al., 2016). Employment legislations enhances the various legal
laws which will protect the employee from practices like harassment, bullying, sex
discrimination, minimum wages, etc. This will make people feel safe and secure in the company
and they will work comfortably with full concentration which will ultimately contribute in
accomplishing organisational goals and objectives. The following are employment laws which
ASDA will follow and they are discussed below :
 The sex discrimination act 1975 : This act protects the employees on the aspects of
gender such as in job advertising, in selecting employee for the job, etc.
 The Equality Act 2010 : This act provides equal rights to man and women for
performing the equal work and same compensation is to be paid to both for the similar
task performed in the company.

 Working time regulation act 1998 : This act protects the employee working hours
above which they are not entitled to work legally. It set the limit which means that every
individual is required to work to an average of 48 hours in a week and the working day at
an average of 8 hours.
 Maternity and parental right : It includes maternity, paternity, unpaid paternity leave,
adoption leave and pay, shared parental which are very important in an organisation so
that employees will be able to maintain personal and professional life effectively and
efficiently by managing work life balance.
6. Evaluation of employee relation and legislations influence decision making.
Every organisation needs to think various aspects while taking decisions in the company
which will relate to employee relation and legislation. When company follows the laws
regarding harassment, bullying and other illegal practices which can take place at the workplace
then they assure the individuals and employees regarding the protection of their rights and
assures them safety and security (Nyberg and et. al., 2014). This makes them feel safe and enable
them to work with full concentration and confidence which will also contribute in not only
ASDA's profitability but also enhances the relation between the people. When legislations are
effectively adopted then it minimises the chances of conflicts and channelizes the employee
relation between the people and decisions are made such that it will be advantageous to
everyone. Also, there is law in UK regarding working hours as the employees are not entitled to
work over and above at an average of 48 hours in a week so ASDA will focus on this while
deciding their schedules such that it does not exceed above that (Ployhart and et. al., 2014).
TASK2
7. Illustrate the application of HRM practices.
Job Description
Company name : ASDA
Job title : Marketing Manager
Job description : Marketing manager job is required to perform the
functions of marketing department of the management.
They will be responsible for developing, implementing
and executing strategic marketing plans for an entire

organisation.
Requirements : 8+ years in marketing or business.
Execute and manage graphic design needs for print and
web.
Build strategic relationship and partner with key industry
players.
Oversea and approve marketing material from website
banners to hard copy brochures and case studies.
Up to trend with the latest technology and practices of
marketing.
Able to travel whenever needed.
Qualifications : Bachelors and masters degree in marketing or business.
8+ years of experience in marketing.
Strong project management skills.
Client relationships.
Operations on various marketing software.
Designing plans and taking initiative to implement.
Person specification
Attributes Essential Desirable
Educational qualifications Highly educated and qualified.
Bachelor's and master’s degree
in business or marketing field.
Degree in international trade
related qualifications.
Experience 8+years of experience in the
marketing, business or related
field.
Experience of PR and flair for
design.
Proven track record for
Worked in sales or sales
support role.
Experience of liaising with
other organisations like
graphic designers, publishers,
etc.