Human Resource Management Report for Alibaba Group: An Analysis

This report examines human resource management (HRM) practices within the context of Alibaba Group. It begins by outlining the purpose and functions of HRM, emphasizing workforce planning and resourcing. The report then analyzes various recruitment and selection approaches, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it explores the benefits of different HRM practices for both employers and employees, focusing on training, career development, and employee engagement. The report also delves into the importance of employee relations and the impact of employment legislation on HRM decision-making. It concludes with an evaluation of employee relations and the application of HRM practices, providing a comprehensive overview of key HRM concepts and their practical application within an organization.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an
organisation.................................................................................................................................1
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
.....................................................................................................................................................3
P3-Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the
employer and employee .............................................................................................................7
P4 Strengths and weaknesses of approaches of recruitment and selection.................................8
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
P5 Importance of employee relations and its influence on HRM decision making..................10
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact on HRM decision-making..........11
P7 Evaluation of employee relations and application of HRM practices that influence decision
making.......................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management includes planning personal needs, recruiting right people
for the job orientation and training and many other practices related to personnel. HRM is the
term used to describe formal systems devised for the management of people in the organization.
Alibaba Group is the Chinese multinational specializing e-commerce company founded on 4
April, 1999 by Jack Ma and Peng Lei. Its services includes business to consumers, consumers to
consumers and business to business sales services of cloud computing, electronic payment
services and shopping search engines around the world. The assignment is about the human
resource management. Present assignment will cover the purpose and function of the human
resource management applicable to the workforce planning and resourcing to the organization
along with the strengths and weaknesses to the various approaches of recruitment and selection.
The study will provide the deeper insight of the effectiveness of various HRM practices in
enhancing the profit for the organization. Later, the report will cover the importance of employee
relation and elements of employment legislation along with their impact on decision-making and
HRM practices in a work related practices.
TASK 1
P1 Purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing an
organisation
HRM is the most essential process or functional area which helps employees in better
manner. Workforce planning is the tight relationship between HRM and finance organisation and
is related to the systematic identification and analysis (Albrecht and et. al., 2015). It the
systematic process of aligning the HR needs to ensure that Alibaba Group hired right people,
with right skills to execute efficiently. Therefore, human resource management in an
organisation manages the manpower supply. It focuses on the recruitment and selection of the
management and also provide the guideline to the manpower of the Alibaba Group. The
important function of the human resource management which deals with the concern that related
to the staff, wellness benefits motivation and training.
Purpose of HRM
1

Purpose and function of the HRM applicable to workforce planning and resourcing are
mentioned under-
Functions of Human Resource Management
The function of human resource management is basically categorized in three categories
i.e. operative function, managerial function and advisory function.
Operative function
Recruitment
To recruit people is one of the important function which the human resource manager
plays. Recruiting people requires lots of knowledge, skills, experience and understanding by HR
in Alibaba Group (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Developing job description, publishing job
posting, making job offer etc. are some function of the recruitment.
Training and Development
Training and development is another important function which human resource manager
of Alibaba Group has to perform. Providing training by conducting training and development
program to the people who are employed in Alibaba Group is the chief function performed by
the human resource manager of Alibaba Group.
Compensation and Benefit
The human resource manager of Alibaba Group gives various compensation and benefits
tot he employees working in organization. The compensation and benefit includes the working
hour flexibility, extended vacation, different allowance etc.
Managerial function
Workforce planning in the organization requires work to be done systematically. In order
to do successful workforce planning, there are some managerial function which is to be perform
by HR manager of the Alibaba Group. Following functions are listed under -
Planning
The very important function which HR manager perform is design. Provision is first and
foremost important function. In designing the HR manager of Alibaba Group set the policies and
procedures to accomplish the objectives and goals. When the preparation comes HR manager of
Alibaba Group must foresee the vacancies to be filled in and set the Jon requirement.
Organizing
2

The second essential function is organizing. This function involves the grouping of
employees according to the activities they are going to performed. It involves the delegation of
authority in task.
Directing
In this function, HR manager of Alibi Group directs the employees to achieve the goals
as per the planning.
Controlling
This is concerned with the apprehension of activities as per plans which was formulated
on the basis of goals of the company (Armstrong, Landers and Collmus, 2016).
Advisory functions
Advisory role performed by the human resource manager is advice to the top
management which includes that the HR manager can advise the top management of Alibaba
Group regarding the policies and procedure.
Purpose of human resource managements
 Encouraging work force resources and occupational goals.
 Re-engineering administration processes.
 Perceiving and answering to employees to keep advanced job-satisfaction levels.
 Tackling modification and change.
 Staffing (i.e. hiring and firing) and training.
 Understanding and integration of labour laws and ethics.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment and selection
It is the process of hiring employees who are potential or beneficial for the company.
Moreover, it brings new channel of method and helps to make more strong team in better
manner.
Recruitment and selection in an organization plays a very important role. The approaches
of recruitment and selection are of two types i.e. internal sources of recruitment selection and
external sources of recruitment and selection.
Internal sources of recruitment & selection
3

Internal recruitment and selection is the method of recruitment helps to hire the best
employees for the organisation. It also helps to define the best sources long term task. Internal
method is the process in which HR hire employees within the company. Besides, external
method of recruitment helps company to get employees from outside the company campus.
Alibaba Group practices this approach in order to motivate and skilled employees of the
organization to decrease the employee turnover and cost to receive the competitive advantage
(Bratton and Gold, 2017). Various sources of recruitment and selection are listed below.
Illustration 1: Internal sources of recruitment and selection
(Source : Internal and external sources of recruitment and selection, 2017 )
TRANSFER
In transfer, the employees of the organization are transferred to the similar job of
different department. It does not includes the responsibility, salary and position of the job.
PROMOTION
It includes the vacancies in the organization that are filled by doing the promotion of the
skilled employees for the appropriate jobs (Cascio, 2015). Promotion in an organization
motivates the employees by giving high position, increment in salary, responsibilities and status.
4

EMPLOYEES OF THE ORGANISATION
In this, employees of the organization communicate and inform for the vacant position in
the Alibaba Group to their friend.
Strengths and Weaknesses of internal sources of recruitment
Strengths
 The employee loyalty increases towards the organization when the existing
employees are granted to acquire the higher positions of the organization.
 It helps in maximizing the job satisfaction and motivates the employees.
 The organization culture is being well known by existing employees.
 It helps in reducing the employee turnover.
Weaknesses
 The scope of finding skilled and more efficient people is being reduced by
Internal sources of recruitment ans selection.
 This approach do not support the introduction of skills and abilities within the
organisation.
 It becomes a competitive advantage to the competitors for losing more efficient
persons from the external environment.
EXTERNAL SOURCES
External sources under which company recruit employees from outside the company from
colleges, institution or from third party.
There are various external sources of recruitment and selection's conducted in Alibaba
Group such as media advertisements, recruitment agencies, casual callers, walk-ins employment
exchange and so on. Some of them are discussed under.
5

Illustration 2: External sources of recruitment and selection
(sources: internal and external sources of recruitment and selection, 2017)
Different
approaches
Strengths Weaknesses
Recruitment
agencies
 Speed of valid response from
the dedicated staff.
 Only pre-screened and pre-
referenced candidates, therefore
of a higher quality.
 database of people who have
expressed a desire to move, so
able to react quickly
 Single organization
can mean only one
database though
agencies will also
advertise your
positions externally
on your behalf.
 Candidates may
prefer to deal
6

directly with the
potential employer
Search consultants They have the specialist knowledge of
recruitment market.
 Discretion
 Search the people who can do
the job
 It is costly
 It has limited pool of
candidates
 In availability of
shortlisted
Press advertising  Positively communicates the
recruitment messages and
brand.
 Sends a positive message about
the company’s fortunes to the
marketplace.
 Trade publications target
candidates with specific skills or
experience (Collings Wood and
Szamosi, 2018).
 high upfront costs
and no guarantee of
success and return
on investment
 often a slow process,
especially if using
trade/specialist
press.
 Limited to those who
read that particular
newspaper or journal
P3-Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer
and employee
Basically, HRM practices not only benefits the worker but also facilitates numerous
advantage to the employer of a company so as Alibaba Group. Following are the benefit of the
different HR practices in Alibaba Group.
Training and career development – Following are the benefits of the training and development
to the employees and employers of Alibaba Group.
Employer benefit Employee benefit
 Human capital of organization is
being increases by the Training and
development.
 The efficiency and profitability of
the organization is being increases
 The performances of the employee
of Alibaba Group can be improved by
training and development.
 motivation and morale of the
employee enhances by traning and
7

by the help of Training and
development (Functions & Practices
of Human Resource Management,
2014).
 As employees gain knowledge and
skills they became more accountable
development (Jackson, Schuler and
Jiang, 2014).
Employee engagements
Following are the benefits of the employee managements to an employee or employer
Employers
 The busy employee will stay with the administration.
 With the trust and cooperation ,adversarial mentality can be replaced.
 It fosters the creativity and innovation and the commitment to the employers.
Employees
 Employees will get the long term assurance for their services
 The employer provides appraisal, rewards, perks and benefits.
P4 Strengths and weaknesses of approaches of recruitment and selection
Approaches to recruitment and selection can be said as process of filling up the vacant
job positions by qualified candidate. This is done through recruitment and selection of people in
organisation. Following are strengths and weaknesses of these approaches-
Strengths-
Advancement of company- Through effective recruitment and selection process,
Alibaba Group has an opportunity to bring new and fresh talents of employees in the firm which
will further help in developing and advancing of the company. Internal recruitment will develop
morale among the employees and existing people already know working of Alibaba Group, they
will contribute more towards the company.
Managerial Involvement- Recruitment and selection process will bring all the people of
Alibaba Group together in order to develop proper guidelines which will help in selecting an
appropriate candidate. Better job descriptions can be made by managers as they already know
future needs of their own departments. This can further help in determining needs for educational
qualifications of candidate for the required job positions of company.
8

Qualified personnel- Recruitment and selection will help to attract more number of
customers to apply for the job in Alibaba Group. This will give Alibaba Group many choices to
select the most appropriate candidates for job. Effective selection and recruitment process will
help in selecting the best qualified personnel for the organisation(Furnham, 2017). Qualified
personnel will help in increasing efficiency and productivity of the firm further generating more
profits for Alibaba Group.
Developing morale- Approaches to recruitment and selection will help in developing
morale of employees. Internal recruitment will influence other people working in Alibaba Group
to work more efficiently and productively so that next time they can get an opportunity for
promotion or advancement. External recruitment will help in motivating employees of Alibaba
Group to work more efficiently towards achievement of determined objectives by seeing the new
selected candidate.
Weaknesses-
Time consuming- Process of recruitment and selection can be said as more time
consuming and expensive as managers of Alibaba Group gets many resumes and applications for
job from unqualified persons. Making a choice out of these applications can take more time and
became an expensive process. Also, conducting interviews and checking each resume thoroughly
will consume more time and this will further hamper day to day activities of Alibaba Group.
Lack of attracting more qualified personnel- Alibaba Group using social media and
many social networking sites for attracting more number of candidates to apply for the job, will
not help in bringing the best candidate in the organisation as not all people are using social
media. This will create a barrier in selecting the best suitable candidates for vacant job positions
of the company.
Affect the working of company- Recruitment and selection process involves managers
to concentrate more on conducting interviews and selecting of qualified personnel, leaving back
their own activities to perform. Neglecting of their own activities will affect the day to day
working of Alibaba Group creating a situation of decreased efficiency and productivity of the
firm. Because of this, overall effectiveness of Alibaba Group is affected leading to a decrease in
sales figure of the company.
9