Human Resource Management Report: Aldi, HRM Practices and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Aldi, a leading supermarket chain. It begins with an introduction to HRM, its functions, and purpose, emphasizing its significance in employee management and organizational success. The report then delves into the core functions of HRM at Aldi, including planning, job analysis, work design, compensation and benefits, recruitment and selection, orientation, employee relations, and training and development. It highlights the features and scopes of HRM, followed by an exploration of different HRM approaches, such as Hard HRM and Soft HRM. The report further examines the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection methods, including internal and external sources, and the benefits of different HRM practices for both employers and employees. It also discusses performance appraisal systems and the significance of hiring qualified candidates. Overall, the report offers a detailed overview of HRM principles and their application in a real-world business context, demonstrating how effective HRM contributes to organizational goals and employee satisfaction.

Human Resource
Management

INTRODUCTION
Employees are considered as the lifeline of any enterprise as they serves as source of
innovation, skills and knowledge utilizing which a firm achieve its targets and satisfy customers
needs and aspiration to earn higher returns. The practices of HRM ensures that by applying
various rewarding schemes company is recognizing the efforts of their employees which they
are putting for generating revenues for the organization. ALDI, a leading supermarket, based in
UK is taken in this report for study. Functions and purpose of HRM and different methods of
both recruitment and selection is all given in this report. The assignment will also evaluate the
significance of employee relations and will give brief about different labour laws that are formed
by the government for protecting the rights of an employee (Cascio , 2018).
TASK 1
P1 HRM Purpose and Functions
Human resource management is considered the most important function for an enterprise
as it deals in transform the limited available resource of the firm into maximum output by
coordinating and managing the efforts of most valuable resources of a firm – its employees.
HRM becomes significant as it works towards developing amicable relations between the
employer with its workforce. Hence a proficient, loyal and dedicated employee is of utmost
importance to be retained by business because knowledge and skills of an individual are the two
aspects that cannot be substituted in this competitive market scenario. Aldi being a leading
brands manages a team of more than 30,000 employees (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). The
HRM manager of Aldi puts their staff in center of focus while forming any policies, strategies
or procedures to ensure that they besides achieving organization objectives an worker can also
accomplish his personal goals for career growth.
Mentioned below are some of the important functions which Aldi undertaken for developing
an efficient and satisfied workforce:-
 Planning: One of the most prominent function of HRM department of Aldi is to conduct
planning related staffing and development of employee. It comprises taking decision on
requisite no and type of employees that are required for a firm to achieve its objectives
effectively with maximum output and higher profits.
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 Job Analysis: It is process of assessing the nature of the job along with identifying
requisite in terms of skills, capabilities and knowledge that an employee is expected to
posses in order to successfully carry out his assigned tasks.
 Work design:Its forms core function of HRM that relates to deciding the content of a job
profile in terms of its roles and responsibilities that an employee is expected to fulfill.
 Employees Compensation and benefits: Another important function of HRM manger
of Aldi is to formulate policies for recognizing the efforts of employees that they put in
achieving goals and objectives of a firm. It includes providing various monetary and non
monetary benefits to its employees to encourage them to work with best of their abilities
to attain firms targets with proper efficiency.
 Recruitment and selection: Selection and recruitment forms the base of HRM as it
supports the enterprise in perfectly aligning its aims and objectives with the personal
goals and aspiration of its employees , so that they can work in one direction with best of
their efforts to achieve the set targets. These processes includes identification of job
requirement, screening the applications and then selecting and placing the most suitable
candidate at the right post so as to improve organizational productivity.
 Orientation: Orientation is the program organized by every business firm for its new
joiners to make them familiar with the policies, procedures and working culture of the
company and about their roles and responsibilities in the firm. It is an important event as
it enables them to know the company and its people and helps them to get adjusted in
the new working environment (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017).
 Managing employee relations: It is one of the most significant functions of HRM as it
helps in maintaining proper coordination, understanding and mutual respect between the
management and its workforce. HRM managers by applying various team building
activities tries to enhance the cooperation, through various activities of team building
tries to develop proper collaboration and mutual trust among its workforce and also
between management and employees.
 Training and development: It is an indispensable function of HRM which aims at
enhancing performance level of the new joiner as well as of the existing staff by giving
them training in the areas of improvement so as to induce and increase their skills an
knowledge (Marchington and et. al., 2016). It motivates them and build their confidence
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to be more competitive and proficient to take up the challenges related to their present
and future job and complete them successfully.
The sole responsibility of the Human resource management is to ensures that the objectives of
the company are achieves with efficiency within the specific time. Features and scopes of HRM
are mentioned below:
Features:-
 It mainly focuses on outcomes rather than on rules
 It helps in developing the skills and knowledge of employees through proper training.
 It ensures right person, at right job, at right time for timely achievement of goals and
objectives.
 It is all pervasive in nature.
There are variety of approaches to manage HR in a business. Two main approaches are,
 Hard HRM- Hard HRM treats employees as machines and it main concern is to get the
work done. The top management follows autocratic leadership and maintains minimum
communication with the employees.
 Soft HRM: In soft hrm approach employees are treated as the precious resources to attain
objectives and get an edge over competitors. The manager follows democratic style of
leadership and involves employees in decision making process.
M1
An efficient and effective HRM is of vital importance for an organisation to ensure that
the most suitable proficient candidates are hired to full the job vacancy so as to get the
advantage of creative and innovative ideas for accomplishing the tasks leading to increase in
productivity of the company, getting maximum outcomes and earning higher profits. Thus, the
management should give due importance to its human resource by formulating policies and
procedures that recognize their efforts so that a cordial relationship can be maintained between
management and employees. Also HRM is requires to effectively and efficiently carry out its
various functions that relates to carry out proper planning related to hiring of employees by
carefully assessing job requirements along with formulating employee oriented policies for
encouraging them and to maintain and enhance relations between management and employees.
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D1
According to Donate and de Pablo, (2015), in case of particular vacancy a company
should use internal strategies along with external strategies for identifying the best suitable
candidate. The organization should first source the required talent for the job internally through
formal and informal methods. The external source should be opted in case the job position
required highly professional or an expert candidate. Also firm should carry out proper work and
job analysis so that requisite capabilities and qualification required to carry out a particular tasks
could be a identified and referred during hiring a particular candidate.
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Recruitment and selection are the first and the foremost functions of HRM. Recruitment
is the process of identifying the job requirements, attracting the candidates, short listing from the
applicants and then appointing the most suitable person for the vacancy whereas selection
involves interviewing the selected candidates and evaluating their skills and capabilities to check
their suitability in reference to vacant post. This is known as a positive process and selection is a
negative process.
There are two main recruitment sources and are mentioned below:
 Internal sources: Internal recruitment involves hiring employee from within the
organisation or motivating them to apply for a job opening within the firm. Internal
sources of recruitment includes – transfer, promotions, present employees, retired
employees etc.
Advantages Disadvantages
 It helps in motivating the employees
and increasing help in offer them job
satisfaction.
 It reduces the cost and efforts of the
management incur on recruitment,
selection and orientation processes.
 It increases the loyalty of the
 It reduces the chance of recruiting skilled
and more proficient people..
 It reduces the introduction of fresh blood
in the organization leading to limiting the
scope of new ideas and innovation.
 Candidate work with same set of idea on
which he started working initially.
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employees towards the company.
 External sources: Recruitment from external source involves hiring more efficient and
competitive individual from outside the organization. Its sources includes campus
interview, employment exchange,placement agencies, walk in interviews and
competitors (Albrecht and et. al., 2015).
Advantages Disadvantages
 Most suitable candidate can be hired
for the job position.
 Bring new talent in the organization
giving a way to new and innovative
ideas..
 It motivates and encourages the
existing staff to enhance their skills
and proficiency to competitive
 It is lengthy, time consuming and
expensive process.
 It led to sense of insecurity and
dissatisfaction among existing staff.
 New candidate might not get support and
cooperation from existing staff leading to
conflict sand disputes.
M2
Recruitment and selection gives an accurate idea out hiring of candidates. These approaches
should be carefully evaluated on the basis of their strength and weakness to ensure right
candidate at right job position at the right time when he is required (Stone and et. al., 2015).
Internal and external are the two major approaches of recruitment. In internal recruitment
manager identify and promote the current employee to fill higher job vacancies. One of the main
benefit of internal recruitment is that it encourages employees to work well and improve their
productivity. In case of external recruitment, manager invite and select employee from outside
the enterprise. Disadvantage of this approach is that it decreases morale of current employees but
advantage of this is that it brings innovation at workplace.
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TASK 2
P3 Benefits of different HRM practices for both the employer and employee.
Human resource management plays a very significant role in the success and growth of
an organization. With the help of HRM practices, a manager formulate schemes and procedures
that enhance the performance level of the employees thereby helping the company to efficiently
and effectively achieve its targets. Proper policies and strategies formulation helps in avoiding
unwanted risks that can adversely impact the productivity of organisation.
HRM practices for employer and employees are:
Performance appraisal system: Performance appraisal is an essential tool for documenting and
then evaluating the efficiency level of an employee productivity in terms of pre determined
goals. It includes comparing the performance of an employee with the pre determines standards
i.e. measuring the actual performance with the desired performance. This assist the manager in
finding the areas of lacking of the employees and designing the suitable training program for
them to overcome that lacking and making them proficient in their work (Shen and Benson,
2016).
Benefits of performance appraisal:
 It helps in increasing the motivation and loyalty of the employees as the appraisal system
indicate that entity require to improve performance of individual which help him in
career development process.
 It helps the manager to continuous keep a track of performance level of every employee
and to correct or notify them about any deviations or lackings.
 The employees become aware of the company's expectation with then and can discuss
issues with the manager.
Hiring of candidates: It is one of the major and most crucial responsibility of an employer as it
involves hiring the best suitable candidate for particular designation. This process has a direct
impact on the growth and success of a firm as any unqualified or misfit candidate at wrong job
profile may hamper the productivity of a n enterprise. The management can opt for various
recruitment sources and selection procedures (Abdullah and Zulkifli, 2015).
Benefits of hiring candidates are:
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1. Company gets the advantage of new and creative ideas.
2. It helps the company by increasing its productivity level and getting a competitive edge
over its business rivals.
3. Timely achievement of goals and objectives of the firm.
Compensation and benefits: It is policy and procedures that are implemented by an organization
for recognizing the contribution and efforts of the employees which they put in achieving firm's
objectives. It is an act of motivating them by providing rewards to them in return for their
services provided to the organization. Compensation is given to the employees to increase their
morale. It includes both monetary value like bonus, pay increment etc. and non – monetary
value like promotion etc. Benefits on the other hand are the extra perks that is giving other than
actual pay scale. For example various type of insurance, retirement plan, housing facility etc.
Building flexible work place: As employees forms cornerstone of every organization utilizing
whose abilities a firm attains its targets, mangers of Aldi strives to provide comfortable working
environment for its employees. The firm by following democratic leadership style encourages its
staff to be participative in decision making process and give their creative ideas, views related to
particular business scenario.
Maintaining good employee and employer relations: By formulating various team building
activities HRM mangers of Aldi strives to maintain and enhance mutual coordination and
cooperation among its workforce.
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices
Aldi being of the global leader in discounted supermarkets aims towards giving its
customers the best shopping experience. Aldi manager work on the principal to satisfy its
people- customers and employees (Grobelna and Marciszewska, 2016). In this
reference,following are the practices that can be considered are :-
Flexible working hours: Flexibility in working hours helps in reducing the stress level of
employees and to maintain their work life balance resulting it increasing their morale and
performance level. Applying this Aldi can improve morale and commitment of its workforce
which will benefit in increasing productivity level of them and in addition to this it will enhance
the relations between management & employees.
Measuring performance: It is the practice of measuring the work efficiency and
performance level of an employee in relation to set standards. It is essential to monitor as
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training and development forms a major part of company's expense. Aldi managers together with
their employees plans, review and evaluate and monitor their performance so that both their
personal and professional goals could be achieved successfully (Ones, Viswesvaran and
Schmidt, 2017).
Payment & Reward Management:- It includes formation and implementation policies,
procedures and strategies that aims towards recognizing employees by rewarding them in return
for their service and contribution in an organization. It includes both monetary rewards such as ,
bonus etc. or non monetary rewards like promotion etc.
Training and development: Training and development equip an employee with
necessary skills, knowledge and techniques that are essential for carrying out present and future
tasks. This helps Aldi in creating future leaders capable of facing big challenges and taking
higher responsibilities.
M3
Human resource management practices are important and beneficial for the company to
maximise their turnover as well gain cooperative benefits easily. It will also support the
company to accomplish their predetermined goals and objectives in an effective and efficient
manner. A firm thus undertakes various hrm practices for maintaining a cordial relationship
between employer and employee which is requisite for smooth functioning of a firm.
Employees are therefore giving due consideration as it is their efforts and dedication that helps
company to attain customer satisfaction and an edge over its business competitor.
D2
HRM practices assists the manager in completing the routine tasks of an organization
that contributes in timely and successful achievement of company's goals and objectives. It is
the responsibility of a manager to form strategies that results in development of knowledge and
skills of employees to make them competitive in their work. Also it is of utmost importance for a
manager to maintain amicable relationship between its workforce and employer as it directly
affects the profitability and performance of the firm.
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TASK 3
P5, M4, D3 Importance of employee relations
It is significant for an organization to maintain a healthy & amicable relationship with it
staff, they serves as a source of innovation, knowledge & creative ideas for any company . Thus
it is of uttermost importance for a firm to develop cordial relationship with mutual respect and
trust among its employees and management (Baum, 2015). Managers of Aldi puts considerable
efforts in this aspect by encouraging and involving their employees to participate in decision
making process by giving ideas and feedbacks. Significance of employee relations is evidence
from the following points:-
Timely achievement of set objectives : In situations where the matter involved is
critical for taking sole decisions involving employees to participate in decision making process
serves as a effective solution. It not only lead to taking correct and effective decisions but also
provide the benefit of creative and innovative ideas from the employees.
Discourage Conflicts & Fights: If there is proper coordination & mutual understanding
among the workforce then people became ignorant to each other faults and concentrate on work
assigned to them rather than indulging themselves in meaningless arguments & conflicts.
Leads to increase in productivity : When employees are provided with a good and
friendly working environment where they are motivated to be pro active and participative its
results in building up their morale and confidence. This leads to reduction in problems of
absenteeism & turnovers resulting in an increase in productivity of organization (Baum,
Schäfer and Kabst , 2016).
Profit maximization: With a well coordinated team of professional who are dedicated
and loyal towards the company, Aldi will be able to accomplish all its tasks within the specific
time limit. It will contribute in increasing the productivity level which will considerably
improve its revenue, market share & goodwill leading Aldi to earn maximum profit on its sales.
 Employment Relation Act : Aldi is adhere by the law laid down by government which
provides employees with right to be present with or accompanied by certain trade unions
members, co workers at any grievance or disciplinary hearings. It provides that
accompanied person could address meeting or hearing but is not allowed to answer
questions on behalf of the employee presented for hearing.
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