Human Resource Management in Aldi: Report on Functions and Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) functions and practices, using Aldi, a UK-based supermarket chain, as a case study. It begins by outlining the major purposes of HRM, including recruitment, job analysis, performance appraisal, and employee relations. The report then delves into the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment methods, such as internal and external sourcing. It further explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, including training, motivation, and improved employee retention. The effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing organizational productivity and profit is examined, highlighting the impact of employee satisfaction, training programs, and team building. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making and the key elements of employment legislation that impact the HRM process. The report concludes with a discussion on the practical application of HRM practices in a work-related context, providing a detailed overview of the key aspects of HRM within the chosen organization.

HR MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P 1....................................................................................................................................................1
Major purpose of HRM functions .........................................................................................1
P 2....................................................................................................................................................2
Strength and weaknesses of various methods used in recruitment process ...........................2
P 3....................................................................................................................................................4
Benefits of HRM practices for employer and employees.....................................................4
P 4....................................................................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing organisational productivity and profit ........6
P 5 ...................................................................................................................................................7
Importance of employee relation in influencing decision making of HRM...........................7
P 6 ..................................................................................................................................................8
Key elements in employment legislation and impact of it on HRM decision making process8
P 7....................................................................................................................................................9
Application of HRM practices in work related context .........................................................9
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The function of hiring,recruiting and giving direction to the employee of the organisation
is called human resource management. HRM includes activities like job analysis, training , salary
management, performance evaluation , interaction with employees etc. Aldi is a supermarket
chain of United Kingdom which has it stores in more than 18 countries. The company was found
in 1913. Effective Human resource requires knowledge about the industry and skills of
leadership. Present report describes about functions of HRM and their triplication in workforce.
Strength and weaknesses methods of recruitment is explained in the report. Advantages of
human resource practices in the company has been evaluated. HRM practices effectiveness in
the organisation has been discussed. Further more, significance of relation of employee which
can impact decision making of company are illustrated. Moreover, key element and impact of
legislation in the company's HRM has been evaluated.
P 1
Major purpose of HRM functions
Human resource management is the process of planning, organising, recruiting, selecting,
directing and controlling manpower of the organisation. In broad sense, it includes training and
development, compensation management, employee relations and performance management.
Aldi is major supermarket chain which is headquartered in United Kingdom. It has its stores in
many countries and it is a leading supermarket in the country (Aldi . 2017). Human resource
management is essential for the company to mange all the activities within the organisation.
Purpose of human resource management is to manage all the all the employee related activities
in the company (Cavallini and et.al., 2016). They gives training to staff member to guide them
regarding organisations discipline. HRM of organisation supports in making decisions of the
organisation . They also promote healthy work practices within the company to improve the
performance fo employees in th workplace. Effective training helps in the development of
workforce of the business organisation. Function of HRM in Aldi is as follows :
Hiring and recruitment : Recruitment is the procedure of selecting right candidate who is
suitable for the particular post in the company. The objective of the process is to fascinate
candidate who ere qualified enough to be hired by company. Human resource of the business
organisation chooses and hires best candidate. Their work is to promote vacant place in the
company and hire a person to fill up that place.
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Analysis of job : In this analysis human resource of the company provide description of
particular job. They also specifies qualification and skills required for job. In the designing of
the job HRM department of the organisation outlines the task and responsibilities associated with
it (Doldor, Sealy and Vinnicombe, 2016).
Appraisal for employee performance : Human resources role is to give appraisals for the
performance of the employee in the organisation. They give timely rewards and incentives to
every staff member of the company.
Resourcing and planing of workforce: This is the major role of human resource to plan and
allocate task to each member of the organisation (Ronda-Pupo, 2017). They assign specific duty
to each employee in the company. They make strategies and plans to assign job roles to every
one. They allocate task to people according to their capabilities and skills. They also ensures that
each employee provides outcome according to the demand .
Managing relationship with employees : Employee constitutes major part of any company.
Managing relationship with employee is important function of human resource. They help to
boost relation of employee with the company. They can impact behaviour of staff members and
their performance. They maintain healthy relations by maintaining balance between workers and
employer of the enterprise (Parry and McCarthy, eds., 2016). Human resource also provide
training to employees for improving their performance in work.
P 2
Strength and weaknesses of various methods used in recruitment process
Various approaches are used by organisation in recruitment and selection process. Aldi
can use internal and external approaches in selection and recruiting process in the organisation.
Internal sourcing method : In this process of recruitment, organisation sends notification to
existing employees about vacancy. In this method of selection employee are required to fill the
vacant position in company. Sometime existing employee are promoted to fill the vacancy.
There are some strength and weakness of this recommitment and selection process for Aldi are :
Strengths :
 This method cost very low to the organisation. It provides fast results in filling the
vacant post.
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 Candidates are known from the operations in the company and it requires less training to
train candidate (Lakshminarayanan , Pai and Ramaprasad , 2016).
 It provide opportunities to employee to get promoted within the business entity.
 Company already knows the ability and skill of the employee due to which it becomes
easier for organisation in assigning roles..
Weaknesses :
 Internal sourcing approach restricts the qualified candidate to apply for the post.
 Company do not get candidate from outside which limits the new and innovative ideas.
 It can cause hostility among existing employees because not al the employee get chances
to be promoted. It create more vacancy as the existing employees get promoted to the post. Due to this
post of the present worker need to be filled again.
External sourcing method :In external sourcing method business venture hires outside candidate
to fill up the vacant post. Company post advertisements and in newspaper and makes
announcements about the current vacancies. This method has some weaknesses and strength for
Adli's selection process :
Strength :
 Outside people hiring helps in bringing nee ideas and innovation in the company. New
employee can bring out of the box thinking which may help in growth of the
organisation.
 Recruitment staff gets large amount of candidate to choose the best suitable candidate for
the post .
 Outside people who have experience require less amount of training. So it saves time of
training too . (Mansour , 2015).
Weaknesses :
 External sourcing is a longer process and requires time to find the suitable candidate.
 It cost very high to the company due to requirement of job posting and interviewing.
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 Selection procedure sometime not effective to to get the best person for the organisation.
P 3
Benefits of HRM practices for employer and employees
Human resource management predicates in Aldi have many benefits for both employer
and employee. Some benefits of these practices are as follows:
 HRM of the organisation supports in providing training the employees. Once the
employee get appointed for the company they make plans to give guidance and direction
to the worker.
 Various HRM practices that are deployed by the business entity helps in accomplishing
the objectives efficiently (Saunders and Townsend, 2016). Human resources of the
company makes strategies for company to achieve goals in defined time.
 HRM of Aldi can help company in hiring and section process of the company. Training
programs provide by HR's make aids for the organisation to increase its revenue and
profits.
 HRM practices helps in motivating employees by giving them rewards for their good
performance in the organisation. They also monitors progress of employee to find out the
weakness and strengths of particular employee. These practices also help in promoting
positive behaviour within the company.
 Human resources also helps in development of employee in the organisation by giving
them proper training regarding the work (Jima and Raju, 2015). Firm also provide
resources to educate employee and opportunities to share their ideas.
 HRM practices support company in decreasing employee retention rate. Good HRM
practices keeps workers motivated towards their work. It also helps in building team
spirit in the staff members. They gives guidance to all employees to learn to work in
teams.
 Human resource management practices try to build the workplace flexible for each
worker in the business entity. They support each employee to adjust in working
environment in the company .
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 HRM helps in making rules and principle in the enterprise which are to be followed by all
the workers. These rules and regulations supports company to make employees
disciplined.
 HR also solves conflicts and disputes in the organisation. They also help in decision
making so that things can be managed properly.
 These practices support in establishing good relationship between employee and
employer. They take timely meetings and conferences . In these meetings they try to
identify the problem of employee (Fu, 2016.). They solve the problem and give solution
to the worker.
 HRM practices also help company to make strategies and plans to enhance sales. They
give ideas to business organisation in promoting their business.
 Reward System: In this process employees are provided with rewards on the basis of
their performance. It helps in motivating workforce and increasing their performance.
Aldi is provides rewards like bonus, incentives and other benefits like discount vouchers
to their employees on the basis of their effective performance.
 Flexible working: Employees are provided with flexible working time which enable
them to maintain balance between their work and other than work activities.
 Performance management: HRM is considering various step for maintaining
performance of employees. HR department of Aldi is also organising activities like
training and learning. With this help of this step organisation is able to enhance skills and
improve their ability. It helps in increasing performance of employees and supports the
company in maximising their profitability.
P 4
Effectiveness of HRM practices in increasing organisational productivity and profit
HRM practices have major significance in increasing productivity of the Aldi' s business.
The human resources of the company makes strategies to increase the profit of the organisation.
HRM practices provide job satisfaction to employee due to which performance of the worker
increases. Good performance from staff members help in increasing productivity of the business
entity. (Haghirian, ed., 2016) These practices for human resources try to improve the existing
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procedures of the company . Improvement in procedures supports in making good decision for
the organisation. HR of the business venture recruits suitable employer so that they can help in
enhancing the profitability of the company. They conduct training and development program for
these employee to improve their working style. Improvement in work of employee help in
augmenting growth of the organisation. They provide incentives and reward to motivate
employees which encourages employee to provide better outcome from his/her work.
Effective HRM practices make plans for organisation to make amendments in the current
plans so that productivity of the company gets increased. They encourages staff member to
participate in the decision making process of the business venture. Employee participation
decision making of the company help in getting better and innovative ideas. These ideas help
company to make better plans which in turn support organisation to increase its profitability
(Appiah-Adu and Bawumia, 2016). The HR' s of enterprise provides guidance to employees in
organisational behaviour. Great organisational culture helps in making good environment in the
company. Team building is also done by human resources practices which help in achieving
organisational goals. HRM practices also makes financial plans for the company to maintain
revenue of the company. HRM practices in Aldi are incresing its performance and resulting in
better productivity. HR 's of the company also maintain relationship between employer en
employee. Good relationship with employee provides better performance from worker. It
supports in increasing productivity of the firm. HRM practices also includes timely meeting to
find out flaws in the current procedure which are reducing profitability of the company (Bonache
and Trullen, 2015). They take ideas from employee to improve the process which can help in
increasing profitability of company. . These practices finds barrier which are hindering the
productivity of business venture. These roadblocks are removed by HRM to enhance
productivity.
HRM practices are creating significant impact in maximising profitability and growth of
company. In this process various activities are considered by the management of the Aldi such as
reward system, flexible working and performance management. With the help of reward system,
organisation is motivating employees by providing them bonus. It maintains the performance of
employees through which Aldi is able to maximise their productivity and profitability. Through
flexible work, worker are free to perform their work from any place. It helps the employees in
focusing their work due to which they are able to produce effective outcome. Similarly,
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performance management, improves skills of employees and enhance their performance. On the
basis of these HRM practices Aldi is able to increase their productivity and profit.
P 5
Importance of employee relation in influencing decision making of HRM
Employee Relations are made of two words i.e. employee which means workforce of
organisation and relations which means the way two or more person are connected with each
other. Thus, employee relations means the interconnections of thoughts, beliefs and values
between employees and employers or employees and employees in the organisations.
Relationship of employee with the HRM of Aldi can affect the decision making process of the
company to great extent. Good relationship of the employee with employer is maintained by
human resources . They encourages staff members to participate in decision making process of
the company. Innovative ideas form employee help organisation in making decision effective.
There are several problem arises in company which cannot be solved alone. The company also
needs suggestion from the workers to solve a particular problem in the organisation. Healthy
relationship with the employees helps company in making decisions which are valuable for
company. Individual participation in decisions for the organisation motivates employee. Good
relationship with individual worker will help Aldi's in determine the weak performing areas in
the company. These weak areas can be improved with the help of staff members.
Healthy relationship with employee helps Human resource management to solve conflict
in the company. If any dispute arises in organisation it can be easily solved by HRM with help
of employees (Mir, Willmott and Greenwood, eds., 2015). Good relationship of employee with
employer helps in making decision which can improve the profitability of organisation.
Workplace environment also gets better if the relation of employee is good with employer of
company. Human resource gives rewards to employees who are performing better in the
company. These rewards also help in making good relation of employee with business
organisation. Good relationship with employee is very important as they provide innovative
ideas which can work as an aid for increasing productivity of the company.
Human resources of Aldi has an important role in making good relation of employee
with the company. They interact with employees and finds out the problems they are facing in
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the organisation. They help individual to maintain for relationship with all team members. Good
relation of worker help in accomplish goal of the organisations. Decision making process gets
easier of the relationship of staff member is good with the organisation (Fu, 2016). It is required
that organisation should interact with employees. It will help Aldi to make determine the flaws
in their processes. Support from employee in making strategies is an aid for company. Plans to
accomplish objectives of the business also gets better if the relationship of employee is good.
Thus employee relationship plays a major role in managing workforce of the company.
P 6
Key elements in employment legislation and impact of it on HRM decision making process
There are various legislation made for employee which can affect the decision making
process of Aldi's human resource management. Legislations are made for employee's protection.
These legislations need to be taken in account by the human resource management of the
organisation (Haghirian ed., 2016). Here are some legislation that should be followed by HRM
of Aldi for smooth flow of activities within the company:
Equality act 2010 : Equality act protect workers of the company form being discriminated in
the workplace (Legislation .2017). This act legally provides protection to the worker from
discrimination. This act gives guideline to company that equally right should be there for each
person. Human resource management of the organisation need to follow this rule. They have to
provide equal opportunities to each employee in the company. Guidelines provided by act
should be executed in the company so that its decision-making could not get affected. HRM of
the business organisation should provide equal chance to staff members in order to avoid
disputes in company.
Sex discrimination act 1975 : Sex discrimination act protects employee from being judge on the
basis of gender. The cat includes protection of worker from being discriminated on the ground
of marital status (Parry and McCarthy,eds., 2016). It protects employee from harassment in the
workplace. HRM of the Aldi need to follow the guideline of this legislation while making
policies for employees. . They need to take care of the each employee whether man or woman.
Policies should be made by company which justifies this legislation. HRM decision making
process influence due to these rules.
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Equal pay act 1970 : This act provides guideline regrading pay should be equal for each
employee whether man or woman. Equal pay act give protection of workers from getting wages
lower than other on the same post. HRM of the Aldi company have to include these guidelines
while making salary plans for employees. Pay scale should be same fro women and men in the
company in order to maintain equality in the organisation.
Race relation act 1976 : This act gives guidelines fro employee from being distinguish on the
basis of colour, religion , nationality, eduction and various other aspects. It protect workers
right by giving them protection against racism (Haghirian, ed., 2016.). HRM of the business
entity need to consider this legislation while making policies in the organisation. Human
resources should ensure that any no employee in the firm is suffering from racism.
P 7
Application of HRM practices in work related context
HRM practices which are held by human resource management of the Aldi helps in
achieving its goals and objectives. It is also required fro smooth functioning all the activities in
the organisation. They help in solving conflict between employee and provides best suitable
solution (Mansour, 2015). They help in promoting positive behaviour in the work place. They
help in improving employee relationship with organisation by making policies. HRM of
organisation helps in getting suitable candidate who can improve the productivity of company.
They supports decision making of organisation by involving each employee in process of
decision making. They make polices for workplace so that right of any employee do not get
ignored by company. HRM practices protects each employee in the workplace from being
discriminated. They provide training to employees to improve their capability ion working.
They makes the workplace flexible for workers so that employee can work without stress. They
motivate workers by giving them loyalty rewards and incentives for their good performance
Currently Aldi has the issue of less number of skilled an suitable employee. This issue was
impacting the productivity and profitability of the company. Human resource management of the
organisation has solved the issue by hiring candidates which are skilled enough to match the
expectations of enterprise. Company's HRM department has applied strategic approaches to
solve the issue efficiently. They have used external sourcing tool in which candidates were hired
from outside. In the process of recruitment they have given equal opportunities to both internal
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and external candidates. They have hired skilled and qualified people who can do the work
effectively. It has helped company in getting best and talented candidates for the organisation.
Aldi mainly hires new employees via online portals and through newspaper
advertisements. Management first plan for recruitment, in this they analyse the gap between
current and required manpower. Then they developed strategies and deciding sources of
recruitment, it determines which source would be effective and efficient. After that they search
for desired candidates on various online portals. If the management able to find one, they
communicate them regarding job vacancy and finally call the candidate for interview. The
example of job description and person or job specification are provided below:
Job Description
Job Title: Aldi Store Manager
Reporting To: Retail Service Manager
Main Purpose of Job
General:
To manage and control inventories within the organisation. You are required to regularly
exercise initiative in managing stores.
Specific
 Support staff in management of inventory at Aldi.
 Plan and execute staff training.
 Establish good and efficient working relationships with employees and employers
internally and externally.
 Effective time management and monitoring of store staff levels.
Job specification
Experience: More than 5 years of experience in managing store
Qualification: Graduation in any field from recognised university of UK.
Core Competencies: Accountability, soft skills, communication skills, computer skills and
problem solving skills.
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