Human Resources Management Report: John Lewis Partnership Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resources Management (HRM) within the context of the John Lewis Partnership, a major British retailer. The report begins with an introduction to HRM, its purpose, and scope, followed by a discussion of relevant theories, including the 'best fit' and 'best practice' perspectives, and the hard and soft models of HRM. It outlines the HRM functions within the company, such as job descriptions, recruitment, performance management, and the company's business objectives, including its adoption of the Burmol sales maximization theory. The report also examines the company's recruitment approaches and conducts a PESTLE analysis, evaluating the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting the company. Furthermore, the report delves into the key elements of HRM, including flexibility, training, performance and reward systems, and the importance of development and learning, emphasizing their impact on profitability and productivity. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and insights into HRM practices in the John Lewis Partnership.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT....................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: PURPOSE AND SCOPE.........................................3
Theories related to the human resources management..........................................................3
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................6
Key elements of human resource management:..........................................................................6
QUESTION 3..................................................................................................................................8
External and internal factors effecting HRM decision making:...........................................8
QUESTION 4..................................................................................................................................9
Human resource practices:.......................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management in company or an organisation is a different conception. In
any organisation there are different sectors to carryout perfect administration. The human
resources management is connected with the employee criteria like that of recruiting, training,
assistance, document manging etc. Human resources management is not a petite topic to deal
with (Brewster and Söderström). It covers aspects that contribute to organisational growth, which
are to be properly managed. This entire report aims to bring forth the essentialities of human
resources management in relation to one of the retailers, John Lewis Partnership. This company
is among the vast retailers with a workforce of 98,000 employees. Being one of the best retailers
includes proper management that is associated with challenges. This is a British company which
offers services related to banking, financial and retail-related activities. The human resources
management in this company is structured in a way the retailers all over usually employ.
Human resources management:
All the elements in nature are to be aligned and objectified in a way they are to be. There is
a certainty in every alignment and that makes the difference. The same thing applies to an
organisation or a company. The organisation is made up of different elements that contribute to
the firm and its development. Management is the most flourishing factor in an organisation.
though the company deals with hectic processes, everything falls in place once the management
is perfectly carried (Terziev, 2018). In an organisation, values, ethics, work culture and many
other technical as well as social components are bundled together. For this, every firm allots a
confidential management authority and that is Human Resources Management. The human
resources management is an asset to an organisation. To attain competitive advantage or to align
the workforce properly, their role is rather crucial to any company. The study that deals with
Human resources management is a never-ending theory since every point fall into its lot.
Theories related to the human resources management
Best fit and best practice perspectives: The two perspectives are important and are known
concepts of human resource management. Best fit perspective is when the management is able to
habituate to the organisation’s environment. The two types of managements which are strategic
and human resource managements are analysed with this perspective. Best practice is when the

human activities that are once considered are to be performed in the way they are to be. Then it
can be termed as best practice (King, 2016). Applying this to human resources management in a
company or an organisation, the best fit management is when the HR imbibes all the external and
internal factors whether they are certain or uncertain and gets adapted to the organisation’s
environment with respect to recruiting people, training them further with their allotted works,
managing records of their performance statistics , motivating the employees based on their work
pressures or improvements. The company john lewi’s partnership being the largest retailer
coming to its management it is rather a perfectly structure management where the HR totally
incorporated into the company’s policies of recruiting the right employees since it is a customer-
based retailer and any mistake in its management is directly proportional to its customer growth.
The best practice is when the HR implements the necessary actions and it can also be stated as
‘setting’ a model in the organisation into the management.
Hard and soft models of HRM: Human resource management defines two different forms they
are hard and soft. The soft for of human resources management deals with regular behaviour of
self which are prominent in an organisation (Kmecova, 2018). it ensures commitment which is
key factor to be followed by the work force. Strategic approach towards people must be
inculcated. The hard model in the management is associated with rationalism and is related to
the performance management. The company john lewi’s partnership mostly adopted the hard
model and partially the soft model. Since the retailer deals with heavy loads of work and of more
customer approach, the performance levels must be to the crest for it to stand in the race.
HRM purpose and functions:
Since the company is a retailer and it plays an important role in the economy point of view, the
major functions of the HRM that are put forth in this organisation include:
Job description: the management describes the role of the employee and their duties that are to
be performed. The purpose of this is to maintain a clear working environment.
Recruitment and selection of retail employees: The management selects the people who have
complete knowledge in the retailing (Raineri, 2017). If the right people are selected, then they
will contribute efficiently towards the work.
Performance management: once the company has attained proper recruitment, then its duty is to
train the employees accordingly and distribute the works. The purpose of this is to avoid further
work deteriorations.

Business objective: Any business or an organisation works with objective. Objective is nothing
but the targets a firm fixe to achieve. Without target a company cannot distinguish its purpose.
The company john lewi’s partnership unlike other businesses moves ahead with its objective too
(Murthy). Its objective is to maintain a happy firm by satisfying its employment because they
believe that it is solely the employees that contributes to growth. Some of the theories are related
to demonstrate the business objectives of a firm. The one that is employed by this company is:
Burmol sales maximization theory: the company is likely to follow the burmol sales
maximization theory. This deals with the expanding of the total revenue. This doesn’t mean the
sales related to large outputs but it is related to the money sales. The sales in the company are
maintained in such a way that the marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue. If this exceeds
money sales will rise more than the expense profits.
Approach for recruitment: To recruit a person is a fine art that must be performed by the
human resources management (Naji and et.al, 2019). The approaches to this include:
Skill inventory: It is related to the selection of an ideal person to the role. An ideal person is the
one who is made up of all the required skills for the firm.
Multi-step recruitment: It is necessary to perform recruitment in different stages to make sure the
right people are being recruited.
Job description: Job description is the final stage of recruitment since the person who is taken
onboard will have to know the role completely.
The approach adopted by the company john lewi’s partnership is multi-step recruitment, in
which the person will undergo stages to make sure he has complete knowledge about the sales
management and the patience is also being tested (Pius and et.al, 2020).
The PESTLE analysis of the company is as follows:
Political:
John Lewis is an upcoming sensation in the market of UK is part of the European Union. There
in UK there is a sufficient competition among the retailers to enter into the market. The UK
government decreased the corporation tax to a certain level that is a benefit to the organisation.
Economic:
There is a recession in the entire UK economy. Since there is immense competition among the
retailers they are offering lot of incentives to the customers. This will impact John Lewis since
the prices are to be altered at lower rates.

Socio-Cultural:
The lifestyle and preferences of the customers define the opportunities to the organisation. the
shifting process and their interests matter (Arbab and Mahdi, 2018). Many opportunities are
induced by the way customer defines interest on the materialism. Since there are many new
brands evolving, John Lewis must concentrate upon introducing unbeatable brands into the
market to survive in the race.
Technological:
Internet shopping is the trending factor now a days. This for retail industry is a boon. It influence
the companies with profitable incomes. The operations and transactions are now being
performed in a paperless manner with the help of IT systems. John Lewis must incorporate this
implementation to meet the customer needs which is a more flexible approach for increasing
sales.
Environmental:
The renewable resources used for producing the cloth are cotton and wool. These are considered
eco-friendly. The threat caused by using other materials is long term and there will be legal
penalty that will be induced if it is creating a havoc (Shin and Konrad, 2016). Many of the
companies are not following this for the sake of short-term benefit but in a long run this would
impact the organisation legally. John Lewis focused upon manufacturing eco-friendly cloth as a
merchandise that is not harmful as of now. source of resources used in production, namely cotton
and wool are environmentally friendly.
Legal:
National legislation has strongly ensured the health and safety as well as own materials for
making clothes. John Lewis is operating on producing their own material which is a more
revenue generation.
QUESTION 2
Key elements of human resource management:
Human resource management in any company or an organisation is bounded by few
practices and key elements (AHMADPOUR, 2017). The practices are pretty much essential for
the organisation and are an import aspect of the management. Some of the human resource
practices include:

Flexibility: this model is the Atkinson flexibility model stated by John Atkinson in 1984. The
theory states that the work force must be designed in an effective way to meet the business
targets. By inducing flexible methods in an organisation which includes adaptability towards
various circumstances will be a boon to the company. to ensure the flexible conditions in the
firm, sometimes employees must be terminated by their performance and that again is an issue
making factor.
Training: People who underwent recruitment and are hired are sometimes new to the
environment or few might be aware of the work they are allotted (Brhane and Zewdie, 2018). Th
HRM must train the lot with regards to their organisations adopted technology, growth aspect,
profitable approaches and make sure they are well incorporated in them.
Performance and reward: It is the responsibility of the HRM to check the performance levels
of the employees. The performance indicator in the management is the graph of every employee
which shows his consistency and effort in making things possible. The performance of
individuals must be carefully recorded. At different instances the required motivations if
delivered will boost up their confidence towards their work. The reward based motivation is very
effective since it not only enlightens the person who received but also the other who will further
strive hard to receive it.
Development: This is a strategy incorporated by an organisation to alter employee performance.
This is an asset whose function is to contain information and different instructions to sharpen the
skills and imbibe new concepts to enhance employee performance.
Learning: Learning is a natural process every human being processes (Waktola, 2019). For an
organisation the learning is related to that of skills, habitual deeds and the personal attitudes.
These are to be learned and incorporated by every employee for better environment in the
organisation.
By imbibing these practices in an organisation, will probably avoid the time spent in making
changes and the employees can perform in a right path with right information. This will improve
the overall productivity of the company.
Profitability: Aiming at profitability, human resources management is directly related to
employee behaviour which will impact the profitability. The practices will further draw the
shareholders towards the organisation which will further increase the shares of the company. By

these practices, the customers attention will be drawn and later there will be more revenue
generation which is in turn a profitable approach.
Productivity: The above practices will boost up the management. When the employees inculcate
the above practices they can give their maximum workspace which will in turn increase the
productivity.
The company john lewi’s partnership incorporated all the HRM practices and the two practices
they strongly considered include training and development.
Coming to the training practice, the employees in the company are being trained as teams and In
that they will be briefly explained about the work and their role in increasing productivity
(Abbasi and et.al, 2020). They are trained to maintain the existing customer records and how
they can increase the chain.
In view of development, the company being the largest retailer, there is a long-term scope for
retailers in the market. Their merchandise is something that is to be carefully balance to make the
satisfied results. The employees work towards developing the materials as per the user choices
and improve the sales.
QUESTION 3
External and internal factors effecting HRM decision making:
Employee relations in an organisation speaks about the relationship among the workforce
of an organisation. The employee relation is very much important for a healthy work
environment. It is the duty of the higher authorities and management to imbibe and to encourage
relations that are healthy to the growth of company. employee relationship can be improved by
providing good workspace which includes, cooperation, guiding one another, stress relief factors,
etc. Employment legislation is related to the laws defining the relationship between employees.
These are basically designed to protect the workforce from regulations that are naturally imposed
by the organisations on the employees. Some of the issues that comes under legislation include
biasing, age of the people hired, and ensure safe working conditions (Noe and Kodwani, 2018).
Some of the legalities pertained to this include:
Equality: the organisation must maintain equality among the workforce. There are different
streams in the organisation and every field contains teams based on their work. When a team is

allotted to perform specific task, then all the members contribution is counted. Therefore, every
person must be treated equally in an organisation.
Data protection: The organisation is another world containing different elements. The data
contained in the firm includes employment details, technological data, password protections,
records of employees etc. that are to be protected with maximum care.
Health and safety: it is the fore most duty of the HRM to ensure that the employee health is
maintained properly taking utmost measures.
The effect of ethical and moral values on employee relation will be in terms of the following:
Moral responsibilities: it is the responsibility of the employees to protect the company’s name by
making reliable decision that does not at any time cross the barriers of regulations. By not
destroying the morals and maintaining the terms and conditions of the organisation will not dame
the employee relation.
QUESTION 4
Human resource practices:
HR practices are the responsibilities that are performed by the HR manager. The HR
manager is involved in recruiting, training, performance management and development. Other
than this it is their responsibility to motivate the workforce in the way they are to be. When it
comes to selection process the steps that are to be followed include:
Recruitment planning: To perform a particular work a proper frame work is important to avoid
further negotiations. The recruitment is another big deal. This must be properly planned listing
all the requirements as a bunch.
Screening: After planning comes the screening process. The screening process includes the
preliminary analysis of the person by examining him in the descriptive or oral manner with
respect to technology.
Selection: after considering all the details of the person and the performance, the people required
to develop the organisation are then hired on to their roles.
Training: training is where the person is taught all the work functions, responsibilities, ethics and
the performance management.
The fast growing world is carrying its process with the usage of technology. The recruitment is
now made easy by making it online. The online interviews are actually a boon to the

management since they help to hire people without much resources (Frost, 2016). The stages in
the process can be managed by just adding people of one kind to a particular online portal that is
accessing the interview and can simultaneously perform the recruitment process.
Recruitment for the position of junior analytics developer: when selected for this role people
will have to deal with the web operations in the IT development teams.
Job specification Comms and marketing
Person specification Relevant coding qualifications, JavaScript & SQL skills,
Understanding of web protocols.
Other requirements Experience working with data – scraping data, data
manipulation, regular expressions, JSON etc.
Salary £28,800.00 - £40,200.00
Working hours 35 hours per week, Mon-Fri 08:30-17:00
A person’s specifications play an important role this recruitment process. When a person is well
equipped with knowledge and qualities that are required then the person will be able to
communicate with the team by carry forwarding the essential ideas. Through this a healthy
employee relationship will be ensured without destroying or degrading the morals. This will in
turn have a positive impact on the Human resources management since there will not be a scope
for conflicts to arise and can be adhered and altered. the ethics and morals in any company are
related to the employee management. Discrimination of these legislative laws will not just affect
the organisation’s environment, but also impact its growth. When the right person is hired he can
be a major contribution in the productivity of the organisation rising its standards.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion to this report revolves around the human resources management and their
practices in the organisation. for the company’s upliftment, the human resources management

strive to an extent of coping up with the company’s requirements. The HRM is just related to the
recruitment but also deals with the other strategies, work ethics, morals and employee relations
in the organisation. the report brings out the clear human resources management of the
company john lewis which is a retailer in UK that is a market sensation.
The report explains the key elements of human resources management and different HR
practices that are essential for any organisation. the main business objective with which the
company works is carefully mentioned which set an example to other business sectors. The
factors effecting decision making are analysed and with the situations that helps solving
negotiations. Every detail about HRM is presented in the way accordingly.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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and business growth: An exploratory study. Journal of Public Affairs, p.e2438.
AHMADPOUR, 2017. Identifying the factors affecting human resources management in small
and medium sized enterprises.
Arbab and Mahdi, 2018. Human resources management practices and organizational excellence
in public orgnizations. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 18.
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in European human resource management (pp. 51-67). Routledge.
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Improving Employee Performance. International Journal in Management & Social
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http://smallbusiness. chron. com/importance-trainingdevelopment-workplace-10321.
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King, 2016. Data analytics in human resources: A case study and critical review. Human
Resource Development Review. 15(4). pp.487-495.
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and techniques in management practice. Ekonomicko-manazerske spektrum. 12(1).
pp.44-54.
Murthy, Human Resources Practices-RTC.
Naji and et.al, 2019. The role of human resources management practices in enhancing the level
of social responsibility. Qalaai Zanist Journal. 4(3). pp.363-407.
Noe and Kodwani, 2018. Employee training and development, 7e. McGraw-Hill Education.
Pius and et.al, 2020. Approaches and practices in strategic human resources management. In
Trends and issues in international planning for businesses (pp. 42-66). IGI Global.
Raineri, 2017. Linking human resources practices with performance: the simultaneous mediation
of collective affective commitment and human capital. The International Journal of
Human Resource Management. 28(22). pp.3149-3178.
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