Human Resource Management Report: Workforce Planning, Practices at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, focusing on workforce planning and employee relations, using Marks & Spencer as a case study. The report begins with an introduction to HRM, defining its purpose and functions, particularly in workforce planning and resourcing. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches, differentiating between internal and external sources. The report then explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, evaluating the effectiveness of these practices. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and identifies key elements of employment legislation and their impact. The report concludes with practical applications of HRM practices, offering insights into how organizations can optimize their human resources for improved performance and employee satisfaction.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM with respect to workforce planning and resourcing............4
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of recruitment and selection approaches.....................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Benefits of HRM practices with respect to employer and employee.....................................8
P4 Evaluation of effectiveness of HRM practices......................................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making................................................9
P6 Key element of employee’s legislation and their impact on decision making process of
HRM..........................................................................................................................................10
P7 Application of HRM practices:............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resources refer to both individuals who are working within organisation and
department who manages resources which are related with employees. It is a umbrella term
which describes development and management of employees within organisation (Human
resource management, 2016). In this report Marks & Spencer has been considered. It is a British
multinational retailer organisation which was founded in 1884 in Leeds, UK. It is headquartered
in Westminster, London. They provide services in luxury food, home products and clothing.
They have been listed in London Stock Exchange. This report contains purpose and functions of
HRM with respect to workforce planning. Approaches of recruitment and selection are provided,
their strengths and weaknesses. Benefits of HRM to both employee and employer are explained
and their effectiveness is evaluated. Furthermore, importance of employee relations in decision-
making is analysed. Key elements of employment legislation are identified and their applications
are illustrated.
Task 1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM with respect to workforce planning and resourcing.
Human resource management can be defined as approach by which individuals can be
managed within organisation. This assist business to attain competitive edge. It is the practice in
which growth of employees as well as organisation is involved. HRM is accountable for
development, retention and acquisition of talent by which they can effectively align their
workforce. HR department formulates strategies for employees of organisation. Management of
Marks & Spencer has implemented effective strategies to have better results.
Purpose of Human Resource Management
Purpose of HRM is to provide interface between employees and management so that
organisational objectives can be achieved in effectual manner (Importance of HRM practices in

an organisation, 2018). HR manager of Marks & Spencer carry out their operations in strategic
manner. They execute policies and strategies in such a way that they can attract individuals,
recruit them and acquire competitive employees. Basic purpose of HRM is mentioned below:
Create better organisational culture: It is mandatory for every organisation to provide
there employees with good working culture. For this they need to use different techniques by
which they can develop effective environment within organisation.
HR manager of Marks & Spencer ensures that healthy and positive working environment is
provided to employees and jobs are allocated to them on the basis of their knowledge so that
employees are not pressurised (Chang, Chiang and Han, 2012). This aids them to complete their
tasks with high efficiency and in stipulated time duration.
Law: Different countries have their own set of rules and policies which are set by
government. HR manager of Marks & Spencer ensures that all these policies (in retail sector) are
followed by them like union and negotiation act, health and safety act, data protection act and
many others to secure employees rights. It provides stable and assured working structure to their
employees by which productivity can be enhanced. By following laws, HR manager will make
sure that decisions are taken within boundaries of those laws only so that any kind of legal issues
do not arise.
HRM functions
Planning: It is essential function of HR department. In this function they identify needs
of various departments in terms of number of employees required and skills & capabilities which
they must possess for accomplishment of organisational objectives and goals. In this research is
carried out by management of Marks & Spencer to analyse, collect and evaluate current and
future requirements.
Recruitment: It is the foremost responsibility of human resource manager to hire
employees and select individuals who have essential skills and capabilities which are required by
Marks & Spencer. HR ensures that they effectively identify requirements of their organisation
and selected candidates possess skills which can take organisation into great heights.
Training and development: HR manager of Marks & Spencer makes sure that they
provide training to employees depending upon needs of market. This will have significant impact
on growth and performance of both organisation and employees.

Performance Management: In this aspect, it is essential for Marks & Spencer to assure
that organisational goals are accomplished in effectual way (Costea, Amiridis and Crump, 2012).
Marks & Spencer ensures that they keep a track on performance of employees by which they are
able to analyse their (employees) skills. By this both Marks & Spencer and employees will
benefited as, employees will enhance their level of performance and organisation will have high
profitability.
Employee Relations:
It is necessary for organisation to have smooth relationship with employees; this will lead
to have better results within organisation. Mark & Spencer have around 80,000 employees, HR
manager has opted for enhanced techniques by which they have effective communication with
their employees, so that they can resolve any kinds of issues which they have (Durão and et. al.,
2012). Apart from this, they emphasise on team work by which they attain efficiency in
performance of employees.
The overall impact of this function of HR is affirmative if they are furnished within
appropriate manner but if their lack anything then things will be opposite. An example can be
taken with respect to MARKS & Spencer to analyse this aspect, like if effectual relations with
employees are not maintained then there will be conflicts with respect to decision making as
employees not agree upon certain terms and conditions which might have been imposed.
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of recruitment and selection approaches.
Recruitment refers to process by which qualified individuals can be found and hired
either from inside organisation or outside of organisation. For this organisation need to use tools
by which they can find out candidates as per their requirements. HR manager of Marks &
Spencer, have a effective channel of communication with each department by which they are
able to identify needs (Bondarouk and Ruël, 2013). They have also opted for latest technologies
by which they can reach potential candidates.
Selection is defined as process by which appropriate individual can be chosen for vacant
position within organisation. It is a process by which difference can be created between job
applicants to filter and those who can be hired to attain objectives.
There are internal and external sources of recruitment. Management of Marks & Spencer has
opted to use upgrade, transfer, promote and inside advertisements in their process of sources of
recruitment. In case of external sources they are using consultancies, placement agencies,

campus recruitment and advertisements. By this they can acquire potential individuals as per
their necessities. These sources are presented below:
Internal Sources of Recruitment: This process pertains to motivate employees within
organisation to apply for vacant positions. Individuals are hired from organisation only. This
method aids organisation to boost up morale of employees and also make their employees strong
in terms of their productivity (Schuler, Jackson, and Tarique, 2011).
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
 Managers know their employees in
terms of their skills and knowledge;
this aids them to give responsibilities
on the basis of their capabilities.
 Irrelevant time and cost can be saved as
they do not need training and are
familiar with working culture of
organisation.
 Marks & Spencer will not be able to
acquire new ideas and innovations in
their working process, if they use this
method.
 There is limited scope as all kind of
requirements cannot be filled from
within.
External Source of Recruitment: In this individuals are hired from external
environment. This will assist organisation top have fresh talent with new ideas. This will create
positive impact on performance of organisation, if new ideas are addressed.
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
 Organisation has possibility to find out
candidate with exact skills they need.
 New ideas can be acquired and can be
implemented to gain more productivity
(Shuck and Wollard, K., 2010).
 This process is time taking and
expensive as new individuals require
training.
 It can develop feeling of demotivation
and insecurity among employees which
creates negative impact on there
performance.
HR manager of Marks & Spencer has opted for both sources of recruitment to have
potential candidates within their working structure. For this, different strategies are formulated

by them, this includes job description, person description, interview and many more. Job
description includes detail of responsibilities, qualification, skills and job role. Person
specification includes CV of individuals which contain their every detail. This will aid
management of Marks & Spencer to acquire qualified candidates. Interview method is used by
HR manager of Marks & Spencer to have potential candidate. This is presented below:
CRITERIA STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
Interview helps organisation to
identify knowledge, skills and
capabilities of individuals who
are interested in job. In this
method interviewer formulates
questions as per job role. By
this Marks & Spencer is able
to evaluate knowledge of
individual in respective area.
By this method response from
individual is obtained on spot.
Face to face interaction occurs,
by this interviewer can judge
their communication skills and
personality. It is flexible
process.
It is costly and time consuming
process. Organisation needs to
conduct different stages of
interview to find out best from
the pool.
There certain methods for recruitment as well as recruitment. Like if Marks & Spencer
has opted for interview method then they can also make use of survey by which they can identify
potential requirements of their customers. This will create a strong and healthy relation with
customers & it will also lead to enhanced productivity as well as profitability of organisation.
TASK 2
P3 Benefits of HRM practices with respect to employer and employee.
Within organisation different HRM practices are carried out, they are selection,
recruitment, development, etc. for hiring and developing individuals in appropriate manner. It is
primary function of HR manager to have enhanced employees within organisation (Chelladurai,
P. and Kerwin, S., 2017.). HR manager of Marks & Spencer has adopted different HRM
practices, they are depicted below:
Training and Development: It is elementary function HR manager to build proper
training programme for new individuals by which their skills and knowledge can be polished.

For this, HR manager of Marks & Spencer has opted for technical and on boarding training for
there employees. This will assist employees of Marks & Spencer to carry out their everyday
activities and functionalities in enhanced way.
Employee Relation: This practice aids organisation to have positive working
environment. Marks & Spencer's HR manager has adopted this process so that their employees
can share their ideas which will aid organisation to enhance their productivity. This will have
positive impact on overall working of organisation as employee will be open to management or
employer and can share their perspective with each other in particular aspect.
Resolve conflict: It is elementary responsibility of HR manager to formulate strategies so
that if any kind of dispute occurs within working premises then they will be able to resolve it in
effective manner. Management of Marks & Spencer has opted for different methods by which
they can handle these situations. Example can be taken, if dispute occur then management
addresses viewpoint of all individuals who were part of that and evaluate the situation depending
upon that, they find out culprit and punish them for their act. This will aid organisation to stay
away from conflicts and their will relevant impact on their productivity.
They are some practices which are being followed by HR through which performance of
employees can be improvised. An instance can be taken into account like by providing training
and development to employees their skills as well as knowledge can be improvised which can be
utilised by them in their day to day operations thereby leads to better results in their
performance.
P4 Evaluation of effectiveness of HRM practices.
HRM is a major function of every organisation which deals with different activities like
rendering training, recruitment of employees and giving guidelines to employees by which they
can acquire goals and objectives of organisation (CHUANG and Liao, 2010). HRM practices
include performance management, policies and strategies formulation, training and development
of employees within organisation. Performance of employees can be improvised when these
HRM practices are executed effectively within Marks & Spencer. This also aids organisation to
retain their customers for longer duration of time and sustainability of organisation within market
can also be ensured. Practices of HRM are provided below:
Update skills and abilities of worker for maintaining productiveness: Organisation
need to formulate effective strategies so that they can deal with everyday competition in terms of

advancement of technologies, laws, strategies of other organisations and many other. These
strategies are implemented by Marks & Spencer to alter their working procedures. For this
management has tried to identify employees who require training, by this they will be able to
improvise performance of their employees.
Proper direction setting and execution: Leaders builds vision, manager is responsible
for designing goals and objectives. For successful accomplishment of goals management of
Marks & Spencer has ensured that they acquire effectual managers with high experience in all
departments so that they can effectively build strategies and in turn this will lead organisation to
reach new heights.
Effectiveness of HRM can be evaluated by analysing results which are being obtained by
enforcing certain practices. Like HR within M&S is responsible for recruiting employees, if
skilled and knowledgeable employees are recruited then this will yield positive results.
TASK 3
P5 Importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making
Employee relation refers to relationship between employees and employer. It is necessary
for organisation to build healthy relationship with their employees; this will ensure success of
organisation (Daley, 2012). Moreover, this leads to satisfaction of employees and higher
productivity. If healthy relationship is not maintained between employees then there can be
conflicts, politics and employee turnover rate will be increased. But if healthy relationship is
maintained between employers and employees they there will be no conflicts and if they occur
then they can be easily resolved. This will have positive impact on organisation. HR manager of
Marks & Spencer make sure that healthy relationship is established between employees, for this
they provide team working by which coordination occur among employees. They assure that
tasks are given to employees on basis of their skills by which trust and mutual understanding can
be gained. This aids HR of Marks & Spencer to have good relation with their employees.
Importance of employee relations is mentioned below:
Alteration in Goodwill: Employee relations have significant impact on goodwill of
organisation (Fulton and et. al., 2011). Management of Marks & Spencer ensures that they
provide enhanced and high quality services to their customers, this assist them to improvise their
goodwill. An example can be considered in this aspect, providing home delivery, online services,

online payment options, etc. Coordination in employees will lead to smooth accomplishment of
organisational activities.
Effective decision making: Effective employee relation benefits an organisation to
increase their employee overall productivity and maximise profitability rate of company in
simultaneous manner. HR managers of Marks and Spencer ensure that there is a formative
process of communication prevailed in their working structure and they provide all necessary
information to their employees. This will result in generating positive sense of being valued
among employees that can effectively raise overall rate of production level of an organisation.
Profit Maximisation: Employees are life blood in an organisation which can remarkably
take a company towards magnificent growth path. Marks & Spencer manager know this fact and
they effectively satisfies every necessary need of their each and every employees without making
any kind of discrimination. This will benefit them to make a positive form of relationship with
them which automatically leads towards organisational effective productivity.
Early Achievement of set targets: Effective and healthy relationship with workers helps
an organisation to accomplish their predefined goals within given time frame. Marks & Spencer
managers ensure that they effectively engage every employee in organisation decision making as
per according to their roles and position. This will help company to achieve their actual
objectives in time effective manner with great quality.
Employee relation will lead to having enhanced benefits for an organisation like they can
be involved by management of M&S in decision making, when a negative situation arises within
organisation then their point of view can be taken which might be innovative and this will assist
them to have relevant results.
P6 Key element of employee’s legislation and their impact on decision making process of HRM
In order to conduct activities in effective way without facing any kind of legal and ethical
issue it is the basic responsibility of an organisation to adopt formative strategies and policies
through which necessary required legislations can be implemented (Glendon, Clarke and
McKenna, 2016). This will further benefit a company to make their employees work in a
collaborative manner and raise sense of being valued in them. Marks & Spencer HR manager
have adopted certain important laws and legislations in their workplace so to conduct their
business activities without facing any kind of governmental hampering. Mentioned below there
are some basic laws followed by Marks & Spencer:

Equality act 2010: Equality act was framed in the year 2010. As per according to this law,
UK government make it compulsory for all organisation to treat all of their employees in a equal
manner without discriminating them on the basis of, cast, colour, religion, gender and nationality
(Glendon, Clarke and McKenna, 2016).
The Employment Right Act: This law protect employee’s right of being get unnecessary
workload, dismissal and heavy redundancy. Along, with this law states that employees have all
the right to take required leaves and work in a proper working flexible schedule.
Impact of these laws on company decision making process:
1. It is important for big retail organisations like, Marks & Spencer to adopt effective safety
measures in their working structure as to secure employees safety. Non comp liability for
this of this can affect organisation by facing legal penalisations.
2. All these regulations affect Marks & Spencer CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
which can adversely hamper their growth performance.
There are certain laws which must be implemented by organisation to make sure the safety of
their employees. This will also make employees feel valued and a sense responsibility can be
generated within them which will lead them to carry out their operations to their entire potential.
P7 Application of HRM practices:
Job Description: It is formal written statement which includes responsibilities and duties
related to a specific job role in an organisation. It mainly include, purpose, job title, duties,
working condition and scope responsibilities.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Organisation Name: Marks & Spencer
Job Details:
Post: Manager
Department: Sales and Marketing
Roles and Responsibilities
 Effective evaluation of competitor’s strategies and policies in order to acquire large
market share.
 Formulate efficient policies in relation to launching of a new product or services.
 Coordinate team effectiveness and provide formative instructions to them.
 Improve organisation product delivery system as to satisfy consumers in best possible

manner.
Required Qualification
Graduation from recognised university
MBA ( in sales or marketing) from an affiliated university
Experience required
8 to 10 years
Salary
5000 Euros to 7000 Euros per annum
Person Specification: It is a formal description of individual skills, qualification,
attributes and knowledge. It will help an individual to match their eligible criteria with
organisation job requirement.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Name:
E-Mail:
Contact:
Objective: To showcase my talent by working in a big retail industry where my talents and
capabilities enhance performance of business and my experience level.
Qualification:
Class University/ Board Grade Passing Year
12th Class XYZ School 80.00% 2013
Graduation in
Commerce
ABC College 75.00% 2016
MBA( in Marketing) DEF University A 2018
Experience:
8 year of working experience in marketing and sales in retail industry.
Roles and Responsibilities:
 Creation of appropriate marketing and selling plan.
 Effectively evaluation of potential markets
 Coordinative work with organisation top management.