Human Resource Management in Sainsbury's: Analysis and Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Sainsbury's, a major UK retailer. It explores the aims and duties of HRM, focusing on workforce planning, recruitment, and employee development. The report delves into the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment approaches, the advantages of various HRM practices for both employers and employees, and how these practices contribute to Sainsbury's profitability and productivity. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of employee relations, key elements of employment legislation, and the application of HRM practices within the company. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for optimizing HRM strategies at Sainsbury's. This report is a valuable resource for understanding how HRM contributes to the success of a large retail organization.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
P1. Aims and duties of Human resource management in planning and resourcing workforce
with their strengths and abilities to fulfil objectives of business in an organization...................3
P2. Strengths and Weakness of different approaches to Selection &Recruitment......................4
P3. Advantages of different HRM practices in Sainsbury for employer and employee..............5
P4. HRM Practice benefits in terms of Raising Sainsbury’s Profit and Productivity.................5
P5. Significance of employee relation.........................................................................................6
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and its influence on HR decision-making............7
P7. Application of HRM practices in Sainsbury.........................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) refers to an administrational function of personnel in the
companies designed for maximizing performances of employees to reach its strategic objectives
and goals. More accurately, this operational department focuses on employee’s management by
highlighting systems and policies within organization. The chosen organization in this report is
Sainsbury Plc, a large standing premium retailing chain of food in United Kingdom that
launched its first grocery food in 1869. Its brand is created upon a legacy of providing fresh
quality certified food with great taste in affordable prices by overseeing their health and safety.
This report covers all the purposes and scopes of HRM, their functions and duties in maintaining
Sainsbury’s management.
P1. Aims and duties of Human resource management in planning and resourcing workforce with
their strengths and abilities to fulfil objectives of business in an organization
HRM is very essential for effective management of employees in any organization. The aim
and purpose of human resource management is to define the structure of Sainsbury that drives
productivity, to embrace the extensive social and ethical developments and overpass the gap that
is in the middle of staff performance and Sainsbury’s strategic goals. The scope of HRM is very
extensive. Key roles of HRM are to modify, reinforce the values of business and develop the
culture of Sainsbury. This department in Sainsbury perform various duties such as planning of
human resources by recruiting staffs when company suffers from employee’s shortage by
implementing new techniques as per their talent and skills. One of the popular sources of HRM
department now-a-days is to recruit individuals by publishing advertisement on social media and
hire. HRM function is to notice and regulate the particular requirements through job analysis and
design a job as per the description given in the evaluated data. Human resource management
select appropriate individuals as per the requirement in the company. Recruit, select and on-
board the candidates are the crucial duties of this department. Human resource management
provide genuine introduction of Sainsbury and its orientation. HRM also transmit proper training
program to grow skills and boost performance of employees (Manzoor and et.al, 2019). HRM
also perform duties of looking payroll and manage budgets. This department also involve
evaluation of employees by performance appraisals to validate and check their performance
which support them to decide salary increments, incentives and promotions in the future. HRM

look over the remuneration and compensation planning to facilitate benefits and convenient
compensations that are related to the aspects of taking care of employees. Their duty is to
encourage employees for their better cooperation and services. Human resource management in
Sainsbury communicate, coordinate, co-operate and maintains appropriate relationships with
their trade unions and labour to balance work efficiency effectively. This department also care
for the welfare, health and safety of Sainsbury’s employees by complying concerned labour laws
of United Kingdom. Functions of human resource management provide talent and skills by
taking out Sainsbury’s employee’s capabilities and potential critically in order to achieve
competitive advantages and long term sustainability of organization (Delery, and Roumpi, 2017).
P2. Strengths and Weakness of different approaches to Selection &Recruitment
Recruitment can be described as the process of search and obtain a pool of potential candidate
with the solicited skills, knowledge and expertise, which will allow Sainsbury to chose
appropriate candidates to apply for the job opening against described position elucidation and
specifications (Veth and et.al., 2019). Internal Recruitment where the employee working in the
company are given chance to apply for the job or company recruit internally, sometimes
Sainsbury before considering the external source chose to recruit from within. Internal
recruitment provides the existing employees chance to change their job position, as this helps
employer in taking decision fast as the already know the person as well saves lot of budget, saves
time, saves cost of training and also provide opportunity to employee if they are not happy with
their recent job which motivates them and improves their efficiency. Company through internal
recruitment also knows that these employees are loyal towards them. Sainsbury internal
recruitment process is strict and driven by HR rule and policies. But internal recruitment
sometimes do not bring new skills and innovative ideas, that may cause resentment. If the
company is not able to get the appropriate talent from within the company it advertises externally
for the entry of new and fresh talents which can bring new and fresh innovative insights.
Sainsbury adopts different sources and define its recruitment procedure clearly. But it consumes
lot of time and energy and cost (Lamba and Choudhary, 2013). Candidates may fake lie to get
the job, existing employees may also feel left out and not given opportunity. Both the situations
have pros and cons it depends on the particular job and situation of Sainsbury to decide which
source is to be selected.

P3. Advantages of different HRM practices in Sainsbury for employer and employee
HRM practices plays crucial role in Sainsbury, it not only benefits the employees but also
benefits the company (Sainsbury) as they have to protect the interest of both. The following
discussed below are some points which reveal how HRM practices benefit both employer and
employees –
HRM practice of assisting employees which issues, helps the employees if they are facing any
issues in the company related to anything are been discussed and solved, as this helps the
employer with retaining the talent and lowering absenteeism (Taamneh, Alsaad and Elrehail,
2018). It help employees with solving their issues and providing them positive environment that
is conflicts free, because of that they can focus back on their work with the efficiency and
become productive for the company.
HRM practice of Sainsbury believes in providing compulsory training to all its employees, so
that when they working on their actual projects, they are already trained and company can reduce
the chances of errors as sometimes cost of errors is really heavy for the employer. And gaining
training makes the employees confident and they work with their full potential and efficiency. It
also conducts the different trainings programs for the existing workforce to boost their morale
and get them thorough with new and different practices which helps in developing them and they
in result benefit the company by using those practices and skills (Sung and Choi, 2018).
Sainsbury also provides the career and growth opportunity to its employees by promoting them if
they work well and rewarding them, this makes the employees more loyal towards the company
and motivates them to give to do or contribute more for the growth of company. and through this
HRM practice company also gain the loyal and retain the talents from going and finding
opportunities in other company.
P4. HRM Practice benefits in terms of Raising Sainsbury’s Profit and Productivity
HRM practices always remain with the employees whether it is recruitment or retirement, these
practices work for the betterment of the employees of Sainsbury. These practices not only boost
the productivity but also contribute in the growth (profits) of Sainsbury. Different HRM practices
provides different benefits plays a significant role in the growth of Sainsbury, company uses
different practices to ensure that it fulfils its long term objective of growth (Liebregts and Stam,
2019). The recognition of significant HR practice leads to add value to the workforce and the

balance sheet of company. Sainsbury depends upon performance of its employees for its own
results, and its HRM practice stress on the importance of training so that the company’s culture
and the behaviour of employees can be aligned to attain positive result, company provides
compulsory training which helps employee in developing knowledge and skills which improve
his overall all results and helps company in improving its profitability (Farndale, Nikandrou and
Panayotopoulou, 2018).
HRM practice of providing security to employees provides the employee’s satisfaction and
security that they have the job and are not temporary in the company, sometimes by not getting
the security from the company makes them dissatisfied and they do not give their best. After
gaining the confidence of being secured in Sainsbury they work with their full potential.
Sainsbury believes in hiring the right talents, by the hiring the right candidates with the intensive
evaluation of them in recruitment and selection process company gets to know that is the person
right person for the job or not, and in the beginning they provide training to their employees, so
while they practical work on their job, there is less chances of errors and they can work
productively in the company, the right employees help in maximising the productivity of
employees overall productivity of the Sainsbury’s gets maximised (Mariappanadar, 2020).
The HRM practice of self managed and effective teams, this practice benefit Sainsbury as the
manager and the team leaders provide their members freedom to express their ides and freedom
of decision making which brings creativity, improves productivity as the employees get engaged
and improved productivity leads to increased profits.
HRM practice of Fair and performance based compensation makes the employees more
productive as there works make them get compensation on the basis of their performance, so
generally they work efficiently and their efficient work results into the improved productivity.
P5. Significance of employee relation
Maintaining employee relations is pre-requisite for the success of organisation, companies these
days focus lot on it practices to maintain healthy relations which depends on safe & healthy
environment at their workplace like Sainsbury. As the healthy employee relations maximise the
productivity and satisfaction among employees. Employee relations deals neglecting and
resolving issues related to individual which arise while working in company. Sainsbury focus lot
on improving the its work environment and having healthy employee relation in its company as

it leads to more efficiency and motivation in its employees which not only increases its
productivity but also helps in maximising its sales. These relations in the company signify that
the individual’s working must feel positive about their job and identity (O’Connor, 2017).
Employee relations are essential because there are several issues in which employees need help
and can’t take decision alone so take help from its colleagues, the company becomes happy place
when there is healthy relations among the employee, and employee and management, it also
reduces the chances of conflicts, reduce retention and absenteeism and develops the feeling of
trust and through all these benefits employees can comfortably work with each other in the
company are focused and less issues and conflicts increases the productivity. The employee
relations influence the HRM decision-making as the importance of employee relation is very
crucial in the company. HRM of Sainsbury tries to come up with those practices and strategies
which strengthen the employee relations and ultimately benefit the company. Situation when the
absenteeism, indiscipline, no platform for grievance, employee stress etc. are observed in the
behaviour of employees in the company these influence the HR decision making. Sainsbury
HRM ensures to strengthen the employee relations by avoiding the situations of employee
favouritism and giving fair treatment to all its employees, making the job interesting and
challenging by assigning more responsibility and indulging employees in some different
activities and training programs (Engetou, 2017). HRM of the company also continuously
interact with the workforce to know and resolve if they are facing any issues and update them
about the decisions and policies about the company , this makes the employee aware productive.
Company also reward the employees for doing well and provide them competitive salary which
makes them more productive and motivated to work with their best.
P6. Key elements of employment legislation and its influence on HR decision-making
HRM of Sainsbury ensures that company and its employees abide by the laws, rules and
regulations, it helps Sainsbury in practicing the employment laws as not following these laws
may lead to serious circumstances. The main purpose of the employee legislation law is to ensure
that the employees are not facing any injustice and discrimination at their workplace so
employment legislation influences the decision-making of HRM (Aybas and Acar, 2017). The
following discussed below are the major elements of employment legislation:

Equal Opportunity to everyone who wants to seek job – Sainsbury must provide equal
opportunities to every applicant who has applied for the job, there should be no partiality while
choosing the candidate, and no discrimination on any basis either gender, religion should exist.
Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace – Company should ensure that they have strict
rules and policies related harassment, and about that each and every employee is informed, if any
such practice takes place in company, strict actions towards the person must be taken as this can
even hampers the company’s image.
Working Hour regulations – The working hours should be set by the company and which do not
exceed, fixing the working hours ensure that the employee and the workers working in Sainsbury
has to work upto that timings and in return company is compensating them enough. Fixing these
hours ensure the productivity and systematic schedule at workplace (Sung and Choi, 2018).
Competitive wages and salaries to be paid – Sainsbury’s HR must pay competitive salaries to its
employees as per their position skills, talent. And the minimum wages is to be paid to the
workers working for them as set by the norms of government of UK
Social security and Welfare – Company should provide the social security to all its employees
and worker and regularly take actions for their welfare, through which even they are motivated
and give their best t company.
Healthy workplace conditions to workers – This is the must for every company, to provide the
hygienic and healthy workplace with all the necessary facilities to its workers and ensure that is
no risk and safety measures are taken for the care of employees and workers.
P7. Application of HRM practices in Sainsbury
Job Description
Sainsbury Plc
Position – Finance Manager
Job Description – We are looking for suitable Senior Financial Manager that will evaluate
everyday financial activities and can provide financial advice and guidance top management on
future financial plan.
Experience – Minimum 4-5 years of experience in Financial Sector with the possible role of
Senior Optimization Executive.

Education Qualification – Bachelors in Accounting & Finance
Masters of Business Administration in Finance
Curriculum Vitae
John Doe
Mobile no. 225-333-2222
Professional Profile
Financial Analyst and accounting professional having good knowledge of budget creating,
financial forecasting, Audit preparation and GAAP, having sound work experience of 15 years at
different designated position.
Core Skills & Expertise -
Analytical and Reasoning Skills
Communication Skills
Decision-Making Skills
Managerial and Leadership Skills
Financial and Data
Project Management
Ad Hoc Management
Risk Mitigation
Relationship Development
Work Experience –
 5 years of experience as Assistant Controller and Accountant.
 5 years of experience as Financial Reporting Manager.
 5 years of experience as Senior Financial Analyst.
Education -
Associate of Commerce.
Bachelor in Accounting & finance.

Master of Business Administration in Finance from King’s College London, UK.
Career Objective –
Finance Professional looking for the best opportunity for growth in my career and allow me to
give my best of my potential and enhance my abilities.
Preparatory Notes
1. Why you want to join Sainsbury?
2. How you see yourself at the Senior Finance Manager Position?
3. Why you think you best fit for this designated role?
4. What makes you different from the other candidates who have applied for the job?
The selection criteria for the Sainsbury’s interview process are skills and expertise, year of
experience and the academic grade of the candidate (Otoo, 2019). The candidates shortlisted in
the interview process are based on the above mentioned criteria.
Job Offer
Sainsbury plc, UK
10 December 2020
Dear Mr. John Doe
We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to work for Sainsbury as positional
role of Senior Finance Manager. You are requested to join the company from 20 December
2020. We hope this new journey of working with Sainsbury aid more potential to your career
objectives and growth. All the best for this new journey.
HR Manager
Sainsbury Plc, UK
Process Evaluation

The process of recruitment & selection is diversified in nature it begins with the job description
and ends with the final selection and by sending offer letter to the candidate (Holm and Haahr,
2019). This entire process of Sainsbury evaluates and critically examines the skills and abilities
of the candidate who takes part in the interview process.
Critical Evaluation
HRM practices in Sainsbury follows a precise approach of recruiting and selecting the candidate.
This approach enables company to hire candidates at different positions or designated role in
company.
CONCLUSION
The following report helps in understanding the concept and scope of human resource
management in detail related to resourcing Sainsbury with appropriate talent and skills to fulfil
its objective by discussing topics such as work force planning and elaborating the strengths and
weakness of approaches to recruitment and selection. Further, it describes the benefits of
different HRM practices to employee and employer and maximising Sainsbury profit and
productivity. Later, this report critically analyse the significance of employee relations with
respect to HRM decision-making and the key elements that the company considers such
employment opportunity, working time regulations, healthy working environment etc that
impacts the company’s HRM decision-making. At last this report, illustrates the application of
HRM practice within Sainsbury in work related context, with some specific examples.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aybas, M. and Acar, A.C., 2017. The effect of HRM practices on employees' work engagement
and the mediating and moderating role of positive psychological capital. International
Review of Management and Marketing. 7(1).
Delery, J.E. and Roumpi, D., 2017. Strategic human resource management, human capital and
competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?. Human Resource Management
Journal. 27(1). pp.1-21.
Engetou, E., 2017. The impact of training and development on organizational performance.
Farndale, E., Nikandrou, I. and Panayotopoulou, L., 2018. Recruitment and selection in context.
In Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management. Edward
Elgar Publishing.
Holm, A.B. and Haahr, L., 2019. E-recruitment and Selection. In E-hrm. Routledge.
Lamba, S. and Choudhary, N., 2013. Impact of HRM practices on organizational commitment of
employees. International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology. 2(4).
pp.407-423.
Liebregts, W. and Stam, E., 2019. Employment protection legislation and entrepreneurial
activity. International Small Business Journal. 37(6). pp.581-603.
Manzoor, F., and et.al., 2019. An examination of sustainable HRM practices on job performance:
An application of training as a moderator. Sustainability. 11(8). p.2263.
Mariappanadar, S., 2020. Characteristics of sustainable HRM system and practices for
implementing corporate sustainability. In Sustainable Human Resource
Management (pp. 9-35). Springer, Singapore.
O’Connor, N., 2017. ‘Interpreting employment legislation through a fundamental rights lens:
What’s the purpose?. European Labour Law Journal. 8(3). pp.193-216.
Otoo, F.N.K., 2019. Human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational
performance. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
Sung, S.Y. and Choi, J.N., 2018. Effects of training and development on employee outcomes and
firm innovative performance: Moderating roles of voluntary participation and
evaluation. Human resource management. 57(6). pp.1339-1353.
Taamneh, A., Alsaad, A.K. and Elrehail, H., 2018. HRM practices and the multifaceted nature of
organization performance. EuroMed Journal of Business.
Veth, K.N., and et.al., 2019. Which HRM practices enhance employee outcomes at work across
the life-span?. The international journal of human resource management. 30(19).
pp.2777-2808.
1

2