Effective HRM Strategies for Improved Productivity

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Human resources management
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 2
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 3
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 8
LO3................................................................................................................................ 12
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 21
Reference list................................................................................................................. 22
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Introduction
Human resource management is a process of accomplishing the required goal of an
organization by using human resources in the best possible way. HRM is also
responsible for managing natural resources in a controlled manner. HRM is the only
department in organization responsible for recruiting, staffing, training, compensation,
benefits, employee and employer relation and development of employees. It is also
responsible for placing right candidate at right place within the organization, based on
their eligibility, educational qualification, and skills. Waitrose, UK, is chosen here as the
organization. It is one of the largest supermarket chains under the partnership of John
Lewis. It already has 5.1% of market share in UK. It has nearly 360 stores scattered in
different parts of UK. In this report the varieties function along with roles and
responsibilities of HRM will be discussed. This study will also examine the importance of
relationship between employees and employers.
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LO1
Introduction
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce
planning and resourcing an organisation
The case study explains about Human Resource Management of the organisation
“Waitrose and partners”. Different approaches and function will be described here
along with the strength and weakness of each recruitment process. HRM department
has many important tasks in a particular organisation. It recruits, motivates, upgrades
the workforce team of an organisation (Noe et al., 2017). The department holds power
to recruit any candidate to be an employee, in its organisation as well as to fire an
employee from the organisation. The main task of an HR is to increase the performance
activity level of an employee that increases the performance level of the company as
well.
Recruitment and Selection
In every organisation like Waitrose and partners, the recruitment process is almost the
same in all respect. The HR persons announce the vacancy declared by the company
to recruit the most eligible and appropriate candidates from the recruitment pool. The
department has several rounds in which they check each quality of a candidate through
the process. They check that a candidate does have the knowledge and skills for the
particular assigned job of particular departments in the company (Sparrow, 2017).
Checking through all the rounds, they select the most eligible candidate for the assigned
job role. HR department maintains the workforce team through motivation and is very
important in term of financial management because it reduces the cost regarding
different mistakes like under qualified, unmotivated and unskilled staffs.
Ultimate workforce planning
The workforce planning strategy helps in maintaining the workforce team by HR
technologies. The strategy used for predicting the labour requirements and workers
deployment more effectively. A company such as “Waitrose and partners” follows this
strategy by controlling the proper workforce towards achieving their business objectives
and goals (Schweyer, 2010). HR group is responsible for generating an efficient
workforce through which an organisation can simply gain their profits and achieve
specific goals and expects market outcomes more efficiently.
Orientation
In an organisation, orientation is one of the most important factors. Through the
orientation process, it can help new employee to adjust properly in his or her designated
job profile with both the company, and its other employees also. The HR department is
responsible for this orientation task within an organisation (Ghosh, 2015). Most of the
company does not have focus on proper orientation, which results inappropriate
business outcomes.
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Maintaining good relation with employees
Good relation with other employees in the organisation results in maintaining a very
good workforce team. The HR department holds the responsibility to maintain the
relation within the firm, so that employees can interconnect with each other and feels
better. This shows a friendly environment within an organisation by working together,
helping together. The company like “Waitrose and partners” maintain this policy, in
which it ultimately helps in gaining profit throughout the business by completing the
workforce task efficiently in assigned time.
Hard and Soft Human resource management
Hard HRM staff management is a system in which the management controls their
employees as resources by whom they can achieve high profit and advantage in
competition. Therefore, hard HRM management is very strict in nature.
Soft HRM on the other hand defines that prototype which treats their employee as a
valuable staff in the company. This management treat the employees in soft manner
maintaining good relations with the company and perform better in the company.
Waitrose and partners follows the soft HRM policy to maintain better relationship with
the company and its employees. This policy enhances the ultimate performance of
staffs lead the organisations to accomplish its objectives and business goals efficiently.
Best fit Strategies
Cost leadership, innovation and quality is the three important factors to explain this
strategy. This strategy is used for achieving effective business outcomes. The main aim
is to gain advantages in the competitive market (Paauwe et al., 2018).
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment
and selection.
There are two types of recruitment process, “Internal Recruitment” and “External
Recruitment”. Both the recruitment process has some advantages and disadvantages.
The table given below shows the difference:
Comparison Advantages Disadvantages
Internal
Requirement
 This process requires low
cost as it recruits within
an organisation. It can be
own employees which get
recruits at one
department to another
(Torchy et al., 2017)
 Employees who recruited
by this process are
already well known by the
company which results
 This process limits the
eligible candidates
count and their
potentials, which may
not be, consider getting
more benefit for the
firm
 Innovation or ideas are
restricted. It means
both inside and outside
the firm, the generation
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holding better relationship
with others as well as firm
of ideas are less
(DeVaro, 2016)
External
Recruitment
 It is generally a normal
recruitment process in
which selection of most
eligible candidates is
done through an efficient
manner from the pool of
candidates (Farndale et
al., 2018)
 Here, new ideas are
abundant from the
peoples who comes
outside from the firm
 The process is usually
a long duration process
compared to others.
 It is a bit costly
recruitment process as
it fixes the venue,
arranges different
equipments for
examination purposes
and others
Table 1: Difference between Internal and External Recruitment
(Source: Created by Learner)
Selection Process is the type where the company like “Waitrose and partners” hire
the most suitable candidates from the candidate pool with certain abilities like having
proper knowledge and skills that are required for the growth and success of the
organisation (Noe et al., 2017).
Interview comparison Advantages Disadvantages
Panel Interview  It is the most reliable
process used by
almost all companies
 This panel consist of
more than one
interviewer persons
who check the
eligibility and
knowledge of
candidates (Murphy,
2015)
 The candidates feel
nervous at a time
when they face more
than one interviewer
checking their
potentials.
 As more recruiters
are conducting this
interview, the
process can be a bit
costlier.
Psychometric tests  The main aim of this
test is to check the
knowledge and
technical skills of the
candidate
 The test mainly
checks the
intelligence quality of
an applicant.
 This process takes
 Besides taking less
time, it is a complex
type of process
(Aravamudhan et al.,
2015)
 More investment in
recruitment is
required for
conducting this
process as the
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little time and can be
consider a reliable
process for selection
of applicants
individuals hired
those are special
type officers
Table 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of Panel interview and Psychometric
tests
(Source: Created by learner)
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LO2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both
the employer and employee.
Human resource management practices if properly organized can be beneficial for both
employees and the employers. Many organizations focused on HRM practices for the
benefits of organization along with employees. It acts as a bridge between employees
and employers. The relationship between employees of different departments is also
maintained. HRM is responsible for maintaining a healthy work culture within the
organization. It is also responsible for solving any type of issues, which arises within the
organization. It has been observed that proper practicing of HRM, leads to obtain the
organization goal in a more proper way (Noe et al., 2017). “Waitrose and Partners” and
other successful organization use certain effective HRM practices.
HRM practices Benefits for the
employers
Benefits for the
employees
Employee training and
development
Training is given in order
to make the employees as
per the organizations
demand. It has been
observed that proper
training and development
of employees will not only
change the working
environment of the
organization, but it also
helps increasing the rate
of production. The quality
of production also
enhances along with the
profit of the organization.
Proper training enables
employees to learn new
skills, knowledge and
others. They also make
themselves more
compatible to survive in
that organization. They are
also well prepared for the
challenges and they know
how to cope up with it.
Employees also get
chances to prove their
skills and knowledge, in
order to retain their
position (Brewster and
Hegewisch, 2017).
Employee motivation Employee motivation
enables employees to
work better under
pressure. It has been
observed that motivated
employees perform well
and provide better results.
Productive employees are
more beneficial for an
organization in terms of
profit.
Performance, ability, and
skills of an employee
depend on motivation.
Motivated employees can
perform better under tough
circumstances and can
give better results.
Workplace flexibility Many business units allow
employees to choose
Employees who have
workplace flexibility are
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required time for working.
This flexibility in choosing
time makes them more
productive and efficient.
The business units also
get more profit through
workplace flexibility, and
the chances of
sustainability also
increases (Kossek and
Thompson, 2016).
more comfortable.
Workplace flexibility allows
employee to work more
freely and happily. They
also maintain proper work
culture within the
organization.
Table 3: Benefits of both employees and employers
(Source: Created by learner)
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising
organisational profit and productivity.
Human resources management practices are very essential for raising organizational
profit and productivity. The business unit using HRM policies obtain more profit and are
more productive. Many local, national, and multinational companies are using HRM to
maintain proper working environment, better productivity, satisfying employee needs,
and others. The HRM of “Waitrose and partners” constructs different types of efficient
HRM policies within its organization (Mone and London, 2018).
HRM is responsible for varieties of activities carried out in an organization. They are
recruiting, staffing, employee-employer relations, training, and development of
employees. HRM also encourages and motivates employees to give better results and
performance, thereby increasing the production rate. The rise in production rate will
allow company to earn more profit. It has been observed that motivated employees
works better under pressure. Motivated employees put their best effort for the work
assigned to them. Employees are also provided with proper training and development.
Trained employees are more efficient and productive. Employees came to know the
working culture of the company and the ways of efficient working during training. The
knowledge of employees also increases from training and development. Trained
employees allow business unit to enhance production, generating more sales revenue
and increase in profits. Flexible workplace is another criteria organization and HRM has
to focus. Employees are more comfortable in flexible workplace, as they can work freely
and comfortably. The environment of working also maintained along with increase in
productivity and profitability. HRM also focuses on building strong employer- employee
relationship. It has been observed that organization having better employer- employee
relation is more productive and efficient. The bonding with employees is also important
from organization point of view. Employees are able to share ideas and views with
others, this leads to employees innovation. The sharing of ideas will generate the
accurate idea for production process. Proper relations among employees are quite
fruitful in achieving the goals of an organization and increases sustainability. The
organization can also complete target project within time with the help of capable and
skilful team members (Preenen et al., 2017).
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Providing payments and rewards on time also increases productivity. Employees feel
more motivated if they receive salary on time. They are also rewarded based on their
performance, for the organization to achieve goals of an organization. The job role of
employees should be rotated. It is the duty of business unit to look that employees do
not feel monotonous about their job role; the job must be more interesting and
challenging. Employee feedback is also important in a business unit. Management must
convey company’s policies, schemes, act, and production to the employee and must
listen to them during implementation of decision and schemes. It is the duty of business
organization to maintain a friendly environment with employees. The employees do not
feel scared rather they must be comfortable in expressing their views (Albrecht et al.,
2015).
.
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LO3
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM
decision- making.
Employee relations hold an important place in Human resource management practices.
It usually refers to the bonding within employees and their connection with each other.
Employee relations enables business unit to be more productive.”Waitrose and
partners” also implemented employee relation strategies within its HRM practices. It has
been observed that better relations provide more happiness and as a result the
performance is also increasing. Happy employees are more productive and efficient
than others. This allows organization in providing more satisfaction to the customers,
thereby gaining more advantages in the competitive market place. Organization does
not have good employee relations, faces many challenges. They are also spending
more time in solving these issues. Employees are the base of any organization. They
should be motivated and encouraged in order to maintain a proper working culture.
Employees are also given rewards for their performance. Incentives and rewards are
another type of HRM practices to encourage and motivate employees. “Waitrose and
partners” has employee relations implemented within its HRM practices, as a result it do
not waste time on solving employee’s issues. Employers do not have to think for
resolving issues rather they will focus on increasing organizations position in the market
environment (Shields et al., 2015).
However, it also observed that some behaviour of employees and employers do not
allow to maintain proper relation within the organization. It includes employee
indiscipline, employee grievance, and employee stress, they are explained below.
Employee indiscipline
Employee indiscipline arises when employees misconduct within the organization like
absenteeism, sudden change in employees behaviour, slow performance and others. In
order to maintain suitable relation employees must not commit this.
Employee grievance
Employee grievance arises when employees do not feel satisfied with the organization’s
management and the decisions taken. Providing unsafe working environment, unfair
treatment, making decisions without consulting, no rewards, and incentives are some of
the ways by which employees feel neglected (Taylor et al., 2015).
Employee stress
Employee stress is another problem arises when employees are unable to meet career
goals, personal goals, performance, and self-respect. Immense pressure, excessive
loads, job nature, and lack of promotion also a part of employee stress.
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In order to maintain a strong relation within organization employee relations must be
taken care of Improving relations involves certain steps, which are discussed below.
Improving employee relations
Fair treatment of employees
Management must treat employees in a fair way. Every employee has expectation of
fair treatment .Partiality amongst employee should not be done (Nielsen et al., 2017).
Interesting and challenging job profile
The job role of employees should not be monotonous. They must find the job interesting
and challenging.
Interaction with the employees
Management must interact with the employees in order to updated those regarding
schemes, production and processes.
Appreciation and rewards
Employees must be appreciated for the well-done job and they must be rewarded
sometimes. These will boost them to perform better (Shields et al., 2015).
Salary and incentives
Employees should be provided with fair salary for their skills, eligibility, and qualities.
Employee’s feedback
Employee’s feedback is essential for making decisions. They must be included in the
decision making process.
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon
HRM decision- making.
In the United Kingdom, the laws, norms and policies of the government is very strict and
popular. The legislation policies are made through so that it can protect the employees
from any kind of prejudice and unethical actions. Therefore, it provides a secure good
life of an employee. The legislation policies are functional and help the organisation in
controlling the decision-making process at business market.
Legislation acts are as follows:
The Equality Act, 2010
The Equality act explains about the equality in gender, colour, sex, knowledge, and
culture in which basis a person in an organisation should not differentiate others based
on these factors. In the year 2010, the UK government declared this act in order to
implement the same facilities and opportunities to all the individuals in the country and
to avoid partiality. Human resource management team is responsible for this type of
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