Human Resource Management Report - Analysis of HRM at Morrisons

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Morrisons, a major supermarket chain. The report begins with an overview of Morrisons and the purpose, roles, and responsibilities of the HR function. It then evaluates various approaches to recruitment, selection, training and development, rewards, and performance management, assessing their effectiveness. The report also examines employee relations and engagement strategies, including motivational techniques and flexible working models. Furthermore, it covers the relevant employment legislation. The assignment includes a job specification design, a sample CV, interview preparatory notes, and a job offer template. Finally, it offers an evaluation of the entire HRM process, providing a rationale for conducting these activities. The report uses the Atkinson flexibility model to describe employee management strategies at Morrisons. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of effective HRM practices for both the business and its human capital.

Human Resource Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.Overview of Morrisons............................................................................................................1
2.Purpose , role and responsibilities of HR function..................................................................1
3.Explaining, assessing and evaluating approaches to recruitment, selection, training and
development, rewards and performance management................................................................3
4. Approach and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement ...................6
5. Employment legislation within which an organization must operate.....................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
1. Designing job specification.....................................................................................................9
2. CV for the role of junior accountant.......................................................................................9
3. Documentation of preparatory notes for interviews..............................................................10
4. Job offer ...............................................................................................................................10
5. Evaluation of the process and the rationale for conducting HR activities............................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) is the systematic process of identifying, recruiting,
hiring and managing talented people in an organisation. This management is concerned with the
optimum utilisation of the capabilities of the workforce of the company (Bratton and Gold,
2017). Current study is based on Morrisons, a supermarket giant based in Bradford, England.
The organization deals in foods products, clothing, books & magazines etc. The present report is
going to discuss purpose, roles and responsibilities of HRM in the organisation. Evaluation and
assessment of different approaches to workforce staffing and management of human resources
will be done in this report. The assignment will lay emphasis on benefits of HRM practises for
business and human capital. Analysis of employee relations and identification of key elements of
employment legislations will be covered in this project.
TASK 1
1.Overview of Morrisons
Morrisons is a public company founded in 1899 with tremendous human capital of
105487 employees. Company have some very successful human resource strategies for
managing its huge workforce power however, there are some loopholes which is decreasing the
productivity of organisation and creating dissatisfaction amongst employees. The issues
company faces are outdated technology in its internal systems. The firm provides low pay to its
shop floor employees and does not count any overtime. The enterprise claims that they provide
training and development to its employees but most of their shop floor workforce is not highly
trained.
2.Purpose , role and responsibilities of HR function
The main purpose of human resource is to bring right people for the right job at the right
time. It ensures that Morrisons gets the best workforce for achieving its organisational
objectives. Managing human capital and achieving employee satisfaction is one of the overall
objective of human resource management (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
Roles and responsibilities of HR function in Morrisons
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(Source: Roles and Responsibilities of Human Resource Management, 2017)
 The HR function is responsible for identifying the job vacancy in Morrisons and
communicate it with the prospective candidates.
 HR function is to synchronise all the activities from hiring a candidate to retaining that
person in the company.Proper training and development is the integral function
performed by the human resource of Morrisons.
 HR department of the company is held responsible for providing appropriate
compensation to the employees.
 Maintaining employees relations, keeping them motivated and satisfied is the
responsibility of HRM for which it uses various techniques so that organisational goals
could be efficiently achieved.
 The management act as bridge between organisation and employees. It is the
responsibility of HR to create and build harmonious relationships between two main
aspects of the business environment.
 It is the duty of the HR to make the workplace environment healthy and friendly so that
employees desires of always being there.
 HR practises and policies directly reflect the image of Morrisons. An effective HR
department practising activities makes its employees happy and create a good word of
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Illustration 1: functions of Human resource management

mouth for the organisation. This builds reputation of the company in the market
(Brewster, 2017, pp. 22-35).
3.Explaining, assessing and evaluating approaches to recruitment, selection, training and
development, rewards and performance management
Workforce planning is a process of aligning organisational needs and objectives with
employees' needs and wants. There are different approaches to workforce planning such as Best
fit and Best practise.
Best fit approach: This approach states that HR of Morrisons needs to formulate HR
strategies which fit well with the overall organisational strategies. This approach focuses on
matching the firm's strategies with HR activities so that efficiency can be achieved. Strengths:
 Proper integration of personal objectives with that of company's goals enhances the
productivity of workforce as well as overall efficiency of the firm (Bolman, and Deal,
2017).
Weaknesses:
 Such integration is hard to achieve.
Many a time, organisational objectives neglets the objectives of employees. Best practise
approach: This approach claims that there are some HR strategies which are universally
accepted that help companies in achieving a competitive advantage over other firms.
Strengths:
 The essence of this approach is that these accepted HR activities can be utilised largely in
organisation in improving the performances of the workforce.
Weaknesses:
 Standardised HR practises can always be applied to dynamic situations.
 Best practises vary company to company and in reality there is no such thing as best HR
practise for all the organisation.
Company uses best practise approach in its strategic workforce planning which is the
reason why it can not easily adjust to the dynamic business environment. Designing human
resources strategies which changes with dynamic organisation objectives would yield Morrisons
greater efficiency in its operations.
Approaches to recruitment and selection
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Morrisons recruiting methods involves internal methods that allows company to fill the
vacancy by shifting the employees from lower to higher position. The different sources for
internal methods are promotions, transfers, recalling retired employees for part-time jobs etc.
Strengths:
 Internal methods consumes less time.
 It acts as motivational factor by promoting people to higher grade.
 No interview cost, no documentation, employee retention due to company's tendency of
providing promotions.
Weaknesses:
 It restricts bringing of fresh talent which would make the working environment more
creative.

 No opportunity for potential employees.
Morrisons also recruits people externally. It includes campus recruitment, direct recruit
through walk-ins, job portals, HR agencies specialises in providing suitable candidates.
Strengths:
 These methods allow it to bring in new talent that promotes the out of the box thinking
culture in the organisation.
 Company gets to choose from wide variety of potential candidates which helps them in
getting the most qualified and skilled workforce required for the job.
Weaknesses:
 This method is costlier than internal method and also time consuming.
 It involves lot of documentation.
 It may create dissatisfaction amongst the existing employees when a person for higher
position is recruited externally rather than promoting them to that position.
HR department of Morrisons identifies the job vacancies in different departments by and
clearly states out the job requirements in its advertisements. It however uses traditional approach
where it predefines the person to be called as ideal and then fills the vacancy. It uses job
descriptions and personal specifications and it selects its personnel by examining their
knowledge and personal qualities. However, it should focus on the skills that are required for the
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job and should apply competency approach in recruitment and selection(Dipboye, 2017, pp.119-
142).
Selection: Morrisons uses screening of the candidates by using behavioural test.
Hypothetical questions are put up in front of the candidates where they asked to give answers by
imagining themselves in that situation.
Strengths:
 This is useful for hiring people of manager level which operates in a very dynamic
environment.
 It also helps in knowing behaviour of people.
Weaknesses: Candidates giving answers in such situations may not true and display themselves in the
most impressive way. This might result into the wrong selection of people for the job in
the company.
Training and Development: The company uses on the job training approach in developing its
employees into skilled and competent workforce.
Strengths:
 Most effective training method as it provides real time practise.
 It is economical than other methods.
Weaknesses:
 High ratio of errors in the operations. It creates disturbances in the overall functions of company as each function is correlated
with each other.
Performance Management: Morrisons uses comparative approach of managing the
performances of its employees. In this approach, it measures the performances of individuals and
compares it with others in the company (Guest, 2017, pp.22-38).
Strengths:
 Better way of analysing the performances of the employees.
 It helps in creating a healthy competitive environment in the company.
Weaknesses:
 It does not count the qualitative strengths of employees while measuring the
performances.
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 This measure cannot measure the behavioural aspects of employees performance.
Rewards system: Morrisons rewards on the basis of performances of its employees.
Monetary benefits are provided to its employees when they out perform the tasks allotted to
them.
Strengths:
 It leads to proper appraisal of employees based on how they performed.Monetary benefits
helps in enhancing the living standards of the employees.
 Weaknesses: Financial benefits may not satisfies employees' need of recognition.
 Employee need more responsibilities in their jobs which could be done through job
enrichment rather than providing monetary perks.
4. Approach and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement
Employee relations : The activities of maintaining cordial and healthy relationships
between organisation and its employees are called employee relations. HRM of Morrison's
emphasis on building good employees relations through various practises. For example
innovative training programs to its managers for making them more efficient, developing
subordinates through on the job training sessions in stores by which they learn about handling of
the customers. Designing jobs that optimally uses the capabilities of the employees is another
way of building healthy employee relations as employees likes to have varied responsibilities in
their job that boosts their self esteem. Morrison's HRM applies different motivational techniques
for enhancing the efficiency of the workers (Zheng and et.al., 2015, pp.354-379).
Company provides flexibility in working hours for meeting the needs of its employees.
Morrison's rewards its workforce on the basis work performed by them. Financial benefits are
given to workforce for motivating them to outperform every task assigns to them. The
organisation also takes the inputs of its members in the decision making system which is its
intrinsic reward system. Performance are appraised by paired comparison method.
All these practises of HR help in increasing the productivity of its employees. It helps in
retaining them by providing them healthy working conditions like friendly communication
system, peer to peer talks, small breaks between the tasks etc. Flexible working hours reduces
absenteeism in the company. Monetary benefits satisfies the needs of people in the firm as this
enhances their standard of living. Taking suggestions from low level employees builds effective
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employees relations in the company. This ultimately reflects in company's image of being a good
employer. These practises motivate employees in achieving Morrison's goals and objectives of
maximising customer satisfaction.
Employee engagement: This is a strategic approach of retaining employees in the
company and decreasing employee turnover ratio. Its purpose is to create suitable working
conditions for every member and making them committed in achieving organisational goals.
Enhancing welfare of the workforce, developing and training, involving people in decision
making process of Morrison's. Motivating them through techniques that are tailor made
according every employee particular needs, blending work according to the capabilities of
employees helps in making employees satisfy with their jobs (George, 2015, pp.102-121).
Illustration 2: Employee engagement
(Source: 6 Employee Engagement Ideas to Consider, 2018)
The efforts of HRM in retaining its employees results in low employee turnover, satisfied
and happy employees, increased efficiency of the employees that subsequently results into higher
profitability and enhanced efficiency of Morrisons.
Flexibility model: Morrison's adopts flexibility model of Atkinson for managing its
employees efficiently. The model divided employees in peripheral and core groups. Core group
employees posses specific skills which makes it hard to replace. Peripheral group consist of
employees that perform specific tasks and are easy to replace. People in the organisation want to
belong to core group it provides them job security. The model also states that employees need to
proactive in adapting the needs and requirements of organisation for sustaining in the market.
The functional flexibility states Morrison capabilities of shifting its employees to
different departments. This flexibility stats company's ability of adapting itself to dynamic
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demands of business environment. Numeric flexibility provides that the ability of company to
make adjustments in its workforce ratio for meeting the seasonal demands.
Importance of employees' relations in relation to influencing decision making of HRM
Strong and sound employee relations help HRM of Morrison's in its decision making. It
helps HRM in providing better work place environment. For instance, good relations amongst
managers and its subordinates helps HRM in bringing changes in the Morrisons. A good rapport
between workforce and company welcomes the decision of required changes and this ultimately
helps the human resource to implement changes in terms technology, change in management
style, change in working style etc. in the firm. Healthy Employee relations helps in taking
decisions regarding the settlement of disputes. Significant feedbacks would be available with the
HRM regarding their practises of managing the workforce which would help it in taking better
decisions for the organisation (Dhanabhakyam and Rekha, 2016, pp.969-973).
5. Employment legislation within which an organization must operate
Morrison's comply all the laws relating with employment of workplace. The purpose of
employment is to protect the interest of employees in terms of equality in pay, gender
discrimination, security, safety and mental satisfaction at the workplace. There are different laws
that are taken care of while employing any individual in the company (Shen, and Benson, 2016,
pp.1723-1746).
Equality Law Act, 2010 & National Minimum Wage Act, 1998 : Morrison's follow
this act and pay fair and minimum prescribed wages & salaries to its workers and employees.
This act prohibits the discrimination of salaries on the basis of gender. For example, Male
managers getting highly paid as compared to female employee working at the same level. These
practises have been completely illegalised by the government of the country. Every member of
the company is treated equal in the organisation.
Health and safety Act, 1974: Organisation needs to ensure health and safety of its
employees. Health and safety act prescribes that employees need to be safeguard against
hazardous activities of business.
The General Data protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”): This area of
employment legislation states that data and personal information of employees of Morrison's
should not be misused. The general Data Protection Regulation of European Union prescribes the
privacy and protection of employees data by the employer.
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Employment Rights Act, 1996 (Dismissal): Employees cannot be dismissal without
giving the opportunity of being heard. HR of Morrison's keeps this legislation in mind while
employing a person in its organisation. Dismissal protection is basically to provide protection to
employees regarding unfair retrenchment. Examples of unfair dismissals demoting employees
for no valid reason, provoking others in the company to harass and bully a particular employee,
coercing employees to adapt changes that were not in his employment contract etc. Employees of
Morrison's against such incidences can file suite against the employer in employment tribunal.
Redundancy Payment Act, 1965 : This is a type of removal of employees.
Organisations sometimes reduce its workforce due to cost cutting for which protection law is
made in the country. Employees have various rights in case they face redundancy. A notice
period, compensation for being dismissing, proper consultation with the organisation's top
management etc. Morrison's have policies such as giving notice period to employees before
removing them from their jobs, adequate compensation is given to redundant workforce
regarding this matter.
Morrison's conducts its business in the most ethical way and have strict policies and rules
for following ethical behaviour across the organisation. Treating everyone fair and equal has
helped the company in building cordial and strong relations with trade unions in the country and
across the borders. The organisation has made collective agreements with the trade unions for
stating the conditions of employment. This ensures the effective relation between employee,
entity and trade union. Organisation having good employee relations and trade union relation
enjoys great reputation in outside world (Griffin, Bryant and Koerber, 2015, pp.378-404).
TASK 2
1. Designing job specification
Morrison's PLC LTD
Job Description
Job title: Accountant
Job type : Full-time
Location : Morrisons Victoria store, Bradford, West Yorkshire
Department: Finance & Accounts
Report to: Head of accounting department
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Job duties
 Recording daily transactions.
 Preparing budgets and undertaking audit work.
 Preparing financial statements of the company with seniors.
 Helping in making tax provisions of Morrison's.
 Maintaining co-ordination with other department of the organisation.
Skills and Experience
Qualifications: This job requires bachelors degree in commerce.
Experience: Minimum of 1 year experience in the related field.
Skills: Fair knowledge of computer and its applications. Strong verbal and written
communication skills. Team work spirit must be present.
Performance and goals
 Completing given tasks on time.
 Maintaining coordination and cooperation with seniors and colleagues.
2. CV for the role of junior accountant
Name: Jason Parker
Phone: [phone]
Gmail Id: [e-mail]
Address: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Education: Bachelor’s in accounting in the year 2018.
Experience: I did Internship in ABC accounting firm for 6 months where I learned recording
daily transaction
. I have also prepared capital and revenue budgets
and financial statements for the company.
Key Skills: Strong communication skills, interpersonal skills, data operating skills, market
analysis, data analysis
Additional activities: Won prizes in several accounting Olympiads in the college. Organised
non- curriculum events in University.
Known languages: English, Spanish
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