Human Resource Management Practices at Nike: An In-depth Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Nike Corporation. It explains the purpose and scope of HRM in resourcing talent and skills to fulfill business objectives, evaluating the effectiveness of key elements like reward management and motivational theories such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The report also examines internal and external factors, including employment legislation, that influence HRM decision-making at Nike. Furthermore, it discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment approaches, both internal and external, used by Nike, and applies HRM practices in a work-related context, concluding with an assessment of how these practices contribute to organizational profit and productivity. The analysis emphasizes Nike's adherence to the soft model of HRM, valuing employees as assets and fostering a healthy working environment.

Human Resources Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of
resourcing in your chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil
business objectives.......................................................................................................4
LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource
Management in an organisation...................................................................................9
LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including employment legislation...................................................11
LO4 Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context.......13
Conclusion..................................................................................................................17
Reference List.............................................................................................................21
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Introduction
In the given context, Human Resource Management refers to the formal
management of the employees within the organization (Ali et al., 2015). The
management with the help of various sources makes the employees understand the
benefits offered to them and their rights within the company. The human resource
manager deals with the framing of work, proper recruitment of employees, managing
employees’ compensation and others. The HRM department actually works to
motivate the employees’ within the company and form better employee relations. A
company's growth is based on the recruitment process. This assignment briefs about
the various functions of the HRM department, elongating the benefits provided to the
employees, which will increase the productivity. The assignment also discusses
about the various employment legislation and different styles of recruitment methods.
The assignment discusses about the HRM functions applied in Nike. The company
was founded in 1964, as Blue Ribbon Sports organization with the contribution of
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman (www.nike.com, 2018). Officially, the company
originated as Nike in the year of 1971, comprising of 3900 employees operating in
many countries on the whole.
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LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms
of resourcing in your chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to
fulfil business objectives
Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce
planning and resources in your chosen organisation. [P1]
Over the years, HRM practices have undergone major changes and have helped in
increasing the productivity and satisfaction among the employees (Purce, 2014). The
functions of the HRM focuses mainly on making the employees aware of the
insurance schemes offered to them working in the company, selection of the right
kind of candidate, which will be profitable to the organization and enforce proper
training to the employees to strive towards the objectives. The department maintains
healthy relationship between the management and the employees with its functions.
Resource planning:
It is the sole responsibility of the HRM department to ensure that the products are
timely delivered to the customers with the help of proper channels. In the recruitment
of the staffs, Nike HRM department ensures that those candidates are hired who
have the charisma and the potentiality to attract customers in purchasing the
commodity. Human resource planning is continuous in Nike. Nike develops a
mission among the employees regarding the kind of products to be manufactured in
the organization. The manager sets forth the goals and objectives of the
organization. The manager through teamwork and group meetings makes strategies
through which the objectives are to be achieved. The manager allocates different
tasks to different employees based on the skills of the employees. It is the
responsibility of the manager to oversee that the skills and talents hired matches with
the objectives of Nike. Resource planning helps the employees to understand the
necessity of the job and giving priority to the kind of job. The planning includes a list
of functions to be overseen by the manager of Nike like analysis of th turnover, equal
employment opportunity given to the staffs, ensuring the health and safety of the
employees.
Hard and Soft models of HRM:
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The HRM approaches are based on two models namely the soft and the hard model.
Soft model treats the employees as assets possessing value, thereby giving respect
and fair treatment without any discrimination. Hard model on the other hand,
assumes the employees only as resources that can be utilized to serve the
objectives of the company. The hard model focuses only on the recruitment process
while soft model ensures that motivation is served to the employees to fulfil the
objectives. The chosen organization, Nike abides by the soft models of HRM and as
they believe that, the employees are the assets of the firm who need to be valued to
enhance the overall productivity.
Workforce planning:
It is essential for the human resource manager of Nike to fill the vacancy in the
company and analyze the competencies of the staffs existing in the company.
Workforce planning takes the initiative to train the employees through orientation
programs (Cascio, 2018). The workforce planning is consistent in nature as the HR
managers identifies the needs of work force in the company and fulfil them in
different methods. Nike develops segments to prioritise the tasks to meet the
objectives of the organization. Nike following the workforce planning aims to have
the right people employed in the right place utilizing the resources in right time. By
maintain workforce planning, Nike meets the short-term and the long-term objectives
of the company.
Using examples from your chosen organisation, explain the strengths and
weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection. [P2]
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Figure 1: Recruitment Process
Source: Created by learner
Internal process of recruitment and selection:
In this process of recruitment, the selection of staffs takes place in the form of
promotion of the existing staffs. Sometimes the existing staffs are transferred to
different departments where there is a requirement to fill the gap of the vacancies in
the organization. The staffs as they are the existing one, do not require any training
or induction program. Recruitment takes place in three steps, upward, lateral and
downward. The strength and weaknesses of the process is discussed below:
Strengths
 The process helps in retaining the
employees in the organization by
motivating them in the form of
promotion (Niemela and Kim,
2014).
 Employee trust is gained from this
process, which develops
employee relation
Weakness
 The opportunity to hire fresh
talents and skills is not done as
the recruitment takes place from
within.
 Innovation is limited in this
process thereby not utilizing the
unused skills of the candidates
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SearchingScreening

 As the recruitment takes place
within the company, it is low in
cost and economic in nature.
Table 2: Strengths and Weakness of Internal Recruitment
Source: Created by learner
External process of recruitment and selection:
External recruitment takes place by hiring candidates who are nbot a part of the
company. For recruitment, the company provides information of vacancies through
newspaper or even magazine advertisement. The recruitment in this form takes
place through screening of the skills of the candidates. The strengths and
weaknesses are discussed below:
Strengths
 The company gets the opportunity
to hire candidates having the
desired skill and talent required for
the company, thereby having
innovation in the company
 Job opportunities are also created
in the market, reducing
unemployment
Weakness
 As the hiring of the candidates
takes place from outside the
organization, it takes time to select
the candidates’ thereby
consuming lot of time.
 It is expensive as the company
discloses about the vacancies with
the help of newspaper, online
portal, or even with advertisement.
The process of interview also
consumes time and includes cost
for screening (Marchington et al.,
2016)
 The hired candidates may lack
some of the skills required by the
company.
Table 3: Strengths and Weakness of External Recruitment
Source: Created by learner
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Nike employs both the recruitment process for selecting candidates. Nike arranges
for recruitment process annually along with training programs for external
candidates. The expenses in the screening, interviews of candidates are included as
promotional ventures of company.
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LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource
Management in an organisation
Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of your
chosen organisation [P3].
The HRM department of Nike proposes many strategies and techniques, which
benefits both the employer and the employees (Sparrow, 2016). By developing
employee relation, Nike will be able to maintain a healthy working environment.
Apart from Best Fit Model, Hard and soft model, other practices include motivational
theory, reward management practice that definitely helps the employees. They are
discussed below:
Reward management technique:
The management of Nike and the human resource department has planned the
reward system to encourage the employees and appraise them based on their
performance (Tims et al., 2015). The performance of the employees is evaluated on
a regular basis to offer them the rewards according to the tasks assigned to them.
Employees often feel de-motivated and the sense of dissatisfaction arises among
them. To prevent from this, the management provides rewards to retain the
employees in the company. Nike offers both monetary and non-monetary rewards to
the employees. Monetary rewards consist of high wages to the employees, providing
incentives. While non-monetary rewards consist of promotions, appraisals. Both the
reward systems motivate the employees to stay focus towards the goals and develop
a feeling of satisfaction among them. Rewards make the employees work more
efficiently towards the requirements of the company.
Motivational theories:
The HR department of Nike makes use of many motivational theories to encourage
the employees in the organization. Nike uses Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as one of
the motivational theory to gain best performance of the employees in return
(Bamberger et al., 2014). The company offers incentives to improve the standards of
living of the employees. The company follows the policy to pay minimum wage to the
employees so that they can have food and shelter for themselves.
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Maslow's theory explains through a pyramid the five essential needs of human
working in an organization (Cherry, 2014.). Based on the theory, Nike's HRM has
tried to understand the basic needs of the employees.
Figure 4: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Source: (Created by learner)
The first four needs are the deficiency needs and the last is the self-actualization
needs (Bratton and Gold, 2017). According to the theory, the un-fulfilment of the
deficiency needs encourages the employees to strive more hard until the needs are
not met. When the lower level needs are satisfied, the employees feel motivated to
fulfil the needs of the higher level. The five needs are:
Psychological needs: Water, air, food and shelter
Safety needs: Security and safety
Love and belongingness needs: Trust and friendship
Esteem needs: Self-respect, recognition
Self-actualization needs: personal capability, personal growth, and self-realization.
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EsteemSocialneedsSafetyNeeds

Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in your chosen
organisation in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity [P4].
The different human resource practices applied by Nike are reward system and the
use of the motivational theories. Training and development session helps the
employees to garner their knowledge in a field where their skills are lacking. Training
helps the employees to provide better works with efficiency. Nike has taken the
efforts to understand the various requirements of the employees working in he
organization. Nike offer rewards to the employees for increasing the growth of the
company. No lag is found in the payment procedure of the company as all the
employees are paid as per their designation in the company. Nike offers incentives
to their employees per month to keep them motivated and stay focused towards the
goals of the company. By increasing the efficiency in the productivity, the customers’
needs are met which again helps in retaining the customers base.
The rewarding system is exceptionally productive in nature and helps in the growth
of the company (Lawter, 2015). Since the workers are satisfied with their benefits,
their efficiency towards their work increases. The arrangement of rewards makes the
employees to strive harder and becomes successful in accomplishing the goals of
the company. The departmental heads of Nike gives opportunity to the employees’ to
express their views and ideas and make necessary recommendations. Staffs have
the freedom to frame their own form in strategies to execute the work. The HRM
practices helps in creating a positive workplace in the premise. Nike offers
satisfactory benefits to the employees like suitable offices, which helps in having a
decent working condition. They have a feeling of being a member of the Nike’s
organizational family. The positive environment helps the employees to have an urge
to work efficiently with zeal and acquire growth in the productivity.
LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource
Management decision-making, including employment legislation
Analyse the importance of employee relations in your chosen organisation in
respect to influencing HRM decision-making. [P5]
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Healthy employee relation helps to have an amicable relation between the
management and the employees. Employee relation is healthy when equal treatment
is given to all the employees irrespective of any kind of discrimination. Fair treatment
to the employees contributes in achieving the objectives of the company more
efficiently. Employees are the ones who have apt knowledge about the ideas or the
product. Hence, if they are motivated, they will increase the productivity. As they
have the knowledge of the products, they can share their valuable feedback to the
management, thereby making necessary changes in the strategies to benefit the
organization (Wild, 2017). It is the responsibility of the HR department to ensure that
inputs from employees as feedbacks are taken before taking any decisions. This
creates a sense of belongingness and valued assets of the company among the
employees.
The task of policy implementation is made convenient and easy with the
contribution of the employee relation in the company (Robertson, 2016). Nike has
developed strong communication skills with the employees. As a result, the company
faces no issue in framing any kinds of policies. Since the relations of the employees
are in line and good with the human resource management, they easily accept
changes and are adaptable. Creating communication with the employees helps the
HRM to analyse the skills of the staffs at the same time, which helps them in
assigning the employees to different task. Nike has followed some of the strategies
like:
 Provided benefits to the employees and offers rewards to them to employ
them in productivity with an increase in the market share and meet the
organizational objectives
 To provide a clarity of visions to the employees by making the target of the
organizations clear to the employees
 Supervisors or team leaders of Nike has a regular interaction with the
members of the organizations and collect their feedbacks developing the
communication skills
Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon
HRM decision-making in your chosen organisation. [P6]
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