Human Resource Management Report: Primark's HRM Strategies Analysis

This report examines the human resource management (HRM) practices at Primark, an Irish clothing and accessories retailer. It begins by defining HRM and outlining its core functions, including planning, compensation, motivation, industrial relations, job analysis, recruitment, training, and performance appraisal. The report then analyzes different recruitment and selection approaches, such as internal and external methods, discussing their strengths and weaknesses. It highlights the benefits of effective HRM practices for both employees and the employer, including improved employee turnover, conflict resolution, employee satisfaction, and enhanced performance. The report also explores the effectiveness of HRM in raising profits and productivity through employee engagement, training, and development. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of employee relations and key elements of employee legislation within the context of Primark's operations. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and their implications for Primark's HRM strategies.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM.........................................................................................1
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection..............3
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employee and employer...................................................5
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices to raise profits and productivity....................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Importance of employee relations for influencing HRM decision making.......................7
P6 Key elements of employee legislations.............................................................................8
P7 Illustrate applications of HRM practices in work related context.....................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management can be defined as basically to manage man power of an
organisation. It seems to be important because employees are kind of assets of any business as
they are generally known as human capital. Human resource management has various functions
in company such as recruitment, on boarding, retention, talent managing, compensation,
learning, training and so on. This report is based on Primark which may described as an Irish
clothing and accessories enterprise (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012). It was founded by Arthur Ryan
and his business partner Michael Mitchell around June, 1969. This company is headquartered in
Dublin, Ireland and providing products like clothing, cosmetics, house ware and many more.
Functions and purpose of HRM along with strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of
recruitment and selection will described in this assignment. Effectiveness of HRM practices
along with employee relations and key legislations of employment will also explained.
TASK 1
P1 Purpose and functions of HRM
Human resource management is all about to mange staff members of company as it is
back bone of any organisation. Primark have to do allocation of tasks and activities to employees
as per their field of expertise so that maximum outcome can be achieved. There are various kind
of purposes and function of human resource management which should be done essentially to
carrying out various procedure on regular basis to run an organisation more successfully.
Purpose of HRM
There are various kind of purposes and for that it is very essential in an organisation. By
organising systematic management of employees in respect of several activities and procedures,
better outputs can be received. It includes effectively utilisation of resources should be done by
making sure that way of using them by workers. It is important to involve employees in several
necessary meetings and conferences and make ready to adopt something new new and work on
that with their best efforts (Southern, 2011). It is provide support to forecast demand and supply
to recruit various staff members in correct way. Primark have to look after several government
policies and follow them to make company honour its responsibilities toward employees
depending on country. All these aspects are important because human resource administration
creates a bridge between line management and firm's workforce.
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Functions of HRM
There are different functions of HRM which should be conducted by team if HRM in
Primark are given below:
Planning of compensation and remuneration:- It involves several rules and regulations
which should be followed while measuring salaries, wages and earnings of staff members of
Primark. All types of remuneration and compensation must be decided by considering legal
norms as well as company rules (Functions of HRM, 2018).
Motivation, welfare, health and safety:- In an organisation, they have to take care of
health and safety of employees by implementing several policies for that. And sometimes,
workers get depressed or demoralised then firm have to make certain procedures to encourage
them like certification on monthly basis and incentives.
(Source: Functions of HRM, 2018)
Industrial relations:- HR team of Primark have to establish health and peaceful relations
with other firms and work with mutual understanding. It is all about to maintain co-ordinal
relations with union members which support organisation to prevent strikes lockouts and make
sure smooth working in company.
Job analysis design:- It is important to conduct job analysis which includes descriptions
and specification of particular designations. And it should be done according to requirements
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Illustration 1: Functions of HRM, 2018

such qualifications, experience of candidate and then salary packages, roles that need to fulfilled
after joining.
Recruitment and selection:- It is all about to provide information about vacancies and
hire candidates as per requirements in company. This can be done according information
collected in job analysis (Schaper and et. al., 2014).
Training and induction:- This can be described about learning procedure organised by
company after selection to provide training regarding methods or ways ot wor king. In induction,
which is generally conducted on first day of joining in which they will render necessary
knowledge particular firm such as Primark.
Performance appraisal:- This can be refined as all those techniques by which
organisation are able to appraise people for their excellent performance. It can be done through
providing incentives, bonuses, increments, promotions and many more.
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
There are various kind of approaches by which Primark become bale to do a proper
recruitment and selection process to hire correct candidate. Different types of techniques have
their own impacts on this procedure so that it will facilitate to conduct an appropriate hiring
process. Some of these approaches are given below:
Internal approach of recruitment:- It is described as that approach in which
companies are looking for new employees to be recruited on vacant positions. This will done
within organisation by conducting various transfers, promotions etc. these are described below in
brief:-
Transfers:- This can be defined as horizontally promotion in which a person get
transfers fer at different branch of the same company either on similar designation or higher
position. This can be done through their excellent performance of generating outcomes.
Promotions:- This recruitment can be done in vertical direction in which they increase
role, responsibilities and compensation as well. It is important to achieve desired promotions
because it defined one's growth of career.
Present employees:- This can be explained as to appoint current worker at other
designations as per vacancies and their qualities, skills and abilities in same organisation.
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Advantages
 This will improve the morale of employees by giving better post in company which make
them feel deserving sand valuable.
 It is helpful to avoid several errors in selection of appropriate candidate.
 It will promotes loyalty of employees and economy in training costs will be utilised more
properly.
Disadvantages
 this may discourage people from outside to join the company.
 It seems to be possible that requisite persons possessing abilities for vacant positions may
not be available in organisation.
 Sometime, internal one observes partial behaviour which is nor appropriate.
External source of recruitment- there are several methods of external recruitment some
of them is given below: Advertisement and newspaper- Prime mark have some vacancy which they have to
fulfil through external source so advertisement is one of the. They place advertisement in
newspaper, T.V. And on some others also to provide brief information for placing right
person at right place.
 Employment exchange: this is organized through government agencies for providing job
opportunities to several people as per their skills and knowledge. In this lots of companies
are registered with these.
 Advertisement method: under this organisation system supply information about the
vacancies and requirement to people in market place. They mention skills, characteristics,
experiences that employees must hold. Thus, workers can apply according to their needs
and will. This is a important external sources that involve huge amount of investments.
 Campus placements: it involve company institution approaching colleges, universities
in order to conduct placement so that they can able to attract prospective employees in to
their system. There are number of branches that are available hence, organisation have to
examine it properly according to their needs and requirements.
Strengths of internal and external sources:
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 These approaches are helpful to determine about interest of candidate for job.
 Skills and abilities of a person can be identified easily and clearly (Blackburn, Hart and
Wainwright, 2013).
 Provide support to recruit best and more deserving candidate as per their capabilities to
fulfil roles and responsibilities of specific designation.
 It will facilitate to do more appropriate promotions and transfers of really desirable
employee.
Weaknesses of internal and external sources:
 These procedures are quite expensive because to hire a new candidate HR team need to
travel somewhere else many times.
 It is time consuming process to conduct levels of hiring in step-by-step for bulk of
candidates.
 If online recruitment is used by company then many of candidates will apply without
having eligible qualities. Then it becomes difficult to do screening of it.
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employee and employer
There are various kind of HRM practices which can implemented by Primark to maintain
human resource aspect sin proper manner. By this, organisation is able to organise several
procedures or events to attain better outcomes. These practices are bake to render different
benefits to employee as well as employer of Primark which are given below:
Improve employee turnover:- An organisation never wants to increase its employee
turnover as it hurts bottom line of it. This is so because affording salary of current employee is
just half than implementing to hire new one. Primark have to make such effective and
appropriate strategy to retain their staff members through motivational events or speech of
superior. All these aspects should be done by HR team of company (Malhotra and Temponi,
2010).
Conflicts resolution:- Sometimes, it is observed that there are several conflict and issues
are arises in company between employees or senior and junior. This may happen due to
employees having their different cultures, thoughts, religions and values that did not match with
each other. Then HRM have to establish a specific culture of Primark so that all staff members
have to follow that to perform in organisation. This will facilitates to reduce issues and problems
and results in smooth working in order to generate better outcomes.
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Employee satisfaction:- It is all about to forecast desires of an employee and fulfil
them. Every organisation will think about to take care needs and wants of customers and try to
complete that (Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle, 2012). But they have to take care of worker 's
needs and wants also which they expect from Company. Primark have to render proper
compensation and incentives as per their performance and also provide trips of organisation to
make them feel happy and motivated.
Improve employee performance:- Improving employee performance is a necessary task
because it directly impacts on profitability as well as productivity of an enterprise. For this,
Primark have to organise learning programmes to enhance their skills so that they become able to
create better outputs.
Training and development:- This can be described as regular training and development
events of company to fulfil performance gap. This can be done as per that criteria of evaluating
employee working and need of training for particular aspects. Primark need to organise several
training and learning procedures to improve abilities and efficiencies of staff members.
Make better relations:- This can be explained as yo conduct several activities such as
meetings, conferences and seminar by involving employees also so that they feel valuable and
learn something from them. This will help to build good relationship between employer and
employee which may facilitate to work together with proper coordination.
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices to raise profits and productivity
There are different types of HRM practices which can be implemented in organisation
according to various scenarios and requirements (Herbane, 2010). They have several positive
impacts on organisational aspects which will support to improve profitability as well as
productivity of Primark. It is observed that correlation between positive economic performance
and skilled HR practice in several sections. These are like employee retention, branding,
development of leadership, performance management and rewards.
Engagement of staff members:- This term refers to make involvement of workers in
several meetings and conferences related to their filed of working. This will impacts positively as
people feel valuable and retained in same firm. This will also provide more information about
those projects on which they have to work that results into better outcomes.
Concentrate on management:- Some of HR practices are able to build an accurate
management of human resource to complete tasks and activities properly. It should be done by
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focussing on field of expertise of every employee while allocating certain events and procedures
in Primark. This may results into attaining desirable outcomes ion regular basis.
Generate image of Brand:- People become familiar with brand rather than actual name
of the organisation. It is important to improve the brand value of Primark by implementing new
innovative features into its product or services to achieve satisfaction of customers. Increasing
pro0fuitability boost p growth of an enterprise along with reducing employee turnover (Altman,
Sabato and Wilson, 2010).
Stimulate innovation in company:- Innovations are must in companies to survive in
changing trends of market. Primark have to make sure about to observe regular changes in
fashion of marketplace and then make modifications in its strategies or policies. It is necessary to
apply changes by managing talent of firm to attaining desired results.
The above mentioned factors are indicating effectiveness of different types of HRM
practices which has several impacts in positive way to improve productivity as well as
profitability of an organisation.
TASK 2
P5 Importance of employee relations for influencing HRM decision making
Employee relations are really essential to carrying out various kind of activities and
procedures which are necessary to complete a particular project. The Primark have to establish
healthy and peaceful environment so that people feel comfortable to work there. It is essential to
solve several conflicts and issues between them, to facilitate coordination amongst them. Every
organisation has different departments along with dissimilar activities or procedures to generate
desired targets. But the fact is, these various targets are interdependent to attain single objective
of an organisation.
All tasks and processes are interrelated to each other so that it becomes mandatory to one
another. It indicates that healthy coordination and cooperative behaviour of all of the staff
members is important to complete a single mission successful in an enterprise. It is essential top
make several rules and norms to create a specific culture of organisation.
Sometimes, it seems to be beneficial when employees will involved in certain meetings,
conferences and seminars because they work more interestingly and generate outcomes. The
Primark can ask for suggestions regarding implementation of certain changes and by this criteria
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they can gain many of alternative choices along with. Number of suggestions help to select best
one as they can apply more profitable choice in order to make several changes or modifications
into strategies or policies. This will results into increasing sales and profits of comkpany.
P6 Key elements of employee legislations
Every organisation have its own rules which are prepared for safety and welfare of
employees. Besides of this, government authorities are also paying attention to it and implement
various employment laws or norms. These are mandatory to be followed by each and every
enterprise to run it successfully. Primark have to several legislations which are as follows:
Equal employment opportunity:- This term can be described as that firms have to
render equal chances of maintaining growth in career. They can't do any kind of partially
amongst them. This will help to everyone feel to be fair in Primark and motivate to become loyal
toward organisation and give their best of performance.
Working time regulations:- This law includes the fixed working hours for an individual
as per capability of a normal human being (Battisti and Perry, 2011). Because every person has a
limit of putting their efforts on daily basis to generate particular amount of outputs.
Sexual harassment:- There are various rule and norms which are established by firms as
well as legal agencies to protect female employees from several types of sexual harassment
activities. It is important to provide peaceful and secure environment to them otherwise they will
give resignation which increase turnover.
Wages and remuneration:- Wages and remunerations are calculated by organisations
are essentially provide employees through following fixed criteria of salaries and incentives.
Every person works for a whole day and generate outcomes which are slightly different as per
their efficiencies. But Primark have to render fair wages and comp0ansation to its employees and
achieve their loyalty as well as satisfaction.
Working conditions:- The legislation also described about criteria of working conditions
for workers. The workshop area of should be in secure and safe so that chances of accident and
other mishap-pens with employees. The Primark authorities have to ensure about this aspect so
that people feel safe to work freely.
Trade unions and other industrial relationships:- The companies need to obey some
rules to establish healthy and peaceful relations with trade unions to avoid regular strikes which
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impacts negatively on firms production process along with profits as well. It is also necessary
build better relations with other industries which helps to gain certain important tenders.
Welfare, safety and health:- The organisations have to work on aspects of employee
healthcare and safety. They can render leaves to them or some kind of tours and trips. It is
important to evaluate mind stress of staff members and try to solve their problems so that they
are bale to work in better way. All these aspects are under the legal rule safety made for workers
(Rae, 2010).
Social security:- At last, rules for social welfare regarding that fact by which any action
of firm never harm thoughts of any religion, culture, community, etc. It it will happen by mistake
then they have to modify that factor immediately otherwise government charge penalty.
P7 Illustrate applications of HRM practices in work related context
There are different kind of HRM practices which are able to improve the productivity as
well as profitability of organisation. Human resource management is really very compulsory to
carrying out various activities and procedure in correct manner for generating profits. Primark
can establish several effective and efficient aspects of HRM to build strong policies by which
projects will complete appropriately. HRM practices have positive impacts in order to improve
working efficiency in company. Several applications of HRM practices in Primark are given
below:
Performance appraisal:- This term may described as to encourage employee morale to
work with more energy and create better outcomes. It is all about it to inform about performance
of people by their superior and provide accurate methods to improve working efficiency.
Superior have to set first standards of outcomes and then record actual working to know about
gap between them. After that manager or leaders have to render technique to cope up with issues
in working.
Management of career:- Proper human resource has an important impact on personal as
well as professional career to achieve growth. These practises help to carrying our various
activities by increasing skills and abilities of people which results to improve both careers.
Training:- The company have to organise several events or programmes of training and
development to improve skills and abilities of an employee. This will facilitate to enhance
productivity as well as profitability of an enterprise (Carraher and Paridon, 2015).
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Award system:- HRM practices includes certain in award systems in which they
generally provides bonuses, incentives, rewards, certification and so on, these aspects are
basically helpful to make staff members motivated and happy. By such actions, employee
becomes loyal to company and fell valuable.
Recruitment:- Overall, the main task if HRM is to recruit desired candidates as per their
qualifications and experiences on order to eligibility criteria of specific designation in company.
It is important to first evaluate the essential qualities to fulfil roles and duties of specific job
position then hire best candidate.
CONCLUSION
The above report had concluded that there are various kind of activities which are completed by
human resource team to manage employees along with their performances through different
approaches. There are severable purposes and functions of HRM having various strengths and
weaknesses of certain recruitment and selection. HRM practices have their positive impacts in
order to improve the productivity as well as profitability of and enterprise. Employee relations
are necessary to coordinate decision making and legislations of employment should be followed.
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