Human Resource Management Report: Marks and Spenser Analysis

This report delves into the core concepts of Human Resource Management (HRM), using Marks and Spencer as a case study. It begins by defining HRM and outlining its purpose and functions, particularly in workforce planning and resourcing. The report then explores the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches. It further examines the benefits of different HRM practices for both employers and employees, along with an evaluation of their impact on organizational profit and productivity. The analysis extends to employee relations, emphasizing their influence on HRM decision-making, and identifies key elements of employment legislation and its effects on HRM practices. The report concludes with a practical application of HRM practices in a work-related context, supported by specific examples, and a curriculum vitae sample.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organization.....................................................................................................1
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the
employer and employee..........................................................................................................5
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational
profit and productivity............................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-
making....................................................................................................................................7
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM
decision- making....................................................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work related context, using specific
examples.................................................................................................................................9
Curriculum Vitae................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management can be defined as a process for effective management of
individuals in an organization in a way to help their business to gain a competitive advantage. It
is a procedure of hiring and developing candidates in order to achieve target goals and
objectives. The process consist of selecting, recruiting, providing orientation, evaluating
performance of employees, giving training to the employees and developing new skills in them
(Noe and et.al., 2017.). However, it is consider as a most effective and efficient process within an
organization. In the following report, Marks and Spenser has been chosen which was established
in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spenser. It is a multinational organization in UK that
supplies high quality of clothes and home products to the individuals. It has around 1463 stores
in almost 57 countries. The report will cover purpose and scope of Human Resource
Management in terms of resourcing an organization. Furthermore it will focus on internal and
external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-making process. The
effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organization is going to
analyze. At last, Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context will be
discussed.
TASK 1
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resourcing an organization.
Human resource management is a practice for effective management in an organization.
This particular department is responsible for bringing skilled and talented candidates, providing
training and development programs, managing performance of individuals and solving conflicts
or issues of the employees. Being an integral part of an organization, human resource
management possess four basic functions (Mondy and Martocchio, 2016). The department is
responsible for communicating guidelines and standards of the organization to the employees so
that they can perform effectively.
Overview of organization
Marks and Spenser is an international organization with its headquarters in UK. It was
established in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spenser. It supplies high quality of clothes
and home products to millions of customers across the world. It has over 1400 stores in almost
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around 57 countries. There are approximately 85,209 employees working in Marks and Spenser.
The main objective of respective organization is to produce high quality of products and to
provide excellent services to their service users. The mission of the organization is to expand its
business in large number of locations and to attain a respectful position overall market area.
Business objectives are the results or outcomes which an organisation needs to achieve.
Some of the business objectives achieved by Marks and Spenser are discussed here.
 Increasing profit: It is one of a business objectives that is utilized for expanding the
business and to gain profit. Respective organisation can develop number of strategies in
order to enhance overall profit such as investing more money, introduce change in the
operational process in order to increase profit, stay connected and visible to the service
users and raise the market bar.
 Survival: It is one of the most important business objective for the respective
organisation in this competitive era. Organisation needs to bring innovation and
technology in their business in order to tackle with their competitors and achieve target
goals and objectives. It will add value to their products so that company can survive for a
longer duration.
 Increasing sell: It is the most common business objective. Marks and Spenser can use
this business objective in order to enhance their profitability. They can build some plans
and strategies for increasing their sell such as running promotions, ask for feedbacks with
the customers, give attention to the existing customers, develop some packages, deals and
discounts.
 Increasing growth: This particular business objective aims at achieving success in a
business. Respective organisation should create a business objective of expanding growth
in order to attain a respectful and powerful position in the market area. It can be done
through focusing on sales, do real marketing, introducing advanced technology and many
more.
Human resource management plays a major role in attaining all business objectives as their core
responsibility is to bring work force in the organisation. HRM department of Marks and Spenser
can utilize their functions for achieving these objectives.
 Survival: As human resource management brings talent in the organisation, it will help
the organisation to survive for a longer period of time. New candidates will bring new
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strategies and through giving them training and development they can enhance the
operations of the business. More workforce in the organisation will help them to promote
more products and thus increase the productivity which eventually leads to survival and
sustainability of the organisation.
 Increasing sell: HRM department of respective organisation can help in increasing sales
by recruiting new skilled and talented individuals. It will help the organisation to
facilitate the operations of the business and increase sale through promotions and giving
training to the new candidates to work with their full potential.
Purpose of HRM
The prior objective or purpose of HRM is to fulfil several needs of employees within an
organization. Department of human resource management help to improve overall productivity
of an organization and involved in activities from financial to legal (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Apart from it, there are different purpose of HRM that are discussed here.
Staffing: The prior duty of human resource management is to recruit large number of
skilled and knowledgeable candidates in an organization. Purpose is to bring best quality of
employees to the organization in order to achieve desired goals and objectives. Department will
analyse all the applications of candidates and then chooses best suitable candidates from large
number of individuals.
Developing relationship: Objective of HRM is to maintain and develop a healthy and
positive relationship with employees within an organization. They need to conduct number of
activities in order to motivate employees and help them to work effectively.
Culture: Respective organization should develop a healthy environment and a positive
culture within their organization. It will help their staff members to perform with full potential
without any pressure.
Functions of HRM
There are number of functions of human resource management. Basic functions of HRM
are discussed here.
Planning: Manger of the business is need to plan everything in order to make things done
by the employees. Planning is essential for achieving goals of organization (DeCenzo and et.al.,
2016). Hence, Marks and Spenser is need to develop a plan of action for performing different
operations of the organization effectively.
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Organizing: It is important for the supervisors and managers of Human resource
management to develop and design an organizational structure. It includes coordination for
activities between employees and to assign roles and responsibilities to candidates.
Directing: This particular function of HRM includes motivating and encourage
employees for making them working effectively and efficiently (Anderson and et.al., 2019). It is
the main responsibility of mangers to direct their staff members and assist them to achieve
desired goals and objectives.
Controlling: It is the duty of human resource department to regulate and control tasks and
activities of staff members. It is their responsibility to make sure that everything is going
according to the plan, Mangers are supposed to compare the desired outcomes with some set
standards for evaluate the whole plan.
Human resource management has been described as a concept that consist of two distinct forms
which is hard and soft. They are discussed here.
Hard model: It is a system of management where workers are presented as a resource
which needs to be regulate for achieving the target gaols and objectives and to gain highest profit
and a competitive advantage. In this particular model, humans are consider as any other
resources in the business such as facilities, machines or capital. The main focus of the model is
the need of task to be done and control costa and attain goals of the organisation. Staff members
or recruitment of new candidates for sale are the major elements of hard model.
Soft model: It generally put focus on individuals and and high commitment. It consider
staff members as a most important resource in an organisation and also as a source of a
competitive advantage. It has a long term planning for workforce. It believes in providing
performance appraisals and rewards to the employees.
Differences:
Hard model Soft model
 It treats staff members like any other
resources for example machines.
 It has a short term strategy.
 It follows autocratic leadership style.
 They pay less to the employees.
 It treats employees as a most important
resource of the organisation.
 It has a long term strategy.
 It follows democratic leadership style.
 It believes in empowerment.
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Marks and Spenser should implement soft HRM model for growth and success of the
organisation.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection.
Both selection and recruitment are the most crucial aspects of an organizations which
directly impacts on operations and overall productivity (Brewster, 2017). There are many
different functions of HRM that leads to attain goals and objectives of organization. Marks and
Spenser also perform a number of functions in order to make profit.
Recruitment: It is basically a process of finding skilled employees and making them to
apply for different job positions in an organization. The process initiates from analyzing
vacancies in an organization and attracting a large amount of individuals with high potential and
then screen all the applications of candidates in order to select right candidates. There are
strengths as well as weakness of this particular process. Some of them are discussed here.
Strengths Weaknesses
 This particular process help in to find
new ways for both individuals and
organisation.
 Bringing new candidates in
organisation will also bring new skills
and talents which will help the business
to grow.
 Internal recruitment processes within
organisation will be time and cost
effective. It can be conducted by
transferring and promoting employees.
 For a vacant job position, external
recruitment will be beneficial so that
new employees could be hired with
high level of potential.
 It is a longer and more complex
process and along with that it is
quite costly for the organisation.
 Bringing new candidates in
organisation can develop
negative impact on existing
employees and can lead to down
their moral.
 Internal process o recruitment
can cause conflicts between
staff members of organisation
which will lead to slow down
the overall productivity.
 Training and development
programs are required to be
conducted for employees that
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come from outside.
Selection: It is the process of choosing right candidates in an organization. It is basically an
activity of evaluating and interviewing individuals (Stewart and Brown, 2019). The overall
process will help manger and supervisors of human resource management to analyze the skills
and capabilities of candidates appearing in interview process. It will lead the organization to
select right candidates for vacant jobs. Marks and Spenser involves a friendly strategy for
selecting employees. They uses an open process by adapting number of ways to fill the vacant
position. Unlike recruitment process, this process also have strength and weaknesses. Some of
them are discussed here.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Overall process will help the
organisation to select skilled
and right candidates for the
desired position.
 Cost of operations can be
minimize by selecting right
candidates and deserving
candidates.
 Method of assessment will help
the organisation to find out
skills and knowledge of
candidates.
 It is a time taking process as it is
not easy to analyse potentials
and weakness of a candidate.
 Due to the grading process it
will lead to large number of
results and create confusions.
 Deserving employees can leg
behind due to grading and
marking system in this process.
Improvements that could be made by Marks and Spenser organization for selection
process are discussed here.
There is a requirement for improvement in current selection process of respective
organization. Modifications in the selection process will help the organization to hire right and
deserving candidates who are trying to be a part of Marks and Spenser since a very long time.
However, some of the most required improvements are mentioned here.
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 There must be proper plan of action for the process of selection. It will help the
respective organization to select skilled and right candidates.
 There must be more professionalism within overall procedure rather than just being
friendly. Interview process must be design accordingly so that deserving candidates can
be selected.
1)Best fit approach puts focus on ensuring that strategies of HR are correct to the situations of
origination considering its culture, operations and external facts. In HRM best fit approach is to
find candidates. Best fit approach for some practices of HRM such as recruitment and selection
is discussed here.
Marks and Spenser uses a selective approach for aiming at recruitment and selection
process. They provide a training and development program for the new candidates and make sure
that they remain in a three months probation period. The companies aims at making high
performance for the employees. They utilize a best fit approach for meeting the HR goals. They
tends to reward and praise new employees for their achievement.
Strength Advantages
 It uses a family friendly approach fro
bringing out the best candidates.
 It believes in an organised approach
for executing selection and recruitment
process on the basis of human resource
strategy.
 It helps the company to increase
revenue.
 It will bring a large number of
candidates in the process as it follows a
friendly way.
The best fit approach of recruitment and selection can be costly and time consuming. Being
friendly with the candidates can lead to indiscipline in the organisation and thus leads to loss of
productivity.
2) Best fit practices in human resource management and performance of the organisation is
and effective and an efficient method which helps to attract employees, attract and
develop capable and motivated employees in the organisation. Some of the best practices
for recruitment and selection is to decide beforehand which is that the recruiter must
decide all the qualities, qualifications and capabilities of the employees in order to save
time and energy. Use search web for managing networks and also for managing
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candidates. Build some marketing strategies is also an effective practice for recruitment
and selection. Strength of this practices are that they bring skilled and talented employees
in the organisation. It will help to generate the revenue and to enhance profitability. IT
will save time and money of the recruiter and choosing a suitable method will hep the
recruiter to analyse the strength and weaknesses of the candidates.
Weakness of the best practice in recruitment is selection is that it needs a large amount of
arrangement and skilled strategies. There could be mistake in selecting the right candidates and
there are chances that deserving candidiasis may left out.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organization for both the employer
and employee.
Department of human resource management is mainly responsible for conducting number
of functions (Brewster and et.al., 2016). Almost all functions and activities of HRM are helpful
for organization as well as employees. The department will perform to achieve goals and
objectives of organization and to fulfil all the necessary requirements of candidates. Function of
HRM includes identifying and choosing right candidates, providing training and development
programs to employees in order to enhance their skills. Different HRM practices which are used
by organization is mention below with its benefits to employees and employers.
Selection and recruitment
The process help in to hire employees within an organization. Different functions of HRM plays
an important role in overall success of organization and improving performance of employees
(Nankervis and et.al., 2016). Employees have the most crucial role in attaining target goals and
objectives. It is beneficial for employers and employees both. Employer: Through recruitment and selection process high skilled employees can be
bring into organization which could be beneficial for achieving goals and objectives.
 Employee: This specific process will give a lots of opportunities to employees. Marks
and Spenser uses an open process in order to recruit employees.
Training and development
It is basically a produce for improving skills and knowledge of individuals. There are
number of methods for providing training and development which helps in to enhance abilities of
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staff members. This process in human resource management can be taken as an effective tool for
the overall organizational productivity.
 Employer: Respective Company uses a number of methods for training and
development within the organization. Internships are considered as an most effective
methods for the employees and along with that it is cost effective too.
 Employee: Training and development will help in to increase skills and abilities of
employees which will be beneficial in their future days.
Relationship with employees
The main function of HRM is to develop a healthy relationship with employees. Marks and
Spenser can utilize this function in order to develop a positive relationship with stakeholders. It
will help the employees to perform effectively (Hecklau and et.al., 2016). However, benefits of
such relationships for employers and employees are discussed here. Employer: Organization could be able to motivate and encourage their employees by
maintain a healthy relationship with them. It will enhance the communication between
employees and managers of the organization.
 Employee: Marks and Spenser try to maintain a positive relationship with employees
which will help them to solve their issues more effectively.
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organizational profit
and productivity.
Number of human resource management practices are available which help the
organization to enhance their productivity as well as profitability. Marks and Spenser should
utilize these practices so that their productivity could increase. The prior objective of Human
resource management is to acquire target goals and objectives within an organization. The main
aim of Marks and Spenser is to expand their business and to earn profit for attaining
organizational goals and objectives. HRM department of respective organization is need to
perform number of functions. Department of HR in this particular organization will help in to
create and implement strategies which will help in to increase overall productivity. Practices of
human resource management will help the organization to make desirable profit (Banfield and
et.al., 2018). This will include effective performance of workforce, selecting right candidates for
the organization, and developing a positive relationship with employees. Few of the human
resource practices are mentioned here.
Strategic management: HRM is involved in planning for future in an organization by
considering short term and long term objectives of organization. A proper planning is beneficial
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for the organization to deal with risk factors and to manage operations in the premises
effectively.
Policy development: It is the responsibility of HR department to develop policies and
standards in an organization so that all the employees work according to them and there will be a
clear understanding of organizational norms (Baum, 2016). It might include some codes of
manual, handbooks and many more. Marks and Spenser also develop some strict guidelines for
their employees so that a strong brand image could be built in front of their target customers.
Risk management: This particular practice of HRM help in to detect number of risk
factors that could lead to threat to the organization. It is effective for the company as it helps in
to eliminate risk and hazardous factors that could arise in an organization. Employees of the
organization will feel safe while working in an organization and supervisor of HRM makes sure
that workplace health and safety ethics are being followed by each and every employee in order
to minimize occurrence of risks.
Employee relationship: Creating a healthy relationship with employees will be quite
beneficial for the organization as each and every staff members could be able to work in a
positive environment. It is mostly consider as an important key for achieving success within the
organization.
Thus, such practices of HRM is quite effective for overall productivity and efficiency of
an organization.
Two of the HRM practices which can be implemented in the organisation for achieving target
goals and objectives are discussed here.
Performance management: It is a process of making sure that all the activities and
results are meeting the goals and objectives of the organisation in n effective manner. It basically
focus on the performance of organisation, performance of department and employee and
operations of the business for managing particular tasks. Standards of the performance
management are mostly organised by the head of the HR department and leaders of the team. IT
manage performance through number of activities such as providing training and coaching,
comparing performance of employees, providing rewards.
Flexible working: It is also consider as flex time. It is basically a non tradition
arrangement of working which focus on personal needs of individuals and often provide a
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