HRM Report: Analysis of Squire's Garden Centre HRM Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, specifically focusing on Squire's Garden Centre. It begins with an introduction to HRM, its functions, and its importance within an organization, followed by an examination of Squire's Garden Centre's recruitment and selection methods, including the advantages and disadvantages of each. The report then delves into a job description for a Customer Service Assistant, alongside an advertisement for the role and a discussion of appropriate recruitment channels. It also explores the benefits of apprenticeships offered by Squire's, development opportunities for employees, and reward systems. Furthermore, the report addresses the significance of employee engagement and its practical implementation within Squire's, concluding with an overview of how UK employment legislation influences HR decision-making.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a). HR functions purpose and its importance to the organization..........................................1
b). Benefits, Drawbacks of recruitment methods...................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
a). Customer Service Assistant Job description at Squire's Garden Centres..........................5
b). Advertisement for Customer Services Assistant for Squire's Garden Centre...................7
c). Recommendation of other medium appropriate for the vacancy of Customer Service
Assistant.................................................................................................................................7
d). Interview questions for the job of Customer Service Assistant at Squire's Garden Centre8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
a) Benefit of squire's offering apprenticeship to both the organisation and to potential
apprentices..............................................................................................................................9
b) Development opportunities available to employees........................................................10
c) Rewards and benefit available to staff and they also motivate employees......................11
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................12
a) Employee engagement and its importance to employee relation.....................................12
b) Ways of engaging workers more effectively with in squires...........................................13
c) U.K. employment legislation influences human resource decision making....................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is a broad concept of managing personnel of
organizations by the help of specific procedures. It implements different HRM practices
facilitating employees, employers and their relations. HRM practices focus on the development
of organization's workforce as well as the organization's structure. HRM practices and policies
emphasis on selecting appropriate candidates and take measures to retain those (Albrecht and
Bakker, 2015). HRM practices mainly involve recruitment, selection, training and development
and maintaining employee relations. All these HRM practices directly related to work and
workplace (Sundstrom and Lounsbury, 2016).
This report will explain different HRM concepts in the context of SQUIRE'S GARDEN
CENTER a family owned business in England established in 1936. It will evaluate the current
recruitment and selection methods of the organization. It also explains the benefits of
apprenticeships provided by Squire's Garden to employees. This study will highlight
development opportunities, Rewards and its benefits. The study will also focus upon the
importance of employee engagement in organizations.
TASK 1
a). HR functions purpose and its importance to the organization
Squire's Garden Centres has vast range of services with a great organizational structure. It
is a family owned business providing services from past 82 years.
HR functions vary with size and structure of organizations. HR functions are important
for organizations because it delivers strategic and standardised procedures to attain desired
organizational goals (5 Purpose of Human Resource Department. 2018). Basic HR functions, its
purpose and importance-
Selecting candidates:
Purpose is to achieve competitive advantage, to increase operational excellence and to
improvise quality of services (Ogbonnaya and Messersmith, 2018).
Appropriate selection is important to create balanced approach towards each task and to
deliver strategic results to organization. Squire's Garden selected experienced workforce by
efficient interview session for making good choices.
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Staffing:
Purpose is to divide appropriate and required employees depending upon the nature of
particular task/job.
Staffing is necessary for appropriate distribution of responsibilities to suitable candidates.
Squire's Garden Centre has segmented workforce to perform different jobs smoothly. The
workforce has stratified employees, experienced in horticulture, agriculture and other related
functions of organization.
Job analysis and Job designing:
Its Purpose is to attract job seekers that display specific and clear objectives, roles and
responsibilities of candidates (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
It is important to deliver strategic and specified data to HR personnel to design desired HR
policies, reward systems and other beneficiaries for workforce.
Performance management:
Purpose of performance management is to evaluate, monitor and enhance the productivity
of employees. It increases the quality of services provided by organization (Kearney, 2018).
Squire's Garden Centre's productivity increases due to its joyful, cheerful and motivated staff.
The executives are experienced enough to maintain strong performance management system, this
system includes fair appraisals, apprenticeships and effective reward management.
Training and development:
Develop talented, innovative, motivated workforce who delivers competitive advantage
to the organization is the basic purpose of training and development.
Training and development programs are important for workforce to enhance their working
pattern, desired skills according to the nature and working culture of organization (Sundstrom
and Lounsbury, 2016).
Significance of HR to organization
At Squire's Garden Centres, the function of HR is very important as this department is
responsible to select the most appropriate and experienced people interested in horticultural
activities that delivers enthusiastic and suitable personality to organisation. HR functions are to
design attractive salary packages, beneficiaries for employees that help to maintain employee’s
motivation at workplace. The function of training and development help the organisation to
increase workforce commitment and productivity.
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Squire's Garden Centres has become employer of choice because it provides warm and
satisfactory work environment to its employees. It distributes awards to employees for improving
their motivation. Employees working here have opportunities to surround themselves with their
area of interest that increase their satisfaction. Employees receives benefits like Pension, Bonus,
paid holidays, Childcare voucher, Subsidised menu, free parking, healthcare plans to retain,
attract and satisfy its employees.
b). Benefits, Drawbacks of recruitment methods
Squire's Garden Centres focuses on recruitment through advertise vacancies in local
newspapers and its website and conduct Interview for selection process.
Recruitment through local newspapers is traditional method used by Squire's Garden
Centre to provide job opportunities to semi-skilled people. Squire's Garden approaches to local
people through newspapers.
 Advantages: Through local newspapers, organizations become independent and can add
their own desirable tags and contents to the advertisement. Newspapers are easily
available in market hence attract large number of talent pools.
 Disadvantages: For posting advertisements in newspapers, advertiser’s demands high
costs that deliver high capital flow to organisation.
Online recruitment method is easy to conduct with the help of different digital and
official organizational websites for recruitment and selection. Squire's Garden delivers active
updates on its website regarding seasonal vacancies which increases employee engagement and
connections. Experienced employees and key advisors deliver strategic guidelines to website
developers to display effective job contents and specifications on portal timely.
 Advantages: Online recruitment is approachable because large talent pools are active on
online job portals and social media.
 Disadvantages: It has a major disadvantage that a poor internet or IT infrastructure may
hamper the procedures.
Recruitment through local
newspaper
Online Recruitment Recruitment agencies
Strengths Effective mode to hire
local people, increases
Provide simplified
screening, Reduce workload
Acts as a bridge
between candidates
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brand awareness,
approachable and cost
effective for job seekers.
of Internal recruiters, and
Deliver information of
company's profile for future
job requirements.
and employer thus
reducing
misconceptions
regarding job
specifications, save
time by doing advance
screening.
Weakness Newspapers are least
preferable in community.
Newspapers have short
shelf life and can be easily
misplaced.
High cost of conduction,
Require expertise web
designer to enhance
website's design,
Time dissipate in selection
and tracking employees.
Internal conflicts may
arise due to employee
from different culture,
Cost to external
recruiters are higher
than that of Internal.
Selection Method: Selection method adopted by Squire's Garden Centre is “Interview
Sessions”. This method of selection is conducted and managed by the Managers of organization.
The interview is carried out by one or two managers seeking desired qualities in the candidates
or applicants (Methods of Recruitment & Selection, 2018).
 Advantages: Interviewer gets to know about candidates' communication skills, body
language. Face to face interview sessions provide necessary personal details of candidates
(Patterson and Knight, 2016).
 Disadvantages: Conscious candidate may portray a wrong image of himself/herself and
may lose the job. Irrelevant questions by interviewer may affect candidate's performance,
selection and deliver undesirable outcomes (Ogbonnaya and Messersmith, 2018).
Other than Personal Interview, Squire's Garden Centre can undergo for “Psychometric
tests” for analysing personal behaviour and mental abilities of the candidates. This selection
method provides more specific and clear knowledge of candidates' skills and behavioural style
(Ogbonnaya and Messersmith, 2018).
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 Advantages: Interviewer can directly analyse the working behaviour of employees.
Mental ability can also be examined for selection of accountant, cashier etc.
 Disadvantages: Over pressurized candidate may get confused and thus actual ability of
candidates cannot be determined during that short period of interview.
Comparison-Basis of
comparison
Interview (Squire's
Garden)
Psychometric tests
(Longacres Garden)
Telephonic Interview
(Frosts Garden)
Emphasis on Personality, body
language and
communication skills
of candidate's can be
analysed.
Cognitive skills,
hidden skills and
abilities of candidate
can be measured.
Verbal communication
skills, decisive nature
and personal
responsiveness
towards work can be
analysed.
Type of information
gathered
Information gathered
may not directly
connected with applied
job role.
Specific information
can be gathered
regarding core abilities
of candidates.
Less information is
gathered by telephonic
interview because of
time constraints.
Results and decisions Interviews may not
deliver reliable and
appropriate candidate.
Make decision easy,
up to the mark and
specific.
Decision based on
telephonic selection
method is the least
effective.
Nature of the test Interviews are flexible
in nature, schedule can
be altered according to
the requirements.
Psychometric tests are
rigid and alterations
may affect its
credibility.
This procedure is
flexible by nature and
may altered depending
upon the availability of
candidate.
TASK 2
a). Customer Service Assistant Job description at Squire's Garden Centres
Job description:
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Job Title Customer Services Assistant
Report to General Manager of Customer Service, Squire's Garden Centre
Job overview  To engage with customers on daily basis and to resolve their
queries.
 Managing and developing organization's resources effectively.
 To provide specific suggestions to staff as well as customers and
data management measures.
Responsibilities and
duties
Communicating with customers, solving queries of customers, handling
ground level staff, Preparing data and data entries
Qualifications Bachelors' degree in any stream with MBA in Human Resource GCSE in
English and Maths
Person specification:
Attributes Essential Desirable
Skills and
Abilities
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are
required for delegating the task to staff. Candidate must
be a quick learner and problem solver to adapt
organizational environment. Familiar with the use of
different database and new technologies
General and Specialist knowledge Candidate must be fluent in English for
effective communication. He/she must have knowledge of handling service
software, MS Office to prepare required data on daily basis. Considerable
knowledge of pricing and marketing functions.
Education and Training 2 year’s degree course in HR/ Hospitality.
GCSE in English and Maths6 months training on CRM, certifications of
quality management program or any related certifications.
Relevant experience Certifications related to Strategic Human Resource Management.
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2-6 months internship program within any hospitality industry. Relevant
experience in Hotel management, Public relation, Housekeeping
management.
b). Advertisement for Customer Services Assistant for Squire's Garden Centre
REQUIRED “Customer Services Assistant”
Squire's Garden Centre, a family owned horticultural set up looking for a enthusiastic
personnel for the mentioned post. The organization has an adaptive and flexible work
environment with different beneficiaries for its employees.
POSITION: Customer Services Assistant at Squire's Garden Centres
Experiences:
 At least 2 years of experience in HRM Practices,
 Hotel management
 Customer relation Officer/Manager
Qualifications and skills:
 2 years MBA full-time in HR/Hotel management
 Required excellent communication skills
 Inter personnel skills/fluent English
Interested Candidates can upload their CV at the official website of Squire's Garden
Centre https://www.squiresgardenscentres.co.uk or post to Squire's Garden Centres,
Badshot Lea Road, Farnhem, Surrey GU9 9JX, Contact no. 01252 356860
c). Recommendation of other medium appropriate for the vacancy of Customer Service Assistant
Squire's Garden Centres updates and utilize its online portal and local newspapers to post
its job vacancies. Other than these mediums, the organization may also undergo for social media
platform to announce job vacancy. Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr are
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more professionalized and job seekers can actively fetching their jobs with the help of these
platforms.
Another medium of posting job vacancies is to get in touch or connected with
“recruitment agencies” that directly deliver efficient and suitable candidate for required job with
proper screening measures that save the time of interviewers and organization resources as well.
JUSTIFICATION- Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr are used by various job seekers.
These mediums are easy to approach, cost effective and time savvy. Candidates' tracking can
also be done through same platform. These platforms have become smart channels to increase
the organizations' and candidates' reach towards each other (Albrecht and Bakker, 2015).
While recruitment agencies performs the task of recruitment in authorized way which
deliver utmost strategic impact regarding job specifications to the candidates. Apart from this,
connections with these agencies increase employers', candidates' and organizations' external
engagements (Albrecht and Bakker, 2015). Employers and organizations receive required
support in respect of recruitment and screening the candidates.
Different media must be explored by organizations to get the most reliable platform for
recruitment that is cost effective, time savvy and easy to implement or adopt.
d). Interview questions for the job of Customer Service Assistant at Squire's Garden Centre
Interviewer must analyse the Job descriptions and its related functions for an effective
interview session. Questions must be relevant to the Job specifications, it should be distinctive
and smartly prepared (Patterson and Knight, 2016). For instance, Interview questions for
Customer Services Assistant must involve basic roles, responsibilities and meaning of
terminologies. Questions must be based on the work experiences to analyse what the candidate
has learnt from experience. Interviewer must be strategically design the questions' outlet to get
every possible information of candidate in a short period.
 How do you consider yourself to be an appropriate candidate for Squire's Garden Centre?
 How will you manage to address a customer's grievances if they approach you directly?
 What will be your reaction if you find your subordinate misbehaves within workplace?
 How do you perform under pressure and stress? What will be your strategies to
accomplish given task timely in such circumstances?
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 How will you deny a customer or client, when he/she requests for any favour from your
part and it is almost impossible for you to deliver the same?
 What will be your answer to client/ customer when he/she enquires regarding any policy
of organisation that you are not familiar with?
Task 3
a) Benefit of squire's offering apprenticeship to both the organisation and to potential
apprentices.
Squires provide the opportunities to their apprentices to develop their knowledge. There
are many benefits of offering apprenticeship for organisation as well as potential apprentices.
Benefits for apprentices:
Gain work experience: It is the valuable thing for newly and hired employees to get the
apprenticeships. In the Squire's training employees learn that how to work together with others
in a team work. During the training employees will be transferred in other centres. Employee’s
computer skills, technical skills and communication skill also improve through training. It is one
of the benefit for employees to gain work experience. This assists in improving their skills and
competencies which is beneficial in their future career growth.
Receive financial compensation: squire's give their employees financial compensation
during training. It is the beneficial point that employees learn work and also earn money at the
same time (Shields, 2015). Employees also do their work effectively when they earn money.
This is also motivational thing for employees.
Develop skills: Squire's develop employee’s skill through apprenticeship. They provide
opportunities to teach, practise and perform through the apprenticeship whereby employees
become perfect in their work. Practise helps to develop skills. Through revise the work
employee’s skills develop.
Gain confidence: during training employees learn work then after some time they work
confidently. Confidence automatically raise when employees do their work. If employees have
sufficient knowledge, positive thinking, so their confidence raise with the working as well.
Benefits for organisation:
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Increased productivity: Through the apprenticeship Squires can increase its
productivity. It provides training to their employees which assist in improving productivity of
company (Hofmans, 2015). Employees do their best performance after completed training
therefore company productivity increase day by day. Squire's give one – two year
apprenticeships and after that employees work performance increase. That is why it is beneficial
for both of them.
Better management: With the help of training, employees working efficiency is
increased therefore management also become well. Through the training, employees learn to
management capability therefore they can easily handle all the work related to the management.
It very helpful to make management effectively.
b) Development opportunities available to employees.
There are many development opportunities that are available to employees within
Squire’s Garden Centres Some of the opportunities that are available to employees mentioned
below:
Training and development programs: Development opportunities such as training is
been provided to the workers of Squire's garden. Employee’s knowledge improves time to time
when they work with the professionals. Employees can easily do their work with efficiency
only because of apprenticeships. Employees learn all work and gain knowledge after that their
job performance automatically raises. Employees can get permanent job in the squire's company
when they completed their one-two year apprenticeships (Mone and London, 2018). Company
wants to professionalised employees therefore they provide apprenticeships.
Motivational programs: Squire's organise motivational programs for employee’s
growth. Squire's give basic monthly salary to their employees during training period that is why
employees motivate and do their work effectively. Company also give rewards during training if
employees give their best performance.
Skills improvement program: With the help of skills improvement programs they
improve employee’s skill. They also learn collaborate working. With the help of collaborate
working employees working skills increase (Frey, 2016). In the program they teach that how to
do their work smartly and creatively.
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