Analysis of HRM Practices at Sainsbury's: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Sainsbury's, a major UK supermarket chain. It begins with a definition of HRM and its purpose, emphasizing the importance of managing and motivating employees to achieve organizational goals. The report then delves into the various functions of HRM, including recruitment and selection, training and development, and employee motivation strategies. It explores different recruitment approaches, such as internal and external recruitment, and discusses specific methods like promotion and advertising. Furthermore, the report examines various HRM practices, including providing a better working environment, rewarding employees, and fostering team development, highlighting their benefits for both employees and employers. The study concludes by summarizing the vital role of HRM in organizations and its impact on employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall company performance. The report references key academic sources to support its findings.

Human resource management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
TASK 1 3
P1 Definition of HRM and its purpose 3
Different HRM functions 3
Different approaches of recruitment and selection 3
Different HRM practices and their benefits 3
REFERENCES 5
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource can be defined as a person and employees of a company that is responsible for
managing employees and motivating them in order to achieve organizational goals. This present
study is based on Sainsbury’s which is the 3rd largest chain of supermarkets in the United
Kingdom. This company was founded by John James Sainsbury in 1869. It has around 1425
shops that deal in hypermarket, supermarket, convenience shop and forecourt shop. This report is
going to show about the importance of HRM and its functions (Noe and et.al., 2017). There are
various approaches of recruitment and selection of employees in an organization which is being
followed by Sainsbury’s supermarket. Further this study will show about different HRM
practices like motivation, rewards that helps an organization to motivate employees for making
beneficial to the company.
TASK 1
P1 Definition of HRM and its purpose
Human resources is a department and person that is in charged with finding, recruiting and
motivating employees of and organization and manage all resource of the company’s
resources in an effective manner. The main purpose of HRM is to maximize their company’s
performance and productivity by preventing all issues that occur at workplace by hiring the
right and suitable employees. For solving issues and fulfilling this purpose they perform
various functions. The main aim of HRM of Sainsbury’s is to maximize their sales and
improve their brand image. Human resource management of this supermarket is to nurture
their employees’ talent and support their welfare which in turn lead to business
development.
They coordinate and focus on team working in order to achieve their company’s goals and also
communicate with them and take suggestions from them to make any changes in their processes
and functions. They all try to perform the best for the company and employees with the main and
preliminary aim of achieving Sainsbury’s vision and purpose (Verma and et.al., 2017).
Different HRM functions
There are various functions which are being played by HR of Sainsbury’s company in
order to achieve their pre-determined goals. HRM performs planning, directing, recruiting,
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controlling, job analysis, motivating employees, performance appraisal, training and
development (Xing and et.al., 2016).
Recruitment: Recruitment and selection is preliminary function which is being played
by HR of Sainsbury’s supermarket. Recruitment activity is all based upon the objective criteria
of a particular job. The main purpose of performing this function is to attract and select qualified
and skilled candidates within the company and make them more able to work towards achieving
team goals. By hiring and recruiting the right and skilled employees, HR makes the wider pool of
skilled employees within an organization that help Sainsbury’s in increasing their brand image
and profitability.
Training and development: Training and development is an important function because
it increases and strengthen employees’ skills and knowledge about their work and make them
able to perform under pressure and do any type of work. When employees feel that they have
enough knowledge and can perform any type of functions with effectively then it increases their
self-esteem which is beneficial for employers and employees. It decreases labour turnover and
increase profitability (Kidron, Tzafrir and Meshoulam, 2016).
Motivating employees: HRM does not only hire employees but also motivate them for
increasing their productivity and performance level. For motivating employees, HR identifies
their needs and focus on managing employees’ relations. When employees feel motivated and
happy then they work more productively with full of dedication. After identifying employees;
needs HR of Sainsbury’s give them rewards and praise to them which make them feel respected
and satisfied and it leads to satisfy customers as well.
Different approaches of recruitment and selection
There are mainly two types of approaches of recruitment and selection such as internal approach
and external recruitment. Internal recruitment means to recruit employees within an organization.
On the other hand external recruitment means to recruit employees from outside of the company.
Sainsbury’s follow and recruit their employees by both approaches and methods. Both methods
consists of various approaches such as promotion, transfer, employee referrals and previous
applicants. External approach includes social networks, recruitment events, advertisement,
recruitment agencies, online job boards, educational institutions etc. Selection approach includes
interviews, online screening etc.
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Promotion: Promotion is a type of internal recruitment that means to upgrade the cadre of
employees by recognizing and evaluating their performances level within the company. It is the
best method of recruitment which shift an employees from a lower position to the upper and
higher position in Sainsbury’s.
Strengths and weakness
 The main strength of this approach is it encourages and motivates employees towards
working productively and reduces labour turnover.
 Weakness of this approach is it can create issues in between employees who get
promoted and who are not.
Advertisement: It is an external approach of recruitment which is in trend from several years.
Many applicants look for vacancies in the journals, newspaper and it is beneficial for employers
and recruiter as they can get a wider range of applicants (DeVaro, 2016).
Strengths and weakness
 This method positively communicate Sainsbury’s recruitment message and can attract
skilled employees towards their company.
 Disadvantage of this approach is it takes high administrative and upfront costs and also a
time consuming process.
Individual Interview: It is an approach of selection and selecting employees which Sainsbury’s
supermarket follow. In this type of interview process, the company take interview personally by
taking one to one session from all employees. The main aim of this process is to collect authentic
details and information’s about candidates.
Strengths and weakness
 The main strength of this process is interviewer can get authentic information’s of
candidates.
 Weakness of this process is it is time consuming (Dumont, Shen and Deng, 2017).
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Different HRM practices and their benefits
HRM practices are a set of HRM processes and all the actions that is being performed for
making beneficial to employers and employees. There are various HRM practices such as:
rewards to employees, training and development to employees, self management team, effective
communication, providing better working environment to employees etc.
Better working environment: It is the main and best HRM practices which is being given by
HR of Sainsbury’s to their employees (Iwu, 2016). Employees spent their lot of time at
workplace so it is important for them to provide and make them feel secure and happy. When
employees feel secure then they are less likely to leave the organization which is good not only
for employees but also for employers.
Rewards to employees: HR hire the best and skilled employees who have different needs and
demands which need to be fulfilled. HR rewards employees when they perform effectively and
beyond the expectations. It is the way of motivating them which is beneficial for employees and
employers. HR of Sainsbury’s provides financial and non-financial rewards to their employees
according to their needs and demands.
Team development: Team development is other important practice of HRM. HR of the
company focus on developing people and team working. The main aim of this approach is to
develop employees’ relationship to make them feel happy and stressed free. When employees
feel stressed free then they help the company towards achieving their goals. For that, HR of
Sainsbury’s allocate works in team and they also make an effective team. Being in a team,
employees and team members help each other in their work and they learn from each other
(Dany and Torchy, 2017).
Benefits for employees:
 It increases and satisfies employees needs which make them able to work more
effectively.
 It also makes them feel happy and improves their relationship with other employees.
 Employees of Sainsbury’s can get opportunity of promotion if they work concentrate and
productively.
Benefits for employers
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 The best HRM practices reduces labour turnover of Sainsbury’s supermarket which can
improve the brand image of the company.
 It also improves employees performance that leads to overall productivity of the company
and profitability as well.
 It helps with budget control.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that HRM played a vital role in an organization as
it performed various functions like recruiting, motivating and developing people. Different
approaches of recruitment and selection has also being followed by an organization with the
main purpose of hiring the best employees within an organization. Further it has shown about
different HRM approaches like rewards, performance development which helped them to
motivate their employees towards achieving their determined goals.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Noe, R.A. and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Verma, S. and et.al., 2017. Insights into the low overpotential electroreduction of CO2 to CO on
a supported gold catalyst in an alkaline flow electrolyzer. ACS Energy Letters. 3(1) pp.193-198.
Kidron, A., Tzafrir, S.S. and Meshoulam, I., 2016. The genetic code: HRM internal integration
scale. Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management. 14(3).
pp.298-316.
Iwu, C.G., 2016. Effects of the use of electronic human resource management (E-HRM) within
human resource management (HRM) functions at universities. Acta Universitatis Danubius.
Administratio. 8(1).
DeVaro, J., 2016. Internal hiring or external recruitment?. IZA World of Labor.
Dany, F. and Torchy, V., 2017. Recruitment and selection in Europe Policies, practices and
methods 1. In Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management (pp. 68-88).
Routledge.
Dumont, J., Shen, J. and Deng, X., 2017. Effects of green HRM practices on employee
workplace green behavior: The role of psychological green climate and employee green
values. Human Resource Management. 56(4). pp.613-627.
Xing, Y. and et.al., 2016. Intercultural influences on managing African employees of Chinese
firms in Africa: Chinese managers’ HRM practices. International Business Review. 25(1) pp.28-
41.
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