Comprehensive Analysis of Human Resource Management at Sainsbury PLC

This report analyzes Sainsbury's human resource management (HRM) practices, focusing on its approach to employee development, equity, and diversity. It examines the company's strategies for developing its workforce through training programs, fostering a positive working environment, and addressing employee issues such as wages and working hours. The report highlights Sainsbury's commitment to maintaining equity and diversity, emphasizing its efforts to eliminate discrimination based on various factors and promote a diverse workforce. Furthermore, it explores how Sainsbury's HRM approach contributes to gaining a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining skilled employees, fostering innovation, and meeting the demands of a changing market. The report also discusses the company's initiatives to support employees, including providing discounts, pension plans, and promoting equal opportunities for all, including individuals with disabilities. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of a diverse and inclusive workplace in achieving business goals and meeting customer needs.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Analysation of corporation's approach to human resource development...........................1
2 Analyse the company’s approach for managing equity and diversity at work place..........4
3 Approach of company in getting competitive advantages and get affected by different
external and internal factors...................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Human resource simply refers to those individuals who are responsible for managing
work force within an organisation. They play a vital role in every company as without them
workers can not be recruited and work of any venture cannot be started. In addition to this, they
are also having the responsibility of providing them efficient training so that they get familiar
about their job roles and contribute in achieving goals or objectives (Guest, 2011). Apart from
this, they also take care of their wages related issues, working hours and many more. It is
important that each and every aspects associated with employees must be done in effectual
manner so that no conflicts emerges among them. The present report is based on the Sainsbury
plc . It is considered as second largest chain of supermarket which is dealing with grocery
products in UK. It was established in the year of 1869 by John James Sainsbury and converted
into largest grocery retailer in few years. In this project, various approaches used by venture
linked with the development of human resources is explained. Besides this, several approaches
that can be used by organisation in order to maintain equity and diversity at working location is
also discussed here.
1. Analysation of corporation's approach to human resource development
Human resource development approach commonly refers to such structure of
organization which gives opportunities to employees and assist them in developing their several
skills like interpersonal, intra personal and organisational knowledge and abilities. In context
with Sainsbury, it utilises an efficacious approach associated with workers doing their jobs at
working place. The major aim of managers of ventures is to make their company such a place
where each and every one love to work. For doing the same, employers do various attempts in
developing and encouraging the creativity of work force so that they can offer good quality and
best featured food items to all of its potential customers (Cunningham, 2010). Moreover, they
are also engaging their personnels in the process of decision making and also invest large amount
of capitals in providing them efficient training and development programmes. Firm wishes to be
the one which provides creative chances to do celebrations so that they can understand them
better and determines their opinions and views about the corporation. For developing a positive
working environment within company, managers should emphasis on listening various views of
1

their associates so that they understand themselves as an important part of venture. By this way,
they also get motivated and give their best in achieving aims and objectives of their firm.
One of the beauty of human resource approach of enterprise is that through this they
provides numerous of advantages to their colleagues such as discounts in medical treatment by
offering them special cards, pension, holidays, etc. It is the role of managers to form effectual
policies in context with human resource management at the working location which promotes the
work forces and also offers them opportunities of receiving training regarding their jobs that aids
them in improving their skills and capabilities. In current days, firm is committed to increase the
national living wage in order to meet the demands of workers. Rewards and punishments is
another factor that is being offered by company for appraising the good work of their employees
as well as highlights some worker's bad quality of work respectively. It has recognised that
Sainsbury's had provided £7.36 per hour that is 2.2 % above the national living wage in the year
of 2015 – 16 (Batt and Colvin, 2011). Because of this, personnels of this firm have done high
level of efforts for satisfying their customers by providing them best quality products and
services at affordable prices. In addition to this, organisation is also supporting different policies
and norms imposed by legal authorities which is associated with work forces like equal pay acts
and many more legislations. Company also concentrate on the views given by their workers so
that they come to about their feeling regarding the work and provides them facilities as per their
desires. By doing surveys on the employees, Sainsbury's come to know about the ideas and
feeling about their workers. They examined that more than 60 % of their ventures' employees are
saying that Sainsbury's is a best place to work or start career.
Personnels and their skills is playing a vital role in the company they are only one who is
executing different operations of their corporation and aids in attaining their targets and
objectives. In addition to this, they also contribute in gaining competitive advantages by creating
unique products and offers long term benefits to them. Human resource management also helps
workers in learning new skills that will be used in serving users in better ways so that they get
satisfied completely. In order to do the same, managers of HR are arranging special activities
where by they provide essential knowledge to their colleagues regarding creating best quality
products (Human resource management, 2016). They also make them learn about how various
business strategies are designed which can generate benefits for venture. All of these efforts of
cited organisation, assists them in developing a talented work force and attempts to secure the
2

same for future business operations. It has been examined that venture had introduced
apprenticeship programmes which was based on the hospitality services. This aids them in
developing service skills in their work forces. Continuous training assists employees in handling
different instruments or machineries at the working place. This assures effective delivering of
services to the end users.
One of the main feature of this HRM approach is that all of the issues of workers are
resolved by managers. Some of these issues can be related with :
Wages: If any employee is getting less salary in comparison to others who are at same post or
designations, it is obvious that issues may occur. It has been noticed that human resource
managers are responsible for handling these kind of problems. If the same thing is happening,
then should provide the proper amount of revenue to all (Kakuma and et. al., 2011). On the other
hand, salary of new comers may be less in comparison to experienced workers. So, they should
make them understand this reason in order to convince them to work at that wages only. Besides
this, employers should make a policy that discussion regarding salary is not be happened at work
station so this problem may not emerge. However, it is the duty of human resource manager to
resolve such types of issues.
Working hours : There are some of the personnels who are facing problems regrading working
hours should also look after by managers of Sainsbury. They should make sure that there will be
equal work load on the shoulder of each and every person. No one have to work for long
working hour.
Issues regarding leave : Every issues associated with the leave management of personnels is
also take care by them only. They should monitor all the leaves taken by employees and provide
them salary as per that. If some one needs leave on emergency or genuine basis, then it is the
responsibility of employers to provide them definite days of leave (Jackson and et. al., 2011) .
It has been examined that human resource department should various prospects linked
with the development and maintenance of human resource or work forces at the working station.
In order to achieve all business targets, managers needs to recruit skilled workers in the process
of recruitment. It has been analysed from a survey that 1000 graduates are hired by Sainsbury per
year. After the process of hiring, it is the obligation of employers and leaders of cited venture to
provide training and development programmes to the newly hired workers. This must be happen
under the supervision of team heads. In the process of recruitment, several procedures should be
3

followed. At first, collection of curriculum vitae should be done. After that interview process
starts. In this process, several stages happens like group discussion, aptitude test, personal
interview, etc. Those candidates should be short listed who full fill all the criteria of specified
designations. On the basis of this, suitable participants are selected and job roles are assigned to
them and are offer letters are provided to them.
2 Analyse the company’s approach for managing equity and diversity at work place
Sainsbury is concentrating in managing the equity and diversity at the working location.
It has been revealed from a research that this assists venture in giving good performances and
developing their business. The main motive of adopting this approach is that via this they are
eliminating the differences between employees which is normally being done on the basis of “
age, sex, color, caste, race, religion, disability”, etc. (Mok and Yu, 2011). It has been seen that
conflicts are rising in firms due to such differences among workers. Enterprise ants that their
work force know the differences among themselves but also respect each other and do not make
any one feel alone. Sainsbury also respect and give importance to diversity at their offices or
work stations as diverse team work in better and effective way. Employers working in venture
assures that attractive opportunities have to be given to each and every personnel so they all
achieve success in their job life. They do not believe in doing discrimination as this develops
negative environment at working location and at the same time also lowers moral of workers. On
the other hand, company take efficiency test of their employees by giving them challenges. One
who meet this criterion are offered good rewards and also their position is promoted. Those who
face barriers and even after that accomplish their task on time are provided some impressive
opportunities. Moreover, corporation has launched or set up a female mentoring activity whose
subscription has increased so much. Managers of enterprise also attempts in order to promote the
engagement of female workers and make them capable so that they can full fill that
responsibility.
The main reason of maintaining such a diverse atmosphere is that it makes the work
forces able to better understand the different views and opinions of one another and respect the
same. This helps in creating an effectual team at the working station. By recruiting diverse work
force, company try to bring together workers from different back ground (Mahajan, 2015). This
assist in gathering of new and innovative ideas through which they can design a new product
which can attract large number customers towards their goods and services. This in turn
4

increases the overall turnover of venture. By this way, Sainsbury can acquire creative concepts
and meet the current demands of customers by responding the changing environment at market
place. It can be said that mixture of talents and experiences permit corporation in offering
effective services and commodities to all kind of consumers either they are domestic or
international level.
One of the main advantage of diverse team is that it offers varieties of opinions and
strategies and understanding to firm. It has been recognized that Sainsbury had introduced a
diversity management website on the internet. This aids business associates in understanding or
interpreting more about requirements and preferences of citizens. It has been observed that
company concentrates on maintain equity and diversity while providing workers training and
development programs also instruct managers to give equal changes of development to disabled
people also. Sainsbury has started special type of recruitment whereby they are hiring to disabled
persons only. They are providing them a golden opportunity to start a new life by helping them
in making themselves independent even after being disabled. They are offering them nice salary
packages so that they can improve their standard of living (Perez Arrau, Eades and Wilson,
2012) . As company know that they do not do all type of jobs so managers provide them specific
job roles which can be accomplished by them easily. For example, task of packaging, data entry,
etc. are some works that can be performed by them very easily. This as a result increasing the
popularity of their brand as they are involved in doing activities of corporate social responsibility
by supporting to disabled persons. In addition to this they are also offering them pension till their
death after their retirement in the age of 60 years.
Apart from this, discrimination among workers are being removed by giving them chance
to take part in process of decision making. By this way, they can take decision in their favor.
Equal wages and chances of growth is being offered top all of them. Diversity management at
cited venture also assures development of whole team at working station and by this way, it
contributes in growth of whole corporation.
3 Approach of company in getting competitive advantages and get affected by different external
and internal factors
Competitive advantages are nothing but the benefits or advantages that is earned by any
company in comparison to their competitors. It has been noticed that are various competitor of
Sainsbury such as Tesco, Aldi, etc. which are designing same kind of products as manufactured
5

by them. Due to this, customers get segmented among them and there might be a situation of
facing losses. But by implementing effective approaches, they are earning profits and gaining
competitive advantages. The first approach of venture is training and development. Managers of
human resources are providing important training to all personnel where they are trained for
designing innovative goods and services. They are focus on developing those food items which
is not made by any of the firm. Thus, products of Sainsbury is totally different and unique in
nature. This is the reason that large number of people get attracted towards their food items. This
as a result increase the turnover of company. The another approach is research wherein special
team is created for the investigation of current needs and requirements of common people so that
they design their products in accordance to that. In addition to this, they also analyzing the goods
made by their competitors and try to examine the weakness present in them. After that workers
do modifications in their food items in that so that no faults occur in it.
It has been observed that some of the internal and external factors are present that are
effecting on the action of getting competitive advantages. This has been discussed below:
Internal factors : These are those factors that are present inside the company such as worker’s
skill, interest rate of employee, changes in the culture, financial situation of organization, so on.
Such factors affect the manufacturing process of venture at greater extent. For, example if skills
of workers are not so good, then whole work of manufacture or production get damaged and
corporation will not be able to develop unique or good quality of products and as a result whole
firm get suffers due to this reason only (Renwick, Redman and Maguire, 2013). So, it is very
important to train workers before involving them in production process. On the other hand, if
financial situation of company will be good then they can design any kind of goods or services.
But at the same time, if there is lack of funding or revenue within venture, any of the work
cannot perform. Coming to the moral of employees, if personnel is not interesting in
accomplishing any task, then it is obvious that better or average result cannot be obtained. On the
other hand, when workers perform their jobs enthusiastically best outcomes get acquired.
Therefore, it can be said that these are some internal factors that impacts on the performance of
corporation.
External factors : These are the factors that exist outside and present in business environment
for example laws made by government, change in demands and preferences of customers,
technological advancement, etc. Legislation or policies made by legal authorities like tax
6

imposition, equal wages act, child labor act, etc. effects on the working of Sainsbury. This gives
positive as well as negative impacts. High rate of taxation effect negatively on venture as large
sum of money goes on paying such taxes only (Varma, 2013). On the other hand, equal wages
act and child labour act is giving positive influence on enterprise as this allows them to maintain
equity and diversity as well as prohibit engagement of child from work. Change in demands or
preferences of consumers also impact on decision making process as company have to take
decision of preparing products as per the need of users so that they satisfy them properly.
Technological advancement helps venture in developing innovative goods in very less time
interval as well as in minimum amount of raw materials.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be concluded that human resource management is
playing a crucial role in every enterprise. They help in managing work forces by recruiting
skilled and qualified workers for the firm so that work of company doesn’t get hampered. In
addition to this, they also have various types of responsibilities. For example, training and
development of recruited employees is provided by them, issues related with wages, leave,
working hours, and many more things are managed by them only. Apart from this, they also
ensure that equity and diversity is maintained within work place. Discrimination on the basis of
caste, age, sex, disability, religion, etc. should be done with personnels and an atmosphere of
equity and positivity should be created at work place. So, it is very important to implement an
effective human resource department within Sainsbury. Apart from this, various internal and
external factors which are impacting positively as well as negatively on the performance of
venture. These factors acts as hindrances at the time of earning competitive advantages is
explained in this assignment.
7

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Agrawal, N. M., Khatri, N. and Srinivasan, R., 2012. Managing growth: Human resource
management challenges facing the Indian software industry. Journal of World
Business.47(2). pp.159-166.
Batt, R. and Colvin, A.J., 2011. An employment systems approach to turnover: Human resources
practices, quits, dismissals, and performance. Academy of management Journal. 54(4).
pp.695-717.
Cunningham, L. X., 2010. Managing human resources in SMEs in a transition economy:
evidence from China. The International Journal of Human Resource Management.
21(12). pp.2120-2141.
Guest, D. E., 2011. Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human resource management journal. 21(1). pp.3-13.
Jackson, S. E., et. al., 2011. State-of-the-art and future directions for green human resource
management: Introduction to the special issue. German Journal of Human Resource
Management. 25(2). pp.99-116.
Kakuma, R. et. al., 2011. Human resources for mental health care: current situation and strategies
for action. The Lancet. 378(9803). pp.1654-1663.
Mahajan, J. P., 2015. Managing Human Resources. Vikas Publishing House.
Mok, K. H. and Yu, K. M., 2011. The quest for regional education hub status and transnational
higher education: Challenges for managing human capital in Asia. Asia Pacific Journal
of Education. 31(3). pp.229-248.
Mok, K. H. and Yu, K. M., 2011. The quest for regional education hub status and transnational
higher education: Challenges for managing human capital in Asia. Asia Pacific Journal
of Education. 31(3). pp.229-248.
Perez Arrau, G., Eades, E. and Wilson, J., 2012. Managing human resources in the Latin
American context: the case of Chile. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management. 23(15).pp.3133-3150.
Renwick, D. W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A
review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15(1).
pp.1-14.
Varma, A., 2013. Managing human resources in Asia-Pacific (Vol. 20). Routledge.
Online
Human resource management. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/hrm/human-resource-management-functions-
managerial-operative-and-advisory-function/27995/>.
8

9