HR in Business: Assessment for Norries Department Store Spring 2019

This report provides a detailed analysis of human resource management within the context of Norries, a large department store. The report begins with an introduction to HRM and its strategic importance, followed by a discussion that addresses several key tasks. These tasks include assessing the contributions of HR specialists and line managers to improve people management, differentiating between employment and psychological contracts in terms of employee engagement, reviewing the use of assessment centers for manager selection, outlining a systematic approach to performance management with recommendations, evaluating ideas associated with employee engagement and their impact on performance objectives, and investigating a systematic approach to learning and development for future success. The report offers insights into various aspects of HR, including employee engagement, performance management, and the roles of different management levels in achieving organizational goals. The analysis provides a comprehensive view of HR practices within the context of a business undergoing organizational changes, offering practical recommendations for improvement.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCES IN BUSINESS
Human Resources in Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Task 1: Assessment of Relative Contribution for HR Specialists and Line Managers to
Improve People Management................................................................................................4
Task 2: Distinguishing between Nature and Contribution of Employment Contract and
Psychological Contract to Employee Engagement................................................................7
Task 3: Reviewing about Utilization of Assessment Centres for Improving Reliability and
Validity of Process to Select Managers...............................................................................10
Task 4: Outlining Elements of Systematic Approach to Performance Management to be
introduced with Specified Recommendations......................................................................12
Task 5: Evaluation of Ideas Associated with Employee Engagement for Bringing Benefits
and Supporting to Achieve Performance Objectives and Outlining Limitations.................14
Task 6: Investigation of Systematic Approach for Learning and Development for Future
Success.................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
HRM or human resource management could be stated as the significant strategic
approach for the most effective as well as efficient management of people within a company,
for the reason that this could be a major help to this business for obtaining competitive
benefits (Boxall and Purcell 2008). It is also designed for the core purpose of maximizing the
employee performance within service of the various strategic objectives for an employer.
Norries is the largest departmental store that is located within central London and has doing
business for more than 120 years. They have currently employed 3500 staffs directly with the
additional agency as well as concession of employees. It is an extremely competitive sector
with major competition from not only the other stores and the on line retailers for whom the
high street stores are being losing the ground. In the previous year, Norries was purchased by
Lammy Holdings.
The following report outlines a brief discussion on the human resources in business. A
proper assessment of relative contribution for the line managers and HR specialists with
distinguishing between nature of psychological contract and employment contract would be
provided here. Moreover, using of assessment centres to improve validity and reliability for
selecting managers, elements of a systematic approach to the performance management to be
introduced at Norrieswith proper recommendations and evaluation of ideas associated with
employee engagement for bringing benefits to support Norriesand achieve performance
objectives with subsequent details.

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Discussion
Task 1: Assessment of Relative Contribution for HR Specialists and Line Managers to
Improve People Management
Norries, being one of the most significant and important organization in central
London, has a major effect on the HR professionals and specialists for the core purpose of
ensuring that each and every employee or staff are well paid and the advantages or other
perks are being taken care of (Storey2007). The job satisfaction and personal fulfilment are
being ensured in this process and the employee enabling and empowerment are enhanced
significantly. The HR managers as well as specialists in this particular organization
emphasize on the subsequent aspects by the constant seeking of feedbacks, providing
suggestions for the improvement of people management and even providing people support
to the various employees. In Norries, the employees above the level of team leader have
better ideology with the staffs of human resources, in which each and every issue that are
concerned are being discussed properly (Price 2007). All of such meetings even provide the
employees with the core opportunity for articulating the concerns and even pointing to the
grievances, which they may have in respect to the work, job as well as organization.
The human resource specialists of this specific organization of Norries have assigned
a people manager, who is solely responsible for performing the tasks and also for ensuring
that each and every employee is performing to the potential (Bratton and Gold 2017).
Furthermore, the functions of human resources within the conjunction of various line
managers specifically conduct regular trainings for soft skills such as personal relations,
leadership and communication. The human resources specialists of Norries have also
established the distinctive set of protocols for staffs and other people for the core purpose of
attending the leadership development trainings, which bring out every leader within the
employees and then groom them as respective future managers or CEOs (Chelladurai and

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Kerwin 2017). Thus, these two objectives of people management or enabling and people
empowerment are successfully being met in the paradigm. This does not resemble to the
factor the employees as well as the managers are not facing any issue or problem during their
work in the organisation of Norries. After Lammy Holdings have purchased Norries, they
have conducted an employee survey for understanding the focus and point of views of
employees regarding their works. However, after the survey, it was found out that the results
were not as expected (Brewster and Hegewisch 2017). As a result the employee turnover was
extremely higher than normal and hence this was bringing subsequent extra costs in the
business.
The HR specialists have major contributions to the improvement of people
management and in this organization of Norries, these managers had tough time convincing
the staffs that the company was meant to be the best for them and they should check at the
brighter side of things and not only on complaining about the bitter issues and grievances
(Marchingtonet al. 2016). According to the survey, few of the employees have responded that
they did not get enough support from the organizational higher authority. The personality and
skills of these managers eventually come into a picture for the core capability of persuading,
enlightening and even wielding a stick to play a significant role for people management in
Norries. The specialist of human resources also have to tread a distinctive fine line within
giving in to the staffs and employees and then following the company mandate (Brewster,
Chung and Sparrow 2016). It solely refers to the fact that a variety of strategies are being
employed by these HR specialists, which involve few of the above provided skills in addition
to the personal equations, which the manager comprises with the other employees.
On the other hand, the line managers are those individuals, who are directly
responsible for the management of other employees as well as operations of any business
during reporting to the high ranking managers (Budhwar and Debrah 2013). The respective

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line manager is also termed as the direct manager. This direct manager plays one of the major
and vital role within the business operations of several businesses. This particular manager
then manages resources and employees in the pursuit to achieve specified organizational and
functional objectives. Few of these core responsibilities of the line manager involve
recruitment and hiring talents for the purpose of fulfilling the organizational positions,
providing subsequent training as well as support to the new employees or recruits, cross
training of employees for the core purpose of ensuring job rotation as well as minimization of
assignment coverage gap, communication and then ensuring the proper understanding of
departmental as well as functional goals and objectives (Aswathappa 2013). Moreover, the
proper identification of requirement of the corrective actions or evaluation of overall team as
well as individual performance is extremely important in this case.
The quality standards of these processes are also ensured and hence engagement with
the other line managers within the entire organization is well managed by these line
managers. The subsequent reports on productivity and any other performance indicator for
people management are done in a better manner by them. Norrieshas appointed line managers
in their business and it eventually plays one of the major and the most important part within
organizational performances (Renwick, Redman and Maguire 2013). They have always
delivered positive as well as constructive feedbacks over a regular basis and these line
managers hence directly influence over the employee satisfaction and management for
increasing customer satisfaction and organizational productivity.
When the senior management is getting involved for development and approval of
strategy of firm, the respective hard works to implement the specified strategy eventually
occurs at the lowest levels of company. They even ensure that new programs are being
implemented within timely as well as effective manner. They are hence well positioned for
the purpose of identifying each and every problem or issue with proper strategy execution

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programas well as the inputs of that line manager are vital for these organizational learnings
(Alfeset al. 2013). Norries has also included these line managers for talent development and
they have a larger control on the recognition, development as well as promotion of these
talented professionals within the teams. These above mentioned contributions of line
managers hence were extremely important and significant for bringing subsequent changes in
the company of Norries.
Task 2: Distinguishing between Nature and Contribution of Employment Contract and
Psychological Contract to Employee Engagement
The employment contract can be stated as the significant contract within an employee
as well as the employer and it is done based on employment relationships. Most of these
employment contracts subsequently do not require for being writing for being legally valid,
however it is better whenever they arepresent (Brewsteret al. 2016). This contract of
employment starts when the offers of employment are being accepted and the starting of
work eventually proves that the employee as well as the employer has properly accepted to
the terms or conditions that are being offered by employer. All of these employees are then
entitled to the written statements of major terms or conditions of the employment within two
calendar months of the starting day of work. The employment contract even involves details
such as pay, working hours and holidays of the employees. The existing employment contract
could be varied with the significant agreement of both of these parties. Most of the people
even assume that the employment contract comprises of the things, which are then set out to
write within an employee and employer (Storey 2014). In the organization of Norries, the
contracts are made up of the terms, which are being spelt out and this is majorly because they
are either too obvious for mentioning or necessary in making the contract work and even
custom and practice.

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The employment contracts are extremely important and significant for the proper
maintenance of employee management and engagement in the business (Anderson 2013).
Since, this type of contract is responsible for addressing the significant aspects of
employment like benefits, competing covenants and termination processes as well as the
major and important duties or responsibilities of employee and employer. One of the core
advantages of utilizing this employment agreement would be that it helps in enabling a higher
level of specificity about the major employment details (Purce 2014). When either of the
employee and employee is desiring certain wage rate in Norries, they could subsequently list
this within the agreement. IT eventually enables both the parties for negotiating at the terms
under which they have the willing to cooperate with each other. This particular feature is
extremely vital for the organizations, who require to protect the specified trade secrets and
copyrighted materials. The next benefit of this type of employment contract is that this
agreement could be referred to as the factor that when in future any type of dispute would be
arising on the specific employment aspect, this particular written document could be easily
utilized as an important evidence as per required (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014).
Being one of the significant organization in central London, Norries has always
focused on the fostering of a positive relation within the employee and the employer. The
employers generally feel that this employment agreement is responsible for creating an
enhancement in the degree of company as well as work relationship structure (Nickson 2013).
For the employees, this employment agreement could even provide the major sense of
security and stability especially when the agreement has listed period of employment and
time frame. Hence, employee engagement is solely enhanced in this scenario without much
complexities.
On the other hand, psychological contracts could be referred to as the se of
expectations and promises, which are being exchanged within the parties within an

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employment relationship. All of these parties majorly involve work colleagues, individual
employees, managers and the employers (Kramar 2014). These types of contracts are termed
as implicit as well as tacit ad they tend to be invisible, assumed, informal and unspoken. In
simpler words, the psychological contract could be better explained as the subsequent deal
within the employee and employer after concerning about the significant perception of two
parties, employee and employer and what the mutual obligations are towards one another.
Since, they comprise of perceptions and unofficial assumptions, the nature and contribution
of this particular contract are absolutely different from the employment contract in respect to
the employee engagement (Hoque 2013). Although, they are rarely written down explicitly
and formally, these contracts comprise of a powerful effect on the employee performance and
motivation.
These psychological contracts are closely bound up with the notions of career,
employability and employment. In Norries, the work contracts of all sorts are being out in
place for the purpose of describing the major duties of every party and what should be done
when rules are not followed as per planned (Albrechtet al. 2015). However, this type of
contracts are not clear to the line managers and their roles are uncertain in respect to the
psychological contract.Such contracts are then shaped by the employee for making their
major relationships with one another at work. A stronger influence is given on the
performance as well as their behaviours towards one another. The relational contracts and the
transactional contracts are overlapped and combined together for making an employment
contract.
The new psychological contracts in this organization of Norries are completely
unstable in nature as they are eventually both ad hoc and temporary in nature. They even
have assumed a great sense of partnership within the employee and employer majorly over
the expectation of lesser permanent period of a salaried employment. It is an effectively

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growing trend towards the employment arrangements with the contract workers, knowledge
workers as well as interim workers. Such individuals might even work in the company for a
restricted time period and it is being negotiated both unconsciously and consciously for
maintaining a balance in employee engagement (Boella and Goss-Turner 2013). Thus, the
nature and contribution of psychological contracts play the major roles within Norries and
thus employee engagement is enhanced majorly.
Task 3: Reviewing about Utilization of Assessment Centres for Improving Reliability
and Validity of Process to Select Managers
Lammy Holdings have recently purchased Norries in the last year (Jabbouret al.
2013). However, after a survey being organized on the employees, they have become
extremely concerned regarding the significant capability of managers and how they are being
recruited as well as selected. The selection of managers in any organization is extremely
important and significant for the business as they are responsible for managing the entire
work in the business and even for the better execution of employee management process
(Taylor, Doherty and McGraw 2015). Norries has been a major failure in the selection of
managers in their business and thus Lammy Holdings now need new selection procedures for
the recruitment of managers in the business.
An assessment centre can be termed as the recruitment selection procedure, in which
the organization is usually assessing the group of candidates at one particular time and then
placing with the help of a range of selection exercises (Kehoe and Wright 2013). It is the
variety of several testing techniques that are being designed for allowing the significant
candidates in demonstrating under the subsequent standardized terms and conditions, the
major abilities and skills, which are the most important for bringing success within a specific
work. The assessment centres are thus termed as one of the major and the most effective and
efficient methodologies to predict the suitability of a candidate for jobs so that he or she

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could help the organization in avoiding to make poor decisions of recruitment as well as the
expenses that are associated with them. These candidates comprises of a positive experience
at the assessment centre in which they are being assessed by interviews alone (Hohenstein,
Feisel and Hartmann 2014). Since, Norries is facing issues regarding the selection of
managers in their business, it is extremely important for them to utilize high valued roles and
these companies could even select from the variety of selection exercises after inclusion of
structured interviews, role plays, group exercises and work sample activities.
For the purpose of selection from the variety of selection exercises at the assessment
centre, Norries must be conductingthe proper or perfect job analyses and then prepare the
competency profilesas well as job description (Glendon and Clarke 2015). Such exercises
must be completely relevant to the role and hence the employers could utilize off the shelf
exercises and then develop subsequent bespoke exercises as well as even utilize the major
approach that amalgamates the two. This particular format of exercises could either be paper
based or online with the help of the Internet connectivity and technology. The major roles
within the assessment centres are designers of assessment centre, administrators and
facilitators, assessors, quality checkers and controllers and the organization should provide
significant training to the employees, who have undertaken the roles (Griffin 2013). In
Norries, after the candidates have completed their assessment exercises, these assessors must
hold a session of decision making, in which they could integrate the score of candidates for
undertaking a finalized selection decision. This particular organization must also create a
level at the playing field for the external as well as internal candidates.
The assessors must not utilize any prior knowledge regarding the internal candidates
while giving scores to them. Moreover, Norries must even provide meaningful feedback to
the candidates those who have attended the assessment centre for getting selected as the
respective manager (Harrison and Lock 2017). However, since the assessment centres are

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extremely costly for development and hosting, this particular organization of Norries must
evaluate whether or not the expenses are being justified for the results. Hence, assessment
centres would be extremely effective and efficient for the proper improvement of validity and
reliability of the process to select managers in Norries.
Task 4: Outlining Elements of Systematic Approach to Performance Management to
beintroducedwith Specified Recommendations
The performance management can be referred to as the procedure to create a
distinctive work environment and setting, where the individuals are being allowed to perform
to the best of their capabilities (Shaw, Park and Kim 2013). It is the whole work system,
which starts as soon as a job is being defined to be required. It eventually ends as soon as the
respective employee has left the company. The proper interaction with any employee at each
and every step in between the major occurrences of life cycle is being checked in this
scenario. Performance management hence makes each and every interaction, an opportunity
with the employee within a learning occasion. Norries majorly requires performance
management within their business so that they are able to eradicate each and every
complexity of performance management of the employees and staffs (Al Ariss, Cascio and
Paauwe 2014). The systematic approach towards this performance management comprises of
some of the major and significant elements. These elements are required to be maintained by
the human resource department or HRD of Norries and the elements with recommendations
are as follows:
i) The first and the foremost element is the development of clearer job descriptions
with the core help of an employee recruitment plan, which has the responsibility of
identifying the respective selection team (Dries 2013).