Case Study: Strategic HRM, Recruitment & Legislation at Mother London

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resources (HR) practices at Mother London, a creative agency, through a detailed case study. It explores how HR practices support various forms of capital—human, social, and organizational—and contribute to the company's success. The assignment identifies potential drawbacks in Mother London's recruitment approach, particularly its reliance on experienced individuals and personal networks. It evaluates the implemented HR practices against the principles of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), focusing on training and development, recruitment and selection, and performance rewards. The case study also illustrates key employment legislation, such as the Equality Act 2010, and considers their impact on Mother London's HR activities in the UK and other locations. This detailed examination provides insights into effective HR strategies and areas for improvement within a global organization. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Business Introduction To Human Resources
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................4
Task 2 Case Study (Mother London)...........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
Reference List............................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Human resource management, known commonly as HRM, is an important practice for every
organization as it serves the purpose of strategically managing the employees through
processes like recruitment, staffing, delegation of tasks, provision of incentives, etc. This
assignment aims to study the effective use of HR practices and processes of recruitment and
selection. In Task 1, the recruitment and selection strategies, policies and practices of Marks %
Spencer are discussed. These practices are compared to pre-determined good HR recruitment
practices according to the available literature. Task 2 evaluates the role of HR practices in
supporting human, social and organizational capital with respect to Mother London. Further, the
perceived drawbacks of Mother London’s recruitment practices are identified. The HR practices
of Mother London with emphasis on SHRM are assessed. Lastly, the impact of key legislation
with a focus on recruitment and selection on Mother London’s HR activities is studied with
examples.
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Task 1
1. Research and discuss the process of recruitment and selection within an organisation
of your choice. Consider and make reference to its strategy, policy and operational
practices.
The procedure of selection and recruitment within a Marks and Spencer plays a highly
significant role. It is necessary for the HR department of the company to make effective
decisions while recruiting candidates for the company (Cascio, 2018). The strategies those are
required for the process of recruitment and selection comprises of internal and external factors.
The internal factors are the promotion of vacancy in the company and it is done by the company
itself in order to make the individuals aware that the company is recruiting new candidates for a
specific job role. The external factor involves the advertisement of the vacancy with the help of
advertising agencies.
While recruiting candidates the company and its Human Resource Management department
must follow some policies such as Equality Act, 2010, and Discrimination Act, 1975.
Equality Act, 2010:
Marks and Spencer must follow the policies under this act while the process of recruitment and
selection. According to this act, the employees being recruited for the firm should be provided
freedom and respect should be shown towards them (Act, 2010). As stated by this act, the
individuals have the right to defend themselves if fake accusation is made against the individual.
Discrimination Act, 1975:
According to this act, the company must not show any kind of discrimination towards the
individuals coming for the interview. Marks and Spencer follows the policies under this act. They
do not show any kind of discrimination in gender, race, and religion (Player and Sperino, 2017).
The operational practices that are carried out by Marks and Spencer while recruiting and
selecting candidates are mentioned below:
CV screening:
The managers of the company go through the CV of the candidates thoroughly to get a good
understanding of their skills and qualification.
Interview:
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Once the CV screening is done, the managers take the interview of the candidates and test their
communication skills, abilities to handle pressure, and flexibility regarding the job role.
Selection:
After the interview, the managers decide to select the most skilled and appropriate employee for
the job roles offered by them.
Induction:
After selecting the candidates for the job role, Marks and Spencer briefs the candidates
regarding the job role and conveys the organizational policies and business ethics that are
followed by the company.
In addition, acquisition plays a vital role throughout the HR cycle. It helps the firm to decide the
organizational culture, make benefits out of the problems, concerns the employees by
purchasing the company, changing the structure of the organization.
2. Once you have researched your company you are then required to compare the
organisations’ practices with the ‘good’ practices and academic models from the
literature.
The organizational practices of M&S comprises of Equality Act, 2010, and Discrimination Act,
1975. Marks and Spencer almost follows all the policies of Equality Act 2010. The employees of
the organization are shown respect and given freedom. However, at sometimes the company
does not give them the right to defend themselves within the organization. Following the
practices of Discrimination Act 1975 the company almost treats everyone equally and does
not discriminates people based on their race, religion, and gender. However, when it comes to
disabilities the organization starts discriminating people as per their physical skills and mental
capability.
3. Prepare a 15-minute presentation to share your findings with the rest of the group.
Marks are awarded for the following,
a. A professional presentation where all group members participate
b. Clear understanding of what is meant by ‘recruitment and selection’
c. Clear demonstration of the importance of acquisition and its role in the HR cycle.
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d. Outline of the organisation strategy, policy and operational practices compared with the best
practice identified in the literature.
e. Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations for improvement.
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Task 2 Case Study (Mother London)
a) Explain the role of HR practices in supporting the different forms of capital (Human
capital, social capital and organisational capital) and how these have contributed to the
success of Mother London.
Discuss any potential drawbacks with Mother London’s approach to recruitment.
HR practices play an important role in managing and strengthening the capital resources of an
organization. In the case of Mother London, the HR of the organization supports three different
types of capital : Human capital, Social capital, and Organizational Capital. The HR enhances
the capital in the following ways-
Human Capital- Human capital refers to the employees of the organization. HR is pivotal in
shaping employee relations and employee perceptions of the company and its work
environment, and hence in ensuring the welfare and professional development of human
capital. Taking care of the human capital results in heightened productivity of the workforce and
gives the company competitive advantage over others (Campbell et al, 2012). HR practices at
Mother London ensure that there is a friendly and conducive work environment that is highly
necessary for its employees, as they work in the creative industry. The HR practices have
helped to motivate the employees and to provide opportunities for professional growth, which
has led to improved work performance, higher levels of creativity, and organizational success.
Social Capital- Social capital can be understood as the social interactions and relationship
between the members of the workforce in an organization. It has been observed that HR
practices aimed at developing social capital result in excellent performance for the company
(Jiang and Liu, 2015). HR practices that support social capital aim at fostering a sense of
belonging, promoting team building activities and group thinking as well as open
communication. Mother London’s HR practices promote a work culture where it is more
important for employees to enjoy their work and think creatively than to be limited by
unnecessary corporate restrictions. Thus, the development of social capital has contributed to
the success of Mother London.
Organizational Capital- Organizational capital comprises of the work culture, structure or
hierarchy, and the learning obtained through the business practices and work processes.
Mother London’s HR engages in various practices in order to develop the organizational capital.
The HR policy of the company has ensured that there is free interaction between the senior and
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junior levels of employees and that seats are changed periodically to promote healthy working
and social relationships between the employees. This also ensures that the flow of information
is not one-sided, and serves the purpose of providing a positive learning experience to the
workforce. Thus, the HR’s support of organizational capital has yielded a company
demonstrating a vibrant work atmosphere, multi-level learning, and successful performance.
While Mother London follows a considerably reasonable approach to recruitment and selection,
it is observed that the company prefers individuals with several years of experience and highly
developed skills. This practice of recruitment denies many newcomers in the industry the
opportunity to work with Mother London, which is one of the best creative agencies in UK.
Meanwhile, the company may also be missing out on gaining talented staff merely because the
applicants do not have enough formal work experience. Another drawback observed with the
recruitment process of Mother London is that external recruitment is based off the personal
networks of interaction held by the senior employees. This seems to demonstrate a bias in the
recruitment process, as the company prefers candidates based on recommendations as
opposed to pure talent. Such a practice may not always yield employees who are suitable for
the post, and may harm Mother London’s performance in the long run.
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b) Evaluate the HR practices implemented at Mother London with the approaches to
SHRM. (A minimum of two will be expected).
Strategic Human Resource Management or SHRM is an approach aiming at combining the
regular practices of human resource management, such as staffing and payroll, with more
intangible processes such as motivating, guiding and supporting employees to achieve
organizational as well as personal goals (Truss et al, 2012). As a new understanding of HRM is
developed, more and more organizations are focusing on integrating SHRM practices for the
holistic development of their workforce, and for organizational success. Similarly, Mother
London has also created HR policies and practices associated with the concept of SHRM-
Training and development- According to Daley (2012), training and development is an integral
part of professional development for employees and for the implementation of strategic human
resource management. Further, the modern understanding of SHRM posits that apart from
providing formal training, HRM should also foster the culture of informal hands-on training in the
form of activities such as mentoring and work shadowing. Mother London’s HRM practices have
been modeled to include both formal and informal training and development. Thus, the
employees are provided with formal training programs at their own request and discretion.
Employees are also given ample opportunities to observe and work with senior employees,
which provides novel learning experiences to them. This is a highly effective practice, and also
aids in improving relations between the employees.
Recruitment and selection- Recruitment is crucial to the success and productivity of a
company and its workforce. In keeping with SHRM concepts, Mother London considers several
aspects while engaging in the recruitment process. These aspects include factors such as the
personality and attitude of the individual, which helps in determining whether he or she will fit
easily into the culture of the organization or not.
Performance rewards- Rewards and incentives for good performance are important motivators
for employees. When employees receive recognition for their efforts, they are further energized
and encouraged to keep up their performance, and they achieve a sense of career fulfillment as
well. Although Mother London has a yearly appraisal system in place, a desired increase in
salary must always be approved by the Partners of the company, which makes the process
fairly complicated and drawn out.
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c) Illustrate with examples key legislation and areas for consideration in recruitment and
selection that might affect Mother London both in the UK and in a country of your choice.
Employment legislation has been established for the main purpose of safeguarding the personal
and professional rights of employees at the workplace. The existence of such laws also means
that organizations and their HR managers in particular, have a few considerations to take into
account during the process of recruitment and while engaging with employees. Mother London
has offices in London, New York and Buenos Aires, and the HR of the organization must ensure
that the policies and practices in all three locations comply with established employment
legislations.
Equality Act (2010)- The Equality Act states that organizations in UK cannot turn away or
discriminate against individuals based on grounds such as religion, race, ethnicity, gender,
sexual orientation, disability, etc. (CIPD, 2017). Thus, Mother London’s HR and staffing panel
must provide equal opportunities to all applicants based on job requirements rather than
personal bias. In the United States of America, the US Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) has declared it illegal for any organization to practise discrimination
against an applicant on similar grounds (race, religion, gender, age, maternity, etc) (hg.org,
2018). Complying with this legislation, Mother New York must engage in fair and unbiased
recruitment.
National Minimum Wage Act (1998)- A key employment law in UK, the National Minimum
Wage Act protects employees financially by stating a certain minimum salary amount that is
mandatory for all companies to pay their staff (gov.uk, 2018). Thus, Mother London’s HR must
ensure that the minimum wage is at least adhered to when deciding the pay scale for the
employees. In the USA, as well, employers must pay an established minimum wage to their
employees. In New York, the minimum wage per hour is $10.40 (United States Dol.gov, 2018).
Hence, Mother New York must comply with the law of minimum wage.
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Conclusion
Thus, Task 1 of the assignment observed the different HR policies and strategies followed by
Marks & Spencer with reference to processes of recruitment and selection. The existing
practices of Marks & Spencer were compared with the suggested good HR practices, and the
shortcomings were discussed. In Task 2, the contribution of HR practices to the different types
of capital was studied. The drawbacks of Mother London’s recruitment practices were identified
as risk of biased selection and the high demand for experienced applicants. Taking the case of
Mother London as reference, the HR practices in terms of SHRM were identified as training and
development, recruitment and provision of performance incentives. Finally with reference to the
impact on Mother London and Mother New York’s recruitment practices, the anti-discrimination
and minimum wage laws in UK and USA were elaborated upon.
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Reference List
Act, E., 2010. Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act.
Campbell, B.A., Coff, R. and Kryscynski, D., 2012. Rethinking sustained competitive advantage
from human capital. Academy of Management Review, 37(3), pp.376-395
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
CIPD. (2017). Recruitment & Selection Q&As | CIPD. [online] Available at:
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/recruitment/questions [Accessed 27
Jun. 2018].
Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management,
pp.120-125.
Dol.gov. (2018). Minimum Wage Laws in the States - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S.
Department of Labor. [online] Available at:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm#stateDetails [Accessed 27 Jun. 2018].
gov.uk. (2018). The National Minimum Wage and Living Wage. [online] Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage [Accessed 27 Jun. 2018].
Hg.org. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.hg.org/busemployment.html [Accessed 27 Jun.
2018].
Jiang, J.Y. and Liu, C.W., 2015. High performance work systems and organizational
effectiveness: The mediating role of social capital. Human Resource Management
Review, 25(1), pp.126-137
Player, M. and Sperino, S., 2017. Federal law of employment discrimination in a nutshell. West
Academic.
Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C., 2012. Strategic human resource management. Oxford
University Press
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