Human Resource Management Report: Marks & Spencer Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Marks & Spencer. It begins by outlining the core purposes and functions of HRM, including recruitment, selection, training, and compensation. The report then explores the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external recruitment and selection approaches, providing insights into the advantages and disadvantages of each. Furthermore, it examines the benefits of various HRM practices for both employees and employers, emphasizing the importance of a flexible working environment, positive behavior promotion, and employee motivation. The report also assesses the effectiveness of different HRM practices, such as HRIS, retirement benefits, and applicant tracking, in enhancing organizational performance. Finally, it discusses the importance of employee relations and the impact of employment legislation on HRM decision-making, concluding with an overview of the practical application of HRM practices within the company.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Purposes and the functions of Human Resource Management.............................................1
P2 Strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches.........................4
TASK 2...........................................................................................................................................5
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employee and employer.......................................................5
P4 Effectiveness of Various HRM practices ..............................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Importance of employee relations..........................................................................................7
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact.......................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7 Application of HRM practices...............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is the main function of an organisation. It is introduced to
increase the performance level of employees. It is a process of hiring, selecting, induction,
compensation, providing training and development programme, work on improving the
relationship among employees, performance appraisal etc. to employees. Marks & Spencer is a
retail company of United Kingdom. This business firm deals in many luxury food items, home
products, clothing and now a days it started selling branded products like for instance Kellogg's
Corn Flakes. In this report mentioned about the purpose and function of Human Resource
Management which are applicable to the resourcing and workforce planning. There are some
weaknesses and some strengths of recruitment and selection process (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014). This business firm uses many HRM practices which are helpful for both employee or
employer. In this present report, mentioned about the effectiveness of various Human Resource
Management practices. In a business organisation, the good employee relation is very important
for making the business process effective and successful. Some times, there are some key
elements of the legislation and its impact on the decision making of Human Resource
Management.
TASK 1
P1 Purposes and the functions of Human Resource Management
The Human resource management deals in the recruitment, selection, performance
appraisal, compensation, training and development to the employees in an organisation. In
Marks& Spencer business firm, there is a human resource department and the main purpose or
objective of Human Resource Management is to increasing or enhancing the growth and
profitability of a business firm by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of employees. To
maximising the proactivity, it is necessary to human resource manager is to recruit the
employees according to their skills, abilities and knowledge (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). The
main function of HR management is managerial, operative and advisory.
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(Source- Functions of HRM, 2017)
Operative Functions
Recruitment- It is the most important function of Human Resource Management. Under
this, a HR manager recruit candidates according to the demand of job profile (Brewster and
Hegewisch, 2017). In recruitment includes the job posting and description, prospective people,
taking interview, dealing in payroll and developing the job offer.
Selection- In selection process, Human Resource Manager of Marks & Spencer business
firm, select candidates ion the basis of job description and according to the abilities, capabilities
and skills.
Training and development- Training is for employees and the HR department provide on
the job training facilities to their employees in an organisation. Marks & Spencer business
organisation provides the training to existing employees as well as new workers. Training helps
in increasing the skills, working performance and ability of workers (Guest, 2011). It can be
related to new policies, changing environment, technology and new machineries and it helps in
improving and enhancing the single skills but development is for overall grooming.
Benefits and compensation- The main objective of this organisation is to achieve the
goals of a business firm. Marks& Spencer company provides the benefits to employees in many
ways like for instance:
 By providing medical insurance.
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Illustration 1: HRM Functions

 Flexibility in working hours of employees.
 Education benefit to children.
 By increasing their holidays
Managerial functions
Planning- It is the main step of managerial functions. In this the top management of an
organisation makes plans and policies and it is the responsibility of manager is to implement the
place in an effective way (Meredith Belbin, 2011). Planning can be related to forecasting the
demand of job and it is necessary to Human Resource Manager is to aware about the aims or
objectives of company and the marketing strategy.
Organising- In this function, HR manager prepares the structure of a business firm. In
this involves, to allotment of different responsibilities or functions to different employees,
employers delegate their authority according to the activities ans responsibilities.
Directing- Under this function, managers of an organisation direct their employees to
accomplishing the goals and objectives. It can be successfully happen from the proper planning,
using different ways of motivation and to maintaining the healthy and friendly relationship with
their employees.
Controlling- The activities of a company is accomplishes according to the plans and
procedures (Wright and McMahan, 2011). In this, Human Resource Manager compare the actual
result with the expected and in this, it is the responsibility of a manager is to controlling and
monitoring the performance.
Advisory functions
Advise to top management- In this the HR manager give the advice to their top authority
about the formulation and examination of policies, strategies and procedure and also give the
suggestion to maintaining the harmonious relationship with employees for increasing their
morale.
Advise to Heads of Departments- Under this, the personnel manger of Mark & Spencer
gives advice to the departmental heads about the planning of man power, hiring and selection of
candidates, motivating, training and development, job design and analysis, to appraise the
performance of employees etc.
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P2 Strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection approaches
Recruitment means to enlisting the new candidates in a business firm. In this Human
Resource Manager search and hiring the highly skilled and qualified person in a time and price
effective way. Company can recruit the candidate with in the company or outside the business
firm. In this process includes to searching the vacancy in an organisation and analyse the job
description, attracting candidates towards the job description or job, screening of people and
selecting the right applicant for a right job (Lengnick-Hall, Beck and Lengnick-Hall, 2011). In
selection,k the personnel manger select a candidates on the basis of their skills, knowledge, IQ
level etc. recruitment is a positive process and selection is a negative process. The recruitment
and selection can be internally as well as externally and it has some strengths and some
weaknesses:
Strengths limitations of Internal recruitment and selection:
in internal recruit, the manager of Marks& Spencer business firm hiring the employee for
vacant with in the organisation. Internal hiring defines to identification and to attract a person in
the business enterprise. The internal selection means to assessment and to determination of
workers in a enterprise. There are three sources of recruitment and selection and these are
transfer, promotion and employee referrals.
Transfer- It means to shift the employees from one designation to another without any
change in its duties and responsibilities. Transfer can be for the same level and it is required for
the future promotion.
Promotion- It is a upward movement and employees are promoted on upper level in a
business organisation (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016). From high position the vacancy of
a job will be filled. From the promotion the morale and motivation level of an employee will be
increased, other will get motivated, performance level increased.
Employee referrals- The existing employees can refer their family members and friends
for the vacant position because they are aware about the culture of company and the
requirements of a job. It is a cost saving as well as time saving process.
Strengths
 From this, the morale of employees will be increased.
 It is time effective and cost saving.
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 Competition among all workers will be increased and every employees will
perform well.
 The management is already know about the weaknesses and strength of existing
workers.
Weaknesses
 It can create the dispute between employees.
 It provides the limited choice of employees (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011).
 Biasness can be created
External recruitment and selection
In external recruitment and selection, management recruit and choosing the employees
from the external source or outside the business firm. In external source includes pool of job,
campus placement, e- recruitment, advertisement, consultants etc.
Strengths
 Give the chance to fresh talent
 The management of Marks& Spencer business firm can add the new ideas in an
organisation.
 Reduction in baisness or partially among existing employees.
Weaknesses
 More expensive than the internal recruitment and selection.
 Need to provide training to new candidates.
 Pit creates dissatisfaction to present employees.
 It is a long process.
TASK 2
P3 Benefits of HRM practices for employee and employer
The relationship of employees or mangers matters a lot for the productivity and
development of an organisation (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011). To to improving or to make
effective the relation Marks& Spencer uses Human Resource Management practices. There are
some practices related to HRM are mentioned below:
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Human Resource Information System (HRIS)- This is a type of software and with the
help of this the manager or can say the management can save of fed the details and information
of employees. It is a online software for the payroll, performance management of employees,
data tracking and entry and it also deals in the accounting functions.
Retirement benefits- The retirement is a gap among the full time employment and
retirement. This type of benefit is for the old or senior employees (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
The management of this business organisation reduced the workload from the senior workers,
job sharing among the old employees and move the senior employees to the minimum stressful
jobs.
Recruitment and applicant tracking- The system of application tracking helps in
handling and analysing the needs of recruitment. When this business firm recruiting an employee
for the specific job, then in this case it is necessary to match the recruiting tools top filling the
vacant position. There are some benefits or advantages related to Human Resource Management
practices:
Maintaining the flexible working environment- With the help of HRM practices, the
Human Resource Manager builds or maintains the working environment of company flexible and
workable. From this, managers can retain its present employees in an organisation and also
rendering them the harmonious and healthy work place. It will helps in achieving the goals and
objectives of a business firm.
Promoting the positive behaviour- The practices of Human Resource Management helps
in creating the positive environment of workplace. With the help of this employees will feel good
and work without any stress, they will be motivated and it will also helps in increasing the
growth of company and the relationship among the employees or employer will be good or
positive and the conflict among them will be reduced.
Motivating workers- The employer of Mark & Spencer company motivate their
employees to enhancing the level of their work performance (Soltis and et.al., 2013). This
company implements the good human resource practices. From motivation, the employees works
only for achieving the goals and aims of this business company.
P4 Effectiveness of Various HRM practices
The HRM practices help in making the workplace of company positive. It helps in
enhancing the growth, profitability and development of an organisation. It helps in increasing the
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morale and effectiveness of Marks & Spencer along with the employees or workers. With the
help of Human Resource System software, the manager of human resource department saves and
recording the all information and data related to employees. Training and development is also a
effective human resource practices and training helps in improving and increasing the particular
skills and abilities of an employee and development helps in overall grooming. These both are
helpful in enhancing the work performance of employees and growth of this business firm. The
HR manager is also works on motivating the employees and to appraise their performance on the
basis of their work performance (Vörösmarty and et.al., 2010). The learning practices is very
helpful for firm. It helps in adopting the skills, knowledge, experience and abilities. This practice
is very effective at the time of retirement. The the management of Mark & Spencer business firm
provides the benefits and facilities to senior employees at the time of retirement.
This business organisation uses and adopts good practices and all practices of HRM such
as Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Training and Development, Retirement
benefits, learning practices etc. are helpful in making the business of a company very effective
and with the help of these all, the performance of employees will be increased and creating the
positive work place environment.
TASK 3
P5 Importance of employee relations
In an organisation, the relationship among employees should be positive and good. The
employees relationship makes a business effective (Schuler and E. Jackson, 2014). Now a days,
this relationship has been replaced from the industrial relation and it refers to maintaining the
relationship among employer and employer. If there will be harmonious relation between the
employees then all will work in a team together for achieving the aims and objectives of a
company. In Mark & Spencer business firm all workers or employees are working together and
on a common objective. The employee relations is related with emotional, practical, physical etc.
If the relationship among all employees will not good and harmonious then it can impact on the
their performance and the development of a business firm. Some times, it can impact on the
decision making process. The employee relations have some importance or significances:
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Reduce absenteeism- In an organisation, if the relation of employees will be good then
employees will be absent minimum and they will not take more leaves and also they will
complete their work on given period of time.
Motivated- For enhancing the work performance of employees, it is necessary to
motivate them and they will feel very confident and stress free (Ployhart and Moliterno, 2011).
The performance appraisal is a better way to increasing the motivational level of workers.
Shared work among employees- A good relationship among the employees can be
minimize the workload from workers and they all will be completed their work together. It is the
responsibility of the manager is to shared the responsibilities among all employees equally to
finishing the work and it will helps in increasing the growth of company.
Work in a team- Teamwork is very important for a company. If every employee will
work together in a team, then from this the dispute will be less arise and everyone will work for
achieving the common objective of a business firm.
Employees are involved in employees engagement- The good and healthy relationship
among workers and managers will helps in minimizing the conflict. For maintaining the good
relationship and positive working environment, the Human Resource Manager conducts the
employee engagement activities at workplace.
P6 Key elements of employment legislation and its impact
In a business enterprise, the law or legislation can affect on the process of decision
making. Some times, in Mark & Spencer company the business process is affected by the legal
system. Discrimination is a main problem in and organisation and it can impact on the
productivity and reputation of a business firm or also affect on the decision-making process
(Sanders and Frenkel, 2011). So to minimize the impact of discrimination, the United Kingdom
Government develops some acts. Some of the employment legislations are given below:
Sex Discrimination act- The government of UK introduced this act to protect the male
and female from the discrimination issues. The employers or an organisation discriminate
among the female employees or male and they do not treat both equally. From this, the women
workers feel unsafe and not a part of an organisation. To reduce this impact, parliament stated
this act.
Equal pay act 1970- In this act, the employer does not pay the equal salary to men and
women employees and it causes the unhealthy relation among employer and employee.
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Health and Safety act 1947- It is very important to provide the safe working
environment to their employees. If manger will not provide the healthy and safety work place to
their employees, then from this accidents will happen and employee will not work properly
(Tarique and Schuler, 2010). So, to reduce this impact, it is necessary to conduct the training
programmes for creating the awareness about the safety standards and to aware them about new
machineries.
Disability discrimination act 1995- This act was introduced by the government of
United Kingdom to keep safe from discrimination or disabilities like for instance blind,
physically etc. Sometimes, from disabilities many companies do not recruit candidates. Most of
the times, a business organisation does not give the training to disabled people.
Employment act 1963- This act is generally developed for the labours. In this acts
involves Wages Act 1986 and Employment Protection act 1975. According to this act, the human
resource manager should be providing the minimum wages as well as the fixed working hours to
labours. If there is any person, who does extra work, then in this case it is the responsibility of a
HR manager is to give him additional pay.
TASK 4
P7 Application of HRM practices
The Mark & Spencer organisation uses many application of the Human Resource
Management practices. In practices includes training and development, performance appraisal,
hiring and selecting, increasing morale of employees and many others. All the application of
HRM practices can be affect on the working environment, growth and development of an
organisation (Barney, Ketchen Jr and Wright, 2011). These all the applications are also the
functions of a business firm and from using the practices, this organisation can accomplish the
aims with in a particular time period.
For an example, HR manager of Marks & Spencer business firm prepares a document of
job specification for appointing an employee. In this company, there is a vacancy of HR
Executive and manager want to highly capable employee for this post. So for this, HR manager
prepares a structure of job specification and for personal interview round mentioned five
questions:
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JOB SPECIFICATION
HR Executive
Company name Marks & Spencer Public limited Company
Reporting to HR Manager
Skills required Technical skills, decision making skills
communication and interpersonal skills.
Qualifications Graduation and post graduation in Human
Resource
Experience 2 to 3 years
Responsibilities Responsible for leading teams, recruit
candidates according to job or post.
Questions for Personal Interview round:
1. Tell me the meaning of HR.
2. Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses according as a HR.
3. Why did you select HR (Fulton and et.al., 2011)?
4. What are the functions and responsibilities of HR department?
5. What are the qualities of HR?
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that Human Source Management is the important
part of a business firm and its main objective to increase money. Marks & Spencer is a large
retail company and the Human Resource Department of this company works on achieving the
goals of this organisation. In this report studied about the managerial, operative and advisory
functions of the human resource department. This busienss firm uses many HRM practices to
make increase the growth of company also maintaining the good relationship among employees
or employer. The good HRM, practices helps in decision-making process of company. The good
employee relation makes a business effective and efficient. Some key elements of a legal system
can impact on the HRM decision-making.
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Online
5 Major Functions of Human Resource Management, 2017. [ONLINE]. Available through:
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on 20th July, 2017].
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