Strategic HRM at Marks & Spencer: Policies, Functions and Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins with an introduction outlining the importance of HRM in organizational success and then delves into the impact of external forces, analyzed using the PESTLE model, on M&S's strategic HR decisions. The report then explores how HR functions are organized, focusing on Ulrich's Model, and how HR policies and procedures are delivered. It discusses the roles of line managers within M&S, including their responsibilities and the challenges they face in delivering HRM functions, such as employee well-being, performance tracking, and conflict management. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and offering insights into the effective management of human resources within a large retail organization like Marks & Spencer.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..........................................................................................................................................................3
External Forces and it's effective on the HR Strategic decision within an organization...................................3
How HR functions are organised and HR policies & Practices are delivered..................................................5
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Every organization operates their business activities in a specific way so that they can easily
gain more profit advantages. Now human resource is considered the most essential department in
an organization which mainly enhances and takes care about the manpower of organization.
Human resource maintain employees related activities like their hiring , selection, orientation,
training , Development and performance management & many more so it's is prominent to take
care about the each and every activities and create effective policies so that high talented and
capable employees retain in the organization. This report will discuss about the Marks & Spencer
HR policies and functions which is most popular British organization. This company established
in 1884 and headquarter situated in London, UK. This report will cover analysis the impact of
external forces on the strategic decisions making of the HR department of this organization.
Moreover this report explain about the
MAIN BODY
External Forces and it's effective on the HR Strategic decision within an
organization
There are various factors which affect the performance of organization like internal factor
and external factor, both factors impact on the profitability and productivity of the organization
directly or indirectly. This report will discuss about impact of external factors which provide
direct force on the strategic decision making of HR in an organization (Bailey and et. al. 2018).
With the help of PESTLE analysis model, Marks and Spencer HR manager can analyze the
forces of external factors on their decision making. The explanation of this analysis are given
below -
 Political Factors - This factor mainly include political stability, tax policy, trade
restrictions, tariffs and foreign trade policies etc. M & S is famous retailer company so
HR manager focus on their policies and make strategies according to this so that political
factors influence the decision making positively. Company tries to maintain good relation
with the other countries which can aid to manage their impact of their political factors.
Company need to take decision which mainly comes under the government control

otherwise HR manager will face some changes in political scenario (Cumming, Wood
and Zahra, 2020).
 Economic Factors - On the basis of this factor, economic development, inflation, interest
rate , unemployment , recession and many more elements involved. M&S take care about
this factor because the external force directly impact on the country economy growth. HR
manager concerned about the demand and supply of the labor and products and services
and also maintain compensation survey so that HR manager can take effectively an
appropriate strategic decisions for the development of the company market.
 Social Factors - This factor contain influence of cross cultural activities, religion,
education, buying habits and purchasing power of the customers. HR manager of M&S
conduct market survey and analyze the customers behavior which can help to take good
decision and on the basis of this survey prepare Strategic strategies so that company can
trained their workforce and develop their skills to deal with the people effectively
(Strenitzerová and Achimský, K., 2019).
 Technological Factors - This factor considered technological changes, updating of
technology, automation and artificial intelligence and other technological modifications
that can help working of organization positively. But sometimes due to technological
error M& S can face some issues. Through advance technologies, company can operate
their business globally and gain more profit advantages. HR manager build specific plan
and procedures so that company can maintain the promotion and advertising activities.
These external factors provide the positive forces on the operations. Manager can take
Strategic decision and provide effective training session to their workforce so that they
can develop new skills in order to handle current requirements of the market.
 Legal Factors - This factor contain acts , laws , legislations , policies and another
government and legal consideration which are necessary to follow for each and every
company if they will not maintain all the legal applicability then companies can face
adverse consequences directly or indirectly both form. M& S HR manager mainly focus
all the legal and governmental policies and procedures so that they can get support of

government which can help in the Strategic decision for the welfare of the organization.
They follow all the legal procedures and hire most talented and skilled employees so that
they can help to gain more profitability (Trullen, Bos‐Nehles and Valverde, 2020).
 Environmental Factors - In this factor, climate change, and environmental changes are
considered which can directly affect the marketing of the company. M&S company focus
on climate changes and other barriers which can affect the performance and productivity.
Company can follow green marketing and spread some awareness about the clean and
safe environment which can help to improve the market value of the company and this
decision will help to productivity.
How HR functions are organised and HR policies & Practices are delivered
Every company considers various HR functions which can help to maintain all the
manpower related activities and provide easy access of all the operations. There are many
functions which organized by the HR manager like job design, job analysis, recruitment &
selection, training & development, performance appraisal etc. And to follow all the functions
effectively manager also prepare specific policies and procedures so that manpower can maintain
the guidelines which provided by the HR manager for the proper disciplines. M& S use ulrich's
Model to organize the HR functions, policies and procedures so that they can deliver in an
effective manner. The explanation of this model is given below -
Ulrich's Model
This model refers as a creative HRM & mainly concerned about the organizing each and every
functions of HR that performs in four central roles like strategic partner administrative expert &
change agent and employees champions. HR manager of M& S follow this model in order to
transformation of HR activities & functions. This model mainly depends upon the HR policies,
administration with specific goal to transfer the role of the HR manager from administration to
the strategies (Wang and et. al.2017). There are four HR related role that defined by the David
Ulrich which are as follows - Strategic partner - This role mainly concerned about the alignment of all HR initiatives
& activities that can formulate the global business strategy by the JR business partners &
management. Sometimes it's easily to follow and implement the entire strategic
partnerships buy its take lots of time & efforts from the HR team of the company.

 Change Agent - This is also considered the very essential area of this model which is
useful for the HR functions. Change agent can help to support the change & also
transition of business in term of Human capital into the company. The main role of HR
manager or M& S is to support the each and every human resource activities in the
specific change efforts related areas and make sure the capability for the change.
Figure 1Managing HR Roles: David Ulrich’s HR Model,2020

 Employee Champion - This role is very prominent in term of Human resources. It is also
known as employees advocate. This role help to address what are the need of the
employees and HR manager should know about it. Employees champion is responsible to
take care about the interest of all the employees & also protect employees during the
change process (Zaid, Jaaron and Bon, 2018).
 Administrative Expert - This role can change over the time period. In initial level , it was
about maximize the quality of services delivery , but as per the current time it make
stressful to provide the quality service at lower cost.
Role of Line Manager
Line manager play crucial role for the development of the organization and also help to take
care about the employees operations and activities so that they can report their higher rank
manager. Line manager is responsible to manage business operations and supervising &
maintaining the employees regular task and activities and act as a liaison between the employees
& top level management. Some specific role of Line Manager in context of M& S are discussed
below -
 Hiring the potential employees to fill the team positions. .
 Arrange training program to support the new team members.
 Ensure the job rotation & help to minimize the assignment coverage’s gaps.
 Provide performance feedback to each and every team members.
 Follow proper communication to make sure effective understanding about the
departmental goals.
 Analysis the individual & team metrics and performance for the task and help in
monitoring process.
 Measure the need of the corrective action.
 Manage the quality standard of all the process.
 Maintain proper coordination among the team members.
 Prepare the productive report of all the team members and provide their senior
management.

These entire role played by the line manager of the M&S which are essential to manage all
the operations of the company so that each and every team members performance their job in a
best manner. Line manager is responsible for the development of the employee and also ensure
the success of each and every project task on regular basis (Zeebaree and et. al., 2019).
Challenges faced by lines manager during delivery of HRM
There are many challenges faced by the line manager while delivery of human resource
management related operations and activities. Line manager is liable to manage all the operations
of their team and update their supervisor. Line manager of M&S experience various challenges
which are as follows - Well-being of team members - This is considered the big challenge for the line manager
to ensure the wellbeing of each and every team members in an organization. Line
manager of the M & S responsible to take care about their team but sometimes it's
difficult to maintain proper coordination with all the team members so it can directly
affect the performance and wellbeing of the employee so line manager need to pay more
attention on the development of the employees.
 Tracking the performance of the team - This is also a big challenge for the line manager.
Sometimes it’s tough to track all the performance record of each and every team
members. Line manager of the M & S faced this challenge while delivering the human
resources management functions. Sometimes employees not provide the right work
update then manager can face difficulty. Shape and enhance organization culture - Line manager need to enhance the
organization culture so that their employees can effectively coordinate with each other
and work together. Line manager of M& S respect value and beliefs of each and every
team members so that they can feel their importance in organization and performance
their job in a best manners. Handling conflict among the employees - Line manager also face this challenge because
sometimes it's tough to manage the disputes and resolve all the conflicts among the team
members. When line manager perform their task in order to organize all the HRM polices
and functions then this challenge also occur and affect the performance of employees.

 Manage communication channels properly - This is also containing as a massive
challenge for the line manager of the company to manage proper communication
channels. With the help of effective communication channels, there is less chances of
miscommunication and confusion so it will help to smooth functioning of the HRM
policies and procedures.
 Manage regulations and compliance - Line manager need to manage all the rules and
regulations so that all the team members can work systematically in a structured form
with full discipline’s& S always take care that every employees follow all the rules and
regulations but sometimes it's quite difficult to maintain all the regulations because every
employee have different prospective.
CONCLUSION
According to this report it can be concluded that human resource policies and functions
are essential for the development of the organization and it can also help to maintain the
functioning of the employee. This report discussed about the forces of external environment and
it analysed that all the external factors provide the direct impact on the performance and
productivity of the company. This report also determined the four main roles of Ulrich model
and why it is important to apply and organize the functions and procedures of HRM. This report
also explained about the role of Line manager and apart from this also discussed about the
challenges that line manager faced.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bailey, C., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.
Cumming, D.J., Wood, G. and Zahra, S.A., 2020. Human resource management practices in the
context of rising right‐wing populism. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(4),
pp.525-536.
Strenitzerová, M. and Achimský, K., 2019. Employee satisfaction and loyalty as a part of
sustainable human resource management in postal sector. Sustainability, 11(17),
p.4591.
Trullen, J., Bos‐Nehles, A. and Valverde, M., 2020. From intended to actual and beyond: A cross‐
disciplinary view of (human resource management) implementation. International
journal of management reviews, 22(2), pp.150-176.
Wang, X., et. al., , April. Human resource information management model based on blockchain
technology. In 2017 IEEE symposium on service-oriented system engineering
(SOSE) (pp. 168-173). IEEE.
Zaid, A.A., Jaaron, A.A. and Bon, A.T., 2018. The impact of green human resource management
and green supply chain management practices on sustainable performance: An
empirical study. Journal of cleaner production, 204, pp.965-979.
Zeebaree, S.R., et. al., 2019. Human resource management systems for enterprise organizations: A
review. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN), 7(2), pp.660-669.