Report on Human Resource Management Strategies at Marks and Spencer

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies employed by Marks and Spencer, a prominent British retailer. It begins with a company overview, highlighting its history, product offerings, and departmental structure. The report then delves into the role of HRM within the organization, focusing on recruitment and hiring practices, training and development programs, maintenance of company culture, fostering employer-employee relations, and ensuring a disciplined working environment. Current recruitment strategies, including internal and external approaches, are examined, along with the motivational tactics used to enhance employee engagement and performance, such as praise and recognition, perks, performance monitoring, and skill development programs. The report also addresses emerging trends in HRM, such as the rise of hybrid work culture and remote hiring. Finally, it concludes with recommendations for improving HRM practices at Marks and Spencer, emphasizing the importance of adapting to evolving workplace dynamics and leveraging technology to enhance employee experience and organizational effectiveness. Desklib provides this solved assignment and many other resources for students.

Individual
Project

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................3
Company Overview-..............................................................................................................3
Role of Human Resource Management-................................................................................4
Current recruitment strategies-...............................................................................................4
Current motivation strategies-................................................................................................6
Trends in Human resource management-..............................................................................7
Recommendation-..................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The process to manage the overall activities of labors, employees in the firm and
identifying their requirement, in order to the achieve the smooth actions of business firm is
known as human resource management. It is the combination varieties of task for which a
human resource manager is being appointed by the business institution. Responsibility which
is related to the finding the workforce need in the firm, selecting the candidate, recruitment
and other distinct activities came under this. The human resource manager of the business
firm try to make the overall employees as the most strengthen asset by which company can
easily attain all its set objective (Knezović, Bušatlić, and Riđić, 2020). The functioning of
HRM is done with the appointed professionals who have the optimum capability to perform
all type of duties and execute their plans according to the requirement of the business firm.
This given report is about the human resource activity of Unilever, with the help of this a
detailed discussion has been conducted on the strategic human resource and different ideas of
recruitment in that establishment. This report will explain the current recruitment decision of
the company and what type of motivational tactics used by the management to develop the
better sense of working among the employees.
Main Body
Company Overview-
Marks and Spencer which is one of the famous a British retailer company has
established in the year 1884 in Leeds, United Kingdom and currently the headquarter is
located in Paddington, London, England. Company is providing numbers of product and
services to the customers which mainly includes clothing, food and home products. Company
has divided its overall working into numbers of department and all these departments
constitute of skilled personnel who are completely aware about the work structure of each
sector. For the internal workforce, Marks and Spencer is making different types of policies,
so as to avoid the future issues related to the maintenance of employees. Company is utilizing
its human resource team to gain the customer market and for this numbers of distinct policies
such availability of skilled and goal-oriented personnel (Koirala, and Acharya, 2020). Apart
from this, company is also focusing over the arrangement of training and development
program in the business with which company can make its workforce more effective towards
the performance of their assigned duties. Marks and Spencer is offering a handsome amount

salary for all their employees and also offer them good compensation and benefits that will
help in establishing the long term relation with them with good retention rate.
Role of Human Resource Management-
 Recruitment and hiring- The decision taking liability in respect to the employees
and suitable candidates for the company is lies in the hand human resource manager
of the business. With this power the manager of Marks and Spencer is looking for the
best talented individuals who must have that potential to give the best outcome of the
job assigned to them.
 Training and development- In order to ensure the skilled employees in the company,
the human resource manager works on organizing right set of programs that will be
advantageous in promoting the creativity among the employees of Marks and
Spencer. By such programs company is following their motto of fulfilling the quality,
value innovation and trust of their existing and future customer base (Haldorai, Kim,
and Garcia,2022).
 Maintenance of company’s culture- While working in the big multinational
companies, it has been seen that employees usually belong to different cultural
background. To remove any dispute because of such situation, human resource
manager of Marks and Spencer supports each individual employee, so that there is no
circumstance of cultural differences among the them.
 Establishment of relation among employer and employee- The upper management
of Marks and Spencer is concentrating of making the healthy connection with their
subordinates as it will allow them to know about the prevailing poor working
structure of the business, along with this it also assists them in presenting the right set
of guidance with which workforce of the company directs their performance towards
the achievement of the target.
 Disciplined working environment- The human resource manager of the company
can support in building the smooth working surrounding in which all employees are
ready to serve in the betterment of the business. It also ensures the supportive
behavior of the personnel towards each other and make it easy for the company to
stimulate its overall productivity by giving the best performance.
Current recruitment strategies-
Recruitment is a protocol by which any business organization get the opportunity to
hire the desired candidate for their establishment. It aims towards the procurement of the best

talent pool for the given job position. On the whole the process of recruitment starts with the
advertising the vacant job role on any medium (Lee, 2021). It further goes with the interview
and other kind of phases which results in achieving the best individual for the role. There are
numbers of techniques which are involved in the functioning of recruiting, but these all forms
or methods are covered in two main approaches which are mentioned below-
 Internal recruitment- It is the system by which company try to accomplish the
activity of hiring from the inner management and does not look outside for fulfilling
the position which is empty in the business institution (Gunawan, Aungsuroch,and
Fisher,2019). The advantage of this is that it allows the firm to avoid any kind of
expenses conducting the hiring process as this is the budget friendly. All in all, it
encourages this specific to happen in very less time and build the efficiency of the
firm. Not only saving of timeline but also reduce the tension regarding the training
and other sort of functions which is very important in other style of recruitments.
Some examples of internal recruitment within a firm are giving the part time or
freelance job chance to the former employees of the business, implementation of
transfer of labour from one branch to another, etc.
 External recruitment- When a business establishment went for the recruitment of
the candidates outside the company is considered as the external recruitment strategy.
The purpose of effectuation of this plan of action is that it brings the new and
innovative people in the management by which company can work in formulation of
new profitable schemes for future. In addition to this, it assists in attracting the
maximum amount of candidate for the vacant job role and through there is lots of
options are available for the hiring manager. Eventually, company is able to meet
some individual who definitely have enough experience which could be beneficial for
that company in which he has applied for the job. On the contrary, this may take some
time and can increase the hiring cost as it constitutes of numerous other actions such
as advertising, arrangement of interview for the selected candidate. Referrals of
current employees, placement in educational institution, social media, company’s
website are few patterns of outside recruitment strategy (Majumder, and
Mondal,2021).
Similarly, the given company Marks and Spencer is too also following both of these
recruiting frameworks in its business management. In case of need the human resource
manager take the decision in which he starts shifting the existing workforce to some

distinct department, in order to continue the necessary functions of the business. Apart
from this, some employees also get promoted to the upper management as per their
performance and contribution in the success of the firm. In spite of internal recruitment
procedure, company execute the activities like selecting the candidates from the colleges
and universities at the time of placement which is being conducted by these organisations.
Furthermore, company also published about the job on their official site with all the
necessary information which management is expecting from the one whom they are
looking for the job. The result of this process which is organised by Marks and Spencer
based on the efficiency and confidence of the individual at the time of interview.
Current motivation strategies-
The activity by which company concentrate on providing the best facilities to their
employees, so as to get the optimum result in the betterment of the business. Such motivation
approaches are helpful in getting the engagement of the employees in the operational
activities of the firm (Santana, and Lopez‐Cabrales, 2019).
 Praise and recognition- In this company gives appreciation and praise their
employees for the work or contribution which they have done in acquiring the set
targets of the business. By providing the acknowledgement to the workers will help in
retaining them for the longer period of time, on the other side it makes the staff more
promised towards the accomplishment of the task which being allocated to them by
their department head. Company can offer prizes and informing employees that they
are doing well in carrying out their responsibilities and should encourage to continue
their work with the same amount of pace in upcoming time.
 Perks- Availing some special presents to the employees for their good performance in
this company can take their employees on lunch, some sort of trips, insurance
benefits, flexible working timeline are illustration of perks in the business entity. This
helps in gaining the participation of the workforce in formation of plannings, in order
to bring the improvement of departmental activities (Chaudhary, 2018).
 Employees performance monitoring- Observing the employees is another form of
motivation by which an organization can enhance their weaknesses in a better way. It
gives an overview to the leader of the company about the changes which are needed
in the actions of the worker. In application of proper guidance to the employee about
the ways in which a task has to be completed will allow the firm to eliminate the
certain type of complexities in the management.

 Skill development program- In fact there are some companies which providing
facility by which employees can initiate in improvising their skills. It also help in
building the effective workforce in the business, by which it become very simple for
the management to formulate such type of policies that give rise to their profit
(Turulja, and Bajgoric, 2018).
The number of employees in Marks and Spencer which are working with the
management is around 75000 and to maintain their participation in the business
functioning the hiring manager of the firm bring cost- cutting methods and technology.
Moreover, the leader of the company is trying to locate a friendly and supportive behavior
which entails them about the advantages of team spirt through one can go for attaining its
targets. Not only this, employees are encouraged to give applaud to their colleagues for
their achievements and promotions. This could be done by considering the message and
in person appreciation. It allows to maintain the work discipline and productive work
environment. The leader of the company also focuses to organize the group events where
everyone is allowed to share their complete experience with the management. This also
helps in gathering the new ideas or thoughts for the expansion of the business activities.
Trends in Human resource management-
Things are now growing and evolving in the sector of human resource management
and it has been observed that numerous new tendencies are going to be introduced in the
business industry. Recently, Covid has bring the opportunity to in which employees were
continuing their work deadline form their home. It has raised the hybrid work culture and
giving an optimistic chance in the functioning of the employees (Anlesinya, and Susomrith,
2020). This reduced the limitation of work area and now a company does not have to
eliminate their meetings due to the time and place constraints. Employees are free to take part
in the operational activities from the home also and this could keep them more promised for
the companies work policies. With the help of remote working now hiring managers get the
chance to explore the talent pool who are living in different parts of the world and can attract
them to apply for job in their business institution. Furthermore, digitalization is also working
with the human resource department, it is giving the proper details and scheduling about the
task which should be performed by the hiring manager itself and other employees too. This is
simplifying the activity which is related to distribution of duties among the employees and
also reduces the wastage of time in the business firm. Another new changes in HRM is
augmented recruiting strategy for the candidates where they have all freedom to discuss about

their queries in respect to the job description and formalities to apply for the role in the
company.
Employees are embraced with all benefits in Marks and Spencer, this could encourage
them in finding better and improve technique to do their work. Company is giving the
employees bonus and different compensation which is acting like a monetary support for
them and raising their enthusiast towards the work. Nowadays, firm believes in involving
new practices of motivation for the employees which may include some internal programs for
praising those employees who have performed well in a financial year. Such programs may
result in more informed employees about the current work structure of the firm. Furthermore,
Marks and Spencer are creating number of programs for their store staff by which they can
learn detailed information on the subject matter which is related to dealing a customer. All
these trends in the company are helpful in giving an outlook about the future growth and
work commitments of the employees. Management should focus on analysing the
requirements and expectation of the employees from the leader. With this it could be easy for
them to evaluate current work condition and take concern about the aspect that is it going
well with needs of the employees in the firm. Giving assurance to the employees about the
advantages which they can take after a successful hiring of them in the business. This could
assure the company that their employees are quite loyal with the duties and responsibilities.
So, with the successful implementation of all these trends in the company, the leader can
confirm about the more prosperity in the future.
Recommendation-
But there re some issues with Marks and spencer which needs to be resolved, because
in presence of such problems with the human resource management of the company can leads
to the employee’s dissatisfaction which the works and jobs. So firstly, the human resource
manager should know about this that the overall staff of the company relies on the acts and
behaviour which he represents. This will support in making of good s well as bad line of
workforce. In the absence of lack of encourage form the side of human resource manager of
the company can result in poor work experience of the employees. This may result in leaving
jobs in very short time span (Al-Swidi, Gelaidan, and Saleh,2021). If company wants toa
avoid such situation then it should be known to the leader that giving the required time to the
employees will support in attaining the mass support of the employees in the development of
business. Moreover, it also helps in making the right set of policies by evaluating the
behaviour and conduct of the employees in the firm. If an employee is doing his works with

all his will, then it will give a correct information to the leader about the skills and
capabilities of that particular person in the firm. In addition to this it also makes some crucial
decision regarding the arrangement of skill training program for such employees who may
find it difficult to perform well in some particular departments. The current leader of the
company should think about the presence of better communication practice in the company as
it can solve many other issues which could affect the growth of the business. By establishing
a good stream of communication among the employees a human resource manager is
showing his intention to decline any situation which may cause the conflicts among the
colleagues (Al-Romeedy, 2019). A proper acknowledgement of new advanced and emerging
technology in the work of human resource manager could help in successful functioning of
the business firm. It is necessary for the anu establishment to understand the fact that a hiring
manager is that part of the management who has complete authority to mould the
infrastructure of the company in the best possible way and this could add on to the
competitiveness of the firm in the given market. This also entails the cooperation of the
employees with the leaders of the company.
Conclusion
The major revelation from this report is that human resource management is the
significant tool that brings the best of the employee by giving them right work environment
and makes them aware about the errors or mistakes which have been performed by them
during a given task. This report gives a brief analysis about the work structure of human
resource manager and in what way it can build an innovative presentation of task from the
employees’ side. It has also mentioned about the strategical tactics which could be used by a
business management for their employees. Human resource management explains the
suitable modes through which a company can reach towards the good and skilled workers and
appoint them by giving them good returns for all their contribution in the business institution.
It has also stated some trends which may observed in the future for the enhancement of work
area of human resource management, so that it can help in making the employees more
engaged towards the business entity. Along with some motivational tools that can help in
inspiring the workers to do best by conceding them for their accomplishments and other
gains.

References
Books and journals-
Al-Romeedy, B.S., 2019. Green human resource management in Egyptian travel agencies:
constraints of implementation and requirements for success. Journal of Human
Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 18(4), pp.529-548.
Al-Swidi, A.K., Gelaidan, H.M. and Saleh, R.M., 2021. The joint impact of green human
resource management, leadership and organizational culture on employees’ green
behaviour and organisational environmental performance. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 316, p.128112.
Anlesinya, A. and Susomrith, P., 2020. Sustainable human resource management: a
systematic review of a developing field. Journal of Global Responsibility.
Chaudhary, R., 2018, August. Can green human resource management attract young talent?
An empirical analysis. In Evidence-based HRM: A global forum for empirical
scholarship. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Gunawan, J., Aungsuroch, Y. and Fisher, M.L., 2019, January. Competence‐based human
resource management in nursing: A literature review. In Nursing forum (Vol. 54, No.
1, pp. 91-101).
Haldorai, K., Kim, W.G. and Garcia, R.F., 2022. Top management green commitment and
green intellectual capital as enablers of hotel environmental performance: The
mediating role of green human resource management. Tourism Management, 88,
p.104431.
Knezović, E., Bušatlić, S. and Riđić, O., 2020. Strategic human resource management in
small and medium enterprises. International Journal of Human Resources
Development and Management, 20(2), pp.114-139.
Koirala, J. and Acharya, S., 2020. Dimensions of human resource management evolved with
the outbreak of COVID-19. Available at SSRN 3584092.
Lee, S.H., 2021. An attention-based view of strategic human resource management. Academy
of Management Perspectives, 35(2), pp.237-247.
Majumder, S. and Mondal, A., 2021. Are chatbots really useful for human resource
management?. International Journal of Speech Technology, 24(4), pp.969-977.
Santana, M. and Lopez‐Cabrales, A., 2019. Sustainable development and human resource
management: A science mapping approach. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management, 26(6), pp.1171-1183.
Turulja, L. and Bajgoric, N., 2018. Information technology, knowledge management and
human resource management: Investigating mutual interactions towards better
organizational performance. VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge
Management Systems.