Human Resource Management Report: Older Workers in M&S and John Lewis

This report delves into the significance of human resource management (HRM) and its impact on organizations, particularly focusing on the role of older workers. It highlights the importance of older workers in terms of their experience, dedication, and honesty, using Marks and Spencer (M&S) and John Lewis as examples. The report outlines the benefits of hiring older employees, such as punctuality, strong communication skills, and extensive experience, while also acknowledging limitations like potential resistance to new technologies and less innovative ideas. Furthermore, it explores various strategies for supporting the labor supply, including labor demand forecasting, establishing a governing supply chain council, and forming alliances with key suppliers. The conclusion emphasizes the value of HRM in recruiting skilled candidates and fostering positive employee relations, ultimately contributing to business success and growth.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ASSESSMENT................................................................................................................................1
1. Older workers and their importance in organisations..............................................................1
2. Benefits and limitations of having old age employee in organisation. ...................................2
3. Strategies for supporting supply of labor:................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is defined as an process of managing workers in an
organisation. The process involved hiring, training and firing of the employees. Irt is the
reasonability of an HR to recruit new employees and makes arranged for their training. Marks
and Spencer is a British multinational retailer which have headquarter in Westminster, London.
The organisation is specialised in selling premium quality clothing, foods and home products.
John lewis and partners is an chain od departmental stores which operates throughout the UK.
The chain is employee owned mutual organisation called as John Lewis Partnership. The study
will highlight the importance of retaining older workers in organisation. The report will describe
the benefits and limitations of aged workers in workplace. Moreover the study will highlight
different types of strategies for supporting labour supply (Chadwick, Super and Kwon, 2015).
ASSESSMENT
1. Older workers and their importance in organisations.
Organization plays an important role in developing knowledge, shaping skills, motivation
and social relationships. Whenever an new task or projects come older workers are encouraged
to handle new projects or tasks and act as a mentor or coach. Older workers have more
knowledge and experience of work so that why they are encouraged to handle all the difficult
task in an organization. As in Marks and Spencer can be benefit by old employees as if any
challenging task come they can give their suggestion and help the new employees to deal with it,
this will benefit the overall productivity of the Marks and Spencer (Chadwick, Super and Kwon,
2015).
Another importance of having old aged workers is that they are well dedicated towards
the job role, as young workers are not so serious they takes things in an casual way but in case of
old workers they are very serious about their jobs and do all the task with sincerity and with full
dedication so John Lewis can hold their old experience workers so that the organizational task
are carried out properly in an desired way without and delay. Experience workers are important
to stay in organization as they have great knowledge and skills so they dont need dont training
or guidance they can performs all the task on their own. It will be advantageous for M&S if they
hold their talented skilled workers, the overall productivi8ty will be increased and tasks assigned
will be completed on desired time (Mone and London, 2018).
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Most common thing about the old employees is that they are honest towrds their jobs. It
menas they can an definite personality and they do all the organizational work very honestly.
This have an major impact on company as they perform all task with honesty so better results are
carried out by the organizations. M&S can be benefit by this as old age staff will perform the job
roles with full honesty so their work will be compeleted on time and it aslo brings customers
trust towards the business. As in M&S their they had made an policy that the workers are not
forced to retire on specific age ie, they can retire according to their wish. So this created an sense
of loyalty of employees towards the business. HR must make different policies for old age
workers and special treatment must be provided to them so that they feel valued and work with
more dedication (Maden, 2015).
Old age workers in John Lewis have an option of flexible working so it makes an
important impact on the organization as old workers are not so energetic so its better to give
them flexible working hours. It is advantageous for the organization as old staff can work more
effectively in flexible working hours. Company follows flexible retirement options to workers so
they are not forced to get retire, this encourages them to do work with more dedication and
loyalty. So by all these reasons its importance to have old age staff in organizations (Maden,
2015).
2. Benefits and limitations of having old age employee in organisation.
Its very obvious that recruiting old age workers is not only beneficial for business but it
has some limitations also. The benefits and limitations of hiring old age workers are as follows-
BENEFITS
Dedicated towards work- The main beenfit of hiring old age staff is that they are very well
dedicated towards their job role (Bringezu and Bleischwitz, 2017) . As every task require
dedication and with proper commitment better results can not be carried out. They do all the task
very sincerely and with full dedication this results in this way that all the organisational task are
carried out in an desired way. So M&S can recruit old age workers for improving its work
progress as because they are well experienced and trained so the business operations of M&S
will be carried out very smoothly.
Punctuality- Old age workers are vert punctual about their work, they perform the roles
assigned to them on definite time (Youngs, Pogodzinski and Galey, 2015). They are more
committed towards the work. When all the business operations are carried out on time the
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organisation leads to increase in productivity, so by hiring old experienced workers John Lewis
will be benefited in this way that all their business task will be completed on time without delay.
Thus, this John Lewis will do more business and overall growth of the firm will be enhanced.
Well experienced- It is very obvious that old age workers have an great experice of work. They
know very well that how thins are done what are the procedures to be followed for carrying out
business activities. Old aged employee have vast experiences and skills and they need not require
to give training. By their past experience they can give better ideas for facing challenging
situation (Youngs, Pogodzinski and Galey, 2015). M&S can recruit old workers as they will get
benefited from their suggestions and ideas, challenging situation can be faced by the business in
an effective manner.
Communication skills- As because of their past experience of working the old age workers have
great communication skills. They know very well that how to communicate in organization, by
their good communication skills they can bring more business to the organisation as they can
deal with the clients in an desired way. They better understand the needs of the clients and make
communication according to that. So by hiring aged workers in John Lewis the business
productivity will increased and better relation among the staff are carried out (Black, Warhurst
and Corlett, 2017).
LIMITATIONS
Less innovative ideas- There are sometimes limitation of hiring old aged workers as they don't
have new innovative ideas. They perform their job role on their old ideas onloy. Today theirt5 is
not of competition in market so to deal with that the employees must have craetive ideas. It very
essential for an bsuinerss to adopt new way of working so when employees don't have new ideas
or practices they can lead the business to success. So if M&S hires old workers it may impact on
its productivity as less innovative ideas can leads the business to losses (Omotayo, 2015).
Inability to adopt new technology- Old workers are ready to laarn new technologies as they are
happy by working on their old practices. Now days all the work is done through technology only
an if they don't have knowledge about the latest technology (machines) used in organization
they can not perform well (Black, Warhurst and Corlett, 2017). So by hiring recruiting old
workers John Lewis can face some difficulties like their work output will be slow and overall
productivity of the firm will be limited.
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Lower flexibility as compare with young workers- Aged employees are not very flexible as
compare to the young generation employees. If in organisation urgent work arises so in this case
young workers will adjust and perform well. But the old aged employee will not be able to
perform the work. So it will be impact the overall business of M&S if they hire old aged staff in
their organisation (Black, Warhurst and Corlett, 2017).
Fear of changes at workplace- Old staff are becomes very comfortable in the workplace. As if
any changes comes in company they are not able to adopt the changes. It becomes very difficult
to adopt the changes and work according to that. So when John Lewis recruits old staff in
organisation it has to face these challenges and this results in loss of time and growth (Bryson,
2017).
3. Strategies for supporting supply of labor:
There are different types of strategies which the companies can follow to support labor
supplies and the strategies are as follows-
Labor demand forecasting- Labor demand forecasting is an crucial process, as organizations
don't wont those types of employees who are not fully deployed, not they wants gaps in their
working pool as it results in reduced productivity and performance. So to support the labors the
companies analyses the demand of the labor and according to that they adjust the supplies. This
quantitative approach uses a variety of mathematical and statistical approaches for determining
the needs, trend analysis. This process is expensive and complex. This strategy can be followed
by M&S so that they can deal with the labors in desired way and support the labors (Beer,
Boselie and Brewster, 2015).
Establish a governing supply chain council- The purpose of governing council is to give
direction and help in aligning supply practices chain with the organizations overall strategy. This
strategy can be used by John Lewis as it can help in removing barriers to growth which exists in
the organizations. By addressing these barriers staff of the council assist in ensuring that the
supply chain is given the opportunity to handle the tasks with full potential. This practices can be
followed by the John Lewis for managing and supporting the workers (Beer, Boselie and
Brewster, 2015).
Properly align and staff the supply chain organization- It is not easy to arrange the supply
chain function in the way which expands the effectiveness and gives commensurate benefits to
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the organisation. There are some companies which are best in serving supply chain maangement
experts in different organizations. M&S can adopt this strategy as it will assist the company in
handling the labors in organisation. Good supply chain professional can provide better ways for
supporting labors in business's (O’Hagan, Gunnigle and Morley, 2017).
Establish alliances with key suppliers- In this companies work closely with the suppliers after
the deal has been signed. In some circles it is called “supplier relationship management”. There
are some primary objectives of effective alliance management practice ie. It provides a
mechanism for ensuring that relations among employees stays healthy, it provides an platform
for solution of problems and it makes sure that the performance measurement goals are achieved.
This type of strategy can be adopted By John Lewis for sustaining its supply of labors (O’Hagan,
Gunnigle and Morley, 2017).
CONCLUSION
The above study summarized that HR plays and important role in organisations. The aim
of HR is to recruit the best suitable candidate for the job as when talented candidate is selected
they will work more advance and smartly with their full effort. The above study describes skills
which and HR must have the skills are communication skills, as when HR has good
communication skills they will communicate better with the employees and results in creating
healthy relations among employees. The study concludes that aged workers are good for business
as they have more knowledge and skills which assist in conducting business operations.
By their punctual and honest nature business units can leads to success.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Beer, M., Boselie, P. and Brewster, C., 2015. Back to the future: Implications for the field of
HRM of the multistakeholder perspective proposed 30 years ago. Human Resource
Management. 54(3). pp.427-438.
Black, K., Warhurst, R. and Corlett, S. eds., 2017. Identity as a foundation for human resource
development. Routledge.
Bringezu, S. and Bleischwitz, R., 2017. Sustainable resource management: global trends, visions
and policies. Routledge.
Bryson, J., 2017. Effective library and information centre management. Routledge.
Chadwick, C., Super, J.F. and Kwon, K., 2015. Resource orchestration in practice: CEO
emphasis on SHRM, commitment‐based HR systems, and firm performance. Strategic
Management Journal. 36(3). pp.360-376.
Maden, C., 2015. Linking high involvement human resource practices to employee proactivity:
The role of work engagement and learning goal orientation. Personnel Review. 44(5).
pp.720-738.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
O’Hagan, E., Gunnigle, P. and Morley, M.J., 2017. Issues in the management of industrial
relations in international firms. International Human Resource Management: A Critical
Text. p.156.
Omotayo, F.O., 2015. Knowledge Management as an important tool in Organisational
Management: A Review of Literature. Library Philosophy and Practice. 1(2015). pp.1-
23.
Youngs, P., Pogodzinski, B. and Galey, S., 2015. How labor management relations and human
resource policies affect the process of teacher assignment in urban school
districts. Educational Administration Quarterly. 51(2). pp.214-246.
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