Higher National Diploma HRM: Recruitment Process Report - Sainsbury's

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the recruitment process and human resource management (HRM) practices within Sainsbury's, a leading UK retail organization. It begins by outlining the core functions and objectives of HRM, emphasizing its role in aligning employee performance with strategic goals. The report then delves into the practical aspects of recruitment and selection, comparing internal and external approaches, and evaluating various selection methods such as interviews and assessment centers. Furthermore, it examines key HRM practices adopted by Sainsbury's, including training and development, reward management, and flexible working hours, highlighting their benefits for both the employer and employees. The report also touches upon the importance of employee relations and relevant employment legislation. Finally, the report includes practical applications of HRM principles, such as a job specification, CV and offer letter, and concludes with a review of the organization's practices and recommendations for improvement.

RECRUITMENT PROCESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
Purpose and function of HRM....................................................................................................3
Approaches to recruitment & selection.......................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
HRM practices in organization...................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of HRM practices.................................................................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................9
Importance of employee relations...............................................................................................9
Key elements of employment legislation..................................................................................10
LO4................................................................................................................................................11
Application of HRM practices in a work-related context.........................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Recruitment process is one of key practices of the human resource management (HRM)
of a company. Basically, the main role of HRM in is to provide an effective workforce to the
company. In this dynamic world, no business can achieve its various final objectives without
contribution of best efforts of its workforce. This report discusses different practices and
methods of Sainsbury’s human resource department. Sainsbury is one of leading retail
organisations within the UK, headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Key purposes and
functions of the human resource management also has been discussed in this report. This report
covers benefits of HRM to employer employees as well. Impact employee relations and elements
of employment legislation on the decision-making of HRM also has been included in this report.
At the end, a job specification, CV and offer letter attached in the report in the terms of applying
HRM practices in the work-related context.
MAIN BODY
Purpose and function of HRM
HRM is concerned with managing people of the company which can involve training
them, motivating them and include hiring and firing of employees of company. It helps the
company in bridging the gap between employees performance and strategic objectives of the
company. Sainsbury is the second largest chain of supermarket in UK providing a wide variety
of products in segments such as groceries, clothing to home wares, electricals and many others.
The mission of the company is “To be the consumer's first choice for its products with high
quality of delivering services at competitive cost by working faster, simpler and together.”
Purpose and objective of this company is to provide its products at a fair price where it also
believes to maintain among its suppliers and distributors with no cut corners for short term gains
(Angelova, 2019).
Nature & scope of HRM
Nature and scope of human resource management is to bring people and organization
together so that goal of each other can be met. It deals with fulfilment of manpower needs of the
company, by discovering and retaining the talented workforce. In Sainsbury, management of

human resource is considered as most important function of skill development in the company as
it is associated with its people in order to gain competitive advantage over its competitors.
Purpose of HRM
Purpose of HRM is to maintain the coordination between the employees which helps in
achieving goal which are specific to the company by optimizing the effectiveness of its
employee as it provides employees with various benefits plan, deserved promotion, gifts,
excellence working environment, appraisal and many others (Hollis, 2017).
Sainsbury emphasizes more on the importance of HRM in workforce planning and
resourcing as it helps in developing an effective workforce. Through a number of HR practices
like effective training programs where employees can identify their job roles and responsibilities,
as well as contribute their efforts accordingly to meet business goals. Despite hiring and
selection, human resource management further aid in providing tools for identifying the
competencies needed in the workforce planning and resourcing such as managing reward and
performance management etc. with the strategic basis to retain talented workforce for longer
period.
Functions of HRM
HR managers of Sainsbury concerns more on successfully implementing the functions of
HRM such as people resourcing which is largely all about recruitment & selection of the
workforce. Under this process, they recruit employees who are suitable enough to meet the job
requirements either by internal or external hiring procedure. Similarly, managing performance
and reward are another main functions, where managers of respective firm constantly evaluates
on performance of each and every employee, in terms of way of providing services to customers
at its stores and reward them accordingly (Misir, 2020). HRM of Sainsbury also accounts to
human resource development where it constantly focuses on identifying training and
development of its employee’s to increase their knowledge, skills, abilities and education.
Managers of this firm also focuses on the major function of HRM that is building Employment
relationship which focuses on establishing relationship between employees and employers which
result in fewer chances of conflict, increases motivation, increase employee’s loyalty and many
others. It also includes Job design and Job analysis where the HR of the company is involved in
describing responsibilities and duties to its employees for proper functioning in the company. It

is also concerned with maintaining labour relations which are essential to maintain harmony
among employee's at the workplace. Thus, these functions help managers of Sainsbury in
developing and managing the highly talented workforce, so that organizational objectives could
be met in the best way (Top 10 Functions of Human Resource Management,2020).
P2 Approaches to recruitment & selection
Recruitment process in HRM is identifying, attracting, interviewing, selecting, hiring and
on-boarding employees within a company. In simple words, it can be defined as a process of
involving entire procedure range from identification to staffing workers. Similarly, Selection
process in HRM refers to short-listing the pool of candidates with the necessary skill and
qualification, in order to hire the best to fulfil the vacancies at workplace (Wilton, 2016). It is
selecting qualified person who are able to successfully do a job and deliver valuable contribution
to meet business objectives.
Recruitment approaches are of two types that is internal and external. Internal recruiting
is mainly done when a company looks to fill the vacancy by promoting or shifting the job role of
existing workers (HR approaches to recruitment,2019). While, external recruiting refers to how
business looks to fill vacancies for the job role from outside the company. In simple, it refers to
when company recruits externally from the pool of candidate who have applied for that job role.
Strength of internal recruitment
It helps in reducing time as well as save cost to hire as it refers to hiring from existing
workforce. It also aids in strengthening employee engagement by promoting them on new
position, that further motivate other workers also to do better performance.
Weakness of internal recruitment
It results in inflexible culture as employees who are hired from within the company
become too comfortable to their job role which is not a good sign. It also results in conflicts
amongst the colleagues as hiring internally can cause hard feelings amongst the co-worker who
can not adapt to new shifts in their roles and responsibilities.
Strength of external recruitment
It helps in increasing the chance of the company as company gets new applicants with
their own variety of implementing knowledge and how to handle the job assigned to them.
Weakness of external recruitment

It can be time-consuming at the same time can cost highly. It can also lead to
demotivation among the current employee’s as they may feel of lessens chance to their
promotion (Saani, 2019).
Selection approach includes Interviews which assess the skills, experience and general
background of the candidate to make the decision of selection of candidate. Strength of this
approach is helps in building relationship between the interviewer and interviewee. Weakness of
this approach is this is the incomplete process as there are certain other process for getting a
candidate to select.
Assessment centres is evaluation of behaviour of the applicant which is conducted
through job related simulations, psychological test and others. Strength of this is it provides with
accuracy as it provides with broader range of selection method. Weakness of this is it is very
time-consuming and costly process.
In-tray tests are test that assess the aptitude of potential employee’s which serves as part
of their selection. Strength of this is it helps in knowing how the candidate will handle work
related tasks and scenarios. Weakness of this is highly experienced authorities are required to
evaluate the candidate.
Presentation refers to presenting on topics asked by the interviewer to interviewee which
serves as one of the step for selecting a candidate. Strength of this is it helps in knowing
communication and knowledge level of the candidate. Weakness of this is candidate may lack
confidence while speaking in presentation but it cannot sometimes let know company their level
of knowledge which leads to their rejection and company actually loosing talented candidate.
Sainsbury uses set of process to select a candidate which starts with short-listing the
candidate, followed up with preliminary interview, selection test, comprehensive interview that
are conducted by the managers under whom vacancy exists and selecting them for trial work that
is probation. Sainsbury can improve upon its recruitment and selection process by improving on
selection test which can also include conducting logical aptitude test to make better
understanding of candidate propensity to succeed in given situation .

TASK 2
P3 HRM practices in organization
HRM practices is defined as practices, system and policies that influence employee's
attitude behaviour and performance. HRM practices adopted by the Sainsbury's for making its
workforce more competitive are Training & development, reward management.
Training & Development
It is educational activities of company which is provided by company to improve upon
the skills and knowledge of its employees. Specific Training programs provided by Sainsbury are
On the job training methods where it allows its employee to get training at their workplace and
learn from the same. This includes job rotation where its employees are provides training by
rotational basis of related job series. This method helps employees eliminating boredom and
helps in building good relationship. Benefit of training and development is it help the employees
to perform tasks easily so that they can innovate new strategies to execute the given task which
builds satisfaction level for employees leading to perform tasks efficiently which contributes
towards organization profits and productivity.
Benefits to employer and employee
Training and development helps employer’s in reducing employee's turnover and will
help to retain talented employee's in company which will help in achieving organizational goals.
It helps employees increased job satisfaction and morale which will motivate employee's to
account to productive performance in company.
Reward management
This practice of HRM deals with formulation of strategies that aim to reward people on
the basis of their performance and contribution in meeting organizational goals. Reward
management in Sainsbury's is concerned with providing good rewards that keeps its employees
happy and loyal towards its products and services. Benefit of reward management is it helps in
increasing the productivity of employees where the staff is more engaged, motivated and
efficient as for employees the biggest motivation to work is money which helps them to achieve
organizational goals in terms of profit and productivity.
Benefits to employer and employee

Reward management helps Sainsbury in increasing the productivity of its employees as
rewards are the biggest source of motivating them to give more contribution in business success.
It helps employees in increasing their productivity as it helps them to work more efficiently and
proactively in order to do good job as employees believe their work will be rewarded and
recognized (Bhatia and Tuli, 2018).
Working Hour flexibility
It refers the schedule which allows employee's of the company to start and finish their
workday when they want. It refers to the flexible hours that allows employee to alter their
workday start and finish time according to themselves (Mozzanica, 2018).
Benefits to employer and employee’s
It helps the Sainsbury's to attract top talent as job seekers are more interested in a flexible
schedule for working hours as it results employees to be more productive as they can work when
they wish to work. It helps employees to be more focused towards their work which will result in
their fewer missed days to work and also make employee's to think long association with the
company as they may feel to work flexibly and not in harsh culture.
This all practices such as training and development, reward management, working hour
flexibility and others helps the company in structuring teams, helps in building culture and helps
people with engagement and development to achieve profitability and productivity.
Effectiveness of HRM practices
Currently the Sainsbury is a large retail organization and that’s why it has large number
of employees (Wang and et.al., 2017). In this situation, different HRM practices play an effective
role for it in systematically managing human resources in the workplace. In this highly
competitive market, Sainsbury has an effective brand value just because of its employees’ extra-
ordinary inputs. With the support of this factor, currently the business is able to gain huge
competitive advantage in the UK’s retail industry. HR department of company always takes
different productive decisions in the terms of conducting training & development and
performance management practices. So that, this HRM practices are very beneficial to different
employees, because after participating in training and development sessions, it can simply
develop its levels of skills and talent. At the end, this factor give chance to Sainsbury to increase
its performance and productivity within market place. Currently ALDI, Asda, Morrisons, Tesco

are key competitors of Sainsbury, in which after having skills and talented workforce, it can gain
huge competitive advantage and profit margins in market place. Basically, training &
development and performance management practices of HRM are enough to company taking lots
of productive work from different employees. At the end, this business enables to raise own
revenue in market place with the support of excellent productivity of employees.
Some key methods have been discussed below which HR management of Sainsbury uses
for increasing its productivity and performance in market place.
Methods used in HRM practices
Two types of methods generally used by HRM for providing excellent workforce to
company, called; external recruitment and internal recruitment.
External Recruitment
External recruitment is basically a method to HRM of company to hire employees from
outside of the business environment. Generally, this method enables to company for recruiting
freshers and new people. This method enables to Sainsbury for generating employment
opportunities to people, and also enables to achieve new skilled employees within workplace.
Internal recruitment
This is another key method under HRM practices where department fulfils vacant posts
of company from hiring people from internal business environment (Whitworth, 2020). This
method saves many precious resources and time of Sainsbury.
Evaluation
These all are key practices and methods which has considered by the human resource
management of Sainsbury. Currently these practices highly contribute in company for achieving
great productivity and profit margins in market place.

LO3
Importance of employee relations
Effective employee relations always play an excellent role to ventures in market place for
taking great work from people in workplace. This aspect always affects to HRM of businesses as
well, because mainly HR department is responsible to maintain effective relationship of
employees in workplace. In this situation, this aspect affects to human resource management of
Sainsbury also for systematically managing great relationship between employer and employees.
The main role of this aspect to make comfortable to people within workplace, because
when the management maintains effective relationship with its people, then they will feel
comfort in workplace. At the end, they will be motivated to work hard in workplace. These
factors will definitely increase the productivity and performance of Sainsbury in marker place.
Some key aspects of employee relations have been discussed below;
The role of trade unions: Trade unions are basically knowns as associations of workers, in
which effective employee relations contributes in encouraging trade unions for playing their
great role in the achievement of Sainsbury’s final goal. Basically, the role of trade union always
be very productive to this company.
Collective agreements: The company has always required sign an agreement with different
workers after the selection process. So that, effective employee relations of Sainsbury motivate
to new workers for joining the organisation by following different terms & conditions and
guidelines of the company.
Discipline: Discipline is the key factor in an organisation which highly contributes in gaining
huge competitive advantage in market place. In this situation, excellent relationship employer
has played great role in motivating employees for always following the concept of discipline
while working in the workplace.
According to different business experts, when people within an organisation communicates with
each other effectively, then relationship between them become very effective. That’s why this
factor affects to HR manager of company to take decisions towards developing communication
skills of union of employees or workers within Sainsbury (Hatcher, 2016). Effective employee

relations help to company for taking lots of effective work from all employees, and that’s why
this very important to company. Maintaining effective workplace, properly communicate with
employees etc. are some major strategies of making effective employee relations.
Key elements of employment legislation
Employment legislation or law is one of key laws within the UK’s business law
environment. According to the local government of this country, every existing business or
company is fully responsible to adhere this employment within its workplace. If any business not
follow adhere employment law within its workplace, then it will be penalised or punished. In this
situation, employment legislation fully affects to Sainsbury’s human resource department. Some
key elements of employment laws that highly effects on decision process and HR practices have
been discussed as below;
Health and Safety at Work act (1974): This act is one of key components of
employment law, which provides opportunity to employees of a company for working in a safe
and secure workplace. This element highly influences the decision-making process of HRM,
where managers of Sainsbury concerns on providing safe and secure working environment to its
workers while making employment policies (Рахуба, 2019). This type of workplaces improves
productivity and performance of employees as well.
Equality act (2010): Equality act is one of the employment law that emphasis more on
improving and increasing working condition of labours in a firm. So adhering this equality act,
managers of Sainsbury highly concerns on giving equal opportunity to people to work at its
stores, without discriminating them on the basis of biological and demographic characteristics.
Employment contract: It is another main employment law that influences HR practices of
every firm, in order to protect workers from any dismissal activities Therefore, it is foremost
duty of every firm to sign a contract with employees while hiring them, which includes all terms
& conditions, guidelines and policies of company, that must adhere by both employees and
employers (Heartfield, 2017).
Evaluation

HR department mostly has required to understand one basic thing that, effective relationship
between employees and employer is one of best keys to company in increasing its productivity
and performance in market place (Rice, 2018). That’s why it should always take decisions
towards building great employee relations. On the other hand, some main elements of
employment law have been mentioned above which completely affects to decision-making
aspect of human resource management within Sainsbury company. Generally, existing HR
manager has always required to take decisions for following these all element during conducting
different practices.
LO4
Application of HRM practices in a work-related context
A job specification, person specification and interview questions with offer letter has
been created below in the terms of applying various practices of human resource management in
the work-related context.
Overview of company in deciding to recruit and select staff for the marketing manager job
role;
Currently the HRM of company has decided to conduct recruitment and selection
practices for hiring a marketing manager for Sainsbury. The candidate who will be selected for
this post of marketing manager need to follow all rules and regulations of company while
conducting its marketing functions.
JOB ANALYSIS
The post of marketing manager is very precious for the Sainsbury, because a marketing
manager always support to company for effectively promoting own products and service at the
large scale in the market. In this situation, if any person wants to become the marketing manager
in this retail organization, then first it should require to pass the written exam and interview
session for showing its capabilities of marketing. The written exam and interview will decide
that, the candidate is able to play the role of marketing manager for Sainsbury or not (Barrett,
2017).