Human Resource Management Practices at Sainsbury's

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Human Resource Management

Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
LO 1......................................................................................................................................................4
Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resources in
your chosen organisation (P1)...........................................................................................................4
Identify and explain the HR to fulfil the objectives of your chosen organisation (M1).....................5
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection (P2, M2,
D1)....................................................................................................................................................6
LO 2....................................................................................................................................................10
Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of your chosen
organisation (P3, M3)......................................................................................................................10
You should also evaluate the effectiveness of the different HRM practices in terms of raising
organisational profit and productivity (P4, D2)...............................................................................11
LO 3....................................................................................................................................................12
Analyse the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making (P5, M4, D3)
.........................................................................................................................................................12
Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-
making in your chosen organisation (P6).........................................................................................13
LO 4....................................................................................................................................................14
Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context that you might be familiar
with so you can use specific industry examples (P7, M5)................................................................14
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................17
References..........................................................................................................................................18

Introduction
Human resource management department has become an integral part of the organisational
structure because of the importance of the department in managing the resources of the
organisation. In very industry, the employees of the company are tasked with executing the
business strategy of the company and even though automation has been implemented in most
of the organisations, human resources are responsible for the execution and operation of these
automation systems. The human resource management involves different human resource
practices such as employee management, recruitment and selection of the resources, ensuring
the implementation of the government legislations, training of the employees of the company
and performance management. All these activities are organised by the HRM department of
the organisation. This report will study the different HRM practices and their use in
Sainsbury’s.
Sainsbury’s is a supermarket chain in UK and with 17.3% market share in the industry,
Sainsbury’s is ranked 3rd in the country. The main competitors of the company are Tesco
(ranked 1st) and ASDA (ranked 2nd). Before Tesco took over the market in 1996, Sainsbury’s
was the market leader in the supermarket segment in UK. The company was established in
1869 and the founder of the company was John James Sainsbury. Currently, Sainsbury’s has
1524 shops across UK and there are 192,300 people who work in these shops of the
company. Along with the supermarket segment, Sainsbury’s has also entered in other
industry as company grew. Now Sainsbury’s has a banking division known as Sainsbury’s
Bank and a catalogue retailer known as Sainsbury’s Argos. These two divisions of the
company have their own HRM departments that manage the employees of these 2
organisations.

LO 1
Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning
and resources in your chosen organisation (P1)
The human resource management aim at developing an efficient, skilled and trained work
force by conducting the different activities such as recruitment, training, management and
organisation of the human resources of the company to make sure that Sainsbury’s is able to
achieve its objective. In the end, the purpose of the HRM department is to provide necessary
skills to the business for implementing its business strategy. The various functions of the
HRM department in Sainsbury’s are:
Human Resource Planning
The human resource management has to provide the resources to the different departments in
Sainsbury’s such as to the manufacturing department, to the marketing and sales department,
to the business development department and to the customer service department etc. Hence,
the HRM department has to plan for this resource allocation. The HRM department in
Sainsbury’s analyses the business strategy of the company and identifies that if the
organisation needs more resources for the company or the company needs to train the
existing resources in some new skills (Baird and Meshoulam, 2017). All this planning is done
by the HRM department within the budget allocated to the department.
Recruitment and Selection for Sainsbury’s
If HRM department receives requests from the department managers about resource
requirements and resource is not available at that moment, the HRM department organises
the recruitment and selection process. It discusses the requirements with the managers and
develops the job description which is then advertised to receive the response from candidates.
After the selection process, the resource is hired and allocated to the department from where
the requirement was raised. Advance recruitment and selection is also done sometimes if
HRM department sees an expansion strategy in the company plans and resource requirement
for future is assesses.
Managing the Employee Relations
Since there are so many employees working in different shops of Sainsbury’s, there are
always chances of employees being unsatisfied by the policies of the top management of the

company. The HRM department at Sainsbury’s works to ensure that this dissatisfaction of the
employees is addresses in the minimum possible time and relations between the management
and employees remain good. Many different techniques such as Collective Bargaining and
Conflict Management are used by the HRM department at Sainsbury’s to manage the
employee relations.
Performance Management / Training and Development
The HRM department in Sainsbury’s keeps an eye on the performance of the employees and
works closely with the managers to assess the performance level of the employees. Different
performance assessment techniques are employed by the HRM department for this purpose.
KSA evaluation is one such process which is executed by the HRM department (Datta,
Guthrie and Wright, 2015).
The HRM department also continuously try to improve the skills of the employees in
Sainsbury’s by organising various training activities such as classroom training, mentoring,
job rotation and e-learning. Training and Development programs of the company could be
used as mechanisms to address the future challenges in the market.
Employment Legislation Framework in HR policies
There are government legislations that are implemented by the HRM department in
Sainsbury’s so that every employee receives the due attention form the company. The HRM
department develops the HR policies and HRM framework according to these legislations.
Employment Laws have to be follow strictly by Sainsbury’s to avoid any legal action against
the company by the authorities. Employees also have the right to go to employment tribunal
if the HR department in Sainsbury’s does not follow the government legislations.
Identify and explain the HR to fulfil the objectives of your chosen organisation
(M1)
In order to fulfil the business objectives, Sainsbury’s require a pool of skilled employees to
execute the different jobs given to them. The HRM department fulfils this requirement of the
company by providing these resources through the recruitment and selection process. Once
the employees are recruited, they need to be trained in the organisational practices and
technical skills essential for the business operations in Sainsbury’s. This purpose is fulfilled
by the HRM department of Sainsbury’s by induction and training activities. The HRM

department also uses training for the existing employees of the company so that they remain
relevant to the organisational practices and able to learn new skills for future business
achievements of the company. Sainsbury’s also needs employees who are loyal to the
company. Hence, the HRM department tries to reduce the employee turnover using
motivational theories, rewards, and recognition and performance appraisals.
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and
selection (P2, M2, D1)
Approaches to Recruitment
a. Internal Recruitment
In this recruitment approach, Sainsbury’s uses its existing employees to fill the vacant
positions in the company. Being a large organisation, there are always some
employees on bench in the company (reserve employees). When a new vacancy is
available in the company, the HR in Sainsbury’s looks into the reserve pool of the
employee and assigns the suitable employee to the department from where the
requirement was raised (Decenzo, and Robbins, 2015). Employee transfer and
promotion is also used as strategies in internal recruitment
b. Referral
When there are vacancies in Sainsbury’s, the employees of the company could also
refer others for the same and send the resume of other people directly to the HR
managers in the company for consideration as potential candidates for the vacancy.
c. Sainsbury’s Website for Job Advertisement
Sainsbury’s has a career tab on its website and a new page opens up in the browser
when candidate clicks on that tab. Here, company advertises the vacancies in
Sainsbury’s and asks for the candidate to apply for the same by filling the application
form and sending their resume to the HRM department of the company.
d. Job Portals
The HRM department also advertises the vacancies in the company on some of the
esteemed job portals in UK to grab attention of more candidates for recruitment
purpose.
e. Placement Agencies

Sometimes, the HRM department in Sainsbury’s outsources the recruitment process
to the placement agency that is given the responsibility of job advertisement, CV
short listing and initial assessment of the candidates.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The internal recruitment approach is only suitable to Sainsbury’s is there is an employee in
the reserve who has the skills according to the job description. If none of the employee in the
reserve matches the job description and person specification then internal recruitment could
not be applied by Sainsbury’s. Promotion is a good approach if the employee to be promoted
is suitable to the new title and has performed well in the past. However, if transfer is not
implemented properly and the candidate fails to meet the job responsibility of the higher
designation, this strategy could backfire (Folger and Cropanzano, 2016). Transfer of the
employees has many constraints such as readiness of the employee to relocate and his
adaptability to the new location.
Sainsbury’s use of its website for the job advertisement has lots of strengths because of the
clarity of the process and its effectiveness. Candidates who really want to join Sainsbury’s
keep checking the company website for the available vacancies. These are the people who are
likely to be loyal employees. Secondly, the entire process is managed by the experienced and
skilled HR executives of Sainsbury’s who are more suitable as compared to anyone else in
making the right choice when it comes to short listing of the resume. Sainsbury’s also has the
advantage to publish a questionnaire along with the job advertisement that the candidate has
to answer during application submission (Gist, 2015). It could be used for the assessment of
the candidate against the person specification and job description. But this approach has one
disadvantage of use of extreme resources of the HRM department in terms of number of HR
executives involved in the process.
Job portals are also a good choice for the recruitment process because of their nation wise
accessibility and popularity among the applicants. But this might result in a large number of
applications and resume short listing could become a tedious task for the HR managers in
Sainsbury’s if this approach is used. Placement agencies are good alternative to all the above
mentioned approaches and Sainsbury’s uses this approach when the HR executives of the
company have to conduct the bulk hiring. Most of the recruitment process is outsourced to

the placement agency but resource quality might not be very good in this approach because
of the unfamiliarity of the placement agency executives with the Sainsbury’s HRM practices.
Approaches to Selection
a. Multiple Choice Online Test
In this method, an online test is conducted by Sainsbury’s in which multiple choice
answers are provided and the candidate has to select the write answer (or answers). A
cut-off criterion is defined that decides the qualification of the candidate.
b. Written Test
This is a subjective test which is carried out by Sainsbury’s in its test campus. Only
the candidates who qualify the online test are invited for the written test. It contains
the questions relevant to the job description.
c. Group Discussion
Candidates who clear the written test are asked to appear in the Group Discussions.
Candidate are divided into a group of small numbers and they are asked to debate (or
provide their views) on a given topic (Hanks, 2015).
d. Technical Interview
The HRM department of Sainsbury’s creates an interview panel of the experts who
interview the candidates that qualified the GD round. Questions are mostly related to
the vacancy and general awareness of the applicants.
e. HR Interview
This is the final round conducted by the HR manager to assess the employability
skills of the employee, his social behaviour, and attitude and also to carry out the
compensation negotiations.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Multiple choice online test is used by Sainsbury’s to filter out the candidates who do not even
have the primary skills necessary for the job. However, this is a useful method for
elimination, sometimes; frauds could be seen as replacement candidates attend the online
tests. Hence, written test is more suitable method for the selection of the candidates. Written
test is subjective and it aims at assessing the true skills of the candidates. But this method
requires Sainsbury’s to use lots of financial resources to conduct the test.

Group Discussion is always an important selection method when it comes to testing the
communication skills and general awareness of the candidates and used by Sainsbury’s
mainly for the managerial vacancies. On the other hand, technical interview is conducted for
the vacancies where a specific technical skill is crucial to address the job requirements. In the
end, HR interviews always matter because of their capability of assessing the behaviour of
the candidates. HR could also use this round to negotiate the salary of the employees and
save some money for Sainsbury’s.

LO 2
Explain how different HRM practices benefit the management and employees of
your chosen organisation (P3, M3)
HRM practices and their benefits to Sainsbury’s and its employees are explained below:
1. Training Practices
Training practices in Sainsbury’s are used to enhance the skills of the employees.
Because of the proper training, the human resources are able to do their job in an
effective way and fulfil the job requirement which enhances their productivity and
also make them more proficient and able to grow (Jackson and Schuler, 2018).
When productivity of an employee increases, it also means that the net productivity of
Sainsbury’s also increases and company’s growth speeds up.
2. Recruitment and Selection Practices
Skilled and experienced resources are scarce these days and good approach to
recruitment and selection enable Sainsbury’s to acquire these resources. If there is a
high employee turnover in the organisation, then the importance of the recruitment
and selection process increases by many folds for Sainsbury’s.
This process helps the educated and skilled people in developing their career in one of
the largest supermarket chain in UK. If they have Sainsbury’s experience in their
resume, it becomes easy for them to get another good job with good benefits in the
industry.
3. Employee Performance Monitoring
The HRM department works with managers to monitor the performance of the
company employees. Performance monitoring is used by the management during the
performance appraisals. Performance monitoring also provides information to the HR
department which is crucial for designing the training programs in Sainsbury’s to
enhance the skills of the employees (Korczynski, 2014).
Employees who perform well are given salary hikes, promotions and other rewards
which improve their motivation level. In this manner, the needs and wants of the
employees are satisfied and they try to work harder which is good for their own
professional growth.

You should also evaluate the effectiveness of the different HRM practices in
terms of raising organisational profit and productivity (P4, D2)
Sainsbury’s is an organisation that always focuses on the implementation of the HRM
practices for the sake of growth of the company. Every HRM practice has its own effect on
the profit of Sainsbury’s. The recruitment and selection process provides talented resources
to Sainsbury’s so that the organisation has plenty of resources to perform important business
operations and increase the output of the company. If HRM department in Sainsbury’s is able
to pick the right talent from market then it would definitely assist the organisation in
increasing its profits.
Another very important HRM practice in Sainsbury’s is employee relations. Without the
good employee relations, it will become difficult for Sainsbury’s to manage a large work
force. Absence of employee relations will also result in more conflicts between the
management and employee unions and there will be frequent strikes which would affect the
productivity of Sainsbury’s. But, by managing good employee relations, the HRM
department reduces the probability of strikes in the company and ensure continuous and good
productivity (Koch and McGrath, 2016).
The training and development practices in Sainsbury’s are used by HRM department to make
sure that its employees are properly trained in the best practices. The HRM department does
not only use its own experts but also hire external trainers to make sure that the employees
know the most efficient method of carrying out a job which ensures the high quality work. If
Sainsbury’s is able to provide quality products to its customers on reasonable price, it would
definitely increase the profits of the company.
Performance management and performance appraisals are used by Sainsbury’s HRM
department to develop a loyal work force which is motivated and wants to work for the
betterment of the company. This does not only increases the productivity of Sainsbury’s but
also reduced the employee turnover which means less expenditure on recruitment and
selection.

LO 3
Analyse the importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-
making (P5, M4, D3)
Employee relations have become very important these days because of the increasing number
of employees in large organisations. Sainsbury’s has 192,300 employee who work for the
company and responsible for the different operations in the company. Sainsbury’s has to
make sure that the relations between the employees and employer remains in a good
conditions because any conflict will result in a negative impact on the operations and growth
of the company.
When organisations like Sainsbury’s deals with it employees it has to make sure that the
valid demands of the employees are recognised and respected by the management (Knies,
Boselie, and Vandenabeel, 2015). If employees are not happy with the company
management, it would definitely reflect in their performance and the overall productivity of
the company would decrease. It could also result in high employee turnover and Sainsbury’s
will have to spend lots of resources again on the recruitment and selection of the new
employees and then on their training. Hence, it is very important for the HRM department to
ensure that the employee relations in Sainsbury’s remains in healthy conditions.
Conflicts between the employees and management are not new but the HRM department in
Sainsbury’s has to find ways to minimise these conflicts and resolve them in an urgent
manner. To facilitate the conflict resolution process, Sainsbury’s HRM department uses the
collective bargaining approach. In this approach, employees who are members of the trade
unions authorise their representatives to hold talks with the management. The HRM
department along with the top management discusses the issues with these representatives
and reaches on an agreement to resolve the conflict (Schuler and Jackson, 2018).
To improve the employee relations, the HR managers in Sainsbury’s includes the employees
of the company in the decision making process. Every decision which is related to the
employees is first communicated to the employees and their views on the decision are
considered by the HRM department before making a final call on the decision. In this
manner, the HRM policies of the company are employee friendly that has helped Sainsbury’s
a lot in maintaining good employee relations.