Analysis of HRM Issues: A Case Study on Sports Direct's Practices

This case study analyzes the human resource management (HRM) issues at Sports Direct, focusing on employment relations, ineffective policies, and the HR planning process. The analysis includes recommendations for improving employment relations through effective communication and collective bargaining, and for developing fair and efficient policies. The study also examines the HR planning process, outlining steps to address manpower gaps and improve employee satisfaction. Furthermore, it explores the implementation of a performance management plan to enhance employee performance and the implications of UK employment legislation, including the Race Relations Act, Equality Act, and Employment Rights Act. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and provides recommendations for Sports Direct to improve its HRM practices and address the issues raised by employees and stakeholders, aiming for improved organizational efficiency and employee satisfaction.

Human resource management
Case study analysis – Sports Direct

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1: Two people management issues.........................................................................................2
Employment relations..................................................................................................................2
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................2
Ineffective policies and regulations.............................................................................................3
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................3
Task 2: HR planning process for Sports Direct...............................................................................4
Task 3: One developmental activity: Performance management plan............................................5
Task 4: Employee legislations in UK..............................................................................................7
Race Relations act 1965...............................................................................................................7
Equality act 2010.........................................................................................................................7
Pay and Wages.............................................................................................................................8
National minimum wage act 1998...............................................................................................8
Employment rights act 1996........................................................................................................8
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Management of human resources of an organization is pivotal to the success of the organization.
Human resource management team plays a wide variety of roles in the business starting from
recruiting competent employees, ensuring the employees are fairly compensated, putting efforts
in retaining employees, managing organizational talent and addressing employee grievances
(Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). The case in the picture has thrown light to a lot of issues faced
by the employees working with Sports Direct. The employees have repeatedly complained of
issues like ill treatment, no work-life balance, discrimination, and unfair wages. The organization
has also been accused of recruiting employees in an unethical fashion.
Such news have been making rounds in the market and the organization is facing the brunt of it
in the form of declining goodwill. This report throws light on major issues raised by the
employees and other stakeholders of Sports Direct along with legal and managerial
recommendations to fix the same.
Task 1: Two people management issues
Employment relations
Employment relationships refer to the relationships that exist between the employer and the
employee (Craven, 2016). It is clear from the case study as well as numerous news articles that
Sports Direct employees and employers do not share a positive or amicable relationship with
each other. This is harming employee performance, organization’s goodwill as well as working
environment for employees. For the success of any business, it is imperative that organizations
work as a group of people who are working towards a single goal. This therefore requires
employers and employees to build and maintain positive relationships and take efforts in
addressing issues faced by each other
Recommendation
As an interim head, I would focus on the importance of effective employment relationships that
much exist in a business. Such relationships require effort and can be built through effective
communication (Karanges & Lings, 2015). A recommended solution to address this issue is

ensuring that both the parties come together and negotiate on areas that impact them. Relevant
parties of the group must collectively bargain for their say and address the issues that is being
faced. This will not only accomplish establishment of better relationships but will also improve
organizational efficiency and create a channel of communication within the team (Stanciu,
Condrea & Zamfir, 2016). Negotiations between different stakeholders of Sports Direct will
eventually lead to improved employee satisfaction and better performance.
Ineffective policies and regulations
Various Policies and regulations at Sports Direct are unfair, inefficient and even unethical.
Employee salaries are being deducted without any genuine reason, employees are working on
zero hour contracts and cases of discrimination have been observed. Employees have depicted a
clear dissatisfaction with their working environment. Policies and regulation of the firm must be
aimed at increasing organizational effectiveness as well as ensuring the satisfaction of all the
stakeholders of the business (Barak, 2016).
Recommendation
In order to make sure that fair policies are successfully designed and implemented in the firm
then it is recommended that effective communication channels are established in the business to
ensure that issues faced by employees can be addressed (Carroll, 2015). These policies must be
defined through effective communication and focus group discussions. Sports Direct could also
adopt an open door policy. This policy suggests that the top management of the business must
leave their doors open at all times to encourage open flow of communication by depicting that
they are always available to talk (Webster & Ryan, 2016). Cases of discrimination have been
observed at Sports Direct and employees may not be particularly comfortable in reporting such
cases. Therefore, open door policy will encourage even lower level employees to report such
offenses to the top management. Collective bargaining must be done by including relevant
parties in order to finalize official policies that are fair to all and work towards enhancing
organizational effectiveness (Cross, 2015). Collective bargaining helps organizations in better
coordination and building improved relationships within each other. Developing policies will
help Sport Direct in conducting their processes in a more efficient and organized manner
resulting in increased performance and improved employee satisfaction.

Task 2: HR planning process for Sports Direct
The purpose of an HR planning process is to understand the gap that exits between the
organization’s current manpower and the required manpower (Cascio, 2018). If the organization
has more employees than those required by the organization, the business needs to look at
transfers, voluntary retirements or layoffs. On the other hand, if there is a dearth of employees
within the organization, then the business needs to focus more on recruitments and job role
expansions. HR planning process is vital for employee satisfaction at Sports Direct. In the
process of HR planning, the organization must firstly terminate all zero hour contracts and focus
on hiring employees on a full time basis. It is also essential that upon identifying the need for
additional human resource, Sports direct must resort to ethical ways of recruitment. The HR
planning process ideally consists of the following steps:
1. Define organizational objectives: The first step of HR planning requires the organization
to evaluate its long term and short term goal (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). This must be
done by all the departments of the organization. It is important that while finalizing
organizational and department goals, every department can anticipate a tentative
requirement of human resources in the business. This would help Sport Direct in figuring
out an approximate number of total employees required for the smooth functioning of the
business.
2. Inventory of present human resources: This step requires the firm to identify and make a
concrete list of all the individuals who are currently employed by Sports Direct. This
would include all the part time employees, full time employees and zero hour contract
based employees. This would not include freelancers because they are legally not
associated with the firm.
3. Forecasting supply and demand of human resources: The two things that need to be
achieved in this step is an analysis of the supply as well as demand of human resources of
the firm and for the firm. Supply would be analyzed by understanding available
candidates who are willing to work for Sports Direct. On the other hand, demand would
be analyzed by identifying the number of people that are required to fulfill the above
mentioned goals of the business (Wolf & Floyd, 2017).

4. Estimating manpower gaps: Post an analysis of the demand as well as supply, the gap
between the two would be analyzed in order to understand if there is a dearth or an
oversupply of employees within the business (Sparrow, Hird & Cooper, 2015).
5. Human resource action plan formulation: In this step, Sports Direct would formulate an
action plan in order to fulfill its human resource requirements. The plan would depend
upon the analysis of the previous step. If Sports Direct has a shortage of employees then a
recruitment plan would be finalized and if the organization has an oversupply of
employees then a laying off or lateral transfer plan would be finalized
6. Monitor, control and provide feedback: Once the HR plan has been implemented, it is
essential to consistently monitor it (keep checking the status of the human resource
requirements), control it (ensure recruitment or laying off is stopped once the desired
state has been achieved) and provide feedback for the same (if the plan has been effective
of not?).
HR planning process at Sports direct will help the firm is managing talent in an effective manner.
This will result in increased employee satisfaction and better performance from existing
employees. It is imperative that the HR planning process is practical and easily implementable.
Task 3: One developmental activity: Performance management plan
The increasing number of issues faced by Sports Direct have adversely hampered organization’s
goodwill and positioning in the minds of its stakeholders. In order to address these issues and
enhance employee performance, a well-developed performance management plan needs to be
implemented. Performance management plans help organizations is assigning short term and
long term goals to employees as well as consistently monitoring their performance with respect
to the assigned goals (Buckingham & Goodall, 2015). The aim of this plan must be to organize
the performance management process by allocating fair goals to employees and assisting them in
achieving the same.
Goal setting theory has also been proved as an effective tool of motivating employees to work
hard (Lazaroiu, 2015). A performance management plan will lead to consistent performance
reviews and hence constructive feedback provided to employees which will assist them in

enhancing their learning and in turn improving their performance. The following aspects must be
introduced in the performance management plan:
1. Short term and long term goals must be provided to all the employees after thorough
analysis of their competencies and organizational needs.
2. The goals allotted to employees must be SMART in nature (Specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic and time bound) (Northouse, 2018)
3. Employees must be motivated to fulfill organizational goals in a timely manner.
4. Performance reviews must be conducted frequency in order to evaluate the performance
of employees.
5. Weekly reviews must be done at a team level, monthly reviews must be done at a
departmental level and quarterly reviews must be conducted at the organizational level.
6. Transparent and constructive feedback must be provided to employees in order to ensure
they are on the right track. The aim of the feedback must be to improve employee
productivity rather than being critical about the employee’s performance (George, 2016).
7. Feedback provided must be 360 degree in nature including employee’s peers, seniors and
juniors in the feedback process (Das & Panda, 2017).
8. Appropriate trainings must be provided to employees depending upon their needs and the
feedback given to them.
9. Competent employees must be rewarded or recognized for their hard work and exemplary
performance.
10. Non-performing employees must be put under a unique PIP (Performance improvement
plan) and guidance must be provided to them in order to improve their performance.
11. Employees must be able to track their performance on a regular basis by asking their
direct supervisors.
12. No discrimination must be done in the performance evaluation process of employees.
13. The performance management plan must be critically reviewed and monitored
consistently and any identified loopholes must be immediately addressed.
Performance management plan for employees would help sports direct in ensuring that all the
employees are working to the best of their ability and are dedicated to achieve organizational
goals for the business. This performance plan must be documented and sent across to all the

employees via email. Implemented of a well-defined performance management plan will assist
Sports Direct in attaining organizational efficiency by keeping employees motivated and on
track.
Task 4: Employee legislations in UK
Country laws are created to ensure that the citizens and the organizations of the country that are
bound by the law remain ethical with their business. United Kingdom government has defined a
set of rules that are directed towards ensuring that UK businesses run smoothly and the
organization as well as its employees are protected against any unethical practices by either.
Sports Direct is also similarly bound by various UK laws and it is imperative that the issues
currently faced by the firm are seen in the light of these laws to understand their repercussions.
Laws in UK applicable to the current issues at Sports Direct are as below:
Race Relations act 1965
Discriminating employees on the basis of race, age, gender or caste is a punishable offense by
law in the United Kingdom. In 1965, discrimination was on the grounds of race was prohibited in
the workplace. Discrimination on the basis of gender is punishable since 1975, against disability
since 1995, against religion in 2003 and against age in 2006. The race relations act of 1965 was
further replaced by Race relations act of 1976.
Equality act 2010
United Kingdom laws have been written in the manner to treat every citizen of the country
equally. Therefore, equality act of 2010 forbids any organization to discriminate against
employees. It is unlawful for any organization of United Kingdom to discriminate against its
employees or treat them unequally on the basis of sex, religion, disability or race.
Sports Direct must immediately take a note of the aforesaid laws and ensure that they mend their
ways. Discrimination of employees has been noticed frequently at Sports Direct and under the
laws defined by the country’s government, it is strictly prohibited. Employees at Sports Direct
must also enhance knowledge about these laws and ensure that they are able to address such

issues as and when faced. They must understand that they have every authority to take the case to
court against an organization if they have witnessed discrimination in any form.
Pay and Wages
A lot of employee’s primary motive to work with an organization is to be able to generate a
certain amount of salary for themselves. Therefore, pays and employee wages are a source of
motivation for employees across different organizations. It is therefore the responsibility of the
organization to ensure that they pay all their employees fairly. United Kingdom government has
defined a minimum wage for all the employees employed within the country. This wage is
defined by the number of effective working hours of the employee.
National minimum wage act 1998
The act has defined a minimum wage for every employee of the country. At present, €7.50 per
hour is paid to all the employees who are aged over 25. €7.05 is paid to employees aged between
21 and 24 and €5.60 per hour is paid to employees aged between18 to 20.
Employment rights act 1996
Sports Direct has been accused of deducting employee wages for small reasons like taking phone
calls or attending to sick family members. However, the employment rights act of 1996 has
forbidden employers from docking or deducting employee salaries unless the same has been
agreed upon by the employee in written at the time of recruitment.
Sports Direct must ensure that employee wages are paid fairly and in a timely manner. This is
imperative to the growth of the organization and employee satisfaction. Delayed or deducted
salaries of employees are a major source of demotivation within employees and hence an
effective policy must be defined to make sure that the organization does not deduct employee
salaries. Every employee’s salary must be discussed and finalized at the time of recruitment and
the salary slips must be sent across to employee by the end of each month.

Conclusion and recommendations
Sports Direct has been facing severe issues and has been accused of unethical practices including
racial discrimination, untimely payments of wages, ill treatment of employees, salary deductions,
unethical recruitment and unsafe working environments. This report throws light on various
issues and recommends Sports Direct to create an effective performance management plan in
order to ensure improved employee performance. The organization is also recommended to
understand laws pertaining to employee wages and against discrimination in the workplace.
Sports Direct must ensure that they conduct themselves in an ethical manner. Effective
implementation of the performance management plan, institution of anti-discrimination and
equal employment policies will not only lead to increased employee satisfaction and retention
but also result in improved organizational goodwill and positioning in the minds of its
stakeholders.

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