HRM Report: Strategic HRM Analysis for Squire's Garden Centres

This report provides a detailed analysis of the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Squire's Garden Centres, a family-owned business with 15 garden centers. The report explores the purpose and scope of HRM, evaluating key elements such as recruitment, training and development, and ensuring legal compliance. It examines the pros and cons of the current recruitment and selection methods, including the use of external recruitment through advertising and interviews. The report also presents a job description and person specification for a Customer Service Assistant role and suggests additional recruitment methods like social media. Furthermore, the report highlights the benefits of offering apprenticeships to both the organization and the apprentices, and includes example interview questions. This comprehensive analysis aims to provide insights into effective HRM strategies within the context of Squire's Garden Centres.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a strategic approach which is adopted by every company
in order to gain high competitive advantage and also it is designed to enhance the employee
performance in the service in order to gain the strategic objectives. The report main aim is to
provide a deep understanding related to HRM. Study is based upon the case study of Squire's
Garden Centres which is a medium size, family owned business who owned 15 garden in South
East of England. The present study describe the purpose and scope of HRM that helps to fulfil
the aim and objectives of a business. Further, it also evaluate the effectiveness of all the key
elements of HRM which includes the practices that helps to raise the organization profit (Noe
and et.al., 2017). Moreover, the report describe the importance of employee relation that
influence the HRM decision making and also provide the ways of engaging workers.
TASK 1
Purpose and importance of HRM function
Human Resource Management (HRM) can be described as a term which emphasizes on
management of human resource in an organization. HRM used to perform the variety of the
function in an organization some of them are as follows:
Recruitment: It is one of the major function of HRM in Squire's Garden centre which includes
recruiting the appropriate talent available for the company to carry out the operation of the
organization. The main purpose of this method is to develop good Human resource in
organization. HR department generally used to develop Job description, Publish the Job, source
the candidate, organize interview and makes the job offer (Lussier and Hendon, 2017). Specific
Recruitment process help business in building good employer brand as proper notification to
candidate about the status of their position help organization in bringing clarity in mind of the
employee. Generally big organization used to give mail and SMS to the employee.
Importance: Recruitment process helps the business in creating and building the a good pool of
the candidate in an organization to carry out the operation of the business. Recruitment process
also helps the business determining present and future requirements of the Human resource in a
company.
Training and Development: It is the second most important function of the HRM in Squire's
Garden centre in which HR department used to provide the training to the employee in an
organization to increase their set of the skills (Taylor, Doherty and McGraw, 2015). HR
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department generally used to provide the on job training to the employee regarding the
requirement of the Job. Main intention of this role is to develop the skill set in the organization.
This help the organization in building good trust with the employee as employee gets a seance of
care in an organization. Training of employee generally depends on the size of the business as it
increase cost of the company.
Importance: Training and development is useful for the organization in exploding the job
knowledge and skill of employee in an organization as training help the employee in acquiring
new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity of their work (Hecklau
and et.al., 2016).
Ensuring Legal Compliance: Squire's Garden centre HR department used to perform this
function as a common function they make sure that all the operation of the organization is
performed under proper legal compliance and all the rules and laws are followed by the
organization. Main purpose of this is to save the organization with legal compliance. This help
the organization in building good value in eye of the employee as all employee love to work in
the safe and secure environment.
Importance: This function helps the organization in building good working environment in an
organization and also helps business in maintaining the good and secure environment in an
organization.
Pros and cons of Current Recruitment and selection method
Recruitment Method
Recruit is the process which looks at giving the proposal to the candidate to apply for the
position in the organization.
Internal and external method are two common recruitment method. As per the scenario
organization used to post the vacancy at website and newspaper which proves that Squire's
Garden centre uses External recruitment method.
External Recruitment: Squire's Garden centre uses the External recruitment method as the
primary recruitment method in an organization. External recruitment method is the method in
which employee is recruited from the pool of job candidate other than own existing staff
(Nankervis and et.al., 2016). It is the process in which candidate are searched from the outside
rather than current pool of candidate. Organization is using advertising as a external recruitment
method.
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Advantages
 There are several benefits of Advertisement which includes different aspects.
When recruitment is being done with the help of the advertisement is a large pool
of applicants can be approached which helps in maximising the number of options
for the organization.
 Advertisement also helps in opening many opportunities for selecting a more
skilled and experience as they are having the proper idea of what job requires
which helps them in getting better pool of selected candidates. This is not the case
in other recruitment method as they does not specify what is require in job.
Disadvantages of external recruitment
 The major disadvantage of Advertisment is its cost involvement, this can increase
the expenses of the organization.
 This also takes more time to train the new employees for using the system of the
organization as compare to the other Internal recruitment method in which
employee is trained already.
Selection Method
Selection is the process selecting right candidate, who is correct choice to fill the vacant job
position. Their are many different type of the selection method such as interview, aptitude test
and personality test. Organization uses Interview as a selection method in a organization.
Interview: This is selection method which is used by Squire's Garden centre as a primary
selection method in which two manager used to ask the different question from the candidate to
test his set of skills (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018).
Advantage
Collection of Primary information: Interview generally helps the manager in collecting the
fresh and primary information from the candidate which is not possible in other method as
interaction in client in other method is less.
Less costly and time consuming: Interview help the business in saving the time and cost of the
company as compare to the other method of selection as it takes less time to complete the
selection process.
Disadvantages
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Incomplete Method: Interview always requires the help of the other method of selection to give
the find out the best candidate as this method is incomplete process (Berman and et.al., 2019). It
generally requires the help of the Test method with it so it sometimes becomes overdependent on
other method to give result.
There are several other methods of recruitment in which majorly internal method of
recruitment play a vital role in each and every organization. This method is more time saving and
cost saving as compared to external method of recruitment. Whereas this is a less effective
method of recruitment as it includes fewer chances for finding new talents, rather external
recruitment helps in finding new talents which brings new ideas in the company.
Selection method includes several aspects which includes interview majorly, but there are
several other methods also in which selection test is one of them. Selection test allows the
company to analyse the efficiency of the candidates which makes this method more effective
than interview, but the interview method includes evaluation of physical skills, that are being
missed in selection test and most of the time, these employees fail to perform practical tasks
more effectively.
TASK 2
Job Description and Person Specification
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Description is a statement which generally outlines the specific job or posting with a
company.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Role and Title: Customer Service Assistant
Report To: Manager
Roles and Responsibility
 Opening and Maintaining the customer accounts and leads
 Identify and asses the customer in resolving their problem
 records of customer interaction
 Provide resolve to the customer by the way of phone, email and social media
 Greet customers warmly
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Skills Requirement
 Customer Service Product Knowledge
 Quality Focus Market Knowledge
 Documentation Skills Listening Skills
 Phone Skills Resolving Conflict
Requirement
 More than 1 year of working Experience
 Graduation Degree
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Job specification is a document which shows qualifications, skills, experience, knowledge and
other attributes (selection criteria) which a candidate must possess to perform the job duties.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Customer Service Assistant
REQUIRED SKIL
 Must have proper Customer Service
 Require candidate with good
documentation Skills
 Must have good Listening Skills
 Require candidate with Phone Skills
 Must have Resolving Conflict
OTHER SKILLS
 Market Knowledge
 Knowledge of resolving customer
problem
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 Product Knowledge
EXPERIENCE Would like to have a person with 2 year of
working Experience and 1 year relevant
industry Experience.
ATTITUDE  Be Honest
 Dress Appropriate
 Have Common-sense
 Respect US
QUALIFICATION Must have Graduation degree or relevant
degree.
Advert for the customer services assistant role suitable for Squire's website
Squire's Garden centres Location:- Twickenham
Mail id:- [e-mail] Time:- 2:00 PM
Position:- Customer Service Assistant Date:- 26/09/2019
Responsibilities:-
 Promotional initiative
 Identify opportunity and implement different strategies for sales
 Generate new business for our clients
 Work with sales and marketing team to achieve sales objectives
Qualifications:-
 Computer skills
 Excellent interpersonal skills
 Accuracy in work
 Previous experience of 1-2 years with customer databases
 Event planning and sales implementation
Industry:- Horticultural business
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About us:-
At Squire's, we are looking out for great people who are motivated and are willing to work with
us and see customer services as their main priority. Applicants should be good at interpersonal
skills and friendly outgoing manner in order to make the clients satisfied.
One more medium that may be appropriate for the vacancy
Squire's can use other mediums like social media in order to advertise for the vacancy.
There is huge competition in market and in order to have potential employees in hand Squire's
have to advertise their job vacancy with the help of social media as part off recruitment
advertising strategy. This can help in following ways:-
 This increases the job visibility as many candidates can get aware about the job at the
same time.
 Many professional now a days search for job change with the help of social media
platform. Squire's will be getting higher quality candidates(Noe and et.al., 2017).
 This also reduce the cost related to hiring and searching of potential employees.
Questions asked at the interview for customers services Assistant position
The main questions that can improve selection decision-making process will be as follows:-
 What motivated you to be customer service Assistant?
 According to you how important it is to work collaboratively with the customer services
teams.
 What will you do if you don't have idea how to help the customer?
 What customer service tools do you have experience with?
TASK 3
Benefits of Squire's offering Apprenticeships to both organisation and apprentices
Squire's is offering apprenticeships that is beneficial to both the apprentices as well as
organisation. There are different apprenticeships offerings like horticultural apprenticeship
scheme, RHS membership, Grow our own scheme that is benefiting the apprentices in following
manner:-
 Squire's is offering structured training programmes like that gives many apprentices a
chance to work towards their respective qualification so they gain the respective skills
and knowledge that is required to work in the respective organisation. Horticultural
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apprenticeship scheme helps the apprentice to get the necessary skills and knowledge
that can help out them in this field(Apprenticeship, 2019).
 This also gives a good experience to the apprentices working for Squire's as they are able
to put their skills into practice so that they are able to gain confidence in the particular
working environment.
 Apprentices can earn while they are learning new things in Squire's. They get a paid
amount for what they are learning and implementing in the organisation. RHS
membership by Squire's offers the apprentices free student membership as they study
their RHS qualification. This helps the apprentices to have a retail experience with
academic learning.
It is benefiting the organisation in following ways:-
 It is productive and effective for Squire's to grow talent and have a motivated, skilled and
qualified staff for their organisation. With horticultural apprenticeship scheme
organisation can have
 It helps the company to make their appendices skilled so that they are relevant to their
organisation(Apprenticeship, 2019).
 After apprenticeship most of the candidates prefer to work for the organisation. As they
understand the working environment it become easy for Squire's to make them trained
and work for the welfare of the firm. 'Grow our own scheme' offers on and off the job
training and it become easy for the company to utilize their skills for organisation's
development.
 Apprenticeship brings a diversify and fresh workforce for the company. It improves the
image of the company and reduce staff turnover. It also helps Squire's to raise their staff
morale by creating talent pipelines across the firm. The over all productivity also
increases as it attracts the best candidates for the firm(Noe and et.al., 2017).
The development opportunity available to employees of Squire's
The development opportunity that Squire's is offering are as follows:-
 Squire's is providing different learning and development opportunity to their people
across the globe that supports their performance and career goals. They are giving skills
training that ensures that employees are able to give excellent services to their clients and
may utilize their skills for their career opportunities(Careers at Squire's, 2019).
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 Squire's is making their employees work enjoyable so that they can work with potential
and can enhance their skills in an effective manner(Careers at Squire's, 2019). This helps
the employees to give their best on bases of their ability to perform the task with
efficiency.
 Company have a believe that all the employees are having their own capacity to learn
new things and utilize them for their respective growth. For the same company is
providing first class hands-on Horticultural training in relation with RHS Wisley toward
the E-learning courses with the help of 50 different modules that helps to bring a
diversify and fresh workforce for the company (Apprenticeship programs, 2019).
 All the new employee are joined with induction program and they receive induction in
order to comfortable with team and have an understanding of the company as well as role
they will be performing in the firm. These induction trainings inspires the employees and
make them exited towards the job role(Aguenza and Som, 2018).
Range of rewards and benefits available to staff and its impact on retention and motivation of the
employees
Squire's is providing different rewards and benefits for the employees so that they are
motivated towards their work and retain for long period in the firm. The different rewards and
benefits are as follows:-
 Bonus:- Squire's is offering a non-contractual annual bonus schemes to the respective
employees from the day they join the organisation so that employees can get motivated to
work for the firm and are able to make huge profit out of them(Careers at Squire's,
2019). Squire's can also work on giving incentives on monthly bases in order to make the
employees engaged in their work and can retain in the firm for long period.
 Employee discount:- Squire's is giving 25% discount to their working employees if they
completes three months of service inn their company. This helps the firm to attract the
employees and make them work for more duration so that they can contribute more for
the firms welfare(Malik, Butt and Choi, 2015).
 Pension:- Squire's is giving pension to their employees after retirement as company
having knowledge of money for retirement. They offer a good pension plan to new
employees and if employee pay into this plan and is able to meet the criteria decided by
the government, then these contribution is then invested(Gambin and Hogarth, 2016).
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 Paid holiday:- Squire's is providing 5.6 weeks holiday pay that is 4 weeks holiday plus 8
bank holidays(Careers at Squire's, 2019). Paid holidays motivates the employees to work
for the firm as it makes them feel that company cares for their employees.
 Bupa health cash plan:- Employees working with Squire's is having opportunity to join
Bupa health cash plan that covers the employees health with respect to different plans
offered to them. (Taylor, Doherty and McGraw, 2015).
TASK 4
Employee engagement and its importance to employee relations
Employee engagement basically refers to the respective situation in an organisation
where the employees are engaged in their assigned work and they feel passionate about their
work. They are committed to the organisation and they put lots of efforts for its growth as they
are emotionally attached to the company.
Employees engagement plays an important role for employee relation in following ways:-
 Employee engagement survey:- In order to build an effective relation of employees with
the organisation and its employers, Squire have to evaluate the employees performance
on daily bases by doing different surveys. This will help in understanding the reason why
employees are not able to perform well and these issues can be resolved in order engage
employees in their work. As employees get engaged in their duties it will become easy
for the managers to have an effective relation with the employees(Aguenza and Som,
2018).
 Define engagement goals in realistic, everyday terms:- Squire's have to make
engagement goals meaningful in day to day experience of the employees. Employees are
required to get encouraged and for the same they have to be given rewards and
recognition as it plays an important role to keep their top employee retain for long period
and that decrease the turnover rates as they make ensure that employees are happily
working. Managers have to discuss the employee engagement at weekly meetings and
also in daily interactions. Keeping employees engaged plays an important role to achieve
the objectives effectively.
 Less Absenteeism:- If employees are engaged with their work they will feel as part of
the organisation. Squire's is engaging its employees with the help of different activities so
that they feel happy instead of feeling any sort of pressure. This results is less
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