Strategic Human Resource Management Report

This report examines strategic human resource management (SHRM) at Debenhams, a global retail chain. It assesses the role and priorities of HR functions, including talent management, learning and development, succession planning, and career development, comparing Debenhams' practices with those of Marks & Spencer. The report analyzes internal (leadership, motivation, growth opportunities) and external (changing business environment, talent pooling) influences on HR functions. It also discusses the impact of organizational changes, such as the rise of online shopping and large-format stores, on the structure of HR functions at Debenhams. The report concludes that Debenhams has implemented effective HR strategies but could further enhance its competitive edge through additional measures. The analysis uses a blend of theoretical frameworks and practical observations from the Debenhams case study.

Strategic Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Assessing the role and Priorities of the HR functions.............................................................1
2. Analyzing the different internal and external influences on HR functions.............................2
3. The changes in the organization and its impact on the structure of HR functions..................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Strategic human resource management is an approach of managing human resources
which supports the long term goals and objectives of a business and result as a strategic
framework (Lewis and Heckman, 2006). The present report is based on a case scenario of
Debenhams which is a well established global retail chain based in UK. This report will present
the challenges and issues facing the management of people at workplaces with the application of
various strategic human resource management models, theories and approaches and the impact
of strategic approach to people management in organizations. The study will compare the
theories and practices adopted by Debenhams with Marks and Spencer in order to analyse the
competitive evaluation of the companies in the current business scenario.
1. Assessing the role and Priorities of the HR functions
With regards to the changing environment and nature of work, the roles and priorities of
HR functions are also changing. Currently, the priorities of HR functions in different business
varies as per their policies and procedures. The major priorities of fashion retail industries are as
follows, Talent management: HRM is a large area that displays the particular strengths in critical
issues such as talent management and recruiting the right talent in the organization.
(Katou and Budhwar, 2006). The enhancement in employees performance increase the
revenue and profitability of the firm. With the help of talent management the HR
department of Debenhams can inspire and retain the talented employees who are giving
strong contribution to the organization by their effective performance in their work
criteria. Apart from developing the current workforce retaining the right talent in
organization is also a strategic priority of Hr department in Debenhams. M&S has
adopted talent management as the integral part of the business operations. The company
has efficiently analyzed the significance of competitive workforce thus has adopted the
practice of talent management as integral part of HR functions. Learning and development: The HR department of retail units is focused on providing
effective learning and development to its staff. Firms focus on the learning capability of
its workforce by training and development programs. The HR department ensures that
employees are getting effective training and training provided to them is developing their
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skills, knowledge and capabilities. It is recommended that development of skills,
knowledge and capabilities is essential to survive in today's competitive business
environment. Thereby, the focal point of HR managers in Debenhams is to train the
individual employee by providing them diversified subject knowledge and enhance their
skills. The learning and development of workforce will enhance the global knowledge
and competency of its employees which will result as a competitive advantage for the
cited firm. The company focuses on continuous development of the employees in order to
develop a competitive workforce. M&S on the other hand has created an effective and
influential measures of training and developing its employees by both traditional and
modern means of development. The company employs freshers and experienced people
within the business and to bring them at par it provides varied form of training such as on
the job training, coaching and mentoring as well. In order to infuse innovation and
creativity within the business M&S develops special workshops to enhance skills of its
people. Succession planning: This is the process of planning and developing of internal
employees of the company for the prospective and eligible position or career within the
company. This helps the business in analyzing the talent of the employees and planning
their short and long term goals in order to enhance business development. This measures
has helped Debenhams in developing a well trained and groomed term of people working
for the growth and development of the company (Aycan, 2005). This has helped the
company in motivating employees and retaining the experiences team of employees
within the company. On contrary to this M&S has not adopted this as HR function
priority. The company believes that this policy is time consuming and demands effective
planning which demands high investment in terms of time and resources. This has
resulted in reducing the retention rate of the experienced employees of the companies.
Succession planning will help M&S in managing and maintaining the skilled and
experienced team of employees for the company.
 Career development: This is a continuous and ongoing process for the business unit
which helps the companies in creating wide opportunities of growth and development for
the employees. This measures creates effective means of training and development
opportunities for employees to enhance their growth measures within the company. This
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measures helps the business in developing a short term yet effective growth measures
within the business organization. Career development is a lifelong process of managing
learning, relaxation and transformation in order to move towards a personally discovered
and developing future of the individual employees. Both Debenhams and M&S focuses
on this measure effectively in order to create a wide and effective impact n the growth
and development of the company. This has helped the business to develop a competitive
workforce within the company.
2. Analyzing the different internal and external influences on HR functions
Variety of factors affect the functions within the business unit. These units created a
wide and effective impact on the performance of employees. HR functions deals with the
activities such as planning, organizing directing and controlling (Budhwar and Boyne, 2004).
These activities are regulated and directed by the series of actions and regular development
planning within the business unit. On the basis of the above analysis the internal and external
factors which influences the HR functions are discussed henceforth.
Internal Factors Leadership:A leader is one of the most crucial and effective requirements of the business
unit. A leader is driving force for employee performance and development as well. An
effective leader may helps the company in creating high and effective growth measures
while ineffective leadership may mislead the employees resulting in low performance and
highly unsatisfactory results. Debenhams has developed an effective leadership measures
in order to enhance the HR functions of the company. A leader brings in the static change
and stabilizes within the firm which helps the employees in development and growth. The
management of the company hence focuses on choosing the right leader in order top
enhance the growth and development of the company. M&S on the other hand has
integrated leadership with organizational structure of the company in order to gain the
effective results fro the organizational growth. This measures has helped the business in
efficiently identifying the leaders and gain effective results for the growth of the business. Motivational drives: The company demands a strong and motivated team of employees
who is able to develop the organizational performance and sales to all the new new level.
Debentures observed within a course of time that lack of effective motivation may result
in low employee performance and ineffective achievements of both social and financial
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goals of the company (Mavondo, Chimhanzi and Stewart, 2005). Thus the company
efficiently focuses on developing wide measures of motivations for the employees of the
company which has helped the business in attaining the HR objectives for the business.
The business unit has developed a well planned measures to reduce the work pressure and
enhance working environment. Debenhams has adopted effective measures to introduce
both financial and non financial rewards within the company in order to enhance the
employee performance and growth within the company. M&S closely analyses the
employee needs and requirements and is continuously involved in developing processes
to enhance employee performance by adopting effective measures of motivation. The
process of employee feedback and performance check helps the company in evaluating
the performance gap thus analyzing motivational measures to retain employees within the
firm. Growth and development opportunities: Debenhams is a retail fashion unit which
demands effective sales to enhance the productivity of the company and develop high
impact on the employee performance within the company. Lack of growth and
development opportunities within the business may result the company in reducing the
rate of retention and increase high rate of turnover. The company thus has developed an
effective system of growth opportunities within the company in order to retain a team of
well trained and skilled employees for the business unit. M&S has developed an effective
means of analyzing the growth opportunities for the employees of the company by
closely monitoring and company needs and requirements. This has helped the business in
developing effective measures of working within the firm.
External factors Changing business environment: The changing business environment has resulted the
companies in creating a wide and effective impact on the overall growth and
development of business. Changing fashion trends and requirements for new and
effective technology by the consumers has resulted in shaping the policies and procedures
of the working of the companies highly (Gurbuz and Mert, 2011). The changing business
environment is the part of the business operations and is not in the control of the
company. Debenhmas thus has developed effective measures to minimize the resistance
to changes within the company by developing regular training and development sessions
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within the firm. However M&S has adopted the measures of continuous learning in order
to deal with the situations of changing business environment. This has helped the
employees of the company to become competitive enough to deal with changing business
scenarios.
 Talent pooling:The retail business seeks high volume sales within the market.
Companies having skilled, talented and groomed employees are able to attain the target
quickly and swiftly as strong team of employees are the effective measures to win the
competitive battle (Bartel, 2004). Debenhams has observed that effective team of
employees has helped the company in growth and development highly. Thus the
company has developed an effective means of recruitment and selection measures to get
right person for the right job. Similarly M&S has also developed efficient and effective
measures to attract talented and competitive workforce for the company. The
organization has adopted measures such as online recruitment, advertisements through
job portals etc. to employ right person for the right job.
3. The changes in the organization and its impact on the structure of HR functions
In competitive environment, UK's retail market is changing rapidly. Retail market in UK
is achieved the immense growth in year 2014 with slightly improved economic conditions. This
economic growth is arrived with many environmental and technological changes that affects the
human resource structure of Debenhams as well. With regards to the technological
developments, online shopping is increasing in trends (Budhwar and Boyne, 2004). Thus, in
coming 3 years Online shopping option will be the fastest growth channel for retail industry with
increases sales approximately 92.9%, as the internet is become more popular and largely used
channel on which the consumers can relied upon. As per research it already remarked that 28%
consumers are already using online shopping option so in next three years it will increase till
47%. Thus, reviewing these developments and technological changes, Debenhams is also
improving its online shopping option for the convenience of its customers. The online shopping
in Debenhams will be driven by following trends,
 Smart Shopping
 Convenient collection
 Competitive pricing
 Increased sales and profitability for the organization.
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Furthermore, in next three years the retail market of UK will also start selling from large format
stores. In recent years sales through hypermarket and superstores will be decreasing by 2.9%
over the next three years. But it will moderate through the retailers experiment with new formats
with more convenience and according to the consumers (Schuler and Jackson, 2008). These
development factors will highly affect the HR structure of cited firm. Thereby, the HR structure
of the Debanhams will also develop the strategies according to this and plan to expand the retails
business through large shopping format and technological developed stores. The HR department
will recruit such talented employees in the organization who are technologically developed and
effectively perform their work with online shopping facility to its customers by providing them
immediate and fast delivery of online product booking. Also, it will enable its workforce to
enhance their skills so that they can work efficiently in large format store and make the pleasure
shopping experience for its customers.
Further, in next three years it is expected that retail industries will grow by developing
indoor navigation tools for products. Indoor navigation tool will help the customers in searching
the product in the store (Youndt and Snell, 2004). This technological development will \help the
organization in increasing the revenue and sales of the organization. Thus, the responsibilities of
HR department will be to develop the technological efficiency of workforce and recruit talented
employees in the organization who are experienced and familiar with the uses of product
navigation tool and are able to provide effective guidance to their customer.
RECOMMENDATIONS
On the basis of above report it is evident that Debenhams has developed effective HR
structure for managing and developing its employees within the competitive economy. The
company has created a wide and effective impact on the growth measures as well. As per the
study M&S has also developed highly efficient measures of working and carrying out its
business operations within the economy. To build a competitive edge within the market
Debenhams must adopt exclusive measures of developing its employees.
Human resource management is one of the most crucial and critical need of the business
unit,. This helps the company in creating a wide and effective impact on the overall growth of
the business firm. A business flourishes with a strong and well trained team of employees. A
well developed training and development program will help the company in creating a
competitive edge within the market. Moreover managing a team of diverse workforce will also
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helps the business attracting talented and competitive employees fro the business. These
measures will help the business in creating huge impact on growth and development of business
operations. Moreover adopting effective technological development will help the business in
enhancing its demand within the market thus creating a wide impact on growth of the business as
well. Highly developed and well measures growth lplan for the employee will result in a win win
situation for both the company and its employees within the market.
CONCLUSION
The above report focuses on developing a clear and effective analyses of various
measures adopted by the company in order to manage and develop he employees of the
organization. The report develops a clear picture of various measures which the businesses adopt
to carry out their business operations. The case scenario of Debenhams helps in linking the
theoretical framework with practical working system of the companies in order to develop an
effective result. Hence it can be clearly said that the company has developed an effective system
of working to manage and maintain its employees within the company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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and operational management practices on company productivity: A longitudinal
study.Personnel Psychology. 61(3). pp.467-501.
Budhwar, P.S. and Boyne, G., 2004. Human resource management in the Indian public and
private sectors: an empirical comparison. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management. 15(2). pp.346-370.
Gurbuz, S. and Mert, I.S., 2011. Impact of the strategic human resource management on
organizational performance: evidence from Turkey. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management.22(8). pp.1803-1822.
Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.
Katou, A.A. and Budhwar, P.S., 2006. Human resource management systems and organizational
performance: a test of a mediating model in the Greek manufacturing context. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management. 17(7). pp.1223-1253.
Lewis, R.E. and Heckman, R.J., 2006. Talent management: A critical review.Human resource
management review. 16(2). pp.139-154.
Mavondo, F.T., Chimhanzi, J. and Stewart, J., 2005. Learning orientation and market
orientation: Relationship with innovation, human resource practices and performance.
European journal of marketing. 39(11/12). pp.1235-1263.
Schuler, R.S. and Jackson, S.E., 2008. Strategic human resource management. John Wiley &
Sons.
Scullion, H. and Collings, D., 2010. Global talent management. Routledge.
Storey, J., 2007. Human resource management: A critical text. Cengage Learning EMEA.
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Sun, L.Y., Aryee, S. and Law, K.S., 2007. High-performance human resource practices,
citizenship behavior, and organizational performance: A relational perspective. Academy
of Management Journal. 50(3). pp.558-577.
Thornton III, G.C. and Rupp, D.E., 2006. Assessment centers in human resource management:
Strategies for prediction, diagnosis, and development. Psychology Press.
Youndt, M.A. and Snell, S.A., 2004. Human resource configurations, intellectual capital, and
organizational performance. Journal of Managerial Issues. pp.337-360.
Online
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[Online]. Available through: <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-change-business-
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