An Analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management at Morrisons

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic human resource management (HRM) at Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc (Morrisons). It begins by examining current trends like workforce diversity, technology, and employer branding. The report then explores internal and external factors influencing Morrisons' HR strategy, including government regulations, economic conditions, and employee relations. Furthermore, it delves into theories and concepts of strategic HRM, such as Human Capital Theory and the Harvard Framework. The report also evaluates how change management models, including Lewin's and Kotter's models, support HR strategy within the organization. Finally, it discusses HR outcomes and how effective HRM contributes to sustainable performance and growth. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to a changing work environment and the role of HRM in achieving business and competitive advantages for Morrisons.

Strategic Human
Resource
Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1. Current trends and developments that influence an organisation’s hr strategy....................3
P2. Internal and external factors influence an organisation’s HR strategy and practice ............4
P3. Theories and concepts relating to the growth and development of strategic HRM...............6
P4. Change Management Models support HR strategy ..............................................................7
P5. HR outcomes .......................................................................................................................8
P6. Effective HR management support in sustainable performance and growth of
organisations objectives...............................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the planned approach of managing people at workplace
so that they can gain business and competitive advantage. It ensures smooth working within the
organisation. The process of HRM begins with making suitable policies for the job requirements
and ends with assuring growth of the business. Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, commonly
known as ‘MORRISONS’ was founded by William Morrison in 1899, is headquartered in
Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Morrison is the fourth largest supermarkets chain in UK
having superstores across England and is listed on London Stock Exchange.
This report analyse the external and contextual developments which influence HR
strategy, apply contemporary theoretical and practical knowledge of HR development, it also
evaluate how change management models support HR strategy and examine the contribution of
HR management and HR development to sustainable business performance and growth.
MAIN BODY
P1. Current trends and developments that influence an organisation’s hr strategy
As the working world is changing rapidly, human resource management must be prepared to
cope up with the effects of changing world in global economy. The following are the recent key
trends and developments that should be considered by HR manager of Morrison-
i. Work-force Diversity – Workforce diversity refers to resemblance and distinctness
among the people regarding cultural background, gender, age, religion and physical
abilities and disabilities. In present scenario, it is essential to employ diversified people as
they bring new ideas for growth (Soltis, Brass and Lepak, 2018). But at the same time,
managing them is big challenge for management, for this HR manager must train people
and make each other familiarise by using participative approach.
ii. Technology – Morrison’s HR management should take full advantage of the growing
technology by changing their work pattern for example - like saving all the workforce
data in apps rather than doing paper work with ensuring the confidentiality of data by
training personnel in using such operating system.
iii. Re-engineering work processes for improved productivity – When more than 70% of
the work processes are altered and evaluated is time when re-engineering takes place in
Morrison. It is generally done so that employees think that what work is to be done, how

it is to be done in best way and what is the best way to implement this. HRM helps in
assisting and offering skills and training.
iv. Focusing on employer branding – In today’s competitive market, company needs to
have good brand value in order to persuade talents to join your company. HRM of
Morrison should plan policies such as work benefits, flexible work programs etc. such
that they can retain current talent and hire best talents.
v. Providing holistic health benefits – Pressure of work creates stress which impacts the
overall well being of employees. Morrison’s HRM should construct plans which address
all facets of wellness and health care. By focusing on holistic health benefits, company
will see gain in productivity, recruitment and retention.
vi. Cultivating authentic workplace culture – Morrison will lay their focus on assessing
their values and encouraging healthy experience at workplace (Santhanam and et.al.,
2017). HRM will work on imposing policies from honouring employee’s need to have
balance in their work life schedule. It regularly makes sure that employees get safe
working environment and have transparency in communication so that its trust in
employees is maintained.
vii. Changing skills requirements – It is one of the essential issue that tackle diversified
workforce, competitiveness, quality and productivity of Morrison. Morrison can improve
their HR management system with higher productivity and quality work. HR
management should discuss with specialists and plan accordingly about the skill
deficiencies arising in company to meet up its requirements in future.
P2. Internal and external factors influence an organisation’s HR strategy and practice
Human resources department plays a key role in Morrison, it does not involve directly in day to
day operations of company, but makes difference in success of company
(Noe and et.al., 2017). It plays important role in – workforce planning, training and development,
employee and labour relations and legal compliance. The following are external and internal
factors of the environment can influence the HR strategy and practices of Morrison in positive
and negative ways –
i. Government Regulations – It is extremely essential that company follows all the rules
and regulations set by the government of UK. Rules and regulations affects how the

company hires, compensates, trains, terminates, etc. and any misstep can result in
sanction against the company and even employees can even file lawsuits. Maintaining
rules and regulations properly, can be beneficial for Morrison’s business in the long run.
ii. Economic Conditions – Economic conditions of any country has a great impact on the
Company as it affects the ability to hire the talented candidates in unlike economic
conditions, so as to save company from economic downturn.
iii. Workforce Demographics – Workforce system is changing with time, Morrison should
work on hiring talented and skilled people for workforce planning and resource
management so that no gap arises in skills and abilities which may be negative affect for
company.
iv. Available Labour Pool – The key function of HR departments is workforce planning by
keeping adequate staffing levels. Morrison needs to deal with the ability to enlist
competent candidates based on the availability from the labour market (Nankervis and
et.al., 2019). To hire the best candidate, they should know about the unemployment rates,
the availability of applicants, no. of qualified workers etc. There may be situation that
they are not able to find suitable candidate with for the particular geographical location ,
so they need to critically analyze the situation.
v. Level of growth – It is the internal factor which influence the HR strategy is the
company’s current and predicted growth. Human resource department of the Morrison
needs to focus about staffing and recruitment because the company is experiencing
growth and expansion. HRM should focus on employee retention by enhancing
compensations and benefits and also by improving the company’s culture and
environment.
vi. Employee Relations – Human resource management of the Morrison must engage in
collective bargaining with the management representative, to focus on environment and
culture of company, in order to maintain good relations with employees by providing
them better work environment which avoids any existing conflicts. HRM should make
sure that the policies and procedure are implemented well so that they can monitor
employees and track their performance.

P3. Theories and concepts relating to the growth and development of strategic HRM
Strategic Human Resource refers to the link between the company’s strategies and its human
resources. Strategic HRM focuses on upgrading business performance, advancing elasticity to
gain competitive advantage and developing suitable plan for organisational culture (Mondy and
Martocchio, 2016). The following are the models and theories of HRM discussed below-
Human Capital Theory – This theory believes that the knowledge and training maximise the
productivity in employees and also raise workers future income. HRM plays key role in the
accession, expansion and retention of Human capital. It is essential because it maximise
productivity and leads to profitability. Human capital includes other components like workforce
planning and strategy, employee training and development, reporting and analytics and
recruitment. Typically, it is managed by the HR department of Morrison because it oversees
management, optimization and acquisition. Human capital is calculated as follows. If Morrison
invests $3 million into its human capital and earns profit of $15 million, its ROI of year-over-
year is compared in order to know whether the profit is increasing or not in respect of
investments done.
The Harvard Framework for HRM – This model consists of six components – stakeholders’
(management, employee group, shareholders, government etc.) situational factors, HRM
policies, HRM outcomes, long term consequence and feedback loop through. The process begins
with stakeholders’ interest and situational factors which defines the HRM policies which consist
of the key HR activities like recruitment, reward system and training, if everything goes well this
in turn leads to positive HRM outcome which includes retention, commitment, cost-effectiveness
and competence. At last these positive outcomes leads to long term consequences which can be
individual, societal and organisational (Michael, 2019). If Morrison launches new product line
for which they need to raise funds from various stakeholders and recruit people and compose
team which will include their existing talents and fresh talents from outside because they bring
new ideas and for the productivity and efficient work towards achievement of goal it needs to
make policies in order to have smooth functioning. Then the professionals evaluate and let know
the results to the HRM department which take feedback and take measures against the loop
holes.

P4. Change Management Models support HR strategy
Change management process takes place when the organisation wants to improve its recent
performance, grab new opportunities and address crucial issues. Generally, change management
is done by changing the organisational structure, business processes bringing new updated
technology and changing job roles in the organisation. With the evolution of recent pandemic
and the upsurge of remote work, it has become one of the key priorities of Morrison. Discussed
below the change management models which support HR strategy –
Lewin’s Change Management Model - Lewin’s model is one the most effective change
management method which helps in better understanding organisational structural changes. It
consists of three components – unfreeze, change and refreeze.
Unfreeze / Pre-change – This is the initial stage, where HR manager openly communicate and
convince employees for the change management. In this stage, employees resist the change and
the goal of HRM is to overcome resistance (Kianto, saenz and Aramburu, 2017). Human
resource management professionals in Morrison come up with the strategies like rewards and
benefits, flexibility in work schedules in order to convince the employees.
Change – In this stage, most of employees are convinced for the change management when
change gets implemented. In Morrison, HR team is able to convince the some employees and
convincing more employees to overcome the resistance. They try to convince through their
motivation and development programs and the strategies they came up with and change
management gets implemented.
Refreeze / Post-change – This is the last step of the Lewin’s process, where all the employees
are convinced and because of excellent leadership and communication of Morrison’s human
resource management. Mangers should make sure that changes implemented are accepted and
followed even after the objective of change management has been achieved.
Kotter’s Change Management Theory – It is one of the most adopted theories in the world
which focuses on the employees’ retort to change and has eight stages.
Increase Urgency – Generating a sense of urgency amid employees is the best way to engage
and prompt them through the process.

Build the team – Ascertain the correct set of expertise and personalities for the teams which will
be incharge for driving the change within the organisations.
Get the vision correct – While formulating the strategy HRM should consider aspects like
employees’ emotions, creativity and project’s objective.
Communicate – HR management should have open communication about the change being
implemented so that transparency is maintained.
Get things moving – Remove the hurdles by collecting regular feedback in a productive way.
Focus on short term goals – Set short term goals recognise small attainment during the
procedure in order to boost the employee morale.
Incorporate Change – Make changes part of the organisational culture help employees in adjust
those changes and give rewards and benefits for accepting the change.
Don’t give up – hurdles are unavoidable, changes takes time. Be tenacious throughout the
process of change management.
According to the current scenario of Morrison, the most appropriate change management model
is Kotter’s eight step model. There is classical hierarchy is followed where this model will fits
well because it focuses on preparing and accepting change through various stage and not just the
actual change (John and Taylor, 2016). Its application is far much easier than other change
model because steps give guidance for the process.
P5. HR outcomes
The following below are the HR outcomes that needs to be monitored and measured in order to
have smooth functioning in Morisson-
Absence Rate – The absenteeism rate in organisation is calculated by dividing the number of
working days in which employee was not present by their number of working days. HRM of
Morrison keeps check on the absenteeism of the employees because it affects the individual
productivity. HR should address these issues immediately as it may be sign of low morale and
lack of passion for their work and needed measures should be taken to avoid such situations.
Employee productivity Rate – Although calculating this rate is bit difficult to measure,
generally it is about the competence of growth in terms of production of human capital. It is
affected by the good management practices, engagement, workplace environment, use of
technology and appropriate tools (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016). HRM ensures that

there is positive environment within Morrison and all the appropriate and resources and
technologies are provided to the employees and required training is given before the work starts
so that there flexibility while working and company doo not have to bear any additional cost.
Turnover Rate – Turnover are voluntary, involuntary and unwanted. In all the cases high
turnover in Morrison can be very expensive and loss for the company. Voluntary turnover is the
number of employee led resignation as a percentage the total resignations. Involuntary vice versa
of voluntary, not all resignations are voluntary. Unwanted turnover is no. of good performers
leaving as percentage of all performers, usually positive when bad performers leave. generally,
high turnover is the sign of low morale among employee to boost the morale HR in Morrison
take measures such as rewards benefits, motivational programs, increase in compensation to
deserving employees and other growth opportunities so that copany do not cmprromise with their
productivity.
P6. Effective HR management support in sustainable performance and growth of organisations
objectives
In Morrison, HR plays pivotal role in recruiting, training and rewarding individuals and helps in
effective management and development. Discussed below are some few points about HR
effective support in sustainable performance and growth which helps in meeting companies
objectives-
Human Resource Management of Morrison helps in defining organisational structure and
managing productivity (Cooke, 2018). It helps in accomplishing the clearly defined organisations
aims and objectives.
HRM begets company’s efficacy by hiring efficient people, and giving proper training and
development. It ensures that they hire people that are aligned with the ‘why’ of Morrison, so that
candidate must know that company’s core values and principles make it unique.
HRM is accountable for coordination and amicable functionality within, and between various
departments.
HRM of Morrison makes appropriate decisions about human resource planning, recruitment,
training and development, evaluation and improvement, refining the conditions for successful
outcomes and retain the employees that reliable and productive to sustain business strategy.

HRM ensures that employees are well motivated and our dedicated to give their best with their
full potential. Morrison HR team provide various rewards and benefits so that they can shore up
individual’s performance.
HRM facilitates change management, changes is inevitable, Morrison needs to grow with the
time so to alter attitudes and established norms, Hr managers recruit individuals with necessary
leadership skill to lead change process (Boon and et.al.,). They notify employee about the
arriving change and help them to adjust accordingly.
HRM maintain precise and inclusive data of all the employees which includes their performance
report, personal details, terms and conditions of joining and information about their training and
attendance.
HRM of Morrison makes sure that workplace operates without gender bias and harassment, it
ensures all the policies informed to employees are taken care of by them.
HRM of Morrison regularly evaluates and monitors the performance of each and every
individual working with the help of their department manager. They both evaluate the
performance on various factors if the performance is good, they reward them so that he performs
better next time, and if the performance is not at par with the responsibilities assigned to them
they identify the reasons and take measures accordingly. For example if the employees need
training they provide them the required training and if the performance is consistently bad, then
they also remove the employee. In this way, HRM ensures that the growth and sustainability in
the company.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from above analysis that human resource play important role in organisation
by recruiting and retaining highly talented employees within firm. There are number of current
trends that influence HR strategy of Morrison such as innovation or development in technology,
new rules and regulation of government. It can also be stated that HR manager is responsible for
motivating and influencing employees to adapt to external changes so that firm can easily get
competitive advantages. HR performance can be measured and monitored by understanding
actual performance of employees and overall profitability of firm. Above analysis shows that HR
manager have make different practices and theories to manage diverse individual so that
company can easily achieve its goals. From the report it is learnt that effective HR management
and development contribute in sustainable operation of business for longer time frame.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Soltis, S.M., Brass, D.J. and Lepak, D.P., 2018. Social resource management: Integrating social
network theory and human resource management. Academy of Management
Annals.12(2). pp.537-573.
Santhanam, N., and et.al., 2017. Impact of human resource management practices on employee
turnover intentions. Journal of Indian Business Research.
Noe, R.A., and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Nankervis, A., and et.al., 2019. Human resource management. Cengage AU.
Mondy, R.W. and Martocchio, J.J., 2016. Human resource management. Pearson.
Michael, A., 2019. A handbook of human resource management practice.
Kianto, A., Sáenz, J. and Aramburu, N., 2017. Knowledge-based human resource management
practices, intellectual capital and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 81.
pp.11.20.
John, R. and Taylor, B., 2016. Human resource management.
DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. and Verhulst, S.L., 2016. Fundamentals of human resource
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Cooke, F.L., 2018. Concepts, contexts, and mindsets: Putting human resource management
research in perspectives. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(1). pp.1.13.
Boon, C., and et.al., 2018. Integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource
management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 29(1). pp.34-
67.
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