Strategic HRM Report: Key Trends, Factors, and Employee Growth

This report delves into strategic human resource management (HRM), using Marks and Spencer (M&S) as a case study. It begins by examining key trends and developments influencing organizational strategies, including political and technological factors. The report then analyzes the external and internal factors impacting HR strategies and practices, such as workforce diversity and talent skill requirements. It explores theories and concepts related to employee growth, including personal and human resource management theories, and their application within M&S. Additionally, the report addresses change management models for HR strategies and concludes with a discussion on measuring and monitoring HR outcomes, alongside employee development and sustainability. The report emphasizes the integration of employee career objectives with organizational goals and the importance of adapting to external forces like Brexit and COVID-19.

Strategic Human
Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 The key trends and developments which influences the organisation strategies ..................4
P2 External and internal factor that influence the HR strategies and exercises .........................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Theories and concept related to the growth of employees ....................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Change management model for HR strategies.......................................................................8
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P5 Measuring and monitoring of HR outcomes .......................................................................11
P6 Employee development and sustainability development ....................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource are consider as a major asset to any organisation. Through the help of
human resource only the organisation is able to achieve its determined mission and goals. In an
organisation managing the human resource is very much important as it helps the organisation in
proper and fuller utilisation of human resource. Their are various strategies which are applied in
managing the employees. These strategies are formed according to the current and future trends
which are running in the business environment. The proper management of human resource
should be such that the employees career objectives must be integrate with the objectives of
organisation. For reference purpose this report has taken an example of a company, Marks and
Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a British company which has its reach through the various
countries in the world. It is a retail business which was establish in the year 1884 by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer (Delery and Roumpi, 2017). The retail store of the company is
located at around 1463 sites through the world.
This report discusses about current developments and trends to influence the strategies of
HR, the internal and external factors which influences these strategies, and relevant theories and
model for the growth and to manage the change management in an organisation.
TASK 1
P1 The key trends and developments which influences the organisation strategies
Strategic HRM is the integration of human resource with the organisation mission, goals
and aims. The purpose of strategic HRM is also to bring the necessary innovation, flexibility in
the workings of human resource and the try to bring up the competitive advantage in the
organisation. These strategies are formed by viewing the external forces or factors which impacts
the operations or policies regarding the employees. The strategies are develop to get it fit into
organisational culture in such a way that organisation performance gets increase (Akinlade and
Shalack, 2016). The formation of strategic HRM is necessary for improving the job satisfaction
among the employees, makes the proper utilisation of human resources, decreases the turn over
ratio, the increase in the productivity of organisation which helps the timely completion and
achievement of goals of the organisation. As mentioned above these strategies for HRM are
formed by taking the external forced under account, these external factors may include:

Political factor: The political factor refers to the regulations and policies set by the government
itself. Some of the example of political factor may include tax rates, stability of government,
corruption, tariff law, import and export laws and so on. As in the case with M&S company, it is
founded in Britain where the government is very much stable due to which the policies which are
formed by the government is stable. But when the political party of the country is unstable there
the policies gets changed very often. The company is operating in the country where the political
party is stable which gives the merit of not changing the company's policies or rules very often
(Bailey and et al., 2018). The frequent changes in the policies and operations of company many
results in confusion which can also be the reason for the company for not achieving its goals.
Technological factor: Technology is something which keeps on changing very often. The shift
of the organisation from labour intensive to technology intensive is putting an impact upon the
strategies formed by the HR manager regarding the employees. The company M&S is applying
most latest machineries and technology which enables them in producing the products with more
efficiency and in less time. The more use of machine has replaced the need for human labour.
Therefore due to this factor the strategies for human recruitment needs to get implement by
taking this factor into account about the number of employees the company would be needing.
Recruitment and selection: The recruitment and selection program for the HR manager also
gets impacted as the company believes to acquire most of its talent from the outside sources like
college campuses, or from any other social professional platform (Baluch and Ridder, 2020). For
performing these activities and to attract these talent a major use of technology is required.
Because through the use of technology the company can educate the candidates about the job so
that talented candidates can get attracted and apply for the vacancy.
Cost reduction: The major goal of HR manager is to acquire the employees in such a way which
helps the company in reduction of its cost also. Through the proper formation of strategies by
taking these external factors into account the cost for the company can get reduce to such extend.
P2 External and internal factor that influence the HR strategies and exercises
The policies and goals of M&S company greatly formed by taking both internal and
external factors under account. The short as well long term planning of HR is done through
considering these changes only (Das and Kodwani, 2018). Considering both these factor in the
formation of strategies is very important as they shows the direction to the HR manager about the
kind of policies and plans should be focused on. These factor do influence the operations of

businesses to a great extend. The internal and external factors which influences the HR practices
may include:
External factors
Diversity in workforce employed: It has become a rule passed by the government to
maintain a certain level or percentage of diversity among employees. This rule can comes into
the category of political factor where the government has formed the policy to maintain some
percentage of workforce diversity in the workplace. The major purpose for forming this
particular policy is to give the equal opportunity to the people who not belongs to the same
community, culture or background as majority of population belongs (Emeagwal and
Ogbonmwan, 2018). The company's HR practice or policy should now be formed in such a way
that they hire the people or candidates from various backgrounds also.
Globalisation: Globalisation refers to the integration of resources (both labour and
capital), technology, knowledge, skills, finances, ideas and etc. among the different economies.
As the companies or getting globalise the pressure upon them to cope up with the changes and
trends of these countries is increasing. Through the increase in globalisation the HR strategies
need to be formed in such a way that all the external factors which are running in these various
countries get satisfied. And if not all these factors can cause a problem or issue for the company.
Also because of globalisation the company M&S needs to attain their talent in such a way that
they must understand the dynamics of this factors and work accordingly (Han and et al., 2019).
The talent should be such that they must have the capabilities to bring out the innovative ideas
and suggestions through which competitive advantage can be achieved.
Internal factors:
Talent skill requirement: With the change in the contemporary business environment
the requirements for the kind of employees has also get changed. The M&S company looks for
the employee's skills and knowledge which is required by the company and matches with the
current objectives and scenario. Hiring the new employees for every change would be a costly
affair for the company so to solve this issue the company has to hire an expert who can teach or
train its employees and inherent that skill or knowledge in them. Through this the cost for the
company also gets save and the employees retention increases.
Bringing of improvements: As the company major strategies for its organisation get
modified or change, accordingly the HR needs to bring the necessary improvements just to cope

up with these necessary changes. The HR manager fills up the loop areas through their actions
and strategies in which a way that they bring their contribution in organisation in achieving their
objectives (Jiang, 2016)
The discussion which has been presented above, it can be concluded that the strategies
which are formed by the HR manager should be flexible enough that it manages the change in it.
Any change which is necessary to inculcate in the system, the strategies should be formed in a
way that they can absorb these changes.
External factor impacts on HR Strategies and practices
The HR policies and strategies are formed by undertaking both the external and internal
factors. External factors are also taken under account while forming the policies. For example,
the Marks and Spencer forms their HR strategies after taking the impacts of Brexit and also of
COVID 19. As due to Brexit the company became very confuse about the operations which they
have to perform. The trade geography got restricted in Brexit and also the migration of people
got stopped. This impacts the HR strategies of the company as now they need to form the rules in
relation with the new government rules formed due to Brexit. Also, as in the case with COVID-
19, the HR strategies got moulded or developed keeping in view the environmental changes
which are taking place. Now work from home was more encouraged by the organisation, and if
the employees are present in the office social distancing was mentioned and regularly the
temperatures of employees were measured. Apart from this the company was sanitise the whole
facility to protect the employees from Virus and meanwhile wearing mask was got compulsory
for all the people.
TASK 2
P3 Theories and concept related to the growth of employees
Theories and concept are necessary to apply when the organisation is operating at global
level. Application of these theories helps the organisation in bringing the growth and
development. There are number of theories and concept which an organisation can use, but it
must apply that concept or theory which is suitable to the work environment. The theories and
concept which are adopted by M&S company are as follows:
Situation: In the M&S company the production from the employees gets on reducing day by
day. From a research conducted within organisation it is got to know that the reduction of

productivity is due to the unnecessary policies implemented by the company. To solve this
particular problem following concept and theories can be applied by the company:
The theory or concept of personal management: This theory states that the employees
should be developed by company through providing the necessary training and development
program to them. The company believes that development of employees would directly leads to
the development of the organisation (Kaufman, 2020). Also M&S is very much active in respect
of new tools and techniques which can bring up the productivity of employees. For inculcate
such change in the organisation there is a need to make the system much flexible so that the
changes can be brought very easily.
The theory of human resource management: This theory states that the employees of an
organisation should be maintain in such a way that the employees retention can get increase.
Their major objective is to retain their talented employees. It has been observed that through
employing the talented employees an organisation can attain the competitive advantage. With the
application of such practice a strong bench mark could get set for the competitive companies.
This theory puts the direct impact upon the performances of employees as they know that this
can create an environment of better understanding, motivation, reduction in conflicts and conflict
management, and the like.
Strategic HRM: This theory helps the organisation in integrating the objectives of
employees career with the objective of organisation. They combine the culture and policies in
such a way it satisfies the employees of the company (Konrad, Yang and Maurer, 2016). The
Strategic HRM includes various strategies in it which includes:
Acquisition of talent: The organisation has planned to acquire their majority of talented
workforce from outside. These other sources may include advertisement at the professional
social media sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, companies own site, college campus recruitment, trip
fields and so on.
Cost reduction: Due to the proper planning and implementation of strategic HRM, enables the
company in saving much of cost as their would be less wastage of human power, more healthy
environment, more motivated employees which increase the employee retention percentage due
to which the cost of conducting the recruitment and selection cost get saved.
Improvement in talents: It states that the company can improve the productivity and efficiency
of employees by providing them the necessary training and development program. Through the

proper training and development program the employees can inculcate the skills which are in
demand and required by the current business scenario. This concept also increase the moral of
employees as they feel valued by the organisation (Rees and Smith, 2017).
Effective placement: When the organisation places the employees at the right position
according to the skills, knowledge and interest present him, a sense of motivation gets develops
in him. Through giving the work or position which the employees need will bring more
productivity in their work as they are performing the task of their own interest.
TASK 3
P4 Change management model for HR strategies
Change is a continuous process which is constantly taking place in business and business
environment. Inculcating the change in the system is a mandatory thing which an organisation
needs to perform. If an organisation does not bring up any change in its system and working then
it might get obsolete within some period of time. These changes are brought up through the
external factor majorly. These external factor may include the changes in the demand and need
of customers, the political or technological change, legal change, competitors and so on. In order
to bring change in the organisation the M&S follows or apply some set change management
model in their system (Ridder and Baluch, 2017). These models can be as:
Kotter's 8 steps model: The model was discovered by the professor of famous business school,
Harvard business School. It was first publish in the year 1995. The model includes the 8 steps
which are required to implement the change in any organisation. The application of change
management model in M&S organisation can be through :
Scenario: The organisation is planning is bring a change in the technology which they
are currently using. The new technology which M&S is planning to use is more effective and
efficient in its working but a bit more difficult to use. The objective to company is to implement
the technological change in management.

Source: Kotter's 8 step model of change, 2020
Increase urgency: At this step the organisation develops and create a need to bring up the change
into organisation. At managers and the top level management people creates the urgency by
convincing the employees the need to bring up the technological change. They would make the
employees understand about the benefits which their organisation would be having from that
technology.
Build up of coach team: At this step the organisation make a team of leaders who coach or
guide the employees about the need to bring up this technological change. The team and its
members motivate the employees to bring up the required change in the organisation. They
clears all the doubts and grievances which the employees have regarding the respective change.
Development of vision: In this step the group develops a small vision about the merits which
organisation would get through this change and the level of increase in the productivity level.
The organisation develops the strategies through which they can develops and implement the
change in a more easier and effective way.

Communication: The organisation then communicates the vision to its employees. The
communication comprises of the steps and the programs which employees need to follow up for
the proper implementation of change (Storey, Ulrich and Wright, 2019). In respect of the
scenario stated above, the organisation would communicate the strategy which they have planned
in implementing the new technologies in system.
Remove issues: This is the 5th step which the company follows. At this step the organisation tries
to remove the grievances which they are facing in the path of change. The barriers can be
brought by employees as they might resist the change, restrictions from system or structure
employed and etc. The organisation must identify these sources which are bringing the
restrictions in change and try to solve the problem.
Achieve short wins: The organisation should map out the small goals which would lead to the
path of long term success. The monitoring and achievement of small term wins would help in
proper establishment of technological change and from these the organisation can monitor that is
the change yielding any benefits to the company or not.
Building on the change: The organisation moves continuously on bringing up the required
change in the organisation. At this step the performance should be constantly monitored by the
organisation and if there is any gap between the actual and standard performance necessary
measures need to be taken.
Making of change stick: The organization at this step anchor the change which it is trying to
build up in the system. At this step the technological change which they organization had
planned to implement has already been freezes in the system and the employees are practising
that change.
Lewin change model: The model consists of 3 steps which can be as follows:
1. Unfreeze: At this step the organisation would stop practising the operations or activities
which it was performing with respect to technology used. As in the case with M&S
company, the organisation would make the employees to not to practice for the current
technological activities as they have to bring the necessary change in that.
2. Change: At this step the organisation brings the necessary changes in their operational
activities and take the necessary steps in establishing the same in a smooth and effective
way. As in the case with M&S company, they have provided the required training and

development programs to their employees to make them comfortable with the new
technology.
3. Freeze: At this step the organisation has already established their change and the
employees have become used to that change. As in the case with M&S, the employees
after bringing the technological change would freeze the change till the next requirement.
The employees here have developed the habit for performing their activities with regard
to that technological change.
TASK 4
P5 Measuring and monitoring of HR outcomes
Measuring and monitoring the outcomes is very much necessary as they help in the
getting to know about the success of planned results. Through proper monitoring and
measurement of outcomes the organisation would be able to know about the areas where they are
lacking an d where the major focus needs to get paid. The various approaches are used by the
organisation in evaluating and directing the HR outcomes which are as follows:
Performance of employees: The outcomes can be evaluated through the performances which
the employees have performed yet. If the performance of the employees are not up to the mark
then an analysis of the reason behind it get search and main reason are find out so to bridge the
gap between the actual and required objectives. The M&S company apply this approach in
measuring out the outcomes from HR strategies, if they believe that the employees performances
have made a positive change then these strategies are beneficiaries for company.
Revenue yield by company: The HR outcomes can also be measured and monitored through the
percentage of profit yield in an organisation after the implementation of strategies. If the profit
made by M&S company is more or equivalent to the target set then the strategies formed are
providing benefits to the organisation but if the profit yield by the company is below the targeted
set then there is an urgent need to review all the strategies formed by HR.
Connection of customers: The outcomes can also be evaluated through monitoring the review
and response by the customers towards the company. Maintaining a good connection between
the customers and the company is very important as they increases the brand image, connection,
goodwill, loyalty and so on (Westover, 2019). The company constantly monitors and measures
the connection of customers with organisation. The strategies which are build up the company

are developed in a view to increase the bond between the customers and company. If the
connection between the two is not up to the target set then their would be an urgent need to make
the changes in strategies. But if the feedback or review about the building up of connection
between the two is as per the target then the strategies formed are yielding profits to the
company.
P6 Employee development and sustainability development
Now a day the organisation are following and adopting more sustainability development
in their system and structure. They all know that this the new way to bring up the growth and
development into organisation. It has been observed that the organisation which are applying the
sustainability development in their operations are tend to yield more profit and success into the
market place. The department of HR proves to be a great help in establishing the sustainability
development in M&S company. They brought the new ways and skills to the employees who are
facing problems in performing their work by giving them the proper required training and
development program. There are some tools and techniques through which the organisation can
measure the performance of employees:
KPI's: KPI stands for key performance indicators. It is an approach in which the
company evaluates the quantifiable value for the performances which the organisation has
achieved yet. In the performance evaluation the company under takes the finances, operations
performance, employees’ performance, its strategy formation and etc. and then these are
compared with the other companies. The major purpose of the company to use this tool is to find
out the area where the organisation needs improvement.
Bench marking: Bench marketing is an approach in which the organisation compares the
business practices and metrics with other companies which are considered as the best in whole
industry. In this approach a bench mark is set for M&S which works as a target for the company.
This bench mark is set up for the company by reviewing and comparing the performances of the
best company. The M&S company would be forming their strategies in such a way that they can
achieve they can achieve the objectives which they have set according to the performance of best
company in that industry.
Through the application of these approaches the organisation would be able to put focus
upon their sustainability development and growth. These approaches aim at developing the