Strategic Human Resource Management Report

This report is a case study analyzing Tesco plc's strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices and their impact on the organization's performance. It employs an exploratory research design using secondary data sources like books, journals, and past research. The report examines various HRM models, including Ulrich's model, and explores how Tesco's approach (or lack thereof) affected employee morale, productivity, and ultimately, profitability. Key findings reveal that Tesco's failure to effectively implement structured HRM practices, particularly in aligning HR objectives with business strategy, led to significant losses. The report concludes with recommendations for Tesco to improve its SHRM practices, emphasizing legal compliance, efficient HR processes, effective HR programs, and strategic alignment to enhance employee development, retention, and overall organizational success.

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Strategic
Human
Resource
Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Employees are one of the major assets of an organization. Companies create wide impact
on growth and development within this competitive market by managing strong and committed
team of employees. SHRM is a process of analysing organizational goals and objectives and
linking those with the employees’ development and growth. It is a system whereby companies
develop strategies to enhance competency by involving employees in the key decisions of the
company. This helps the companies in enhancing competitive edge through acquiring a strong
team of committed employees. Present study evaluated various measures adopted by
organizations in order to attain global success in this competitive world. The report will focus on
creating an in depth analysis of Tesco plc by evaluating the impact of implementing strategic
human resource management in the organizational operations. The current study is an
exploratory research as it seeks different methods and strategies that have helped Tesco in
developing in measures of human resource management system to attain high measures of
success within the organization. Exploratory research design helped researcher in developing a
clear analysis of various theoretical models into practical business situation. On the basis of
finding and evaluation of the research study it is evident that Tesco has not implemented
structure measures of managing human resource functions. This caused wide impact on HR
practices. The company was unable to attain a strong and committed team of employees.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................5
FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................6
Human Resource management....................................................................................................6
Role of SHRM.............................................................................................................................8
Ulrich models of HRM..............................................................................................................10
Internal and External Influences................................................................................................12
Changes that Envisage in Three Years......................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................17
Company analysis......................................................................................................................17
Action Plan................................................................................................................................18
Reflective study.........................................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
Employees are one of the major assets of an organization. Companies create wide impact
on growth and development within this competitive market by managing strong and committed
team of employees. Global growth of business units has increased organizational efficiency by
introducing the process of culture diversity within organizational operations. Employees are the
only resources which could be trained and developed to attain loyalty to attain effective measures
of success in this competitive market. Human resource management within the organization
develops a system of creating wide measures of growth in the economy through growth and
development of the employees. Strategic HRM is an operational measure which links employee
development and growth as one of the major objective of the company in order to attain high
measure of growth and success within the market. From the statistics, it has been found that 4 out
of 10 HR functions perceives as a single HR team whereas 27% saw themselves as adopting
Ulrich Model. However, this has been argued by Storey, (2014) that by developing a team of
expertise, each one doesn’t possess the opportunity to resolve the issue or problem that exists in
the organization. Also it has been state that this viewpoint promotes task culture in the
organization whereas Ulrich model focuses on developing role culture. From this, discrepancies
attains in the motivational level of employees that somewhere affects the morale of the
employees.
According to Akhtar, Ding and Ge (2008) SHRM is a process of analysing organizational
goals and objectives and linking those with the employees’ development and growth. It is a
system whereby companies develop strategies to enhance competency by involving employees in
the key decisions of the company. This helps the companies in enhancing competitive edge
through acquiring a strong team of committed employees. Lepak and Shaw, (2008) defines
SHRM ensures the integration of strategic planning with HR policies to adhere system
development of business while managing day to day activities. In addition to it, CIPD research
states that 17% of HR professionals focus on prioritizing business issue rather than HR problems
but 43% focuses on HR more primarily. It is been stated in favour of the statement by Urtasun-
Alonso and et.al., (2014) that large organization are highly focusing on HR issues. HR manager
are developing appropriate strategies in this context so that employees can be retained for longer.
Moreover, they are prioritizing HR functions to talent management, employee empowerment,
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talent acquisition, high compensation scheme and other related. Contrary to this Armstrong and
Taylor, (2014) found that small and medium sector are struggling with HR issues and are highly
focusing on recruitment only. Very less concern are shown towards motivation and retention of
employees.
Further, CIPD claimed that driving change in one of the major challenges in present
scenario. This is the actual scenario now a days as employees need to change their working
pattern due to high amount of uncertainty and differences in the external environment. In this
context, Nyberg and et.al., (2014) stated that employees are now working in a stressful
environment which is another concern for HR to drive change in the company. Hence, it is
required that company must focus on activities through which resistant to change can be
managed.
Present study will evaluate various measures adopted by organizations in order to attain
global success in this competitive world. The repost will focus on creating an in depth analysis of
Tesco plc by evaluating the impact of implementing strategic human resource management in the
organizational operations. The organization is a well established global organization operating
successfully in more than 12 countries. The study will implement theoretical models and
examples to critically analyse the factors which have helped the company to grow and develop in
this high level of market competition.
METHODOLOGY
This segment of the report focuses on creating a proper understanding of the given topic
by adopting an appropriate structure to analyse the topic for the given study. Research
methodology creates a well developed measure of studying the given topic for the research study
(Wei and Lau, 2008). Appropriate research plan can be defined as a methodology of
investigation which comprises different tools and techniques of research which helps in
completing the whole investigation in smooth way. It provides a detailed idea about various
methods and theories implemented in the report to carry out the conclusion.
The current study is an exploratory research as it seeks different methods and strategies
that have helped Tesco in developing in effective measures of human resource management
system to attain high measures of success within the organization. Exploratory research design
helped researcher in developing a clear analysis of various theoretical models into practical
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business situation (Li, Frenkel and Sanders, 2011). Qualitative research method has been adopted
to analyse the subjective concepts of the give topic. This research type has been adopted as
employee behaviours is subjected to behavioral factors which is efficiently understood applying
qualitative research measures.
To carry out the research, secondary sources of data collection have been used. The
secondary sources of data such as books, journals, findings of past researches and various articles
has been considered which has helped in developing a means of creating research analysis for the
given topic. This previously approved data creates high level of reliability for developing
efficient finding for the given research problem.
FINDINGS
This part of the report creates a detailed understanding of all the models and theoretical
concepts regarding human resource management in the business units. It creates a detailed
analysis of various concepts, theories and models adopted by the organizations. This segment of
the study critically analyses the application of stated theories and models in the business
operations of Tesco. It creates an analysis of various measures which the organization has
adopted to gain the global success.
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Human Resource management
Figure 1 HRM
(Source: Buss, 2015)
Analysis
Human resource is of the most basic need of every business unit. Various researches and
studies have helped the companies in analysing the need and significance of talented team of
employees for the success of business unit. As per the Sudin, (2011), employee helps a business
unit to grow and develop efficiently within the competitive market. Researches revealed the fact
that every business unit is focusing on developing competitive strategies recruiting and retaining
the employees as this helps in managing the cost and profitability of the companies.
According to Paauwe and Boon, (2009) employees are the resources which help the
business unit in creating an affluent organizational culture within the company. This provides
them a competitive edge in the market as organizational culture is the integral and exclusive part
of the company which cannot be replicated by the competitive firms. Human resource
management as per the Alvesson, (2009) carries out the basic roles planning, organizing staffing,
directing and controlling.
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Findings
On the basis of above findings it is evident that HRM functions are significant for the
organizations to grow and develop within the market. Researches and data helps in analysing that
Tesco is facing a major issue of managing HRM functions within the company (Schuler and
Jackson, 2008). The recent crisis of the company revealed inefficiency of the organizational
practices within the economy. This was one of the leading factors which led to low employee
productivity and high labour turnover. The organization was unable to work as a team thus faced
major financial crises in the year 2014-15.
Evaluation
Employees are one of the most crucial resources of the company. Organizations
efficiently focus on developing and managing human resource of the company in order to create
an effective impact on organizational growth and development. Tesco did not develop
appropriate policies and values within the organization to manage and maintain the development
of employees. The leading practices of employee bullying and ill-treatment resulted in adverse
impact on trust and loyalty within the employees. This minimized the level of productivity of
employees thus resulted in high business losses. Effective management of HR functions would
have resulted in favourable outcomes for the company.
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Role of SHRM
Figure 2 Strategic HRM
(Source: Veld, 2012)
Analysis
Various researches and organizational audits revealed the fact that HRM roles have
changed in due course of time. Business units have developed and system of employee
management and development to create a valid impact on overall growth and development of the
business units. As per Veld, (2012) traditional HR practices focused on basic HR roles such as
recruitment, selection, training, development, remuneration etc. however recent era has
developed the Strategic human resource management system which has changed the perception
for employees. In words of Stanton and Nankervis (2011) employees are assets of the company
which helps the business units in developing growth prospects in the overall development of
business. This measure has created wide impact on employee retention and organizational
profitability.
The above model clearly analyses the changing role of HR for the business organizations.
On the basis of the given mentioned theory businesses today focuses on integrating the strategic
planning of the company with overall HR strategies. Minbaeva, (2013) mentioned in one of the
research that companies revolved the business strategy around the HR strategy in order to create
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a competitive edge within the market. The management develops the internal organizational
strength by creating positive impact on the employees. The major objective of companies is to
retain strong and committed team of employees. This has forced the business units in changing
the role of HRM. The Role of Strategic HRM is discussed henceforth.
 Resourcing strategy: This strategy focuses of measures adopted by the entities to pool the
talent for the organizations. It includes the strategic role in terms of HR planning,
recruitment and selection functions (Wood, 2009).
 Human resource development strategy: This role focuses on creating effective strategies
of developing the employees of the company in order to motivate them for retaining
employees. Functions such as training, development, career development etc. are
considered by the businesses.
 Reward strategy: This role of SHRM focuses on developing appropriate measures of
compensating employees and creating high impact on overall organization growth.
Functions such as employee compensations, developing reward measures etc. are
considered for this strategy (Brewster and Mayrhofer, 2009).
 Employee relation strategy: Managing employee relations to create a valid impact on
enhancing employee satisfaction and trust for the company is focused here. Functions
such as considering regulatory framework of working, grievance management measures,
collective bargaining, labour welfare measures etc. are considered for the same.
Finding
On the basis of above analysis it has been analysed that Tesco plc did not effectively
meet the expectations and needs of employees. As per the organizational audit and financial and
organizational review the company was unable to implement appropriate measures of employee
development and growth within the company. The strategic analysis of Tesco reveals that the
organization was solely focused on cost minimization strategy which resulted in ignoring
employee needs and demands (Sparrow, 2013). Moreover the organization involved the
employees in strategic development of the company to a limited extent. News regarding bullying
practices clearly states that the company ignored the safety needs of employee which ultimately
resulted in losing the trust and loyalty of employees thus creating wide impact on the
profitability of the company.
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Evaluation
On the basis of above analysis it is evident form the report that HRM has changed the
roles significantly in the present era. This has helped the companies in creating wide impact on
overall growth and development companies. Tesco is one of the leading retail business units
(Youssef and Luthans, 2007). Employees are the crucial part of the growth and development of
the company as they are the face of the business. Managing a strong and motivated team of
employees would have helped the company in enhancing overall growth by developing high
market sales. However ineffective HR practices and low integration of HR objectives with
business strategy resulted in developing low impact on employee motivation.
Ulrich models of HRM
Figure 3 Ulrich model of HRM
(Source: Taking HR Analytics Beyond Technologists. 2015)
Analysis
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Dave Ulrich developed a model of creative HR practices in order to enhance the
organizational functions efficiently. This model created an effective impact on the growth and
development of employees of the company through strategic implementation of HR roles and
responsibilities. The model was based on the four HR philosophies.
 Strategic partners: This philosophy of the organization ensures that its practices,
processes, and policies complement the overall organizational strategy. It must develop
a capacity to execute the strategies such that organization has to invest minimum time in
implementation of new measures (Colquitt, Lepine and Wesson, 2009). This helps in
enhancing the organizational functions to a high extent such that the growth of the
company is ensured. The model ensures effective HR planning and culture development
in order to ensure success and development in the competitive market.
 Change agent: This philosophy of the company focuses on managing change within the
company efficiently. Companies focus on developing HR activities such that it
efficiently supports the change management of within the business (Wright and Nishii,
2007). Functions such as staffing, advocacy, performance management etc. supports the
philosophy efficiently. Companies develop the organizational designs to infuse effective
flexibility within the system.
 Administrative experts: This role involves HR infrastructure, such as recruiting, hiring,
compensating, rewarding and disciplining, training, recordkeeping, and terminating, and
any other process that involves people. HR executives carry out the effective planning,
monitoring and controlling roles in order to ensure the growth and development of the
company (Spector, 2008). This role helps the organization in creating a wide impact on
developing a competitive edge within the market.
 Employee champion: This role of the model focuses on developing an effective
employee relations function which helps the employee in creating high level of trust and
loyalty for the business unit. Businesses employ HR development and relationship
measures to create high level of employee integration and management (Kotter, 2008).
This measure ensures employee safety and social development to develop belongingness
for the firm.
Finding
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