Strategic Human Resource Management Report for River Island Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) within the context of River Island, a UK-based clothing company. The report is divided into two main parts. The first part examines the crucial relationship between business strategy and HR strategy, highlighting how effective HRM, including recruitment, selection, and employee motivation, supports the achievement of organizational goals. It explores key concepts such as vertical alignment, horizontal integration, and the application of SHRM models like the Ulrich Model and the Harvard model. The second part focuses on HR practices, specifically performance management and reward systems, emphasizing their importance in employee development and retention. The report also discusses the design and redesign of performance management systems, providing recommendations for effective implementation. Finally, the report covers the nature and theoretical perspectives of employment relations, exploring the roles of actors, the changing dynamics of employment, and mechanisms for employee participation.

Strategic Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Relationship between Business Strategy and Human resource strategy.....................................1
HR practices of Performance Management and Reward............................................................4
Design/re-design a performance management system................................................................5
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Nature and theoretical perspectives of Employment relations....................................................6
Roles of the actors within the employment relationship.............................................................8
Changing nature of employment relations..................................................................................9
Mechanisms of employee participation and employee voice.....................................................9
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic Human Resource Management is the practice of attracting, developing,
rewarding and retaining staff with an objective of providing benefits to both employees as an
individuals and organization as a whole. For this, HR department is held liable to create
strategies suitable for organizational goals and objectives through receiving valuable information
from other departments. The present assignment is based on River Island which is UK-based
company engaging in providing wide range of clothing products is selected for the purpose of
preparing this report. The present report is described into two parts in which one part explains
the relationship among human resource strategy and Business strategy whereas second part
includes the theoretical perspectives and nature of employment relation. All the related aspects
are briefly explained under this report in the context of River Island Company .
TASK 1
Relationship between Business Strategy and Human resource strategy
Human resource department play a significant role in directing human resource towards
achieving organizational goals and objectives therefore it is important for an organisation to have
skilled and knowledgeable members in HR departments so that effective plans and policies are
formulated for the development of employees working for betterment of an organisation. River
Island is a UK-based company operated at multiple number of nations which deals in providing
wide range of clothing products. It successfully sustain in competitive market due to having an
effective Human resource management who recruit, select and motivate employees to perform
well (Decramer, Smolders and Vanderstraeten, 2013).
Strategic human resource management is such a practice of developing performance level
of employees through taking suitable actions for their benefits such as staff training and
development programs, rewards, promotions etc. Therefore, it is considered as most effective
approach of managing and developing human resource. SHRM is directly related with business
and performance of human capital.
Business strategy refers to a set of actions or decisions which assist the business to
achieve its desired goals and objectives within pre-determined time period. It is called as master
plan which assist organisations such as River Island to secure its competitive position in the
market, carrying out its operations, retain loyalty of customers and achieve the desired ends of
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the business. It requires maximum support from HR department in form of fulfilling human
resource at workplace.
Therefore, both business strategy and human resource strategy are made by top
authorities of an organization with a clear objective of achieving organisational goals within pre-
determined time period. In addition with this, there are some common points which defines the
relationship among business strategy and resource strategies:
Executive business policies: Top authorities of River Island formulate an effective
business plans and strategies which should required to communicate with human resource
management in order to execute such policies in more desired way. It increased the chances of
achieving profitable result in future due to having adequate support from HR department (Guest
and Conway, 2011).
Manage and control: Business strategies defines the activities that need to be performed
by the departments therefore it makes easy for HR management to allot roles and responsibilities
to its employees so as to achieve desired results. Managing and controlling activities performed
by employees ensures success of business strategy.
HR strategy is Business strategy: The human resource strategies is an important part of
business strategy as both have common objectives. For example, roles and responsibilities of
different departments are defined under business strategy which shall be performed by human
resource thus HR manager is held liable to communicate and allot task to its human resource
considering business goals and objectives.
HR strategy and Business productivity: Human resource strategy includes recruiting,
retaining and selecting skilled and knowledgeable employees as well as developing them through
conducting training and development program in order to make them more capable to perform
well and bring desired result for the betterment of an organization (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson,
2012).
Interaction between Executive leadership: Business strategy and HR strategy brings all
superiors and subordinates together to achieve common objective which supports in maintaining
healthy relationship among members of organization as well as creating healthy work
environment.
Developing business strategies and solution: Top authorities formulates business plans
and strategies which requires support from different departments such as HR department,
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production department etc. in order to execute business policies in more effective and desired
way. This will maximizes the chances of achieving success of business plans which in turn
support organization to achieve strong position among their rivals in competitive market.
Vertical Alignment and Horizontal integration of River Island:
Horizontal integration: It refers to an integration of the human resource with an
objective of executing pre-determined business plans and objectives in more desirable manner. It
can be possible through recruiting candidates with high pay scale with the needed competencies,
conducting induction and personal development programs so as to maximize the contribution of
human resource towards organizational goals (Keupp, Palmié and Gassmann, 2012).
Vertical Alignment: It refers to the alignment of HR strategies which can be vary across
firms but should be aligned with the adopted perspectives of the firm. Thus, it is important for
River Island to present possible HR strategies given different strategic management perspectives.
It facilitate employees to understand the company's goals and objectives and further described
them to others and are united behind them. In this, HR manager play an important role in
involving employees in decision-making process so as to communicate them about their
important of their position towards company's goals.
Theoretical basis and models of SHRM:
Strategic human resource management is an effective strategies formulated by HR department
with an objective of developing human resource of company. It includes recruiting, retaining and
selecting employees, rewards, performance appraisal etc. Following are the some theories and
models which can be supported strategies of Human resource management of River Island:
Ulrich Model of HRM: David Ulrich defines the four roles that need to be performed by
the members of HR Departments which are mentioned below:
HR Business partner: It is a member who is responsible to communicate with the
internal parties such as employees, shareholders etc. in order to identify their needs and
requirements at workplace. HR business partner provides suggestions and share HR goals with
employees in order to provide them guidance and direction towards achieving organizational
goals (Nyberg and et. al., 2014).
Change agent: It is a member who is responsible to organize training opportunities for
their staff so as to develop their skills and knowledge which makes easy for them to achieve
growth and success in their personal as well as professional career.
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Administration Expert: It is the member of HR department who is responsible to
organize employee information and making sure that it it up to data. In addition with this, they
are liable to implement various laws such as equal right act, 2010, data protection act etc. so as to
secure confidential information from their rivals.
Employee advocate/employee champion: It is a member of HR department who is
responsible to maximize the morale and satisfaction level of employees at workplace which can
be done through providing them rewards, resolving their work related problems, promotions etc.
They are mainly focuses on achieving growth personal as well as professional career (Paauwe
and Boon, 2018).
The Harvard model:
This is the model which is recognised the influence that various stakeholders of River
Island have on the development of HR policies. Such model has suggested organisation that
effective implementation of HR policies had a number of long-term consequences one of which
was organisational effectiveness. It seeks to comprise six components of HRM such as
stakeholders, interests, situational factors, HRM policy choices, HR outcomes, Long term
consequences and feedback loop which in turn increases commitment, congruence, competence
and cost effectiveness of company.
HR practices of Performance Management and Reward
There are various HR practices which is required to be implemented by HR management
so as to develop skills and knowledge of employees in order to gain maximum contribution from
them. Such practices includes training and development programs, performance appraisal,
rewards, compensation etc. in order to bring motivation and confidence among their employees.
Such practices positively impact on the performance level of employees and make them easy to
achieve growth and success in their professional career. The motive of implementation of HR
practices is to retain skilled and experienced employees with company for longer period of time
(Ployhart and et. al., 2011). Therefore, it is essential for HR manager of River Island to adopt
several HRM practices some of which are given as under:
Performance appraisal: It is such kind of appraisal which are in form of promotion given
to employees on the basis of their performance. It brings motivation among employees to work
hard to achieve better position in company among their rivals. It help in increasing work
commitment and retention of employees with company for longer period of time.
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Reward: It is also an effective HR practices in which HR manager reward their
employees through giving extra monetary payments which can be in form of cash or in kind after
analysing their past performances. It encourages employees to give their contribution to achieve
benefits provided by company. Following are the main elements of reward package:
Financial reward package:
Compensation: It refers to the amount of payment received by employees in exchange of
services they offered to company. It includes wages, salaries, bonuses, commission etc. which
are paid by company on regular time intervals.
Incentives: It refers to rewards provided by HR Management to their employees in cash
or in kind with an objective of motivating them to perform allotted activities in more effective
and efficient manner. It can be paid after analysing the performance level of employees in
previous years (Poister, Pitts and Hamilton Edwards, 2010).
Non-financial rewards:
Work life balance: It refers to providing healthy environment at workplace and promoted
healthy balance between personal and professional life.
Performance recognition: It is another type of reward which is given by HR department
to its employees on the basis of their past performances. For this, HR manager identify the skills
and knowledge of employees and on the basis of which reward them to a higher position in
company.
Therefore, HR practices enhances the relationship between employer and employees.
Some other contribution of employer towards development of human resource are given as
under:
Employer: They are responsible to identify the skills and requirements of employees at
workplace and accordingly make suitable plans to maximise their working behaviour.
Employees: They are the one whose efforts decide the success and growth of an
organisation. It contributes maximum contribution towards organisational goals through working
in a team.
Design/re-design a performance management system
HR management may find difficulties in designing or redesigning performance system as
it is based on the performance, relationship with employees, payroll etc. In simple words,
performance management may be described as managing activities and bring out optimum
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solutions to execute such activities in more effective way. Thus, HR management should make
an effective performance system which includes five steps that are determined as under:
Keep it simple: To get engage in new business process, it requires to provide motivation
among employees to work hard and collect feedbacks as well in order to remove hurdles that
comes in execution of work (Swart and Kinnie, 2010).
Have a purpose: The management should first clear the aim of designing performance
management system which further shall be communicate with employees along with the benefits
so as to encourage them.
Ditch top down approach: Under this step, management should collect 360feedbakc
from employees in order to identify the actual perception and working behaviour along with
interest and opinions of managers.
Introduce upward feedback: In this step, feedbacks should be collected not only from
employees but also determine views and suggestions of managers related with existing working
environment.
Set regular, useful goods: Under this, management should motivate their staff to focus
on pre-determined goals and objectives and perform accordingly so as to achieve competitive
advantage in market as well.
Following all above steps, River Island can able to design or re-design the effective performance
management system (Vogel and Güttel, 2013).
Recommendation
It has been recommended to the HR department of River Island to make plans and
practices for the betterment of human resource as the execution of business strategies are al
depend on them. It includes HR practices such as performance appraisal, rewards etc. as well as
adoption of various models such as Harvard, Ulrich Model of HRM etc. which brings
motivation among employees to work hard and contribute maximum efforts in achieving
organisational goals and objectives.
TASK 2
Nature and theoretical perspectives of Employment relations
An organization most valuable assets are there employees , who work together to
perform various activities to achieve the goals and objectives of organization. An employment
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relationship deals with the relationship between the employee and employers. Both the
employees and employers has common objectives to achieve competitive advantage in the
market. It is necessary to create good relationship between top level management and employees
to maintain positive environment. With the help of healthy employee relationship both employee
and employer are able to perform their best without any issues regarding to work or operational
tasks. River Island is clothing company which uses four perspectives of employee's relationship
such as Unitary, Pluralist, Marxist and Strategic (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011).
Unitarist perspective: To attain common desired goals, the employees and employers
should work together in unity. The members of the organization should feel free to share their
values ideas and views to find out optimum solution for specific task. This sharing of ideas
among the subordinates is possible only if there is proper channel of communication and mutual
coordination among the employees. This approach of employment relationship enables to make
good professional relationship with subordinates. There are two implication in regard to this are
as follows:
Conflict: Conflict mainly arises among the employees due to differences in opinion and
ideas. It creates negative impact in the working environment which directly effects performance
of each and every individual employee.
Trade Union: Trade Union are formed to raise voice against the management is case of
employee dissatisfaction and discrimination. It is group of employees who work collectively to
represent employees issues and sort out their problem to achieve organization goals.
Pluralist perspective: River Island operates with different departments to achieve
common goals and objectives of the organization. Communication allows to create healthy
relation among different departments as it help to develop and find out solution regarding any
task issues or typical circumstances. There are mainly two groups involved in perspective
approach which are management and trade unions. The management is responsible to create
healthy communication channel among the employees of different departments to overcome the
issues regarding specific tasks. On the other hand trade union act as representative of employees
in the organization to sort of issues of disputes with the help of collective bargaining. Some of
the application regarding to this approach are as follows:
 River Island should try to improve employee relations for sorting out the issues
regarding to tasks and try to resolve it.
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 River Island should try to solve out disputes by using external conciliation and
arbitrators
 The leader of Trade Union should try to motivate employees to perform best to
achieve both personal goals and organizational goals.
Marxist perspective: In the aspects of Marxist perspective, the organization focus on
maintaining industrial relationship with the society. This perceptive is popular with the name of
radical perspective. This approach helps in evaluation of sociology-economic situation and
analyse social disputes.
Strategic perspective: Strategic perspective involves process of linking the human resources
functions with strategic objectives in order to achieve organizational goals and improve
performance. River Island uses strategic perspective to improve and enhance the performance
management of the organization. Few of approach regarding this perspective are as follows:
Best fit: Best fit approach consider that there is no existing universal prescription for human
resources management practices. It mainly concern with fit between organization's stage of
development and human resource activities (Strategic human resource management, 2016).
Best practices: Best practice approach consider that human resources management practices
are useful and adopting this practices will lead to upraise the organizational performance. To
obtain superior business performance it is important to practice human resource practices.
Resource Based View: Resource based view is consider as internal process that emphasis on
organization's internal characteristics and performance. In this approach assumptions are made
that resources are not mobile that means cannot be easily bought and sold and therefore it is
heterogeneous.
Roles of the actors within the employment relationship
There are basically three parties who are involved in having good relationship between
the management and employees:
Employer: They are the one who are responsible to make suitable plans and policies for
the betterment of human resource so as to create healthy work environment. Analyzing the
performance level of employees by employers and accordingly giving them rewards, bonus etc.
established healthy relationship with employees.
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Employee: They are the one who follows all plans and policies formulated by employers
and perform accordingly so as to achieve desired result within limited time period. Performing
according to rules and strategies made by employers establishes good employment relationship.
Government: It is another party which also contribute maximum in maintaining healthy
employment relationship through directing management to implement various laws and act such
as equal right act, 2010, Health and safety act etc. made by them.
Changing nature of employment relations
There are various factors which can adversely affect the employment relations such as
outdated technology, poor management, lack of motivation etc. due to which it required
management to make some relevant changes in existing working environment so as to develop
healthy employment relationship. For this, HR department need to make suitable policies and
strategies to maximizes the interest and working behavior of employees. It includes:
 Modification in workforce environment.
 Appraisal of performance
 Assigning roles and responsibilities on the basis of their skills and capabilities.
 Fulfilling Needs and expectations of workforce
Mechanisms of employee participation and employee voice
It is important for worker to get participate in all business exercises and basic leadership
process in order to give profitable inputs and recommendations which assist management with
making a viable choices and plans. As the workers are much mindful about the conditions exist
in workplace in this manner management need to take perspectives and assessments from them
before actualizing any choice or plans. The worker voice alludes to giving recommendations,
sees, assessments and so on to the management and the issues they faces at working
environment. In the event that specialists will bring their voice up in positive way then it will
settle on positive effect on the basic leadership process. This will likewise have great effect on
business condition, profitability, development and deals. In this manner, interest of workers in
basic leadership process will assist management with knowing precise circumstance of business
condition.
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Recommendation
It has been recommended to the HR management of River Island to make an effective
decision and suitable policies so as to make relevant changes in existing working environment. It
includes identification and fulfilling needs of employees at workplace, providing rewards,
assigning roles and responsibilities to employees according to the skills and capabilities etc. It
support in enhancing employment relationship at workplace which directly increases
productivity and profitability of company.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that Strategic human resource
management play a significant role in the growth and success of an organisation through
fulfilling the human resource having an effective skills and knowledge. Strategic HRM and
business strategy are interrelated with each other as it have common objective to achieve. HR
department should implement various HRM practices such as performance appraisal, rewards,
compensation etc. in order to maximise the working behaviour of employees and gain maximum
contribution from them in achieving organisational goals and objectives.
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