An Analysis of Strategic Resource Management at J Sainsbury Plc

This report provides an in-depth analysis of strategic resource management within J Sainsbury Plc, focusing on the critical role of Human Resource Management (HRM). It explores Sainsbury's objectives, highlighting how HRM contributes to achieving them, including exceeding customer expectations, providing quality food, and meeting customer needs. The report delves into HRM's functions, such as staffing, workplace policies, compensation, training, and employee retention. It examines recruitment and retention strategies, including face-to-face interviews and reward systems, and assesses techniques for employee development, like training and leadership. Furthermore, it evaluates the impact of these techniques on employee engagement and the strategies employed by the HR department to support the organization's overall strategy, including high-performance management and corporate social responsibility. The report also analyzes physical resource management, outlining the objectives, physical resources, and management implications, and assessing the role of physical resource management in the organization. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of how Sainsbury's manages its resources to achieve its business goals.

Strategic resource management

INTRODUCTION
Strategic resource management refers to the connection between objectives and resources
of the organisation. Whether it is human resource, physical resource, technology, skills, time etc.
all the resources help to achieve the goals of the company. The major aim of strategic resource
management is to gain competitive advantage, innovation, advance flexibility etc (Taylor,
Doherty and McGraw, 2015). The Report is based on J Sainsbury Plc. which deals in Retail
industry. It was founded in year 1869 by John James Sainsbury. Company offers wide range of
products through chain of supermarkets, superstores, convenience shops etc. There are various
subsidiaries of Sainsbury such as Argos, Sainsbury 's Bank, Habitat etc. The Report will outline
the function of Human Resource Management. It will further describe physical resources that are
required to attain objectives of company, role of management of physical resource within the
firm and process followed by the company to prepare the plan for requirement of physical
resources. Moreover, the Report will explain the role of marketing for supporting the strategy of
business, the importance of marketing in achieving objectives of organisation, marketing
operations and process etc. Other than this, Report will also outline contribution of Information
System Management in achieving objectives of firm.
MAIN BODY
1.1 The objectives of Sainsbury and explanation of HRM contribution to achievements.
Sainsbury has aim to exceed customer’s expectations during the shopping experience.
The main objective of firm is to provide great food at fair price with the best quality as well as
meet customer needs successfully. Every successful organisation has the great HRM
management which is highly contributed in business for achievements in effective manner.
HRM contribution in Sainsbury for achievements
 Human resource management is give highest contribution in organisation in order to
achieve goals and objectives of firm.
 HRM help to develop organisational structure because HR have overview of whole
business structure.
 HRM is keep records of company like taxes and increase performance.
 HRM department is give motivation to employees in order to achieve goals and
objectives of Sainsbury.

 HRM team is organize training and development program for employees. This help to
understand food products and quality of food.
1.2 Appraisal of role of HRM in Sainsbury.
Human resource management play an important role in Sainsbury for achieve every goals
and objectives. HR manager takes very important and effective place in organisation for success.
There are various roles of HRM such as staffing, develop workplace policies, compensation and
benefits administration, training and development, worker’s protection and retention. Critical
evaluation of roles of HRM are underneath:
 Manager of Human resource oversee the most important component of successful
business like a productivity and workforce.
 The team suggested to management team how work strategically manage people as the
business resources.
 Human resource management plays a major role in organisation because this provide best
training and development program to employees.
 HR is also develop skills of employees for the future growth factor. For example: HR
manager advise to supervisor how to assign different roles to employees in organisation
then for that they made schedule for work.
 Most important role of HR manager is to develop loyalty and commitment of employees.
This will be starting from recruiting process or matching employees with the rights
positioning as per the qualification required.
Through that Manager of human resource department plays an important role in organisation in
order to achieve goals and objectives of company (Cascio, 2015.).
2.1 Strategies for Recruitment and retention in Sainsbury.
Recruitment and retention are two most important part of Sainsbury for hiring and
motivating employees. HR manager of Sainsbury has strategy to recruit and retain employees
which are as follows:
Recruitment strategies
 A good recruitment process help to minimize the time involved in the influencing,
interviewing, hiring and training. It is very important process which is build a positive
image of customers, peers and competitors.

 Recruitment process is important for the business in order to finding the best candidate
for team growth as well as company growth because it is necessary to find best
candidates for company.
 Recruitment process is help to save training time and money with proper selection. For
example: Sainsbury manager is select the best candidate as per qualification then it give
proper contribution for work. It is effective and valuable for team work.
 Sainsbury is follows the face to face interview process for hire best candidates for team
and its growth factors.
 Interview is best process for hiring candidates because with the help of this manager of
Sainsbury is able to hire best candidates as well as able to understand the needs and wants
of candidates with company.
Retention strategies:
 Retention is other important strategy which is help to motivating employees to stay
within the organisation.
 In order to retain employee in organisation, Sainsbury manager is use both reward system
like financial and non-financial reward. With the help of this, they motivate to their
employees by providing best and special comment in front of whole staff member.
2.2 Assessment of tools and techniques used to develop employees in Sainsbury.
Investing in development of employees is most important part for Sainsbury. Developing
employee’s skills help to recruiting and retaining the best employees and it also allows
delegating focus on the roles as a manager.
 Training and development is most important technique that helps to raise employee's
performance in company and quoted firm also uses the same into its working place. With
the help of this technique, employer is able to develop own skills in positive manner.
Employees training and development process is best and effective process in order to
develop employee performance in Sainsbury. In the training section, manager of
Sainsbury is provide proper information about work and functions of company. This will
give negative and positive impact on employees development (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
for example: manager is organize training in organisation for understand new software. In
that, if employees are learn this software in proper manner then work is perfect. Other
hand, employees are not learn proper then it impact to performance of employees.

 Leadership is the key to developing employees ability and skills within the Sainsbury.
Prefect leader is give the proper direction to team members for work. For example:
leaders of Sainsbury is motivate to employees towards work. Motivated employees are
always give their hard contribution tom achieve goals and objectives of Sainsbury. This
may impact to employees in negative and in positive manner.
2.3 Appraisal of contribution of these techniques for employee engagement.
Above mentioned development techniques are give contribution for employee
engagement in positive manner. This is effective and valuable for the business and its growth
factors. This plays an important role in Sainsbury in order to develop employees skills and
performance. Training and development process is highly contribute for developing employees.
With the help of training employees are learn lots of thinks which are important for employees
for work. Training provide job satisfaction to employees. Other hand, training and development
program is also contribute for increased innovation in strategic and products of Sainsbury.
For example: two employees in organisation who are posted at different position and both
work is also different, but one employee have proper knowledge of work done. In this
communication plays an important role, if communication between employees are prefect then
employees are properly engaged. Other hand, leadership is also contribute for employee
engagement because in this leaders are motivate to employees. This contribution is highly
important for employees because motivation employees are feel better and positive for staying in
Sainsbury. Also, leaders are provide guidance and direction to employees for work.
2.4 Strategies used by HR department to support the achievement of organisational strategy.
There are various strategies which are followed by Sainsbury's HR department in order to
achieve aim and objectives. The main purpose of HRM strategies to articulate organisation in
human resource management policies and practices for longer time. This is important to use in
organisation because due to this, company will be able to complete the work in the best manner .
HR strategies is generally aligned with government strategies and supporting to a certain extent
organisational changes. For this, HR department of Sainsbury made strategy to complete those
strategies in effective manner. There are various strategies for achieve business, marketing and
customer satisfaction strategy are underneath:
High performance management

High performance management strategy has aim to make impact on performance of
Sainsbury in areas such as productivity, quality, level of customer and growth. This management
system is included by the training and development program. This management is highly helped
to achieve goals and objectives of company in proper manner. With the help of this manager is
able to manage performance of employee and make correction in work.
Corporate social responsibility
This is a commitment to manage the business ethically in order to make positive and
great impact on the society and environment. This strategy will help to attract customers and also
satisfied them strategy by giving respect.
1.3 Planning the requirement of human resource is important for the success of business
Human resource planning is important process for company in order to achieve goals and
objectives. This process also help to understand the needs of company and makes required
changes as well to attain company goals. This includes various skills of searching, recruiting and
hiring, training and preparing. Planning of human resource requirement are as follows:
 Inventory of human resource is help to take records of current employees in organisation.
This help to take correct information of employees and work.
 Forecasting demand is process of historical sales data is used to develop an estimate of an
expected forecast of customer demand. This will help to make person specification and
job description as per demand of goods and services.
 Identify manpower gap is another step that match the demand and supply in organisation.
It is also observed that if the company's employee did not perform better, then they are
fired or terminated.
 Formulate action plan, in this, the employer of Sainsbury make action plan for all those
resources in order to achieve goals.
3.1 Table to identify objectives and show the physical resources with management implication.
OBJECTIVES OF
SAINSBURY
PHYSICAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
IMPLICATION
To exceed customer
expectation during their
shopping experience.
Building and facilities
Human resource
Management is fulfil objective
which is exceed customer
experience at the time of

shopping, management is
provide the building facilities
which is required at shopping
place like shopping
accessories. Other hand, also
provide proper human resource
in Sainsbury who are able to
solve queries of customers
(Donald, 2016).
To provide great food at a fair
price as well as safe and
healthy food.
Plant and machinery
Food preparing equipment
In this management is provide
proper food preparing
equipments to employees in
order to achieve objective
which is to provide great food
at a fair price as well as safe
and healthy food. For that
management is provide
training for preparing food and
also maintain cooling area for
keep and store food for long
time.
3.2 Critically assess the role of physical resource management and systematic physical resources
process.
The physical resource management plays an important role in Sainsbury in order to
achieve objectives of firm. This will be effective and valuable for the business and its growth.
Physical resource management has role to provide proper and systematic equipments at
workplace. Like in order to achieve objective which is to provide a great food at fair a price as
well as safe food to customers (Noe and et.al., 2017).

Food preparing equipment is physical resource of keep food safe and provide food
without any default. It is the greatest protection against cancers, in the soluble nutrients and
make it easier for the body to absorb them. Those equipments are help to manager for keep food
for long time in company and also help to provide healthy food products to customer. Healthy
food process involve preparing food to preserve nutrients and prevent disease.
3.3 Appraisal and evaluation supported by theory.
For appraisal and evaluation of physical resource system modelling approach are as
follows:
System modelling approach:
The system modelling approach is study of use model in order to conceptualized and
construction of business system. This model is help to make the proper physical resource
management in proper manner. This is the functional flow block diagram and process. With the
help of this model, manager is able to redesign strategy and resource in effective manner. For
example: human resource management is important part of the business. For that manager make
the proper process for identify gap of those (North and Kumta, 2018). This process is includes by
the identification of employees and gaps fulfil, manage and allot proper work to each one with
proper resources. With the help of system model physical resource plan is make in proper
manner.
4.1 Importance of marketing activities in achieving organisational objectives.
Marketing refers to the process, activities for developing, communicating and offering
valuable products or services to the customers, partners and society. There are various marketing
activities such as advertising, new product development etc. that plays an important role in
achieving the objectives of the firm (Ismail, 2017). Role of marketing activities of Sainsbury in
attaining organisational objectives are as follows-
Ability to evaluate opportunities:
Marketing department of Sainsbury helps in conducting market research for segmenting
the whole market, targeting a particular segment and positioning the brand name and products of
the company. These activities help to anticipate the opportunities that are emerging in target
market. Therefore, marketing plays an important role in predicting the market trends that will
support the management to attain the objective of exceeding customer experience.
Adapting the correct price:

Price is one of the important element of marketing mix of the firm because it helps the
organisation to generate revenue and profit. Strategies of marketing helps the management of
Sainsbury to set right price for the products. By setting reasonable price firm is able to attract and
maintain large number of buyers. Therefore, marketing activities helps Sainsbury to achieve its
objective of providing better quality food items at fair price to consumers.
Facing competition:
There are different types of marketing activities such as promotional activities like
advertising, marketing campaigns etc. All these activities help Sainsbury to attract and retain
loyal customers by investigating the position of company in the market investments. In this way,
marketing activities also helps to compete with other companies like Tesco etc. Further,
customers will not shift towards the products or services of competitors (Kerin and Hartley,
2015).
4.2 Appraisal of marketing operations of the company.
Marketing operations is the collective term that defines marketing functions including
process, technology, people that helps to perform marketing activities in efficient and consistent
way. It is the process of developing, promoting the products of the company (Ramanathan,
Ramanathan and Zhang, 2016).
Marketing functions:
One of the most important element of marketing operations is conducting market
research. It helps Sainsbury to segment the whole market and targeting a particular segment for
offering products or service of the firm. Another major function of marketing is to develop
marketing strategies. Marketing strategies are designed by marketing manager of Sainsbury such
as pricing, promotional strategy etc.
People:
People are considered as one of the most important part for offering any product or
service to the customers. Marketing department of the company is responsible for developing
marketing strategies, developing marketing campaigns, marketing plan for the products or
services of Sainsbury. People like marketing manager, sales force etc. working in marketing
department of Sainsbury helps to reach investors, customers, and society.
Process

Marketing operations involves various type of process such as process of developing
campaigns, content development process, reporting process etc. Reporting process of Sainsbury
includes who will report to whom and for whom. Important elements of the process are report
frequency, media to be used, distribution etc. (Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott, 2017).
There are various touchpoints involved in campaign development like graphics, landing
pages, e-mail etc. Therefore, campaign development process of Sainsbury outlines the
expectations and role of every individual. Content operations are having responsibility of
optimizing various things like strategy, curation etc. The process of developing content for
marketing of products of Sainsbury involves various components such as subject matter experts,
content architecture, content calendar like communications, location etc.
4.3 Process used to develop the market.
Market development refers to the strategy adopted by the firm to determine new segment
of customer’s for offering existing products or services. It can also be described as the process
adopted by the firm to expand the business into untapped markets. The process used by
Sainsbury to develop the market is described below-
 Firstly, company focuses on developing aim and objectives for market development.
 After determining aim and objectives, target market, niche and sector will be
determined.
 At this stage, management of Sainsbury will assess the current operations and make
efforts to develop it as required.
 Now, Sainsbury will source proper prospect database and ensure that data is up to
date.
 After utilising the database, strategic position(s) are developed with reference to
positioning, competitors, margins, USP's, etc.
 Now, management of the company will determine communication methods for
generating enquiries of customer’s.
 Now, Sainsbury will design the process of sales and provide the necessary
capabilities.
 At this stage, firm will design the system for measurement, monitoring and reporting.
 Now, activities for sales development will be implemented through meetings,
coaching etc.

 Now, follow up activities will be performed such as seeking feedback from
customer’s, review and monitor then developing reports on the performance etc.
 At last, improvements and necessary changes will be made.
5.1 Contribution of ISM in achieving objectives of the firm.
Information management system refers to the process that helps the firm to manage
information by handling hardware, software, human resource, technology etc. that create output
in the form of reports that supports the decision making of the management. It can also be
described as the use of technology that helps the organisation to attain aim and objectives in
effective way better than competitors. Nowadays, technology is playing an important role in
improving the productivity and performance of the business. Sainsbury is also using information
system such as Management Information System, Transaction Processing System etc. that helps
to achieve the goals of the company in better way as compared to other companies like Tesco
etc.
There are various types of information system that are used by Sainsbury such as
Business Intelligence System (BI), Enterprise Resource Planning etc. Business Intelligence helps
the company to perform accurate reporting and taking better decisions in respect of setting right
price of the products that helps to achieve objectives of company. Currently, Sainsbury is using
SAS system that helps to improve sales of products and also helps to predict the trends of buying
of customers.
Further, ERP system helps Sainsbury to collect data related with different areas like
finance, marketing etc. and it also helps the firm to fulfil all the regulatory compliance. The
system supports the company to reduce operational cost, improve collaboration and sales. As a
result, information system management assist Sainsbury to achieve business objectives like
meeting the expectations of customers (Claudy, Peterson and Pagell, 2016).
5.2 Importance of ISM in the organisation.
There are different roles played by information systems within an organisation. These are
as follows -
Decision making:
Information system helps the organisation in making better decision making because it
provides all the information that are required by the firm. Information system helps to manage all
the data related with different areas such as production, finance, marketing, human resource etc.