Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Sainsbury UK

Introduction

The human resource management is that aspect of an organisation where all the functions and activities related with the workforce of that company is managed and handled. In this assignment, all the human resource management practices approaches, strengths, weaknesses, elements and many more key factors are highlighted in context with examples of an organisation. The organisation chosen to describe all the factors of human resource management is Sainsbury UK which is a well-known retail supermarket brand with many branches spread around the world. Sainsbury offers starting from groceries to cloths to homewares, electricals and many more things which are needed in a family. Sainsbury stands at the 5th position as the most popular supermarket chain in UK and holds the 2nd rank among all the brands (sainsburys.co.uk, 2020). Illustrations of employee relationships, employment legislations & laws, decision making process, impact of human resource management on organisational profit & loss and organisational productivity are also mentioned in the below writing.

1. Explaining the purpose and the functions of HRM in workforce planning and resourcing in an organisation. Assessing how the functions of HRM can provide talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives.

An effective human resource management always provides the organisation their structural capability and skills which will help the company to fulfil their demands to achieve the set goals within a time frame through managing & handling the company’s workforce (Belarmino, , Madera, , Dawson, , & Guchait, , 2017). The purpose of human resource management is to direct the firm’s managers at all level the methods and ways through which employees can be brought to their best productive levels for attaining the organisational desired goals. The functions of the HRM are –

a. Planning is the central function of HRM where the process and procedure of the activities in context with the employees of an organisation are planned.

b. Recruitment as a core function considers the selection process of candidates who are suitable for the vacant positions in a firm.

c. Learning is that action where the employees are assisted to grow and develop through on-job learning process while working in the firm (Cheng, & Hackett, , 2021).

d. Training & development is a tool necessary for each employee to promote their existing skills and transforming them into expertise for organisational goal contribution.

e. Job analysis component is the foundation of employee’s functional activities. It has two elements in it- one is job description and the other is job specification.

f. Performance management can be said as an impactful and effective procedure that the managers utilises as a tool to measure the productivity capacity of each employee by calculating and monitoring their work execution (Gharibeh, , 2019).

g. Compensation which can also be termed as wages or benefits that is set according to the performance level of each employee.

The HRM functions are effective in providing appropriate skills and talent to the employees for fulfilling the business goals because

It supports the organisation to attain number of employees who are veritable to complete operational and strategic organisational goals.

It creates a conducive working environment to help employees utilise their skills for organisational development.

It also assists the employees to follow and maintain the organisational performance standards. It enhances the work productivity also.

It maintains a healthy employee-employer relationship and employee-employee relationship also better under the HRM functions (Guest, , 2017).

It offers safe and secure office environment to work positively for specially the female employees.

It helps in measuring planning the remuneration of the employees according to their work performances.

2. Explaining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection. Critical evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection with specific examples.

There are a number of approaches in the organisational recruitment and selection process to attract the right candidates to their utmost level for joining the organisation and hoe for maintaining a long-term relationship with full compatibility and mutual understanding. Some of the approaches can be said as –

Attracting the appropriate candidate

This approach grabs the attention of the job seekers by presenting a clear concept of the job specifications like what qualifications are must and job description like what will be the responsibilities to do (Hecklau, , Orth, , Kidschun, , & Kohl, , 2017). Also they give the salary package details including the incentives, bonuses and other facilities provided by the company followed by the contact details.

Advertising place

In past times the job vacancy advertisements were specially found it newspapers, magazines and articles but in today’s world the most common and widely used measure is social media platforms. Job seekers find it easy to get job information to be available on various online websites. It became easier for them find the suitable one and apply for that on professional media platforms such as LinkedIn.

Application & shortlisting process

There presents a communicative application process which makes an impressive impression of candidates. The designing of the application forms are relevant to the job related contents. It helps the candidate to choose whether they are suitable for that vacancy or not, also help the employer to shortlist from the applications submitted (Lim, , Wang, , & Lee, , 2017).

Equality & diversity

Nowadays increasingly all the employers have started to adopt the approaches of recruitment and selection process that considers the candidates and selects then on the basis on their merits and skills only. This approach might remove the other candidate details such as name, gender, nationality and etc.

Strengths and weaknesses of the approaches with examples

3. Explaining the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer and employee.

The benefits of the human resource practices for both employee and employers are way different from each other which are listed below.

4. Evaluating the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity. Critical evaluation of different methods used in HRM practices with specific examples.

Some of the types of human resource management practices such as planning for change, Training & development and R&D puts effective impacts on the productivity and profitability on the organisational business firm. As examples of effectiveness of HRM practices on organisational profit and productivity, three huge companies were taken –

Google has adopted the HRM practice of developing their R&D team so that new and innovative ideas can be brought up. These ideas made it possible for Google to launch many of its other utilities such as Google Assistant, Google+ Local, Google Wallet and many more like this which ultimately contributed in the profitability and productivity improvement of the organisation (Zubair, D. & Khan, , 2019). Google’s R&D is highly advanced and focuses keenly on all of its projects spread out in all the branches. Starting from the top management authorities to the staff members, all are equally responsible for implications of the human resource management practices effectively in the functions.

Sainsbury’s internal employee training & development practices are well equipped and efficient. This is the reason why Sainsbury made it to the top list names in the retail market of UK. They have their own internal team for the employees’ improvement according to the needs of the employees (sainsburys.co.uk, 2020). Sainsbury’s training practices makes their employees and workers more confident and skilful, which ultimately contributes towards the profitability and productivity of the business organisation. More skilful confident employees are one of the biggest assets for any organisation. So Sainsbury put their focus on innovative and better training and development programs internally.

The third example of an effective human resource management practice impacting the productivity and profitability is of Microsoft which is one of the biggest software companies to be on the leading company’s list. Microsoft adopted the HRM practice of planning for organisational change. In recent time when there is fierce competition in the market, Microsoft decided to bring a major change in their organisational environment (acm.org, 2019). The old business running functions and activities were totally replaced by the new ways policies and regulation of the human resource management practices.

5. Analysing the importance of employee relations for influencing HRM decision-making process.

In any solid business organisation foundation, the success depends on both the company authorities and the employees and workers. Employees are those sources from which ideas, information, knowledge, and sometimes creative thinking come. So this is very much important that the relation between employees and the company must be stable, comforting, happy and satisfactory (tandfonline.com , 2019). All these attributes states the relationship status of an organisation and their employees. If there arise regular conflicts and disputes, then smooth and efficient working is impossible to maintain. So, for an effective human resource decision making, employee contribution and involvement is mist. Without employee support, no firm can operate their business functions and activities. A stable and good employee relation whether with the management or in between the workforce, always saves time and money of the business firm which can be channelised towards the increase of productivity and profitability along with that reduces the amount of outsourcing (sciencedirect.com , 2017).

If the employee relations are good and stable, the employees can be proved productive to involve in the decision making process of the human resource management aspect. It increases the feeling of being responsible in organisational decision making process making them more committed and expand their skills for future. The active engagement of the employees in the decision making policies increases their morale, further leading to improved job satisfaction which fuels the positive attitude among the employees (emerald.com , 2017). Employees if made a functional part of the business organisation’s decision making process, they will find that their ideas are important contributions to the company and they will also understand that how their influencing power can bring the desired outcome from their hard work & dedication.

Utilisation of the employee power in decisive matters offers the business long term reliability and assurance assistance, adding to money and time saving which could be expensive for outside consultants. The insights of the internal decision making panel including the employees will be more effective since they are better aware of the company situation and status as compared with outside consultants (emerald.com , 2017).

6. Identifying the key elements of employment legislation and its impact HRM decision-making process. Evaluation of the key aspects of employee relation management and employment legislation that affect HRM decision-making in an organisational context.

In context with organisational functioning, there exist a number of employment rules and legislations which have their own specific impacts on the human resource management decision making process (Belarmino, , Madera, , Dawson, , & Guchait, , 2017). These elements can be enlisted as follows stating their impacts on the HRM decisive process –

There are many affirmative actions such as providing equal opportunities to everyone is a favourable activity in context with the decision making process of HRM.

Another element is the standard working time laws and regulations like fixed working hours and if there is extra work then suitable incentives must be paid to the employees (Guest, , 2017).

Equal employment chances for every candidate seeking for a job are also under the employment laws which affect the HRM decisions.

Sexual harassment prevention rules are needed for making a better working environment because in work places women safety measures cannot be ignored at any cost (Macke, & Genari, , 2019).

Trade union and other external and internal industrial relationships are a matter of HRM decision making process that impacts the employee relation management.

Proper remunerations and appropriate wages must be paid for every work and service offered by the employees are under the decisive impacts of the HRM practices and makes a better employee relation with the management (Ozkeser, , 2019).

Equal working conditions and comfort for both male and female employees without any biasness is a significant element of the human resource decision making process that enhances the employee relation management with the organisation in a positive manner.

Social welfare, security, safety and healthcare of all the employees and workers are very important for establishing a good employee relation with the company which has been taken care by the HRM decision making policies and laws (Sohrabi, , Vanani,, & Abedin, , 2018).

All these employment legislations and regulation elements are fully connected with the employee relation management with the firm which comes under the guidance of the human resource management decisive matters. The impact of all these elements is very strong on the assurance of the employees’ rights whether they are men or women.

7. Illustration of the application of HRM practices in an organisation with specific examples. Rationale for the application of specific HRM practices in an organisation.

The human resource management practices and applied in all over the business firms in the world in their own respective ways and methods. Some of the HRM practices applied in specific organisations as examples are presented here –

Tesco Plc.’s human resource management practices involve various kinds of activities which they apply so that a good human resource management can be established in the organisation. Their HRM practices involve talent analysis for identifying the talent from the crowd, provision of good office environment since they know that a disturbed & bad working conditions harms majorly to the business functions (acm.org, 2019). Tesco Plc. Owns their employees retaining practices aimed to measure the good performance of the workforce and reward them accordingly so that there should be no biasness. Tesco Plc. puts their focus mainly on making their employee management immovable and well-constructed.

Sainsbury have their own human resource management practices according to the organisational structure where they focus mainly on their financial position and try to make it string enough to stand in the market competition. Sainsbury applies new methods of recruitment process and chooses new selection tactics for the employees so that there could be equal opportunity provided to all the candidates out there (sainsburys.co.uk, 2020). Their human resource management practices involves appropriate methods to choose the right candidate for the right job for improving the job efficiency which in needed in every organisation.

Rationale

Conclusion

The writing above concludes that the human resource management practices and applied in all over the business firms in the world in their own respective ways and methods. The purpose of human resource management is to direct the firm’s managers at all level the methods and ways through which employees can be brought to their best productive levels for attaining the organisational desired goals. Employees are those sources from which ideas, information, knowledge, and sometimes creative thinking come. So this is very much important that the relation between employees and the company must be stable, comforting, happy and satisfactory. The human resource management practices benefits both the employees and employers in their own different ways. Trade union and other external and internal industrial relationships are a matter of HRM decision making process that impacts the employee relation management. Finally it can be concluded that to make a better business human resource management environment, right practices, legislation, approaches and measure are required t be implied in the business functions.

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