Unit 3- Human Resource Management Assignment Sample

Introduction Of Unit 3-Human Resource Management

In the present era, Human resource management (HRM) is considered as an integral part of the organization that involve basic functions such as directing, controlling, planning and organizing. In addition to this, there are five main core areas in HRM that includes development, compensation, health and safety, employee, labor relations and staffing. Apart from this, it is also related to managing people and supports in focusing on systems and policies (Coetzer and et. al 2017). Along with this, HR also contributes towards the continuous development of employees so as to meet current and future trends of the market.

The current report reflects on supermarket chain named as Iceland. It was established in the year 1970 and headquartered at Deeside, Wales (Iceland, 2020). The company deals in providing frozen foods to the customers. The report emphasized on functions and purpose of HRM. It also includes various HRM practices and its benefits for raising profit and productivity of the organization. Furthermore, it includes different employment legislation and its influence on HRM decision making.

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Main Body

Overview of the organization

Iceland foods Ltd is a supermarket chain based in the United Kingdom. It mainly emphasizes on provide groceries and frozen foods. The firm has a 2.2% share in the UK food market. It has its presence in more than 950 locations. There are 23000 employees working within the firm and provide food products to the customers in the marketplace. Iceland mainly specializes in providing loose frozen foods. The net income of the company is £ 157 million by the year 2019.

LO1

Purpose and functions of HRM

HRM can be defined as the term that involves various functions such as hiring, motivation, communication and administration. The main purpose of HRM is to coordinate all activities of the business with the aim to achieve organizational objectives and goals. In addition to this, in Iceland HRM concerned with gaining competitive advantage so it supports in meeting customer satisfaction. It can be said that HRM is a proactive approach that deals in enhancing the performance of the organization. Furthermore, it has been identified that HR also contributes to the recruitment and selection of employee within the selected brand.

In Iceland, the main purpose of HR is to provide on boarding and training to employees working within the organization (Hitka and et. al 2019). Apart from this, it also helps in managing the performance of employees and contributes towards the success of the selected organization.

On the other hand, there are different functions of HR such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling. In Iceland, HR is responsible for carrying out the planning process within the business so that consistency is being maintained between the activities of a business. It is also responsible for organizing task in the selected brand as work is provided to employees based on their skills and knowledge so that it supports in achieving a common goal of the company. In addition to this, it also provides direction to employees at various levels in Iceland so that they can be able to contribute towards earning higher profits. Hiring candidate for Iceland is also the main function of the HR department so that it helps in achieving the goals of the firm.

Recruitment and selection approach to strength and weakness

There are various approaches related to recruitment and selection such as attracting the right candidate, applications and short listing, equality and diversity etc (Das and Kodwani, 2018) It has been identified that all these approaches play a significant role in selecting the right candidate for the firm and evaluate a change in the business processes that further supports in gaining knowledge about approaches to selection. Taking into account attracting the right candidate is an approach to recruitment and selection. The strength of this approach is that with the help of this approach Iceland can be able to get the right candidate for the firm that further supports in carrying out a business operation in an effective manner.

On the other hand, weakness of the approach is that sometimes the right candidate cannot be able to identify by the firm and it create loss to the firm. Application and short listing is another approach of recruitment whose strength is that with the help of these approach candidates those who are not suitable for the job position are removed at the time of filing an application form. A weakness of this approach is at the time of short listing sometimes wrong candidate can be hired by HR unit under Iceland.

A skills inventory is another approach that emphasizes on selecting a candidate based on its skills and knowledge (Carden, Kovach and Flores, 2020). In this list is being provided within Iceland to HR so that candidate can be selected based on knowledge and skill. Strength of this approach is that an effective candidate is being selected by the firm based on the skills that catered by it. On the contrary, weakness of the approach is that here candidate is being selected by Iceland based on only skills as there is no other aspect that is taken into account for selecting a candidate for the firm.

Explanation of HR functions

There are different functions carried out by HR such as recruitment and selection, performance management, learning and development, industrial relations etc. It has been evaluated that Iceland HR unit has to practice all these functions that are necessary for achieving goals and objectives. Recruitment and selection is the major function that is to be performed by Iceland for the purpose to hire a right and talented candidate for the firm. It is important for firms to select the best employee for a particular position within the business. Furthermore, managing performance is also another function that is carried out in Iceland by HR unit for evaluating the performance of employees.

Moreover, it is necessary for measuring the performance of employees so that it provides an idea as if further improvement is being done in the performance so that it can be able to achieve success (Zehir, KaraboÄŸa and BaÅŸar, 2020). Learning and development are also considered as an important function that emphasizes on building knowledge of employees according to the present and future trends. This helps in meeting organizational goals and objectives of the firm. With the help of all these function HR perform in an effective manner. Therefore, it is necessary for the Iceland Company to carry out all these HR functions within the company.

Evaluation of strength and weakness

It has been evaluated that attracting the right candidate towards the firm is one of the approach of recruitment and selection that is adopted by Iceland for the selection of candidate. It is important to consider recruitment and selection as the most effective approach that helps in achieving success. Furthermore, consider the right candidate selection by Iceland is the most important aspect that is necessary to carry out a business operation for the longer term. In this case, at the time of hiring candidate require a larger amount of investment while preparing for the process of selection that involve several stages to carry out the process of recruitment and selection in the business.

In addition to this, it provides an opportunity for an employee to grow within the business and evaluate various aspects related to the selection of the candidate by the firm (Wood and Brewster, 2016). It is necessary for Iceland to evaluate the strength and weakness of approach so that it further helps in achieving objectives of the firm. Strength of recruitment approach plays a vital role in building opportunity and bringing out a change that is necessary for future development. There are various aspects that are to be considered at the time of selection of employee so that it is easy for bringing out the difference in the approaches adopted by the firm.

LO2

HRM practices and its benefits to employer and employee

There are various HRM practices that are performed within Iceland such as providing security to employees, training and development, hiring right people, rewards and compensation. These are considered as important HRM practices that support in carrying out a business operation in an effective manner by the selected organization. In addition to this, these practices of HRM have a benefit to both employer and employee. This can be explained as under:

Benefits to employer

It has been observed that through effective HRM practices Iceland organizational culture can be improved and employees are more engaged with business activities. The organizational culture can be improved through improvement in values, vision and beliefs within the firm become consistent. In addition to this, enhancing culture within the organization also supports in improving standards of the selected firm. Apart from this, it also helps in managing conflicts within Iceland between employee and employer (Gurkov, Morgunov and Saidov, 2017) In this case, HR plays a vital role in providing benefit to the employer by considering all these above improvements within premises.

Moreover, it also emphasizes on health and safety of employees that support in increasing retention of an employee within Iceland. So, if employees are safe then it helps in increasing the productivity of the firm. Apart from this, it also supports the development of the relationship between employee and employer so it further supports in evaluating various perspective and implement change in business operation.

Benefits to employee

Performance of employee gets increased through effective HRM practices and also enhances the productivity of the employees. In addition to this, with these practices, the main benefit to employees is that their performance improves so it provides a valuable result to the firm as well. Furthermore, through these practices talent can be enhanced of employees and they are performing well that further supports in the evaluation of various practices and carry out a change within the organization. With the help of different HRM practices, talent management among employees can be improved and they can be able to perform each and every task in the selected organization (López-Fernández, Romero-Fernández and Aust, 2018). Therefore, the above is considered a benefit to the employee as well as an employer working within the firm.

Benefits of various HRM practices

It has been found that HRM practices support in increasing profitability as well as the productivity of the organization. In addition to this, it has been observed that if effective training is provided to the employee within Iceland then it supports in carrying out a business operation with enhanced knowledge that is provided at the time of training. Apart from this, the service provided by Iceland to the customers also supports improving the profits of the firm. On the contrary, effective training is not provided to employees then it leads to decreasing profits and productivity. This influence organizational goals and objectives of the selected brand.

Moreover, managing talent is also one of the best HRM practices that support in improving profits as well as the productivity of the company. Apart from this, it has been identified as talent can be managed within the business by involving various aspects that are necessary for further improvement in activities of the business (Florén, Rundquist and Fischer, 2016). On the contrary, if an employee did not have proper talent then it is not able to carry out activities of a business in an effective manner. It has been identified that if the proper talent is not carried out in employee then it has an adverse impact on the profits of the firm as well as productivity.

Managing talent within the business is considered as an essential part as it supports in boosting the productivity of the selected organization and further helps in increasing profits of the business. Therefore, different HRM practices are carried out within Iceland to achieving greater success in the future.

Methods of HRM

Different practices that are taken into account are considered as important for running operational activity of the firm. It has been observed that both the internal and external method of recruitment and selection is carried out by Iceland for selecting a talented employee for the organization. It can be said that by considering internal sources new candidate is hired by the firm for the purpose to fulfill a vacant position in the business. This method is more beneficial for Iceland as in this method less cost is required for hiring an employee and also involve less time to select an employee for the selected organization.

On the other side, an external method is also used by the selected organization for hiring new talent for the company. In this case, more employees can be attracted towards the organization as an outside organization more people are involved that can apply for the job position. In addition to this, training is also provided to employees that are selected through the external method (Hamadamin and Atan, 2019). Here, on the job and off the job training is provided to employees so that at the time of joining the company it becomes easy for a candidate to understand the policies and procedures of the firm. Therefore, it is important for the selected business to utilize effective HRM methods so that it further supports in increasing efficiency of the selected brand.

LO3

Importance of relationship between employees within an organization

Employee relation is the term that defines the development of good relationships with an employee in the organization for the purpose to boot morale of staff and enhancing the overall productivity of the firm. It is important to develop employee relation within Iceland as it supports in improving employee engagement within the business. It has been evaluated that employee relations play a crucial role in the development of activities of a business. In research, it has been proven that those companies have better employee relation also have better communication between employees. This supports a higher rate of employee engagement within the selected brand.

Furthermore, it has been evaluated that engagement of employee is associated with providing employee satisfaction. It can be said that if employees are not engaged much within the business then it creates dissatisfaction among employees to carry out business operations (Muller, 2020). It has been observed that if employee relations are poor it is a cause for employee dissatisfaction in Iceland. In addition to this, the productivity of employee gets increased through engagement and satisfaction of employee towards the business. It has been evaluated that there are various aspects considered at the time of development of employee relation.

Moreover, it also supports in improving employee retention within the selected organization. It can be evaluated as an employee can be retained for the longer term in the business through maintaining employee relation. If the management of Iceland does not focus on the development of employee relation in the firm then it further has a greater impact on the operational activity of the organization. For instance, it can be said that if a relationship between employee within Iceland is not sound then it influence business activities. Apart from this, poor relations between employees create a negative impact on the operational activity of the firm. So, for the purpose to develop a positive environment within the organization is essential as it helps in carrying out the various business function for the purpose to deal with employee relation in the company.

Legislations related to employment and their impact on decision making

Employee relation is the major concept that is considered as effective for improving business activities and caters various changes within the firm. It is necessary to take into account certain legislations that influence the decision-making process of the company. The key legislation taken into account is as follows:

 Equality act 2010:- This act protects from having discrimination within the organization. According to this act fair treatment of an employee is carried out so that it further helps in the development of diversity in the business (Vardarlier and ÖzÅŸahin, 2017). In this case, all employees are treated in an equal manner. On the other hand, for developing equality Iceland enhance equal treatment of employee within the selected brand. In addition to this, it also greater impact on HRM decision making of the firm as to equal treatment of the employee in the business.

Health and safety act 1974:- According to this act, safety and security are provided to employees working within the organization. In addition to this, protection is provided to employees against health as there is no risk taken by the firm to carry out the business operation. With the help of this act, it can be said that protection is provided so that it supports retaining employees for a longer period of time. On the contrary, it has a greater impact on decision making by HRM as by taking into account all the aspects of safety it is difficult for the selected brand to take an effective decision for the firm.

Aspects related to employee relations management

According to Syed and et. al (2020) it has been observed that employee relation is necessary to carry out a business operation in an efficient manner. Through employee relation performance within the company can be improved as it all depends on the productivity of the selected brand. It is important to evaluate and carry out an operational activity that is considered as an important element for bringing out the change in the activities. If the relation between employees can be enhanced then it supports in building a brand reputation as well as helps in earning larger profits in the marketplace. In addition to this retention rate within the organization can be improved and the employee remains with the firm for a longer period of time.

On the contrary Lee, Lin and Huang, (2017) argued that employment legislation caters different aspects related to the development of equality and diversity and it also enhances the equal opportunity to employees working in the organization. It is necessary to implement different practices at the time bringing out various aspects that are considered as an important fact for the business. Thus, both these aspects considered an essential element for running operational activity.

LO4

Applicability of HRM practices

Interview process

At the time of interview policies and procedures are framed by the HR recruiting manager. An interview is being conducted for recruiting employees and scheduling applicants includes different stages as under:

Screening

Interview

Panel-based interview

Personal interview

Job offer

Questions

What is your expected salary?

Why do we hire you?

The rationale behind the application of HRM

It has been observed that Iceland adopts various HRM practices within the organization. For the purpose to select a talented employee for the company it is necessary for the company to adopt a recruiting and selection process that supports in selecting the right candidate for the firm. It has been identified that external and internal recruitment method is adopted by the selected brand for selecting an effective employee for the organization (Hitka and et. al 2019). At the time of internal recruitment, less investment is being done by the firm to carry out further process within the organization. It is necessary to recruit an effective candidate for the organization.

In addition to this, there are different practices carried out in the organization for the development of activities. The HR practices are important for the development and evolving into various business operations. Furthermore, empowerment of employees is also taken into account for attracting a larger customer base. Therefore, with the help of different practices of HRM supports in encourage employees within the business.

Conclusion

It can be analyzed from the above study that different functions are performed by HRM such as staffing, recruitment, performance management and organizing. In addition to this, all these functions are considered as important for the company as it supports enhancing profits and productivity. There are generally two methods for recruiting employees such as internal and external. Furthermore, employee relation is also an essential part of the organization that helps in improving the growth and development of the firm. 

References

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Florén, H., Rundquist, J. and Fischer, S., 2016. Entrepreneurial orientation and human resource management: effects from HRM practices. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.

Gurkov, I., Morgunov, E. and Saidov, Z., 2017. Robustness and flexibility of human resource management practices. Employee Relations.

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