Waitrose: HRM Practices And Recruitment Strategies Essay.

As a newly appointed Assistant Human Resource Manager for Kingfisher plc, or an organisation of your choice you have been asked to write an essay explaining Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing an organisation with talents and skills appropriate to fulfil the business functions.

1. Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing in Kingfisher/an Organisation of your choice.

Guidelines: You are required to explain the purpose of HR department in Kingfisher or organization of your choice i.e. day to day activities and functions and responsibilities, such as;

The ‘Best Fit’ approach vs ‘Best Practice’, the hard and soft models of HRM, workforce planning, types of labour market, labour market trends and PESTLE, payroll, recruitment and selection, employee relations etc.. Please make sure you understand the difference between purpose and functions clearly.

2. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of recruitment and selection used by Kingfisher or an organisation of your choice.

Guidelines: Provide at least 3 strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches that could be used in recruitment and selection; explain the internal and external Sources of recruitment: internal vs external recruitment.

Overview of Waitrose and its Human Resources

Founded in 1904, Waitrose has achieved accolades and glory by catering to the appetite cravings of the customers. This is due to the presence of 91000 employees, who toil hard for the achievement of success. As a matter of specification, the type of organization is subsidiary of John Lewis Partnership and the industry in which the organization operates is supermarket. The organization has its outlet spread in 353 locations (Waitrose.com 2017). The revenue of the organization is 5400.4 million pounds. The operating income recorded is 173.5 million pounds. The net income is 123.3 million pounds.  As per the annual reports of 2015, the market share of Waitrose is 5.1% of the total shares of the food market. During 2008, the market share of the organization was 18 and 10 of the organic and fish foods (Waitrose.com 2017).

Purpose and function of HRM in Waitrose

Recruitment and selection

The employees are an important human resource for taking the companies and organizations to the peak of success. This is also applicable for Waitrose. As a matter of specification, the managers abide by Harvard model of HRM for the recruiting the rightful candidates. Adherence to this model assists the personnel of Waitrose to direct the employees towards their identified and the specified goals and expose a strategic approach towards the needs of the stakeholders (Beardwell and Thompson 2014).

Workforce planning

Adherence to Tuckman’s stages of team development helps the personnel of Waitrose to form appropriate teams for the completion of the tasks. This formation is reviewed for assessing the appropriateness of the plans regarding the fulfillment of the identified objectives. This review is accounted as one of the best practices of undertaken by organizations like Waitrose to fit themselves within the current competitive ambience of the market. Viewing it from the other perspective, this review makes the personnel aware of the demarcation between the Best Fit and the Best Practice. Maintenance of consistency in this review enhances the quality and standards of performance of Waitrose (Daley 2012).

Types of labor market

The organization, Waitrose operates with various kinds of employees-skilled and semi-skilled. For this, the organization is enriched in organizing training courses for both the employees regarding the basic management skills. Training strengthens the bondage between the employees and the employers. Waitrose also hires contractual labors for successful completion of the crucial projects. Another kind of labor is the slave labor, example of which is the slave labor. This mainly includes child labor. Waitrose is against any such practice (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014).

Purpose and Function of HRM in Waitrose

Payroll

The managers decide the wages of the employees at Waitrose. The Board panel, through the consideration of performance, reviews the salaries of the employees. This evaluation brings to the forefront the drawbacks in the pay package. Meetings are held regarding salary hikes of the employees depending on their performance. Exceptions in this direction are the contractual labors, who are paid through commissions or are engaged in work for free. Here the benefits are not paid to the contractual labors (Kramar 2014).

PESTLE

High demand for skilled labors in the US market has led to the shortage of labors in the UK organizations like Waitrose. This is due to the increasing competition to live up to the altering needs, demands and requirements of the customers. Technological advancement intensifies the threat of substitutes, attaching an interrogative parameter to the productivity of  Waitrose in terms of preserving the ecological diversity. Adherence to the environmental and the other marketing legislations is the only solutions for organizations like Waitrose to secure their position within the competitive ambience (Waitrose.com 2017).

Recruitment and selection is the foundational step in terms of achieving success. This is applicable for all of the companies and organizations including Waitrose. As a matter of specification, the personnel at Waitrose apply different techniques for recruitment of the rightful candidates. Job description is one of these techniques. Clear display of the job profile with all the details informs the candidates regarding the vacancies. Along with this, clarity in the description of the vacancy helps the candidates to compare their professional requirements with the specified requirements of Waitrose (Waitrose.com 2017). Apart from this, clarity within the job descriptions helps the managers to assess the appropriateness of the job profile in terms of the identified goals and objectives. Absence of this clarity compels the organization to encounter complexities in the recruitment and selection process.

Widespread presence in more than 300 stores in UK is considered as one of the greatest strengths of Waitrose. Exposing strategic approach towards advertising has enabled the personnel to execute the marketing activities efficiently and effectively. Herein lays the appropriateness of the loyalty cards, which is an innovation in the marketing activities of the company, Waitrose. Consciousness towards advertising is assistance for the personnel in terms of achieving loyalty, trust and dependence from the customers in large scale (Waitrose.com 2017). The major drive behind this success is the presence of 100,000 skilled professionals, who toil hard to execute the allocated duties and responsibilities diligently. Evaluation of the undertaken activities has bestowed several awards, praises and recognition, enhancing the brand image of Waitrose.

Recruitment and Selection

This strategic approach proves beneficial for Waitrose in terms of the recruitment and selection process. The following are some of the approaches towards recruitment and selection, followed by the company:

Strengths of skills inventory

Skills inventory is one of the other approaches, which the personnel of Waitrose follow for conducting the selection process. Here, the managers and the employers identify a list of skills, which they look for from the candidates. In addition to this, keeping provisions for higher skills, helps the personnel to achieve positive results in getting the rightful candidate (Belcourt and McBey 2016). Within this, strategy is an important aspect. Exposure of strategic vision in this context helps the personnel of Waitrose to prioritize the activities for achieving successful completion.

Weakness of skills inventory

Lack of this strategic vision delays the recruitment and selection process. This delay further result in postponing the initiation of the project. This compels the personnel to lag behind in submission of the project within the stipulated deadline.

Strengths of Multi-stage recruitment

Multi-stage recruitment is one of the other approaches towards recruitment and selection process applied by the Waitrose personnel. Here, the interviews and the tests are taken part by part. This process is beneficial for the candidates in terms of enhancing the clarity of the candidates regarding the recruitment and selection process undertaken by the organization (Waitrose.com 2017). Along with this, dividing the recruitment process into various stages provides enough time to the candidates to prepare, reducing their nervousness.

Weakness of multi-stage recruitment

On the other hand, this segmented process makes the recruitment and selection prolonged, which adversely affects the productivity of the organization.

Strengths of third party recruitment

Third party recruitment is one of the other processes, which Waitrose personnel follow while hiring the candidates. Here, the associated agencies of Waitrose are entrusted with the responsibility to hire the rightful candidates. These agencies attract the candidates through the offers of attractive salary and other associated benefit packages. The managers of Waitrose are kept updated by these agencies regarding the results of the recruitment and selection. Spontaneity is crucial in this process in terms of maintaining the stability in the relationship between Waitrose and the shareholders (Waitrose.com 2017). This stability results in bestowing creative talents to the company possessing flexibility towards enhancing efficiency in the business activities.

Weakness of third party recruitment

Not verifying the identity of the agencies compels Waitrose to encounter issues such as loss of organizational data. Along with this, absence of proper verification results in bestowing candidates, who do not possess adequate skills and qualification. These issues are an obstacle to the efficiency in the business activities of the company (Waitrose.com 2017).

Conclusion

This assignment proves successful in providing an insight into the human resources of Waitrose organization, UK. Placement of focus on the recruitment and selection can be considered as an exploratory design of the assignment towards the efficient execution of the business activities. Herein lays the appropriateness of the section regarding the approaches of the Waitrose personnel towards the recruitment and selection process. This approach, if exposed correctly would bring positive results for the organization in the competitive ambience.

References

Beardwell, J. and Thompson, A., 2014. Human resource management: a contemporary approach. Pearson Education.

Belcourt, M. and McBey, K.J., 2016. Strategic human resources planning. Nelson Education.

Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management, pp.120-125.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Kramar, R., 2014. Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), pp.1069-1089.

Marler, J.H. and Fisher, S.L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.18-36.

Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international perspective. Sage.

Waitrose.com (2017). About us. Available at: https://www.waitrose.com/ [Accessed on 18^th November 2017]