Strategic Human Resource Practices - Essay Example

? Strategic Human Resource Practices AFFILIATION: Table of Contents Page Table of Contents 2 0 Introduction toCompany 3 2.0 SHRM Practice 1 : HR Planning 4 2.1 Stages to implement HR Planning in Tesco 5 2.2 Benefits of HR planning for Tesco 7 3.0 SHRM practice 2: Recruitment 7 3.1 Stages to effective recruitment in Tesco 8 3.2 Benefits of effective recruitment for Tesco 9 4.0 SHRM Practice 3: Compensation 9 4.1 Stages to implement effective compensation 10 4.2 Benefits of effective compensation for Tesco 11 5.0 Conclusion 11 5.1 References 13 SHRM Practices 1.0 Introduction of the company The largest private sector employer in the UK, Tesco is working with more than 280,000 employees. This supermarket chain has a core belief that their success depends on their people: the people who work with them and the people who shop with them. Tesco stores extend from small Tesco Express to big Tesco Extras and supermarkets in the UK. It generates approximately 86% of the total sales from the United Kingdom. It is also working in 12 other countries of the world including, Japan, China, and Turkey. Recently Tesco has opened its stores in the United States. This foreign expansion is part of the company’s strategy to spread and develop the business. Tesco requires people across a wide variety of both stores and field jobs. In stores, Tesco requires stock managers, checkout staff, and supervisors, specialists such as bakers or pharmacists. For distributions it requires skilled people for logistics and stock handling (Black 2013, pp. 30-45). The Tesco head office offers the infrastructure to operate Tesco successfully. The crucial roles include human resources, asset management, legal services, accounting, and marketing and information technology. The company targets to ensure all the above mentioned roles work in a cumulative manner to achieve its business motives. It needs to make certain that the right quantity of employees is in the right job at the right time. To carry out this activity, Tesco needs to implement best Strategic Human Resource Practices to attract most appropriate applicants for both operational and managerial posts. In relation to human resources, Tesco believes in treating its employees in the best manner. The company encourages team working, building trust, sharing knowledge and expertise to achieve optimal employee satisfaction (Bowman 2012). Tesco is regarded as a market leader in the retail sector and it has acquired this by conducting little deeds that really mean a lot to customers and employees. Tesco also believes in treating its employees with respect and providing equal opportunity to all. The company’s core beliefs revolve around the concepts of the significance of its people which help the company to create value for the customers and earning loyalty for a long time (Bowman 2012). 2.0 SHRM Practice 1 : HR Planning Human Resource planning is one of the highly important and potent practices an organization adopts. If the employees of an organization are not good enough to carry out objectives, there will be no chance for the organization to succeed or flourish. Recruiting talented people for the right jobs is the core concept of HR planning. It is a unique approach towards employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic use of highly dedicated and talented workforce, using a range of cultural, organizational and personnel procedures. It also refers to the strategic perspective in managing people and regarding people precious assets rather than only a variable cost (Brook 2013, pp. 10 - 15). Human Resource planning is crucial for any business in a number of ways. It provides quality workforce, cut down labor costs, provides opportunities to raise the skills of employees, boost motivation, and ensures health safety (Collings 2013, p. 227–328). Human Resource planning makes certain that the workforce is motivated to present constant and smooth functions of an organization. This means, human resource planning is referred as a technique to ensure the future accessibility of human resources to commence organizational operations. It also determines the future requirements of the workforce, the quantity and type. Another significance of human resource planning is that it enables an organization to boost skills, talents and potentials of the employees through effective training and development procedures. Training enables employees to improve their working capabilities and thus leads to a quality human resource for the organization. Infusing motivation within the employees is also a function of human resource planning. An effective implementation of human resource planning can offer various gains to the employee in the form of promotions salary raise and other compensations. These collectively help in boosting employee morale and willingness to work (Delbridgee 2013, pp. 2657-2669). Human resource planning creates a structure to obtain guidelines regarding the provisions of backup workforce from external or internal sources, whenever there is a need both for permanent and temporary basis (Gully 2013). The accessible sources of workforce supply are crucial to identify so that they can be utilized in urgency. 2.1       Implementation of Human Resource Planning in Tesco Tesco is a general retail store based in the UK. The concept was originated by Jack Cohen in 1919. It has more than 3700 stores all over the world and it is regarded as the leading retail brand in the world (Lussier 2012). Since, Tesco is a people organization, the presence of human resource planning thus becomes highly inevitable. The implementation stages of the human resource planning can be determined in four major areas. i. Analyzing existing HR power The initial stage of the HR planning process that should be adopted by Tesco is to analyze its existing human resource power, based on the strategic plan. The skills, knowledge of the existing staff needs identification. This can be carried out through creating a talent record for each employee serving Tesco. The talent record should cover all the major aspects of talents required for a specific position. Jot down all the skills each employee has showed. For instance, volunteer activities may engross particular skills that could be appropriate to Tesco (Mellahi 2010, p. 304–313). ii. Predicting HR needs The second stage is to predict the human resource needs of the prospect based on the strategic plans of the Tesco. Pragmatic prediction of human resources engages reckoning both demand and supply. The management should answer a few questions in this matter. How much workforce will be needed to achieve the strategic aims of Tesco? What roles will require to be occupied? What talent sets will employee need? While predicting demand for human resources, the management must also analyze the challenges that they will have to face in fulfilling their staffing requirement based on the external context. To realize external influences, they should consider the current economy and its impact on the ability to attract the new workforce (Mellahi 2010, p. 304–313). The current technological and cultural changes and their impacts on various functions of the organization. iii. Determine gap between current and required status of Tesco The third stage will be to determine the space between the current position of the organization and the desired future status. This stage includes the identification of the quantity of the workforce and the skills needed in the prospect in contrast to the current position. Tesco should also look at all the HR management practices to highlight practices that could be enhanced or new practices required to assist the organization’s potential to excel further (Mello 2010). iv. Creating HR strategies to assist Tesco’s objectives Tesco has been involved in a large scale business activity and in order to sustain its market position, it needs to constantly design and implement strategies that can help acquiring its motives. There are five major human resource strategies that can harmonize the company’s objectives with its current operations (Mello 2010). These strategies include recruitment strategies, restricting strategies, training and development strategies, and collaboration strategies. In order to attain maximum possible results from the HR plan, Tesco should update the plan on a regular basis. 2.2       Benefits of HR planning for Tesco According to Nkomo (2010), through effective HR planning, Tesco can gain a number of benefits which can help and enhance the potentials to achieve the organization’s overall objectives. Human resource planning has obtained huge recognitions as a reliable technique for successful human resource management. Nowadays, every organization has accepted the important role of human resource planning in the achievement of goals and cost decline. HR planning will help Tesco in employing human resources better and timely. It will also help the organization in predicting the future tendency in the demand and supply of workforce. HR planning creates the basis for all human resource activities necessary to carry out to attract and maintain a quality workforce . 3.0 SHRM Practice 2: Recruitment For every organization, people are its most important resource. Since, customer satisfaction initiates with the behaviors and conducts of employees. That is why dedicated and motivated workers are the best way to achieve success. For this reason, organizations strive to allure and hire the best workforce and offer them the best working environment. Recruitment is a very expensive activity. It is also an important element of any business and it pays to do it rightly. When companies select the appropriate people for a job, train and treat them well, these people will not only provide better results but also willingly stick to the organization’s objectives. In this way, organization’s fundamental and continuous investment in recruitment is rewarded. If an organization has all the latest equipment and the best physical assets, but it does not have the correct people it will never be able to reach the desired destination (Black 2013, pp. 30-45). 3.1       Stages to conduct an effective recruitment in Tesco In order to make sure that Tesco gets the right people for the right job, it needs to consider following steps for a successful recruitment process. i. Collect information regarding the nature of the job, its purpose, results required by the jobholder, its position in the organizational structure, and the set of skills required to perform the job successfully. ii. Design a job and personal portfolio and highlight all the necessary skills, attitudes, knowledge, experience and qualifications required for the job. This will be a criteria to shortlist the interested candidates. iii. Locating applicants through internal and external sources. It will include staff recommendations, job sharing’s, online recruitment, networking, or media advertisements. iv. Supervising the application procedure is the next stage. There can be two types of applications which are received: the application form and curriculum vitae (CV). Choose the appropriate type of application so that interested candidates can present their skills to the maximum. v. Selection of the successful candidates will be the final stage in which short listing and analyzing occur in order to make sure that the best choice has been made (Bowman 2012). 3.2       Benefits of an effective recruitment for Tesco Tesco’s success is based on its people. The need of having the best workforce thus becomes highly inevitable for the organization. An effective recruitment can provide Tesco the quality human resource it demands. Recruitment procedure acts as a filter that only separates the best applicants (Bowman 2012). Of Tesco’s diversified business environment and rapid advancements, it needs to hire people who are flexible, committed, knowledgeable, trustworthy and confident, thereby building a foundation for success. 4.0 SHRM Practice 3: Compensation Compensation includes financial and non-financial elements an employee receives during the work tenure. Compensation mostly refers to performance rewards. The compensation deal, a business proposes, to its employees impacts the company’s recruitment rate, employee retention and satisfaction. There are numerous laws that impact the compensation an organization offer. Every business must understand the significance of compensation and the current laws to remain viable in the market  (Brook 2013, pp. 10 - 15). Since, employees are not motivated only for the monetary supplies they get from the organization, they expect something more. An effective compensation system can create a positive impact on the performance and outcomes produced by the employees. It will boost the employees to perform better and attain the required standards. Compensation also enhances the procedure of job evaluation. It assists in setting up a perfect job evaluation and the declared standards would be more pragmatic and attainable  (Brook 2013, pp. 10 - 15). 4.1 Stages to implement effective compensation in Tesco Tesco can greatly benefit through effective compensation policy for its employees. Prior to designing and executing a compensation plan, Tesco must first create a concise and compelling compensation strategy. To create an effective compensation strategy, they need to consider some important steps. i. Create compensation philosophy that should reflect the values of Tesco, the economic realities of market share, price design, corporate culture, growth strategy, and industry paradigms. ii. Combine compensation with the business strategy so that employees can adjust themselves to move ahead with the company’s goals. iii. Alter the culture and support it with compensation. This means that in order to achieve maximum benefits from the compensation, Tesco would need to alter its culture and align it with the compensation. Since, compensation has been proved to be a very strong tool to reinforce organizational values and culture. iv. Reward positive attitudes of the employees and identify those attitudes which create value to Tesco. v. Measure the tangible benefits after investing in compensation. It is a crucial step that many organizations fail to perform. It will help in realizing the actual and desired outcome the company needs to have  (Brook 2013, pp. 10 - 15). 4.2 Benefits Tesco can achieve through effective compensation A stable compensation system of an organization is a hallmark of its success and development. The effectiveness and sustainability of the organization are determined by its pay rates offered to its employees. One of the most important benefits of compensation of the Tesco is the fact that an effective compensation system can motivate its employees to perform in a best possible manner. Moreover, it can differentiate between high and low performance standards. Employees will know that if they perform high, they will receive more benefits. 5.0 Conclusion Strategic Human resource Management (SHRM) has expanded significantly in managing important resources. Nowadays, SHRM has become more crucial for service organizations, like Tesco. The Strategic Human Resource Management is the earnest solution of the human resource board and policy matters so as to boost the effectiveness of an organization. Business strategy for service or retail organizations like Tesco has to understand a range of stakeholders’ interest and appease these within a framework of strategy agreeable to them all. SHRM is thus an important element of a broader reticulation of business administration and strategy. SHRM will enhance the productivity and success of Tesco through continuous and stable progress it would undergo within next five years. In a nutshell, it is vital that SHRM practices are core elements in proceeding proper procedures intact to ascertain that the Tesco’s long term goals are met (Delbridgee 2013, pp. 2657-2669). References Black, S., 2013. Noncognitive Skills and Their Development. The Journal of Human Resources, 43 (4), pp. 30-45. Bowman, J., 2012. Human Resource Management in Public Service: Paradoxes, Processes, and Problems. 4th ed. London: Sage Publications. Brook, J., 2013. Ways to embed the strengths approach into the DNA of the organization. Strategic HR Review, 12 (1), pp. 10 - 15. Collings, D., 2013. Performance and reward practices in foreign multinationals in the UK. Human Resource Management Journal, 23 (2), p. 227–328. Delbridgee, R., 2013. Employee engagement, organizational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24 (14), pp. 2657-2669. Gully, S., 2013. Human Resource Management. Mason: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R., 2012. Human Resource Management: Functions, Applications, Skill Development. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Mellahi, K., 2010. Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 19 (4), p. 304–313. Mello, J., 2010. Strategic Human Resource Management. New York: Library of Congress. Nkomo, S. 2010. Human Resource Management Applications: Cases, Exercises, Incidents, and Skill Builders. 7th ed. Mason: South Western Cengage Learning. Read More