Task 1

1). As it is known that employees are the biggest asset of the organization, thus good, skilled and competent employees helps the organization in improving their old techniques and achieving target by applying innovative technology in the organization.

Support to organization is one of the functions of HRM which states that all function of the internal process of the organization helps them in achieving the defined objective. Similarly the human resource managerial activities help and assist the management of the organization to effectively and efficiently achieve the defined targets. Further it is the duty of the human resource manager of H&M to maintain good workplace environment for the employees and initiate effective communication as well. This process will help the organization to motivate the employees to increase their caliber and achieve the organizational objective (Cao, Berkeley, and Finlay 2014).

Another function of HRM is contribution in the high performance development in the organisation. High performance development of the employees can only be done if the employees are willing to work for the benefits of the organization. This function gives a win-win situation to both employees and the company H&M. As if the skills of the employees are improved then it will help to create a different identity and also it will help the organization to effectively achieve their objectives as well. Also the HR managers motivate and counsel the employees in the right direction as well.

The human resource manager helps the company H&M to recruit quality human resource which will help them to achieve the objectives of the organization defined. The manager of the company aims to employ the people who matches the job description created by the organization; also it helps the organization in identifying skilled people which will help the company to achieve competence in the target market (Marler, Cronemberger, and Tao 2017). As it is known that employees are the biggest asset of the organization, thus good, skilled and competent employees helps the organization in improving their old techniques and achieving target by applying innovative technology in the organization.

Training and development is a prominent function of the human resource management process in H&M, as with the help of this process all the employees get to know about the organizational culture their job which they have to do. Thus the training and development process in H&M help the employees to attain knowledge about their job, company and the culture. This training is given by the human resource manager of the organization. He helps the employees to open up to the culture of the organization and train them so that they can understand and get involved in the activities happening in organization. Also training and development helps the existing employees to develop their skills to achieve higher targets. The managers of the company train them on the basis of culture and environment which makes it easy for employees to deal with and create sales as well.

Lastly, every organization defines their code of ethics which is mandatory to follow by the entire workforce. The human resource manager of H&M gives information about such ethics to the employees, he tells them about the dos and don’ts in the organization with the help of which employees can easily comply with the code of conduct (Howard, Turban, and Hurley 2016).

Like all other organizations H&M also have some problems in their human resource management system. The organization uses the internal and external recruitment and selection process. Internal selection is the first priority of the organization as it motivates the existing employees and reduces cost of recruitment as well.

The quick and active process management helps the employees to complete the task without any hinderance (Armstrong 2014). Also internal recruitment motivates the employees and boost up their morale as they get to know that their hard work can also be rewarded. Whereas the weaknesses are lack of new energies in the organization, limitation in potential number of candidates, creates resentment between employees (Ivanova 2015).

Task 2

1). The purpose of this report is to provide a brief overview regarding the Human resource management practices in H&M and its effectiveness on the company. The report discusses the positive growth in the company with the use of efficient human resource process.

a) Recruitment and selection and training and development in H&M

The HR strategies of H&M are closely linked with the strategy formation of the organization which continually helped the company in achieving growth and profitability strategy defined. Every year the company opens its stores in one country or another due to which the organization requires employees on a regular basis to place them at new stores. Around 6000-7000 new employees were employed in 2017 by the company to manage the 475 stores of the company, further the organization initiates their planning and recruitment process accordingly so that their motive of expansion succeeds (Ho 2014). The company recruits people with strong personality traits and inherited culture within them. The recruitment and selection process of H&M helped the organization to distinguish them from the competition as the employees of the company are efficient enough to create distinction in the market. Also the organization engaged them in recruiting the local staff to which they gained the cultural appreciation and made profits from their business activities (Varnali 2015).

The performance goal of the company is to recruit people who understand the image of the company initiate their activities accordingly. They aim to recruit people are culturally and morally more adaptable towards changes. The company identifies gaps in their process through performance appraisal method. This tools helps them too understand the issues with employees ad resources required to train them as well.

b) Job and workplace design of H&M

Job and workplace design are some of the basic feature involved in every job. Such feature depends upon the type of the job and the organization in which they are prevailing. It shall be noted that the organization is developing flexibility in the culture due to which proper communication and satisfaction of requirements are implemented in the workplace (Rees, and Smith 2017). The employees in the company are being motivated and counseled on a regular basis due to which they focus on achievement of the objective for the betterment of the company. Thus, functions in the organization are initiated smoothly without any hindrance (Regnér, and Yildiz 2014.).

c) Performance and reward management of H&M

The company adopted strategic means to keep the employees concentrated in the activities of the business. This resulted in positive growth of the company because the fact is known to all that better the performance and reward management system, more the employees will get motivated and show dedication for the organization by working efficiently. The company also belies in moving forward together due to which they adopted the system of regarding the employees according to their skills and capabilities presented in the workplace in the previous year. The performance is being measure yearly and the employees are rewarded by both monetary and non-monetary incentives (Andersson, et. al., 2011).

                                                                                   

d) H&M profitability through HRM

The human resource process of any organization plays an identified role in contributing to the growth and profitability of the organization. Thus, it shall be known that strong HRM practices in the organization will result in higher profitability margin for the organization. The IHRM, SHRM (Strategic Human Resource management), and HRM (Human Resource Management) practices initiate helped the company to grow and earn brand image with time (Christina, et. al., 2017). In the current era the main objective of H&M Company place themselves in many more countries and diversify their business (expansion); the SHRM model currently used in the organization aptly helped them to fulfill their targets and earn profits (Pioch, and Gerhard 2014). As these practices showed that the company aims in recruiting the local human resource that will understand the demand of the customers and provide them products accordingly. This process helped the company to share an emotional bond with the customer and increase sales rapidly (Mone, and London 2014).

Further employee satisfaction of any company leads to customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction leads to profitability of the company in the target market. Thus, emotional, cultural, monetary etc. needs of the employees were identified and rewarded them accordingly. Resulting to which, the HRM practices rewarded he employees according their performance and needs as well, due to which their satisfaction level increased (Knowles, Holton III, and Swanson 2014).

The internal factors affecting the decision making process of H&M is the workplace diversity. As there is difference in thinking, attitude and culture of people which make the management think about the employees before initiating ay decision. Apart from that the external factor is the competition present in the industry which makes it difficult for the company to survive and sustain their activities. The company need to initiate their decision making process on the basis of competitors activities which they implement in the market (Dumont, Shen, and Deng 2017).

Conclusion:

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events it shall be noted that the company H&M satisfactorily initiated the human resource management practices in the organization. Initially the task explained about the HRM practices implemented in the H&M Company, it gave a view about the purpose and functions of HRM practices in organization and the strengths and weakness which the company received by the way of initiation of recruitment and selection in H&M.

Further the above mentioned task explained the recruitment and selection and training and development process in the organization. The task explains the flexibility in the organization and workplace design of the company. By gaining information about the workplace, it came to know that H&M is concerned about the employees of the company due to which they initiate employee relationship in the organization as well. The payment and reward system of H&M helps the employees in motivating them by the way of providing both monetary and non-monetary incentives. Later the task provides a newsletter which analyzed the internal and external factors affecting the HRM decision making and the employment related legislations in the organization. Lastly, the latter report talks about the document portfolio of a human resource assistant manager in H&M Company, it talks about the job specification, CV and the notes of the whole event organized in the company. Thus, it shall be noted that human resource management practices are one of the most important aspects which initiates the success of an organization and H&M is efficiently applying these practices to fulfill the objective of the company.

Human resource management (HRM) is an important task in every organization which is fulfilled by their human resource manager. The manager needs to perform many functions like staffing, training, employee development etc. In consideration to the H&M organization, it shall be analysed that the organization is successfully running their business in the target market. The human resource activities are helping the management in satisfying both employees and customers as well (Slavich, Cappetta, and Giangreco 2014).

HRM is one of the organizational structures that is needed to drive the organizational mission and vision. The M’s of management help an organization to achieve their defined vision and mission. Material is the factor which shall be place even before man, as it helps the products and services to become potentially strong and compete in the target market. Money is the most motivating factor to the man which helps an organization to proceed in long run. Lastly manpower is the most important M which helps an organization to increase its efficiency and effectiveness with time. This M uses all other M’s to produce output in company.

Being the human resource manager of H&M in this assignment, the task has provided a brief overview about the human resource management functions initiated in the H&M organization. It also discusses about the strengths and weakness of the organization with regards to the management of the organization. The report also includes the recruitment and selection process of the organization and performance management.

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is a 100 billion SEK company which is involved in retailing of apparel. The country is based in Europe, North America, Asia and different parts of the world. The vision of the company is create sustainability in fashion industry and the company has achieved it by successfully providing product according to demand at reasonable prices to the customers.

References:

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Armstrong, P., 2014. Limits and possibilities for HRM in an age of management accountancy. New Perspectives On Human Resource Management op. cit. at, pp.154-166.

Aswathappa, K., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

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Cao, D., Berkeley, N. and Finlay, D., 2014. Measuring sustained competitive advantage from resource-based view: survey of chinese clothing industry. Journal of Sustainable Development, 7(2), p.89.

Christina, S., Dainty, A., Daniels, K., Tregaskis, O. and Waterson, P., 2017. Shut the fridge door! HRM alignment, job redesign and energy performance. Human Resource Management Journal.

Dumont, J., Shen, J. and Deng, X., 2017. Effects of green HRM practices on employee workplace green behavior: The role of psychological green climate and employee green values. Human Resource Management, 56(4), pp.613-627.

Hashim, J., Ismail, Y. and Hassan, A., 2016. Formality of HRM Practices Matters to Employees Satisfaction and Commitment. Journal of Human Resources, 4(1), pp.47-64.

Ho, D.C., 2014. A Case Study of H&M’s Strategy and Practices of Corporate Environmental Sustainability. In Logistics Operations, Supply Chain Management and Sustainability (pp. 241-254). Springer International Publishing.

Howard, L.W., Turban, D.B. and Hurley, S.K., 2016. Cooperating teams and competing reward strategies: Incentives for team performance and firm productivity. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 3(3).

Ivanova, A., 2015. ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESSES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. CASE FASHION UNIT OY.

Knowles, M.S., Holton III, E.F. and Swanson, R.A., 2014. The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Routledge.

Marler, J.H., Cronemberger, F. and Tao, C., 2017. HR Analytics: Here to Stay or Short Lived Management Fashion?. In Electronic HRM in the Smart Era (pp. 59-85). Emerald Publishing Limited..

Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2014. Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

Pioch, E.A. and Gerhard, U., 2014. Organizational culture as differentiator in international retailing. The Service Industries Journal, 34(8), pp.729-749.

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

Regnér, P. and Yildiz, H.E., 2014. H&M in Fast Fashion: continued success?.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Slavich, B., Cappetta, R. and Giangreco, A., 2014. Exploring the link between human resource practices and turnover in multi-brand companies: The role of brand units’ images. European Management Journal, 32(2), pp.177-189.

Varnali, R., 2015. An exploratory study of the cultural context of organisational climate and human resource practices. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 53(4), pp.432-447.