The term human resources is variously defined in political economy and economics, where it was traditionally called labor, one of three factors of production. Its use within corporations continues to define common conceptions of the term. Human resources are uniquely important to sustained business success and this philosophy of people management is based on this belief. An organization gains competitive advantage by using its people effectively, drawing on their expertise and creativity to meet clearly defined objective.
HRM is aimed at recruiting capable, flexible and committed people, managing and rewarding their performance and developing key competencies. Here I have analysed the HR strategies of Prime retail store which is newly build store at Wembley at UK which include grouping of the organisation in terms of its employees, the turnover, the location and a number of other factors that give an employer a fair and equitable comparison with outside organisations. Another source of market comparisons is industry associations which keep a record of a number of positions, remuneration rates and offer them to its members.
Both these avenues are a great source to assist manager to develop a fair and equitable remuneration structure. Here I have tried to find out the limitation of HR strategies due to the unplanned pressure of corporate strategies and how the HR department overcome this situation , the store expansion plan in France and its upcoming difficulties at France, its wrong recruitment process and how to overcome the recruitment process correctly and engage the efficient employees by reducing redundancies and the performance appraisal, reward system for the companies benefit.
Researchers describe that today; many successful organizations are increasingly tying Human Resource Management closely to the business practices. Hollinshead and Leat (1995) also describe there should be a link between HR policy, strategy and practice and overall corporate strategy in its competitive environment. Coopers and Lybrand ( 1992 ) also express that corporate strategy sets the agenda for HR strategy and HR strategy exists to support the achievement of the corporate strategy. Therefore, integration between corporate and HR strategy is necessary so that the latter supports the accomplishment of the former.
In this report, we will discuss about the link between Prime’s Corporate Strategy and HR strategy. Firstly we will start discussing about strategic issues and corporate strategy of Prime by using different analysis and culture web. Secondly we will discuss about best practice and fit ( Contingency ) theory. Thirdly HR strategy and activities of Prime’s will be explored. Fourthly we will critically analyse the findings of Prime’s HR against best practice and fit models. Finally, conclusions and recommendations will be followed.
The reason why Prime is chosen is because it is going to competent with the competitors such as Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA. 3. 0 Strategic HRM Armstrong ( 2001 ) describes that ” strategic HRM is making decisions on the plans of the organization concerning the employment relationship and its HR policy “. It is an essential component of the organisation’s corporate strategy. It aim is to generate strategic capability by having skilled, committed and well-motivated employees within the organization to achieve sustained competitive advantage.
Later we will discuss whether Prime’s HR activities follow this principle. Corporate strategy is concerned with an organisation’s basic direction for the future: its purpose, ambitions, resources and how to interacts with the world in which it operates. It is the identification of the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose ” ( Lynch, 2003 ). To achieve purpose effectively, Prime sets vision, mission and value . To understand corporate strategy, firms need to realise firstly its strategic issues.
A major conflict that the Human Resources Department faces is the conflict between the Corporate Strategy at Prime’s. For Prime’s to provide effective and efficient training and development to their employees Prime’s must also be able to provide the money to finance the training and development. As training and development can be very expensive depending on the types of training and development that is provided. Prime’s provide a wide range of training and development for each different area of the Prime’s business.
Prime’s finance department may not be able to fund the training and development completely; therefore this causes a conflict between the two Strategies and HR strategies is limited day by day. The finance department believe that the money could be spent on other areas of the Prime’s business rather than on so much training and development. When appraisal meetings are conducted, targets are identified and set in these meetings, also budgets and long and short-term needs are identified. When performance management is carried out, Prime’s H. R. department uses appraisal systems.
As a reward to employees for good performance, Prime’s reward them with performance-related pay. The Finance Department has to arrange the performance-related pay; this is another conflict, as the Finance Department may not have the budget to finance the performance-related pay. There also is a conflict between the Human Resources Department and Prime’s Corporate management. As Prime’s management may not agree with decisions made by the Human Resources Department. When the H. R. Department employ new staff, Prime’s management may not agree with the decision to employ those certain staff.
The management will disagree; they may have found some fault or reason why that employee may not be suitable for working with Prime’s. Another conflict is between the Internal Labour Market and the Finance Department at Prime’s. This is because in West London there are many jobs available, as West London is quite large. The jobs that are available offer highly competitive notes of pay. Therefore the Corporate Finance Department at Prime’s need to compete with these notes of pay, forming a conflict between the Internal Labour Market, which is part of the Human Resources Department, and the Finance Department.
