Management Of HRM Systems For Competitive Advantage

Introduction

Human capital is one of the most significant assets of an organisation that assists the same in the achievement of organisational goals (Hooi, 2019). The primary intention of this study is to identify the various issues faced by the organisation and thus determine how an appropriate HR system would be helpful in achievement of organisational objectives thereby supporting the company to gain a competitive edge within the industry. The chosen organisation for this analysis is Tesco. Tesco operates within the supermarket retailing industry where employees play a dominant role in disseminating services as well as executing other back-end activities to ensure services are smoothly and timely delivered to the end consumers. Hence management of human resources is considered essential as it would assist the company is gaining an upper-hand over the competitors within the industry thereby sustaining its leadership position.

The IssuesAt present Tesco, in order to sustain the competitive pressure needs to resort to a turnaround strategy wherein it has to take major decisions regarding the strategic reorganisation of various activities (McCulloch, 2019). This is required as the company seeks to enhance operational efficiency as well as optimise costs to overcome encounters faced within a stimulating and dynamic market. To achieve the same, the company plans to resort to job cuts of approximately 4500 employees and redeployment of another 4500 employees during 2019-2020 (McCulloch, 2019). These changes indicate the presence of ineffective HRM system within the organisation owing to which an ineffective workforce within the organisation has been created. In the year 2018 too, approximately 1700 job cuts were executed to enhance organisational holistic efficiency (Butler, 2018). With continuous job cuts taking place within the company, the employees are losing faith in the same which in the long run would influence their motivation as well as engagement within the company (Dall’Ora, et al. , 2016). Considering the changes that the company seeks to execute it is important to have an effective and sustainable HRM system that will endow the company with long term benefits and prohibit the occurrence of such issues in a recurring manner. HR and Competitive AdvantagePlanned and effective HRM systems are important in developing an employee base that is not only dedicated but also performs effectively. For this at present, it is critical for Tesco to resort to practices that would help the company transform itself into a high-performing organisation. This is possible through the adoption of sustainable HR system.

The sustainable HRM approach would assist Tesco in developing an HR system that will reduce the negative influence of changes in environmental factors on the organisational workforce (Stankeviciute & Savaneviciene, 2019). It will also help in designing strategies that will augment organisational performance and related results. With sustainable HR systems, employees would be in a better position to cope up with the issues faced of increased work pressure as repercussions of job cuts along with upgrading themselves to gel well with changing organisational culture. For setting up a high-performance work system, Tesco needs to ensure that continuous training and developmental activities are being organised by the company thereby nurturing the competencies of people time and again (Donate, et al. , 2016). This would also support the development of leadership and innovative skills within the workforce. Tesco has been operating within a dynamic environment since the global economic meltdown in 2007-2008. Once the economy recovered from the same, it has been subjected to the unclear scenario of Brexit which is also expected to have an impact on its functioning. In such a scenario, the company needs to have employees who can work even under awful situations which is only possible through effective training and development (Zeebaree, et al. , 2019). Along with training and development for various jobs within the organisation, Tesco also needs to focus on leadership development.

The company under the guidance of effective leadership would be in a position to proactive take decisions and thus minimise the risks of changes within the external environment (Asree, et al. , 2010). With the development of leaders from within the organisation at all hierarchy levels, Tesco would be a position to deal with the HR issues conveniently and thus maintain its competitive edge within the industry. Both training and development within Tesco could be designed as a part of career planning thus assisting employees to progress in their professional goals based on their interests, competencies and values (Otoo, 2019). With a career planning system integrated with the organisational HR system and organisational vision, Tesco would be in a position to strike a balance between personal requirements of employees with that of the organisation thus stepping ahead towards the achievement of long-term benefits mutually. However, to design the right career plan it is important for Tesco to evaluate the existing employee competency through a skill audit. The skill gaps along with an understanding of the aspirations of employees would provide for the right information to progress with the development and execution of such an HR system. With the help of such an HR system, Tesco would be in a position to develop a workforce that is highly committed as well as change-oriented. The commitment of employees would also be visible in enhanced employee performance which in turn would depict employee satisfaction.

Conclusion

Developing an HR System is intricate and thus require effective planning. Also, companies are challenged in developing sync between the organisational system and its HR system. Tesco is no different. The issues are faced mainly owing to the dynamic business environment in which a company like Tesco operates. The success of the new HR system lies in the ability of Tesco to adapt itself with changing environmental factors through innovative management strategies.

References

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