Assessment of how managing the human Essay

This part of assignment assesses how managing the human, physical and technological resources that have been researched so far can improve the performance of Marks & Spencer. Human Resources Human Resources are the people (employees) in the business. Monitoring the performance of employees in Marks & Spencer has showed the way to a number of advantages. These essential advantages are assessed below. The employees in Marks & Spencer are being monitored by CCTV and therefore watched by managers or directors which led to an increase in customer focus. Monitoring employees makes sure that they are carrying out the job tasks correctly. This could be for the reason that employees do not want to upset and get embarrassed when their managers or directors are observing them through CCTV; as a result they try to work and perform to the best of their ability. Employees in the stores of Marks & Spencer know that they are being observed and monitored throughout the work day so this encourages employees to serve customers more adequately as well as to provide assistance at all times. In addition, employees in the stores are likely to think that they could get bonuses and rewards if they perform to the best of their ability. For instance, Marks & Spencer could give incentives during the work which would likely make employees encouraged and complete the tasks given because incentives usually motivate employees to work to the best of their ability on whatever tasks are they completing. Marks & Spencer offers gift vouchers that are the perfect choice to help reward congratulate and motivate people in a way they will appreciate. Marks & Spencer vouchers are perfect incentive to increase sales, recruit new customers and generate new business. This is the best way to promote performance from the staff and encourage more positive outlook in the workplace. These incentives include the sick pay leave if needed as well as the holidays. (See appendix 4) Employees that work in Marks & Spencer normally have 20% off discounts of the products and items that they buy. In addition, in order to increase their performance they offer deals and voucher tickets to their employees who are working to the best of their ability. These bonuses, fair wages and discounts that employees get makes them work even harder which means the motivation increases. Human resources includes the need of Marks & Spencer having suitable employees in the organisation that work in the store in order to increase the performance of the business. Therefore, Marks & Spencer should employ correct employees with the right skills, abilities and experience to complete tasks to the best of their ability. Having appropriate recruitment process – making adverts the most attractive as possible and having clear job descriptions with clear tasks would possibly bring the right people to Marks & Spencer. When they choose an employee or employees to work for a business they need to make sure that interview procedure is correct and that short-listing table is used in order to compare all the candidates and choose the best one when looking at the criteria. Marks & Spencer needs to make sure that they get the person to work for them that is intelligent, respectful and diligent. Candidates that apply for a job in marks & Spencer need to complete the application form on the Marks & Spencer’s website (www.marksandspencer.com) where an applicant would fill its personal details, grades and achievements and the experience. Retailers like Marks and Spencer have complex recruitment needs and have to deal with high volumes of applications to fill a large number of similar positions. Marks and Spencer manages all applications for store jobs via WCN’s Applicant Tracking System. The system is based on complex two way integration with the Marks and Spencer HR system. The system allows candidates who are successful after applying and completing online tests, to book their own interview within an hour of completing their application. Stores input vacancies and give available assessment times on the Marks and Spencer HR system, this data is then transferred to the WCN system and displayed to candidates online. Therefore, candidates that are successful they are either going to be contacted with the assessment times where they are going to be given different tasks including team work activities. In addition, their interview is going to take place at some time in the day too. After assessment day, usually the candidates will be told either by phone, e-mail or letter whether they got the job or not. In order to increase performance of the business the employees that are already working in Marks & Spencer would need to be trained from time to time as they will be kept up to date with their tasks and will know how to complete them correctly. Knowing how to complete tasks correctly will eventually give motivation to them because they will have more understanding when completing their tasks and duties. However, if employees would not be sure of how to carry certain duties then the managers would not be happy with their work. Therefore, an appropriate training would be suitable in order to solve this problem. Training will give knowledge to employees about their job and introduce new tasks or duties that are needed to be completed. When employees go off for training they are normally working as a team by working together and completing certain tasks together; as a result, they are likely to develop more team work. Each store in Marks & Spencer has different groups or teams and each group or team has their own responsibilities and tasks. Because each team has their own responsibilities this makes them know what they are doing and how they are approaching issues during their work day. Marks & Spencer also have team members whose responsibilities are divided because they are specialists in their job; therefore, this means that Marks & Spencer is likely to achieve its aims and objectives consistently and obviously, on time. On top of that, the employees that are part of Marks & Spencer’s crew also help to achieve the targets of Marks & Spencer. This could be for the reason that managers or directors have a span of control on supervisors and sales assistants in Marks & Spencer stores. As a result, having the span of control will mean that managers are in charge for setting duties and tasks, controlling and observing employees, for instance, sales assistants and supervisors. For the reason that this happens they have their own responsibilities and tasks that has to be met and there is no need to worry themselves about other employees’ responsibilities and tasks in the store. As a result target achievement is met by a better task focus that takes place. In Marks & Spencer the CCTV monitors the employees that are working and therefore, the managers in Marks & Spencer’s store observes employees. This fact has increased Marks & Spencer’s profit in the way as employees work to the best of their ability and perform well while they are working because they know that they are being observed. Employees need to perform well in order to get bonuses for their good work and to avoid the disappointment of their managers; therefore, they treat customers very well and serve them at all times when they are available. As a result, customers that are treated well tend to buy the items, such as food and clothing from Marks & Spencer. This could be for the reason that when customers need help with their shopping, normally employees help them with where to find certain products, or where to find the right shoe sizes and clothing for them. In addition to this, Marks & Spencer stores that provide clothing have fitting rooms which means employees that usually stand in front of the fitting rooms are there to help customers with the sizes of their clothing and even the styles. Marks & Spencer usually observes the employees’ that are being late and therefore monitors them; normally, an employee that works for Marks & Spencer will have an ID card. The lateness of employees’ can also be observed by asking them to sign time-sheets each day when they start and finish work; this helps Marks & Spencer to organize all the employees that are expected to be on time and in their work place. Observing and monitoring employees’ makes them to start working on time for the reason that they might not want to have arguments or conflicts with their managers in the store. Because Marks & Spencer stores have enough employees on the store floors this helps Marks & Spencer to serve the majority of the customers properly. This is for the reason that fewer employees would be placed to serve customers in fitting rooms and most of the employees would be placed on the store floor placing products on shelves and helping customers to find certain products if they need help. For the reason that employees are divided into different areas in the whole store of Marks & Spencer they can serve customers and help with their shopping at all times. However, if there aren’t enough employees on the store floor the customers will be disappointed due to the fact that they will not be served very well and not given much help concerning their shopping. For instance, if all of Marks & Spencer’s employees’ in the store serves customers only in fitting rooms then there would not be enough employees on the store floor which will lead to a real untidiness and muddle in the store. In conclusion, observing employees’ punctuality makes them to keep up with their attendance and be punctual. This makes Marks & Spencer have better image because their employees serves customers well and manages to keep up with the tidiness on the store floors. Physical and Technological resources Physical and technological resources that Marks & Spencer uses have quite a lot of advantages as Human Resources. Physical resources are the things that business uses to complete its activities every day in the store, for instance, buildings and equipment. Technological resources are things such as computers with its software such as Microsoft Office. Physical and technological resources are assessed below. Marks & Spencer has got a transactional website (technological resource) (www.marksandspencer.com) which means that the business is expanded in many ways which increased its performance. This could be for the reason that clients or consumers that are able to access the website can purchase its products. Marks & Spencer online shopping offers UK online shoppers many choices. Their large clothing and home ware line has earned respect and loyalty from shoppers from the United Kingdom as well as worldwide. Consumers can shop online for thousands of Marks & Spencer online products from the convenience of their home because people can look through the website to see new clothes and items and the new deals and offers are also promoted on the website so that customers know what is offered in the stores. In the website, it is also possible to contact Marks & Spencer if consumers have a question regarding a product or an item. Therefore, this expand the business as anyone can access the website from any country of the world if they have internet connection and it also increases performance because consumers can stay at home not visiting the stores which means Marks & Spencer would receive money from costumers anyway, which would increase in sales and this means Marks & Spencer would make more profit. Marks & Spencer stores has got many tills in their stores and employees that works on them, therefore, having many tills prevents in having long customer queues because as employees are able to work on the tills they can serve the customers very quickly. Therefore, the more tills Marks & Spencer has, the better customer service because it serves customers quickly leaving them happy and it is likely to make them to come into the store the next time as they received good customer service. Eventually, if they continue visiting the store this means they will buy more products which will increase in sales and make higher profits. In addition to this, normally there are lifts in Marks & Spencer stores that helps customers quite a lot too because their shopping can be more convenient. Lifts are useful because it helps customers with pushchairs and disabled customers to shop, especially in the stores where Marks & Spencer has got four floors. For instance, one of the shopping malls in Plymouth has got Marks & Spencer store of four floors; the first being men clothing, the second is women clothing, the third is lingerie and fourth floor is children clothing and toys, home ware and the cafà ©. On the fourth floor they also have a tunnel leading directly to the car park so it means customers can avoid the busy lifts that they will find in the shopping mall itself. Therefore, by having lifts Marks & Spencer makes it convenient for customers to shop and they are likely to visit the store more often due to comfortable surroundings and resources available to them. In addition to this, Marks & Spencer always has employees with samples of different items in the store for customers to try. This would also increase in providing better customer service as the products are promoted and customers will want to try out the new products. They will be happy that Marks & Spencer offers samples to try out because customers would feel important in the store by employees showing attention and offering products to customers. As a result, customers that try the samples are likely to like the product and purchase it making Marks & Spencer’s sales eventually grow and profits increase. On the top of that, customers want a good value for the products they buy which would be high quality and reliable. They also want to get good quality service provided to them at the stores and that staff always would be available for assistance if needed. Customers also want a good environment around them in which they would be comfortable to shop and buy high standard products provided; therefore, better customer service would be increased by employees being motivated and providing assistance and by having resources such as lifts which increase the shopping convenience and this would keep customers happy. The availability of communication through Internet and telephone allows Marks & Spencer to correspond quicker and easier. Managers in Marks & Spencer are able to send and receive information from other Marks & Spencer branches as well as departments. For instance, e-mails allow managers to attach financial statement and transfer them to finance department which might be situated in another city. In addition to this, Internet and telephone connection gives an advantage to customers as well. This is for the reason that customers are able to contact Marks & Spencer either by e-mails or by giving a call to Marks & Spencer store. A number of customers feel the need to contact Marks & Spencer because they want to ask about particular product, for example, if Marks & Spencer has black jacket in size ten. If it happens that Marks & Spencer has this type of an item in store the customer might ask to put it on hold which Marks & Spencer will be happy to do. However, if it happens that Marks & Spencer does not have it in store then the customer can order it and Marks & Spencer will be happy to provide instructions how to do it. When the delivery arrives, Marks & Spencer will contact the customer by informing him about the arrived jacket. Therefore, the customer would be happy because they are given quality service and because Marks & Spencer is trying the best to serve customers well; this would make customers feel important. Marks & Spencer has insurance against thefts, fire damages and vandalisms; therefore this makes employees feel safe in their working environment. Because of this employees are able to work and perform up to the highest possible standard. For instance, an employee who knows that he or she is protected from thieves that could appear in the store and be dangerous to lives of people that appear in the store will be able to serve customers without fair and stress. In addition, customers who know that Marks & Spencer has insurance they would feel safe and protected when shopping in the store. This would increase Marks & Spencer’s performance, as employees want to be safe, they want staff would be always available for assistance and they want good environment around them that is comfortable to shop in. Therefore, having insurance from thefts, fire damages and vandalisms would make sure that customer’s desires are fulfilled and employees would work to the best as they can knowing that they are protected. Therefore, as customers would visit the store more because they feel safe at the store, they would buy more products due to safety and getting quality assistance from employees and as a result sales will eventually increase which would lead to higher profit and increased performance. Equipment of Marks & Spencer and the machinery would increase in productivity as well as the performance and reputation of the business. Marks & Spencer would need to have the latest equipment and machinery in order to carry day to day activities correctly. Marks & Spencer would use equipment and machinery such as self check-out machines, electronic tills and trolleys to carry products. The machinery in warehouses would be used in order to make items to the highest possible quality. These machines would need to be updated regularly so that they would not break down and cause day to day activities to slow down. Ultimately, if machinery and equipment are looked after and updated regularly then this means Marks & Spencer would be able to operate effectively; customers are likely to buy their items and products which would eventually increase in sales and profit. If customers are going to be happy due to the service provided because of good machinery and equipment then they are likely to stay with Marks & Spencer by visiting their stores regularly which would mean Marks & Spencer’s reputation will grow over time and once again the sales and profits will increase. In addition to this, Marks & Spencer stores have got employed security guards which make a store a safer place to work because there is an instant access to help. Having security is important for marks & Spencer because products and items have security tags attached to them on the electronic bars; therefore, if people decide to steal a product or an item the alarm is going to go off at the entrance of the store which would mean that a customer has stolen something. Therefore, security guards will take care of this and make sure that the thief does not run away. In addition, CCTV cameras take great care of being secure at work as well. CCTV cameras operate all day through in Marks & Spencer recording everything that is going on. Eventually, having security guards and CCTV cameras increases in performance of Marks & Spencer as the employees will feel safe and happy at work and as a result carry out tasks to the best of their ability. Marks & Spencer normally has quite big buildings that consist of two, three or even four floors, especially in shopping malls. In addition to this, if there are separate floors such as four floors building it allows Marks & Spencer to set a particular floor for particular products and items. For instance, one of the shopping malls in Plymouth has got Marks & Spencer store of four floors; the first being men clothing, the second is women clothing, the third is lingerie and fourth floor is children clothing and toys, home ware and the cafà ©. Besides, as the floors are quite big in terms of space, this allows Marks & Spencer to have room in order to display a range of styles of the products. If Marks & Spencer is able to display a large number of products this means that the performance is going to be increased because as the products are promoted the customers that walk around the store would see the product or an item and might get interested. Customer is likely to be attracted by the product because of the suitable displaying of products in Marks & Spencer and as a result they would purchase it. In addition, customers that walk pass the store, might see the display of products in the shop windows of Mark & Spencer and this would attract them to come in to the store to look at the product in more detail. Therefore, as customers are likely to buy more products due to displaying this is likely to increase sales and make a higher profit. If the business makes higher profit then this would increase the performance of Marks & Spencer. Eventually, human, physical and technological resources have a big impact on Marks & Spencer as a business. However, the inability that could to use these resources effectively could appear and this will cause many problems and difficulties rather than advantages.