Evaluate the importance to the future success of HP of its HRM strategy.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2023). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] Meaning of HRM strategy – approaches to the management of employees of a business.
2. [1] Knowledge of the difference between soft and hard HRM.
3. [1] Knowledge of other relevant HRM strategies such as management by objectives (MBO).
4. [1] Knowledge of decentralised structure and implications for HRM.
5. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: motivation of employees.
6. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: labour turnover.
7. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: productivity.
8. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: decision making.
9. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: customer satisfaction.
10. [1] Knowledge of impacts including: sales.
11. [1] HP seems to have more of a soft HRM approach, including delegation to store managers, employee training and involvement of employees in decision making.
12. [1] HP welcomes ‘intrepreneurship' new ideas from employees, such as the coffee corner.
13. [1] Training is important as employees need to be knowledgeable about pet care.
14. [1] There are opportunities for promotion, such as to HP store supervisors or managers for those trainees who are ambitious.
15. [1] Stores have performance targets, which may also suggest an MBO approach.
16. [1] Soft HRM approaches, such as training, delegation and accepting employee ideas, are likely to lead to greater employee loyalty resulting in lower labour turnover which will reduce costs of recruitment and training leading to higher profit.
17. [1] Well trained employees will be a USP for the business resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction which may increase long term sales through repeat purchase.
18. [1] Target setting for each store linked with an MBO approach will make it easier to identify stores and individuals who are under and over performing, so that rewards can be given or changes made.
19. [1] Delegation of decision making to store managers will make HP more responsive to changing local needs thus increasing customer satisfaction and sales.
20. [1] Empowering employees will encourage innovation such as the coffee corner which increases revenue.
21. [1] Delegation of decisions to store managers could result in poor decision making if managers lack experience leading to a less consistent corporate/brand image in the stores.
22. [1] Employee training programmes may be expensive, especially off-the-job training reducing profit and there is a risk that employees could be poached by competitors, especially in view of new multi-nationals entering the market. This would lead to a waste of the money spent on training.
23. [1] Supported judgement as to whether HP's HRM strategy(s) is likely to lead to future success.
24. [1] Success of any strategy will depend on the extent to which HP employees meet the needs of customers.
25. [1] Success of any strategy will depend on effective leadership from Evana. As HP diversifies and grows, will this become more challenging?
26. [1] What might success mean in this context? Is it more than profit? Reference to 'one stop shop for pet products' mission.