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HR Management in the 21st century: Challenges for the future:

Maria Stanford the HR director of HR. introduced the most committed HR function at Selfridges, the
department lacked at commercial focus and Stanford knows that HR always play an essential role in
order to improve overall business performance. In 21st century retail industry are moving really fast and
easily can company fail in terms of providing customer the best experience. The company has always
suffered high turnover, so the challenge was always constant recruitment and retaining process for sales
staffs. Also sales team has to deal with different customers on a daily basis and it absolutely essential to
impress them at the same time.

The Impact of Information Technology on HR Management: Opportunities and Challenges

Opportunities:
There are many opportunities lies with having a HRIS or HRMS. With information technology any
company can manage overall HR functions in compliance to laws, provide efficient processes for
recruiting and selection and generate reports for internal and external use. Some other opportunities
might include providing accurate information and performing HR audits based on several different
parameters.

Challenges:
One of the major challenges faced by HRIS involves human error while giving input to various
information. Maintaining and updating information technology is very costly and malfunctions or some
bug can interrupt the different functions of HRIS. Also it is essential to keep a disaster recovery plan for
any information system, otherwise there will be a chance that the system could be damaged or
destroyed by natural disasters. So there is a risk of losing valuable data is always associated with IT.

Recruitment and selection process:

Recruiting:
Selfridges follows online recruitment process. Their career website details all the positions currently
available. They often dont state closing dates for roles as it depends on the response to the
advertisements. They post jobs on their career website and also through job-search websites. Their
online recruitment process allows them to attract a larger pool of candidates. Their recruitment process
also includes assessment centers and interviews for roles in line with external candidates. They do not
need candidates to fill up an internal application form.

Selection:
Selfridges asks candidates to sit for an online test before they are selected as a candidate for the
company. The test includes MCQ and Written type questions to measure the skill, cognitive ability, and
collect basic information about a candidate. The test is then followed by an interview. They usually dont
provide any feedback on the interview if the candidate is not selected, but if a candidate thinks that it
would help him/her in the future to have some feedback based on their interview or assessment the
company does provides an evaluation of the interviewees performance. Interview assessment depends
on the various position. If an individual have applied for Sales Associate role the company runs
assessment centres in each store on a regular basis, which usually includes a role play exercise and/or a
one-to-one interview. For any other positions applied a candidate has to face at least two interviews,
and the company reserves all rights regarding who to invite for the assessment. At Selfridges they look
for a number of things in potential candidates based on the specific kind job they are applying for. They
measure the qualifications of the candidates prior to requirements of role and skills and experience.
Their assessment focuses on Selfridges people values and they look for passion in candidates for what
they love and about working on Selfridges.

Performance and reward system:

Selfridges offers various sort of rewards and benefit packages. Such as:

Incentive and commission schemes for Sales Associates roles (depends on the area an employee
is working in)
Season Ticket Loan.
Healthcare for senior managements.
A range of different special offers, as detailed in Selfridges benefit booklet provided as part of
their offer pack.
Career Development and Training & Development Program:

Selfridges allows the employees to move between stores. Roles in the stores and Head Office
environments are offered internally and through their Intranet. Through this transfer process between
their stores the employees can develop their career with retail management teams to find better
opportunities in different stores. The company also encourages talent development from their Retail
teams into their Head Office teams especially in buying and merchandising.

Financial Budget of HR:

Selfridges Average Salary Range by Job: [Salary + Bonus + Increment + Others]

Job
Salary Range
Retail Sales Assistant
10,391 - 17,134
Visual Merchandiser
11,441 - 22,093
Sales Associate
10,580 - 25,839
Retail Manager
18,172 - 52,680
For any particular role a bonus of 5%-40% of base salary is provided. Selfridges also offers team member
discount on various products. Discount is based on products and can be up to 35%.
Depending on the years of experience and location an employee is working on there are opportunities
for increment. For 1-4 years experience an employee receives 20,993 and for 5-9 years an employee
receives around 47,500.
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Health & Safety Issues and HR Ethics:

At Selfridges employees are at the heart of the way they do business; the company believes that its
their talent and skills which helps them to make ordinary to extraordinary. At Selfridges they talk and
listen to their people. They have great people programme to recognize team members who live by their
values. Their business is run on relationships and creativity. A safe working environment is ensured for
all employees where no discrimination is promoted. They attract the best talent externally and promote
the best internal talents. They have the people, structure and processes that ensures living their values
and delivering business goals.

Recommendation:

In order to please and retain customers Selfridges should consider to develop more customer oriented
strategies. When devising customer oriented policies the company should understand the cost and long-

term viability first. The company also needs to consider that customer is always right, but not all
customers are right for the business. The company should also consider investing in research and
development.