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The Impact of Non-Financial Resources In this assignment I will provide information for the Human Resources Director of Babcock Plc, about how my chosen business uses physical, technological and human resources. I have chosen to research about Marks and Spencer’s, which is a private limited company and sells high quality clothing, home products and food. They operate internationally, but mostly concentrating on UK. Managing the human, physical and technological resources are very important for Marks and Spencer’s because, they help the company operate efficiently, and productively.
Managing these resources well helps them with the day to day running of the business. Physical Resources Physical resources are the resources that are available for the day to day running of the business, and they’re made by humans. For example they can be in the form of buildings, or machinery. Buildings and locations are very important for the company, so they will attract more customers and the buildings will be functional for their shops. Marks and Spencer’s have successfully managed their buildings and locations because, most of their shops are located in the high street which has a high footfall and is easily accessible.
This increases the number of customers, which means there are more sales for their business. Also their buildings stand out and their shops are spacious and functional. Another thing is that they have shops located in more than 41 countries, which means the sales increase because there are more customers in different countries. Secondly, shelving is also important for Marks and Spencer’s to function, and to make their products easily accessible to customers, and stand out. In their stores the shelving is well located, and spread out in different segments.
This makes the customers find the product they’re looking for, easy to find. Also it makes the customers have a good experience with Marks and Spencer’s and reduces the time to look for the products. Another thing that the company does is that they put direction signs, which tell the customers where everything is and makes shopping around the store easier. Additionally all Marks and Spencer’s stores are laid out the same way, so wherever customers shop, they will know their way around the store. By doing this, it helps to improve shopping experience for the customers, and retain heir existing customers which will increase their sales and improve their profit. Lastly, another physical resource that Marks and Spencer’s use is the CCTV cameras. These are important for the business because they keep the business secure and decrease the chances of people stealing so they have less chances of loosing profit. Marks and Spencer’s have security cameras all around their stores, which also keep record of number of the customers that they get. This is useful because they can prevent people from stealing so, less stealers will come into the shop.
Therefore the business keeps safe, saves money and doesn’t lose out profit. Human Resources Human resources are the people that work for the organisation, and are essential for the business. Without human resources the business would be impossible to operate. Marks and Spencer’s use human resources to recruit new staff when the business can’t keep up with the demand. They make sure the recruitment process goes well and that they recruit the right person for the job. This helps to avoid recruiting the wrong person, and wasting money on training them. This saves money and time on training new staff.
Marks and Spencer’s have managed their human resources well because, they keep mostly the same staff, which is good for the business because they know about the job and there’s less risk for mistake. Also they are more trustworthy because, they work for a long time for the company, and know more about the job than a newly recruited person. Marks and Spencer’s provide different incentives for the right staff, so they will be more likely to work harder and provide a higher quality work. This helps the business to run more smoothly and avoids mistakes being made.
Also more customers will be coming to the shop if the staff is kind and helpful to them, which will increase the sales and therefore profit. The human resources department monitors performance of the employees and makes sure they are well trained for their job. They provide training for the staff, for each sector they work in, which will help them to do their job more easily and successfully. If an employee doesn’t do their job right, they could fire them and recruit another person to fill their space. Also they make sure that they fill up work for people on holiday or sick.
This is to make sure that the work that needs to be done is not affected by people being on holiday etc. Another thing that human resources in Marks and Spencer’s do, is that they make sure there is the required number of staff on each shop floor to keep the business run smoothly and provide the right customer service. This has been successful because there is always available staff to help on the shop floor, which means the customer service is improved therefore sales increase because customers keep coming back to the store and this increases profit. Technological Resources
Technological resources are the resources that help the business to function more efficiently and quickly. However these are not as important for the business as the human resources. Marks and Spencer’s used BizTalk which is a server that helps the business to manage business processes more productively. They have changed the way that information about sales was delivered to the central systems. Now, rather than collecting sales information and then transferring it to the central systems overnight, they transfer sales to the central systems, at the time they happen.
Also they use this to link their web sales into their existing back-end systems. This helps the business to run more efficiently and productively. Without using this, the information about sales would take longer to collect, and the business would run as quickly and smoothly as it does now. Marks and Spencer’s use automated stock control to optimise stock management. They improve product availability by using this, because it keeps record of how much stock is in the warehouse, so the company knows when to reorder stock. This avoids running out of stock.
Also by using automated stock control, the company can order their products in a good time from suppliers, which improves the relationships with them, and they are less likely to run out of stock. This meansthat they will always have their products available for their customers, which increases sales and profit. Every business needs to manage their resources effectively, and control their budget costs for the business to perform well. If the business doesn’t control their budget costs, they could invest more money in their business than they would get back.
Also they could run out of money to buy their products , or to pay their employees, so they need to control the budget costs to avoid those mistakes. A business needs to control their physical, human and technological resources, so that their business will operate more productively and efficiently, at the same time reducing the costs of the business. This will make sure that they reduce spending money on things that are not needed, and therefore increase the profit. For example Marks and Spencer’s manage their physical resources well by having their buildings in a good location, with a high foot fall.
This is good for the business because there is more customers coming into the stores, which means there will be more sales, and therefore more profit. However locating a store in a good location, could be hard and expensive, because places with a high foot fall and easy access to customers, are often sought after. Another good way of managing resources are having CCTV cameras around the stores because, these improve the security of the business, therefore more customers will want to shop in the store.
Also if more customers shop there, the sales increase and business makes more profit. Another way that CCTV cameras help to improve performance of the business is that they keep the stealers away from the business. This means that less people will steal in their shops, so they will lose less money and therefore it increases the profit. However having CCTV cameras around all the stores is very expensive, but for a big international company like Marks and Spencer’s it is a good way to invest their money in. This is because by having them it will increase the profit if their company.
Marks and Spencer’s also manage their human resources effectively, because they don’t hire not needed staff, to reduce their costs, and keep the number of staff in their stores to minimum. This reduces the costs that they have to pay their employees, and therefore increases profit. However sometimes, recruiting new staff can bring new ideas for the business and can improve the performance of it, so Marks and Spencer’s should sometimes recruit new staff. Also the Human Resources Department makes sure that people that don’t do their job well are fired and they replace them with new employees.
This makes sure the company has the required number of staff at all times, and that they can do their jobs easily and smoothly. Another good thing is that without the human resources department the business might not have enough employees, and therefore they would not be able to provide the right service for the customers. Consequently, the sales would decrease and there will be less profit. To improve the performance of the business, the human resources department needs to make sure that the employees work as hard as they can and produce high quality work.
If they don’t, they need to give them incentives so they will work harder. However to make the incentives effective they need to know the employees, so the employees will benefit from the incentives. For example, they cannot gives a voucher for a free kids meal, for an employee that doesn’t have children. If the company gives bad incentives they would lose money because, the employees would be unlikely to work harder if they receive incentive that is not useful for them. Marks and Spencer’s use automated stock control which is a good way of improving performance of the business because; it helps to avoid human error.
This helps to make sure that the company keeps the record of their stock, and they know when they need to reorder it. This is a good thing for the Page 4 company as they can easily make sure that they have their stock available at all times, so operating of the business becomes easier. If they didn’t have the automated stock control it would be hard to control their stock in the warehouse, and they could run out of their stock. Also without the automated stock control, the business wouldn’t be able to order their stock in a good time, so the company would be unable to run smoothly.
Overall, it is very important for the business to manage their resources well, so the performance of the business will be improved. If they manage their resources in a good way, they will reduce their costs and increase the profit. Also they need to control their budget costs so they will not run out of money, and will be able to pay for the costs to run their business efficiently. Bibliography * Lecture notes * Marks and Spencer’s website, 4th/11/11 , About Us http://corporate. marksandspencer. com/aboutus * What is BizTalk, 7th /11/11, http://www. microsoft. com/biztalk/en/us/overview. aspx * PowerPoint presentations, 4th . 11. 2011