Murphys Superstores HRM Report: Training, Policies & Labour Relations

Murphys Superstores is a regional retail chain with outlets in Galway, Limerick, and Athlone. It employs 150 staff across departments such as food, household, clothing, and seasonal products. In recent years, Murphys has experienced difficulties with employee engagement, and retention leading to challenges in the quality of customer service.  A recent customer survey indicates dissatisfaction and loss of business to competitors in the Limerick and Athlone outlets. A recruitment agency has let the management team know that competing companies are offering training and development programs to all staff as well as performance appraisals and wellbeing programmes, leaving Murphys behind as an attractive employer.

Murphys has a small HR function consisting of one HR Officer supported by an administrator. Department managers are promoted internally but there is no formal leadership training, leading to uneven implementation of people practices across stores. The company has no formal staff handbook; policies are inconsistent in the three locations.  Disputes on rostering and working hours are frequent. Several grievances have already been referred externally to the Workplace Relations Commission.

In the past, senior management have been reluctant to invest in staff development, believing it may increase turnover and costs. Performance reviews are avoided as they are seen to trigger pay demands. Communication between management and employees is poor, with many employees reporting that they feel excluded from decision-making.

However, now that it is clear that business performance is being impacted by staffing issues, rising turnover and escalating disputes, senior management are becoming increasingly concerned and are open to new approaches to people practices  They have therefore asked for a professional HR report to inform decisions about the company’s future direction.

Your Task

You are the HR Officer at Murphys. Senior management has asked you to prepare a professional report addressing the following four sections.

Section A — Evolution of HRM to Employee -Centred Approach (25 marks)

• Describe the shift from Personnel Management to HRM.
• Discuss how Murphy’s could modernise its approach to HRM, include reference to three employee-focused HRM approaches such as wellbeing, engagement, and the psychological contract.

Section B — Training and Development (25 marks)

• Outline the key phases in designing a training and development programme for an organisation.
• Recommend four training and development methods suitable for Murphy’s context, justifying why they would be effective in addressing the issues identified.

Section C — Staff Handbook and Core Policies (25 marks)

• Explain why a staff handbook is important for both employers and employees.
• Identify and explain five essential policies Murphy’s should introduce handbook to comply with Irish law.

Section D — Labour Relations (15 marks)

• Explain a process that Murphys could implement to handle grievances in a fair and transparent way.
• Briefly outline the main functions of the Irish labour relations framework, including the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court, in resolving disputes.

Presentation, Referencing & Integrity (10 marks)

• Report format with clear headings and logical flow.
• Professional, concise writing style.
• Accurate Harvard referencing with at least 8 peer-reviewed or high-quality sources.
• Work must include your own reflection and values.
• Adhere to institutional academic integrity requirements.

Experts Answer on Above Question on HRM

Evolution of HRM to an employee centred approach

Shift from personnel management to HRM – The focus of personal management was on administration, employee records, payroll and resolving problems. But HRM takes a more strategic approach as it considers employees as an organisational resource, that contributes towards achieving organisational goals. In respect to Murphy’s, it simply implies moving beyond managing roasters and grievances towards improving retention and employee capability.

Wellbeing – It is important for Murphy to introduce a wellbeing programme that aims at managing workload of employees, providing support to managers and also the access to confidential support. This is highly important because the disputes during the working hours are adversely contributing to the retention problems.

Employee engagement – It is important for the Murphys to establish monthly employee forums in its store and store managers should be required to communicate the actions taken following feedback.

Psychological contract – The current psychological contract is very weak because employees get limited development and little performance feedback. It is important for Murphy to rebuild the trust by making clear commitments around training and thereafter perform consistent delivery across all its three stores.

Training and Development

Key phases – The key phases in the training and development includes needs analysis followed by programming design, delivery and evaluation.

Four suitable methods – The four suitable methods are management and leadership training whereby department managers should be provided with training in communication, conflict management, performance conversations and employee policy implementation. The second one is on the job coaching whereby the experienced manager should train employees during normal retail activities. Mentoring is another suitable method to transfer knowledge whereas structured workshops on customer service, communication, equality and employee well-being would help in addressing operational problems.

Staff handbook and core policies

Handbooks are quite important at Murphy’s Best store, maintaining three different branches, which leads to uncertainty among employees and a single handbook would help in establishing consistent procedure. The five essential policies that can be considered are working hours, rostering and break policy, equality, dignity at work and anti-discrimination policy, grievance and disciplinary policy, health, safety and well-being policy and leave, sickness and family related leave policy.

Labour Relations

The recommended grievance process at Murphys is a five-stage process, which includes informal discussion in stage 1 followed by formal written grievance, then independent investigation, outcome and appeal and finally, the external resolution. It is important for the HR manager at Murphys to maintain a central grievance register which shows the issue store, date, stage, responsible manager, outcome and recurring costs.

WRC and Labour Court

The workplace relations commission is responsible for promoting good workplace relations that helps with employee legislation and provides services such as mediation, conciliation, inspection and adjudication. The Labour Court has an important appellate role whereby it hears appeals from WRC adjudication officers and takes decisions with respect to disputes arising from employment rights and industrial relations legislation.

The problem at Murphy Is not simply the recruitment problem but they are the symptoms of an underdeveloped HR system. It is quite evident from inconsistent management, weak communication, limited development, poor employee engagement and unclear policies with respect to turnover and external disputes.

Want Detailed HRM Answers with References?

The analysis of Murphy superstores’ HRM challenges, recommendations on employee focused HRM, training, staff policies and labour relations for Ireland revealed important findings that can help in addressing the HRM problem faced by the organisation. If you need a similar kind of HRM analysis with respect to any Irish organisation, get in touch with our professional Ireland assignment helpers for best writing support. You can also view the solved assignment answers from the Technological University of the Shannon before deciding to utilise our services.