Hrm Report on Iceland

Company background

Most of the companies would like to reduce their costs and maximize profits. There are many approaches to achieving these objectives and one of them would be human resources management. However, human resources are considered to be one of the hardest resources to manage because people have freedom of choices. Hence, this report will go through the importance of human resources management and how it is related to the success of one the biggest food retailer in the UK. We assume that “the best company to work for in the UK” awarded by the Sunday Times is the best firm in utilizing human resources. Therefore, we have chosen Iceland Foods Ltd as this company fits the assumptions and their ranking given by the Sunday Times has gradually increased from 14th in 2009 to the first in 2012 (1).

Iceland was founded by Malcom Walker during the 1970s in Oswestry Shropshire. They have more than 800 stores and over 25,000 employees throughout the UK in 2013. This year, Iceland has generated an average of 2.5 billion pounds which has increased significantly form years of 2001 - 2004 when they made a total loss of 120 million pounds. In 2001, Bill Grimsey was appointed as the new CEO as there were four years of losses; Malcolm Walker and his management team is forced to leave the company. However, Malcom Walker returned to Iceland Foods after it was taken over by an Icelandic company called Baugur group and Iceland started to make profit ever since. Hence, this further strengthens our assumption, which states that a successful company is always lead by a dictating leader together with a proficient human resources management team.(2)

HR policies and procedures

Continuous Improvement of job satisfaction

The management of Iceland Foods have created a working environment where all the employees are treated as family. The CEO has stated, “we really do see ourselves as a family. Probably the single most important reason behind Iceland's 40-year success story”. He...