Investigate their human resources, administration, finance and sales and marketing departments to then see how each contributes to the running of Marks and Spencer's.
Marks and Spencer's have many different store departments but also have many different departments of their business, its functional areas. I am going to look at and investigate their human resources, administration, finance and sales and marketing departments to then see how each contributes to the running of Marks and Spencer's.
Human Resources:
The human resources department aims to carry out 5 major things, these being:
. Recruiting, keeping and dismissing employees. This is a major task for M&S as they need the right type of employees for the business to operate it's best, also the employees shall decide the businesses success present and future.
Recruiting new employees could be hiring new people from outside the business or promoting workers already working in the business. Many businesses such as M&S like recruiting from outside the business to bring new ideas and enthusiasm.
M&S would want to keep all their existing employees as they would risk losing experienced and trained staff, plus recruiting new workers and training them can prove to be expensive.
Sometimes M&S would have to dismiss or sack employees, this may be due if an employee cannot carry out their job efficiently or effectively. Also many employees are dismissed or made redundant, as their jobs no longer exist, say the fall in a particular product could lead to the dismissal of many staff.
2. Monitoring and providing good working conditions. Working conditions includes; the cleanliness of a place, the provision of rest areas, hours of work and holidays. Working conditions have a great impact on how well a business operates and how well employees can carry out their work. They are normally a subject for negotiation between trade unions and human resources. M&S have an area for staff to relax and spend their breaks in. The whole store would be regularly cleaned every day for both the workers and customers.
3. Training, developing and promoting employees. Human resources need their staff to be able to ensure that employees are able to do their jobs, they may give training at M&S or through course at local colleges, planning jobs so that employees enjoy new experiences and develop new skills also promoting employees to more senior positions to give the business the skills and experience it needs.
4. Negotiating with trade unions. The human resources department of M&S would have to discuss and agree pay and working conditions with trade unions or other representatives of the workforce. This process is called collective bargaining.
5. Health and safety is an important responsibility for human resources, as it requires M&S to provide all employees with a secure risk free working environment.
That is what the human resources function of M&S had to ensure is carried out. Here are some typical job titles within an organisation such as M&S.
Job title
Description
Human resources director
Deciding the overall staffing policies of Boots. Also he/she advise senior management. Setting the human resources budget. In charge of all human resource functions in Boots.
Human resources manager
He/she manages the human resources department and staff involved with industrial relations and trade union negotiations, also ensuring his/he staff is following the policies of Boots.
Recruitment officer
Responsible for the taking on of staff and section of staff, depending on their standard of work they offer to Boots and the customers of Boots.
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Job title
Description
Human resources director
Deciding the overall staffing policies of Boots. Also he/she advise senior management. Setting the human resources budget. In charge of all human resource functions in Boots.
Human resources manager
He/she manages the human resources department and staff involved with industrial relations and trade union negotiations, also ensuring his/he staff is following the policies of Boots.
Recruitment officer
Responsible for the taking on of staff and section of staff, depending on their standard of work they offer to Boots and the customers of Boots.
Training/staff development officer
He/she are responsible for training and developing of their staff to bring or take them to a higher level.
Personnel/staffing officer
Keeping staff records, monitoring staff welfare.
Health and safety officer
He/she makes sure all aspects of health and safety are in order for staff matters. Also they monitor accident and prevention.
Security officer
General security, responsible for all security staff.
Human resources administrative assistants
Administrative work relating to the human resource function.
Finance:
Now I am going to look at the finance function of M&S. The finance department of a business manages the money for the business. The department controls the financial transactions of a business and help managers to plan for the future. The various activities of the finance department are:
. Recording all the financial matters of M&S as they are constantly spending money or receiving it from sales. It is vital that they keep all records of all the activities in order to, calculate whether the business is being profitable, asses how much tax the business will have to pay and to help managers to make the right decisions.
2. All businesses have to prepare their accounts in order to summarise their financial affairs during a year, plc's are required to publish their results legally as they are a public company such as M&S. They have to do the following; the balance sheet which states both what a businesses aims and its debts, profit and loss account- which records the profit or loss made during a lengthy period of time usually a year, the inland revenue have to confirm that M&S has paid the correct amount of tax, suppliers are able to see whether business can pay it's debts and finally shareholders can decide whether it's worth investing in the business or not.
3. M&S have to pay the wages of all their employees and it involves the finance department in a number of ways. The business has to deduct income tax and national insurance from each employees pay, it may be required to operate a pension scheme for its more elderly employees and to make sure the correct amount of wages or salaries has been given out to employees.
4. All businesses need some resources and capital to trade successfully. To purchase these resources businesses may need to raise large sums of money, known as capital, but not M&S as they are already fully developed and expanding across the globe. But nevertheless a business has 2 main sources of capital; a loan raised by borrowing money from a bank or another business and retained profits, if M&S has been very profitable they may be able to invest in the business and obtain resources they may need.
Some typical job roles in the finance function in M&S would include;
Job
Description
Financial director
Giving advice to senior managers on the overall financial policy of M&S. Overseeing the budget of M&S. In charge of all finance function in M&S.
Financial Manager
Managing the finance function and staff. He/she also advises other members of staff with any financial queries.
Chief Accountant
He/She ensures that final preparation of accounts M&S are in good and correct order.
Management accountant
He/She produces continuous financial information to M&S.
Credit Controller
Advising on credit policies. Making sure money owing to M&S kept in confidence.
Credit control clerks
Helps check accounts of new and existing customers accounts. He/She works below the Credit Controller but assist the credit controller. They also remind customers of overdue payments
Chief Cashier
He/She is responsible for the receipt, safe keeping accounting and banking all money received from boots.
Payroll Administrator
He/She is in control of ensuring that all of M&S employees payroll and salary/wages section.
Wages Clerks
He/She helps and assists the payroll administrator, in the production of wages ands salary details.
Administration:
The administration department provides important support services to other departments in the business. Not all admin departments in all businesses are the same. In small businesses the admin department may take responsibility for human resources or finance, but in a large organisation such as M&S it is usually most likely to be specialised. The admin department makes considerable use of computers and IT as it is required for a lot of their jobs.
There are as always many activities for the administration department; they can be broken down into 5 groups:
. Clerical services are the main role of every admin department. The department may provide clerical services to all other departments within the business. These maybe; word-processing, making telephone calls, booking accommodation for staff, sorting and delivering incoming mail and posting outgoing mail, organising meetings and keeping records of what takes place at these meetings, talking responsibly on behalf of the whole company and creating and keeping records of the company.
2. All businesses require regular cleaning M&S is no exception as it is especially true as M&S have cafes, which require thorough cleanliness. Admin also organises the maintenance of the building, they may decorate the inside and outside of the building if they wish.
3. Health and safety is a big issue with all businesses. It includes; providing safety clothing, warnings for workers, ensuring that there are no dangers around the workplace and providing regular medical checks for those working in risky environments.
4. Security is an increasingly important issue for all businesses, security duties would include; signing visitors in and out of premises, ensuring that unauthorised people are kept out by use of patrols or even guard dogs, protecting computer systems from hackers, patrolling to prevent shoplifting by employing guards in uniform.
5. Information technology is being more widely used by the minute, nearly all businesses use some form of IT nowadays. The admin department may use IT to; make spreadsheet for financial data, a database of customers and employees, payroll systems to calculate employees wages and salaries, e mail for communicating internal and external, web based systems, web sites for selling goods etc.
Typical job roles of the administration function would be:
Job
Description
Administration manager
Managing the administration operations of M&S.
Administration assistant
Assists with administrative tasks in particular areas.
Secretary of Boots
A senior executive responsible for all the legal affairs of M&S.
It manager
Managing all IT requirements of M&S, including equipment maintenance and advising on future needs.
Office manager/senior administrator
Responsible for ensuring the administrating operations in particular office or department.
Chief security officer
He/she is responsible for the security staff and advising on security requirements.
Security
Responsible for maintaining and monitoring security to the required standard.
Reprographics supervisor (photo coping and printing)
Ensuring all reprographics are done and to a high standard, as it reflects on Boots reputation from the quality of leaflets and formal letters etc.
Pa / Secretarial staff
These staff are mainly there to providing secretarial and administrative support to senior members of staff and
Word processing operator/Data input clerk (worker)
He/she type out letters and any other documents and also input data into a computer system.
Maintenance of Staff
He/she is responsible for routine maintenance work, which may include painting or decorating.
Cleaning Staff
Cleaning of general office areas, facilities and equipment
Marketing and Sales:
Marketing and sales involve businesses in many ways. Marketing is the process that helps all businesses to discover and meet the needs of customers. Doing market research, carrying it out in the local and wider community enables the business to discover:
Customer reactions to existing products
2 What new goods and services customers want
3 Whether or not new products will prove to be popular
4 The prices customers are prepared to pay for goods
5 How satisfied customers already are with the service
Marks and Spencer's therefore do the following; discover customer needs through market research, advise customers of products through promotion then achieve their sales. There are 2 types of research that can be carried out, Primary- gathering data for the 1st time by asking for views and opinions through questionnaires, interviews, surveys etc and Secondary research which is research that has already been done by someone else such as newspapers web site etc.
The best-known marketing activity is promotion.
Advertising on TV, radio, internet, billboards, newspapers etc
2 Sales promotions, giving free samples like buy 1 get 1 free etc
3 Public relations, attempting to influence the publics opinions of the business and its products through sponsorship, trade fairs the press and media
Businesses try to achieve their sales through a number of ways:
Selling products through shops
2 Personal selling such as when sales reps encourage customers to buy their products
3 Internet selling is an increasingly important sales method as it is spreading and growing bigger
The typical job roles you can expect are:
Typical job Title
Job Role
Marketing Director
Responsible for over all marketing function and its aims and objectives.
Sales Director
He/She is responsible for the sales function.
Sales Manager
He/she is responsible for M&S entire sales staff and achievement of sales targets usually within the UK.
Export Manager
This individual is responsible for agents and sales overseas.
Advertising Manager
In charge of advertising and publishing successful advertising campaigns.
Sales Coordinator
This person is responsible for giving urgent information required by sales staffs that are travelling.
Sales Representatives
M&S sales staff who visit customers in UK and abroad.
Market Researchers
This team is relied upon to find out what customers want and whether or not there is a need for this new product.
Order Clerks
This staffs are responsible to accept and process sales orders.
Telephone Sales staff
Accept and process telephone orders.
