Question $2$

A Harrods case study

Harrods is a brand that is recognised all over the world. Its Knightsbridge store has $1$

million square feet of selling space with over $330$ different departments. Its global

reputation and prestige is instilled through its brand values. Brand values represent what

an organisation stands for. Harrods values are $$ British; Luxury; Service; Innovation and

Sensation.

Harrods has been in business for over $160$ years. It employs $4000$ employees with an

additional $3,500$ agency and concession employees. In $2010$ Qatar Holdings purchased

Harrods from Mohamed Al$-$Fayed. The new owners are strongly committed to all of

Harrods$$ employees. They recognise that engaged employees are essential to the

continuing success of the business. Such employees are likely to be happy and

consistently high performers who want to progress their careers with Harrods. Managing

employee relationships is the role of the Human Resources department.

Harrods carried out its first comprehensive employee survey to find out what they

thought about working at Harrods. The employee survey has now become an integral

aspect of Harrods$$ Human Resource Management programme. The survey results were

used to create strategic plans for change focused on improving employee engagement and

trust. The four main elements were:

$$ Changing Organisational Structure

$$ Changing Leadership

$$ Improved communications

$$ Living brand values

Find out how the human resource management ensured these elements were implemented

in the full case study.

There have now been four employee surveys. Each survey has seen a higher return from

employees and an improvement in the indicators of employee engagement because of the

actions the HRM team took. Significantly, $91\%$ of employees have stated in the most

recent survey that they are proud to work for Harrods and employee turnover has halved

in the last five years.

Answer the question below:

a$).$ In relation to the above case study, outline strategies for Increasing employee

engagement through Human Resource Management.

$(25$ marks$)$