CASE STUDY HALFORDS
CASE STUDY – HALFORDS
1) Consider whether Halfords’ HR objectives are SMART?
SMART targets need to be ‘specific’, ‘measurable’, ‘agreed’, ‘realistic’ and ‘time-bound’. This allows for targets to appropriately suit the business and help it to work at maximum standards. ‘Ensure that employees have market-leading knowledge of a wide choice of products.’ This target can be seen at a glance to be unmeasurable due to the absence of qualitative measures or even anything to compare the employee’s knowledge to. This is very much a negative towards Halfords as it won’t become apparent when a target has been reached, subsequently leading to no gratification to employees which can cause demotivation.
However, this negative of the first target can be exaggerated to the next four. All targets contain words such as ‘high’ or ‘increase’ but don’t state to how much. This makes it unclear to individuals who are trying to meet the targets as to when they have done so and what they need to work towards. An example of a more appropriate target would be; “Ensure that employees achieve 70% or higher in tests about their product knowledge in the next year.” This states a specific amount of information that needs to be known and also gives a time period within the tests should be conducted. Therefore, I don’t think that Halford’s targets are SMART as they don’t contain any quantitative information or a time limit within the target needs to be met.
2) Discuss the extent to which internal and external factors might have influenced Halfords’ HR objectives and its ability to achieve those objectives.
Internal factors include financial constraints, corporate culture, organisational structure and so on. External factors include political, economic, social etc. factors. Initially looking at the HR objectives, it seems that influences are predominantly internal, however, competitivity will have also had an effect on the formation of these objectives. Having high standards of safety training is an
1) Consider whether Halfords’ HR objectives are SMART?
SMART targets need to be ‘specific’, ‘measurable’, ‘agreed’, ‘realistic’ and ‘time-bound’. This allows for targets to appropriately suit the business and help it to work at maximum standards. ‘Ensure that employees have market-leading knowledge of a wide choice of products.’ This target can be seen at a glance to be unmeasurable due to the absence of qualitative measures or even anything to compare the employee’s knowledge to. This is very much a negative towards Halfords as it won’t become apparent when a target has been reached, subsequently leading to no gratification to employees which can cause demotivation.
However, this negative of the first target can be exaggerated to the next four. All targets contain words such as ‘high’ or ‘increase’ but don’t state to how much. This makes it unclear to individuals who are trying to meet the targets as to when they have done so and what they need to work towards. An example of a more appropriate target would be; “Ensure that employees achieve 70% or higher in tests about their product knowledge in the next year.” This states a specific amount of information that needs to be known and also gives a time period within the tests should be conducted. Therefore, I don’t think that Halford’s targets are SMART as they don’t contain any quantitative information or a time limit within the target needs to be met.
2) Discuss the extent to which internal and external factors might have influenced Halfords’ HR objectives and its ability to achieve those objectives.
Internal factors include financial constraints, corporate culture, organisational structure and so on. External factors include political, economic, social etc. factors. Initially looking at the HR objectives, it seems that influences are predominantly internal, however, competitivity will have also had an effect on the formation of these objectives. Having high standards of safety training is an