People ManagementIn this assignment I will look at the role people management played in human resource management (HRM) for Sainsbury's and its historical developments. I will also look at how Sainsbury's current HR function could be developed to work more effectively with the rest of the organisation. Human resource management (HRM) is basically another name for personnel management. It's the process of making sure employees are as creative as possible. Human resource management is a way of grouping the range of activities associated with managing people which are variously classified into employee relations, industrial/employment relations, personnel management and organizational behaviour. Many academic departments where research and teaching in all of these areas take place have adopted the title human resource management department. HRM is a coordinated approach to managing people that seeks to integrate various personnel activities so that they are compatible with each other. Therefore the key areas of employee resources, employee development, employee reward and employee engagement are considered interrelated. Establishing policies and procedures in one of these areas will have an impact on other areas, therefore human resource management is an approach that takes a holistic view and considers how the various areas can be integrated. Many companies emphasize the importance of teamwork. A good team is made up of people with different skills, abilities and characters. A successful team is able to blend these differences together to enable the organization to achieve its desired goals. An important part of retaining staff, reducing staff turnover and minimizing absenteeism at work is ensuring that staff are adequately motivated. This is not as easy as it seems. At first glance, you might be tempted to think that simply increasing wages is the way to motivate! It's not like that. Most thinkers on the subject would argue that motivation is a much more complex issue than just “money.” If staff are absent from work, they are unable to perform the functions for which they were employed. In many companies these functions have to be taken over by someone else, otherwise the customer may suffer. Reducing absenteeism is an important feature of human resource management. The extent to which absenteeism affects businesses has been a hot topic. Not only does absenteeism cause problems, but employers are beginning to recognize the effects of "presenteeism": staying at work when you are sick or because you believe that somehow your "presence" will help boost your prospects of promotion..