Impact of COVID-19 on the productivity and performance of Asda

Research Project

Contents
Chapter 1- INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................3
Rationale for the research............................................................................................................3
Research Questions......................................................................................................................4
Research aim................................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2- LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................4
Impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the productivity and performance of Asda..............5
Challenges faced by Asda due to COVID-19 global pandemic..................................................6
Strategies adopted by Asda for dealing with the challenges arise due to COVID-19 global
pandemic......................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3- Research methodology...................................................................................................9
Research methodology.................................................................................................................9
Sampling......................................................................................................................................9
Data collection.............................................................................................................................9
Data analysis:.............................................................................................................................10
Ethical considerations:...............................................................................................................10
Research limitations:.................................................................................................................10
Chapter 4- Findings, Discussion and Analysis..............................................................................13
Chapter 5- Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................22
Implication of research..............................................................................................................23
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................24
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................26

Chapter 1- INTRODUCTION
The rapid evolving threat around COVID-19 is affecting the businesses across the world. In
addition to this, the interconnected and global nature of today’s business environment poses high
risk of disruption of supply chain which outcome as loss in sales and revenue. The global
pandemic has adversely impact on the retail organisation and many of them is not able to
function properly. There ae many issues faced by retail companies because of global pandemic
such as decline in sales, shortage of labour, change in customer demand, disruption in supply
chain and so on (Cable and et. al., 2021). In order to deal with this, retail companies adopted
various strategies that is shifting towards digitally, focus om customer requirement, ensure
employee and customer safety, adoption of contactless systems and many more. It is important
for the organisations to develop effective strategies so that they can cope up with the changes
take place in the business environment.
For the present report, Asda is chosen as a base company. It is a British supermarket chain
which is headquartered in England, UK and established in year 1949. The company offer
products and services such as general merchandise, grocery, financial services, Asda Money,
Asda mobile and so on. One of the main reason of its growth and success is its 1,66,00 talented
and skilful staff members who perform activities in a proper manner. At the time of COVID-19,
the company has faced many issues and to deal with it, there are many strategies developed by its
higher authorities. The main objective of the present study is to analyse the influence of COVID-
19 on the productivity and performance of retail industry.
Rationale for the research
The main aim to conduct this study is to analyse the influence of COVID-19 on the
productivity and performance of retail industry. Along with this, it helps investigator to know
about the issues faced by companies due to COVID-19 and the strategies adopted by companies
in order to deal with the challenges. This study will help various stakeholders that is researcher,
organisation and so on. In relation to organisation, it helps them to know about the impact of
global pandemic on performance due to which they are able to create effective strategies which
has a positive impact on the performance of company. In relation to researcher, it helps to
improve skills that is data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, time management,
communication and so on which further assist to gain both personal and professional growth.

Moreover, it will also assist researcher to conduct future studies in more systematic and effective
manner.
In the earlier studies, there is a discussion about issues faced by organisation because of
COVID-19. Along with this, it also consists data regarding how companies took initiative in
order to bear the losses but it lacks an appropriate data about impact of COVID-19 global
pandemic on the productivity and performance of Asda and also the strategies adopted by
respective organisation for dealing with issues and to maintain performance. For dealing with
this issues, some research questions were developed that is performed in literature review.
Research Questions
 What is the impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the productivity and performance
of Asda?
 What are the challenges faced by Asda due to COVID-19 global pandemic?
 What are the strategies adopted by Asda for dealing with the challenges arise due to
COVID-19 global pandemic?
Research aim
"To analyse the impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the performance and
productivity of retail industry”. A study on Asda
Research Objectives
 To identify the impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the productivity and
performance of Asda.
 To examine the challenges faced by Asda due to COVID-19 global pandemic.
 To determine the strategies adopted by Asda for dealing with the challenges arise due to
COVID-19 global pandemic.
Chapter 2- LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is defined as a comprehensive study as well as interpretation of literature
which addresses a particular topic. It is a secondary information that is collected by various
sources that is books, articles, Journals, online polls and many more (Bui and et. al., 2021). It
consist of the viewpoint of various authors on specific topic which assist to gain better
understanding about research topic and develop positive results as well. The main objective if
literature review is to identify gaps from previous studies and research. In the previous research,

there is a discussion about issues faced by retail companies because of COVID-19 and how they
deal with it by developing strategies. In addition to this, it also include information regarding
how organisations move towards digital in order to maintain its performance but it lacks data
about Impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the productivity and performance. In order to
fulfil this gap, some of the research questions were develop that is given below:
Impact of COVID-19 global pandemic on the productivity and performance of Asda
As per the view point Craven et. al., 2022, the COVID-19 put a profound impact on the
productivity of the companies. It has a direct impact on the level of production by affecting the
availability of resources and equipment. During the pandemic, it was quite difficult to get
suitable number of employees to get the work done. Due to lack of labour, companies often faced
delay and production process. In addition to this, the organization also faced difficulty in terms
of addressing the demand of customers. The profit of organizations is also highly affected due to
the impact of COVID-19. Now, the organizations are not able to gain substantial amount of
profit as they are lacking in terms of production and other aspects. The global pandemic caused
lockdown across the globe which put a direct impact on exchange of goods and services. It was
quite difficult for the companies to get adequate amount of raw material. Hence, they found it
difficult to sustain in such hard time. In context of ASDA, they faced great difficulties during the
pandemic time. It directly affected their overall level of production and productivity. The
company faced deep decline in sales from physical stores. Additionally, they were not able to
procure necessary amount of raw material, resources and equipment for the purpose of
production. Apart from this, sales and profit margin of ASDA got highly affected through global
pandemic. In addition, supply chain of ASDA got highly affected during the pandemic time due
to shortage of labour, transportation and supply facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic caused
stressed on food systems and created several challengers. It was required for the companies to
make sure the continued availability of food to address the demand of public. However, it was
difficult for the organization to offer timely delivery of goods to final consumers. Here,
company needs to have sufficient number of employees to address the needs of customers in
timely manner. Therefore, the global pandemic profoundly affected the overall productivity and
performance of the respective company.

Challenges faced by Asda due to COVID-19 global pandemic
As per the view point of Halan, 2021, the COVID-19 caused several challenges that will
put a direct impact on effective functioning of the business entities. To control the transmission
of virus, lockdown was imposed within different countries across the world. Due to the
lockdown, people were not able to move from one place to other that directly affected the sales
and revenue of the organizations. In addition to this, companies were not able to find necessary
human resources to handle the production process. Shortage of labour is one of the most
effective challenges which were faced by the companies throughout the global pandemic. The
shortage of labour put a tremendous impact on the overall production and productivity of the
companies. Disruption of supply chain also caused major issue during the pandemic. Due to the
lockdown, it was quite difficult to exchange goods or services. Therefore, the companies face
difficulty in terms of addressing the market demand in timely manner. In context of ASDA, they
also faced tremendous challenge during the pandemic time. Additionally, the pandemic also
affected the working conditions of the company. Majority of the people were working remotely.
It was quite difficult for the company to implement technology to conduct the meetings virtually
during the initial time. Additionally, the employees were not familiar with advanced technology
hence, the company had to spend amount on training & development of workforce. Due to the
high dependency on technologies, it was quite difficult to take prompt decisions. In the
respective organization, decisions are often made by consent of all the employees. During the
virtual meeting, it is quite difficult to maintain the consent that also caused delay in the overall
decision-making. In addition, the COVID-19 also minimized the interaction between managers
and employees. They used to interact through online mediums which minimized the personal
interaction. As people were not able move out from their house that put a direct impact on the
sales of the company. Gross profit and operating income of ASDA also reduced down due to the
severe impact of COVID-19. The operating profit of the respective company reduced down by
16.7% to 486.5 million in 2020 (ASDA profits tumble as COVID costs bite, 2021). Additional
cost of maintenance enhanced the overall operating cost of the respective company. Supply chain
and logistic facilities of the organization also got affected during the global pandemic. Hence, the
company faced tremendous challenges during the pandemic time that will affect their future
performance as well.