Human Resource Management Practices at Tesco PLC

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing in
your chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives...............4
LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organization...................................................................................................................................10
LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-
making, including employment legislation....................................................................................13
LO4 Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context..........................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................23
Reference List................................................................................................................................24
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Introduction
The term ‘Human Resource’ refers to the people working for the organization and helping them
attain the organizational growth and development. Since they contribute significantly to the
development of the organization and the success of the company depends on the workforce it
recruits and possesses, they are termed as a ‘resource’. The term was first introduced in the late
1960s when the labor relations with the management started developing in the job scenario,
globally, and the concepts like organizational behavior, employee motivation and recruitment of
candidates based on their qualification rather their identity and societal position evolved and
came to the forefront.
TESCO PLC is a multinational general commodities and grocery retailer, which was founded in
the year 1919, in the city of London. The organization is headquartered at Welwyn Garden City,
Hertfordshire, England (Tesco.com, 2018). The subsidiaries of the company includes Tesco
bank, Tesco Mobile, Tesco Stores and Tesco family dining Ltd. among the numerous others, this
reveals the spread of the business in the global market. The CEO of the company is Dave Lewis,
who overtook his office from September 2014. There are above 6,500 stores and supermarkets
owned by Tesco globally and the annual revenue, as per reports of 2017, was close to 56 million
Euros. The number of employees working for the organization is around 476,000, which
necessitates the existence of appropriate HRM policies in the organization, in order to assist the
management to handle such a vast and culturally diverse workforce, in stores all across the
globe.
The project aims at studying the effective HRM functions and policies existent in Tesco as well
as analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the recruitment policies as resorted to, by Tesco Plc.
The organizational structure of the company is hierarchical, since the size of the business is huge
and so is the number of workers who need to be effectively managed. There are different layers
of management governing the functions of the organization and the various department within,
which makes the decision-making process slower and requires the employees to act as per the
instructions of the administration. This brings down the innovation quotient of the company but
ensures delivery of impeccable services to the customers, since the workers are under constant
monitoring process.
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LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of
resourcing in your chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business
objectives.
Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and
resources in your chosen organisation [P1, M1]
The term ‘Human resource Management’ encompasses all the practices that are resorted to by
the management of the organization, in order to recruit the appropriate personnel for all the
functioning departments of the organization and to manage the organizational human assets
(Marchington et al., 2016). The main areas of focus for the human resource management
division of the organization are recruitment of appropriate candidates, planning for the
compensations that are to be delivered to the employees and training the employees adequately
so that they are able to perform all the functions. The other focus areas include maintaining
effective employee and management relations as well as working towards the development of the
organization, while ensuring the safety and security of the employees at work (Wild, 2017).
Purpose and function of HRM applicable to workforce planning at Tesco
The process of workforce planning refers to the analysis of the future needs of Tesco like the
staffs that would be required at the organization and the stores and recruiting them accordingly,
ensuring the needs are adequately met. The training of the newly recruited staffs, to orient them
as per the needs of the departments they are recruited for, is also another function carried out by
the HRM at Tesco. There are numerous departments in the organization like the marketing
department, accounts and finance department, customer service department and several others;
all the departments needs dedicated staffs, so that they are able to contribute to the growth and
development of the organization in a much better way.
Purpose and function of HRM applicable to resource planning at Tesco
The resources like the finances and the finished goods for the sales needs to be distributed to
individual stores effectively, which is overseen by the HRM department. The human resources,
like the quality of talents that are hired, also needs to be distributed in the stores as per the
requirements. For example, when a new store opens in an area where huge competition exists in
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the market, the best of the staffs must be appointed in that outlet so that they are able to win over
the staffs and please them with their services.
Best Fit Model
The ‘Best Fit Model’ states that the human resource policies of the organization must be aligned
with the strategies of the company, in order to help the company achieve the organizational
objectives (Jackson et al., 2014). Another tenet of the best fit model is that only such candidates
should be recruited who would be able to contribute in the development of the company. The HR
manager at Tesco is responsible for recruitment of the candidates strictly after examining the
suitability of the candidate for the post and the skill sets that are possessed by them.
Best Practice Approach
The ‘Best Practice Approach’ refers to the policies and practices that are followed in the
organization, in order to satisfy the employees and assist in attaining competitive advantages in
the market, irrespective of the setting the organization is in (Furnham, 2017). The practices like
rewarding the employees, providing all kinds of security to them and training them adequately
for the purposes are included in this approach and followed by the HR manager at Tesco. The
best fit approach are preferred by most of the HR Managers since it makes them level-one
partners in strategy and decision-making process of the organization.
Hard and Soft Models of HRM
There are two different models of HRM, which identifies two entirely different approaches for
human resource management. The Hard HRM approaches utilizes the employees and treats them
as a resource of business while the Soft HRM practices treats the employees as the nost
important asset of the organization (Kaiser et al., 2014).
The Hard HRM model recognizes the needs of the work force and executes the recruitment and
the training processes accordingly while the Soft HRM model focuses on the needs and
motivational requirements of the employees like rewards.
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While the Soft HRM practices can be executed in organizations where the democratic kind of
leadership is followed, the Hard HRM practices can be executed in organizations with autocratic
leadership styles (Lawter et al., 2015).
TESCO is an organization where the democratic kind of leadership is followed, hence the
employees are appropriately motivated by the leaders to perform their assigned job roles and
their hard work is recognized and rewarded generously, by the management of the organization,
which leads to employee satisfaction.
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