Talent Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Competent Workforce

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Contents
Title: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain people.......................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1) Aims and objectives of the research................................................................................3
P2) Project management plan for the research.......................................................................4
P3) Work breakdown Structure and Gantt chart....................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P4) Small scale research with the help of qualitative and quantitative research....................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques.................................6
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques.................................6
Analysis:..........................................................................................................................................6
P6) Recommendations..........................................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
P7) Reflection on the values while undertaking the research...............................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX I.................................................................................................................................18
APPENDIX II................................................................................................................................20

Title: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain
people
Introduction
Talent management is a basic concept that is associated with managing the overall workforce in
organisation. This practice helps in retaining of the talented workforce for longer time duration
which can assist in the process of managing the high associated cost with employee turnover
(Flick, 2018). For this purpose there are some of the effective talent management strategies that
are to be used by retail sector organisations like Marks and Spencer. Present research is going to
analyse the various standard management strategies that can be used and different associated
issues that are to be dealt in order to maximize the effectiveness of retaining and attracting
competent talent.
TASK 1
P1) Aims and objectives of the research
Aim: “To evaluate different types of talent management strategies that are adopted by retail
sector in order to retain & attract competent workforce.” A study on marks and Spencer.
Objectives:
 To understand the basic talent management practises used in retail sector
 To identify various talent management strategies that is adopted by Marks and spacer in
order to retain & attract competent workforce.
 To analyse various issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent
management strategies.
Questions:
 What is the basic concept of basic talent management practises used in retail sector?
 What are various talent management strategies that is adopted by Marks and spacer in
order to retain & attract competent workforce?
 What are some of the issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent
management strategies?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Talent management practices used in retail sector
According to SUSAN, (2019), Talent management is referred as method that can be used
by company for bringing appropriate talent onboard and retaining them significantly and
effectively. In addition to this, by the help of talent management prominent capabilities of staff
members can be highlighted because of which organizational objectives can be achieved within
given time period. There are various dimensions of talent management such as career
development, learning, motivation and many more. In the present time, talent management is
undertaken as one of the important aspect within an organization as it aligned with achievement
of competitive advantage at marketplace. An organization knows that they must have the best
talent in order to gain higher growth and success in this complex business environment. It is
important for an organization to make use of effective practices in order to acquire, develop and
retain talented staff members for longer time period as it help in increasing productivity,
developing brand image, increase profitability, save time and cost, proper implementation of
activities, attainment of competitive advantage and many more (Talent management practices,
2019). In context to the retail sector, there are various talent management strategies used by
organizations. One of the strategies is providing effective employee ongoing and on boarding
training and development opportunities which reflect both the staff members and organizational
requirements. In addition to this, it help employee to gain both personal as well as professional
growth due to which an effective opportunities can be grabbed. Another talent management
practice used in retail sector is performance development planning which focus on the employee
interest for career development.
It is analyzed that talent management is important within the retail industry as it allow such
industry to establish and foster for long term, develop loyal customers, profitable customer
relationship and many more. Apart from this, there are also various talent management strategies
used by retail organization such as allow participation of staff members in decision-making as it
help in making staff members feel valued and motivated towards working due to which
objectives are attained on time period and employee did not think to leave the organization.
Moreover, providing promotional as well as career development of alternative for staff members
within the system help in retaining then for longer time. Furthermore, there are also other
strategies such as rewards and recognition, monetary and non monetary benefits, training and

development session and many more used by retail organizations for managing talent in an
effective manner.
Various talent management strategies adopted by Marks and Spencer for retaining and attracting
competent workforce
According to Corgi, (2021), Talent management is an important tool which contributes to
an organization success by employee motivation, enhancing performance and innovation. In
addition to this, it is analyze those practices especially valuable for large organization working in
highly competitive business environment. Marks and Spencer is one of the largest retail
companies in UK. By the years, it has developed a human resource management strategy that
continuing recruit and retain talent. In order to manage and retain talent, there are various
strategies used by respective organization (Fatah, 2019). One of the strategies is recruitment as it
helps Marks and Spencer to attract new talent at workplace. In order to attain this goal, the
respective organization used recruitment strategies that are targeted recruitment, job advertising,
using career portals. It helps to know about the prospective of employee and to gain knowledge
regarding skills required within the staff member in order to enhance success of Marks and
Spencer. The strategy used by Marks and Spencer is performance management. The company
uses a wide range of key performance indicators in order to measure and assess performance
which states that its approach to performance management is mainly outcome based
(StudyCorgi. 2021). Herein, organization behind their objectives and translate it into employee
performance indicators.
An organization performs monthly appraisals with additional reviews as it allows them to
track the implementation and success of its business strategy with in real time and make possible
alteration if possible. As a result, performance appraisal and talent management method
encourage staff member to show their base and contribute towards effective management of
employees. Apart from this, rewards and recognition is one of the important part of talent
management as it acquire and retain talented as well as competent workforce within the
organization (Ntaopane and Vermeulen, 2019). Marks and Spencer provide mainly two types of
rewards that is performance based rewards and general rewards. This make employees motivated
and they did not leave the organization. It also help organization to make employees put their full
potential and help to achieve the targets and attain objectives timely and effectively. Moreover,
there are also strategies used by Marks and Spencer for talent management such as training and

development, legislative environment, performance appraisal, offering competitive salaries,
providing feedback on regular basis and many more (Rademache and Weber, 2017).
Issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent management strategies
As per the view point of Andre (2018), It is determined that there are various challenges
faced by managers and leaders by implementing talent management strategies. One of the
challenges is retention as in the present time employees are more focused towards their career
and prefer to retain at workplace where they achieve career and learning opportunities. In
addition to this, other challenge is identification of high potential talent which is extremely
difficult in the present time period. Ineffective leadership is also considered as a challenge as due
to which managers are not able to guide and facilitate proper roles and responsibilities to staff
members and this leads to not implementation of activities effectively and timely (Talent
management challenges, 2018). Furthermore, making the right hiring decision is also an issue
faced by organization by implementing talent management strategies. Moreover, team conflicts
and peer conflicts is also one of the issue faced by company due to which there is development
of negative working culture at workplace which in turn effect on the performance of employees
in a negative manner. This also impact on the mindset of employees prevailing at workplace.
Apart from this, there are also other challenges faced such as ineffective communication, non
fulfilment of employee requirement, employee dissatisfaction and increase in cost and so on.
P2) Project management plan for the research
Project Management plan
A project is defined as a study that is undertaken for fulfilling some particular aspect and to
attain objective for which it initialized. In addition to this, a project is mainly developed for some
particular objective and to achieve this effective project management plan is required. Project
management is basically an activity that is advantageous in aligning the efforts towards
achieving research objectives. By the assistance of project management plan, researcher can
finished all the steps and execute them in a desired and effective manner (Al-Lozi., Almomani
and Al-Hawary, 2017). There are different phases of project management such as initiation,
effective planning, implementation, monitoring as well as closing. In addition to this, project