Talent Strategies in Marks and Spencer

Managing a Successful
Business Project
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Table of 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............................................................................................................................................4
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques.................................4
P6) Recommendations............................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
P7) Reflection on the values while undertaking the research.................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4
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Title: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain
people
Introduction
Talent management concept is related to managing the overall workforce in organisations for the
purpose of maximizing its value in terms of over organisational functioning. It is not a onetime
activity but a continuous process that involves attracting and retaining of high quality employees
development of skills and continuous motivation in order to improve their level of performance.
The primary purpose of talent management is to create a motivated workforce that can help an
Organisation in long run competitive advantage (Collings, Mellahi,. and Cascio, 2019).
Importance of talent management has grown with time because it is related to maximizing the
process of attracting and retaining of top talent. Present report is based on analysing the different
talent management strategies that are used by Marks and Spencer for the purpose of attracting
and retaining of employees. For this purpose there is analysis of different talent management
strategies basic concept and challenges that are associated with the organisation.
TASK 1
P1) Aims and objectives of the research
Aim: “To analyse different talent management strategies adopted for retaining and attracting
of competent talent.” A study on Marks and Spencer.
Objectives:
1) To analyse the basic concept of talent management in Marks and Spencer.
2) To evaluate various strategies used for retaining and managing workforce in Marks and
Spencer.
3) To identify different issues faced by the HR managers of Marks and Spencer in the
process of talent management.
Questions:
1) What do you understand by the basic concept of talent management in Marks and
Spencer?
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2) What are some of the basic strategies used for retaining and managing workforce in
Marks and Spencer?
3) What are various challenges and issues faced by the HR managers of Marks and
Spencer in the process of talent management?
LITERATURE REVIEW
The basic concept of talent management in Marks and Spencer
As per viewpoints of Mona Momtazian (2017), talent management is related to having top
performer employees in an organisation with high level of potential. It is regarded as a process of
systematic attraction, development, identification, engagement, retention and deployment of
individuals that can help in enhancing the particular value of an organisation. This concept is
associated with having a high potential for upcoming future time because it helps in fulfilling the
requirements of critical roles in business operations. In context of large sector organisations like
Marks and Spencer human resource management is related with talent management process.
Human resource department are highly transactional and they are also focusing on
transformational aspects of employees (Maurya and Agarwal, 2018). In this talent management
concept is related to identifying the people needs as per future requirements to improve overall
business performance in long run and help in enabling a required business strategy of talent
management. There are many reasons for having effective talent management process in
organisations such as it can help in attracting top talent. Recruiters in Marks and Spencer are
willing to recruit more skilled employees by creating employer plan that can contribute to higher
level of business performance. Apart from this it also includes continuous coverage of critical
roles so that organisation is prepared for gaps in critical skills and addresses it with highly
specialised workforce.
Various strategies used for retaining and managing workforce in Marks and Spencer
As per view points of Chad Halverson (2020), in marks and Spencer being a large global
organisation there are some of effective talent management strategies that are adopted in order to
retain their workforce for longer time period (PoisatMey and Sharp, 2018). For instance the
organisation is willing to offer competitive salaries that can help employees and not willing to
make switch to any other competitor organisation. There is a balance between hiring of right
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employee for a right job role as per their existing skill sets. Apart from this human resource
managers are working towards creating a flexible working environment so that there is
development of positive employee mindset.
The overall working culture is build up in a way that is related to positive environment so that
employees are having a balance work life (Cappelli and Keller, ., 2017). There are higher perks
and allowances that are offered apart from the monetary incentives regularly to employees who
are performing exceptionally. It gives a sense of competitive spirit amongst all the workforce
also it acts as a motivation technique to enhance the performance of low performing employees.
The organisation is also having approach towards getting a clear direction so that employees are
able to deal with the challenges. There is use of participative or democratic decision-making
style in some of the decisions that are having direct impact on the employee functioning. All
these strategies are helping in creating a satisfied workforce that is retained for longer time
duration (Machado, 2017). Employees are also offered time the training and development
opportunities so that there is various skill development processes that can help in creation of a
talented workforce. It also needs towards filling of any types of skill gaps that may arise in terms
of required workforce and existing skill level in the organisation.
Different issues faced by the HR managers of Marks and Spencer in the process of talent
management
As per view points of (2017), there are some of the challenges that are faced by human resource
managers in Marks and Spencer while their planning talent management process in the
organisation. Some of the challenges include higher compensation demands from employees
because employee sometimes feels constant pressure for higher financial incentives (Michailova
and Ott., 2019). This leads to increase in overall cost and affects the profitability position of
organisation because of a large workforce. Another challenge associated with effective talent
management is tightening of talent market because unemployment has lead to a very high rate
in recent years because of changing dynamic external environment. There is lack of talent
suitability and skill sets that are specifically required to perform some of the specialised
organisational functions. Another challenge or issue associated is an appealing company culture
because many younger employees who are millennial and unexpected different working
environment. Many times organisation is not able to offer such type of expected working
environment that leads to employee switching to other work place (Shulga and Busser, ., 2019)
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. There is also lack of leadership because top executive positions are experiencing a very high
level of turnover which requires a lack of proper leaders who can guide employees and manage
the whole workforce across Marks and Spencer (Baporikar, 2017). Competitive scenario of other
organisation also affects negatively because many times employees are offered high salaries,
benefits, perks, allowances from other competitive brands that leads to switching very fast and
affects the high cost of employee turnover in Marks and Spencer (The 5 biggest talent
management challenges for HR in 2017).
P2) Project management plan for the research
Project management plan
Project management plan is defined as a document which works as a blueprint for
investigator and other research oriented people. In addition to this, it inform about all the
activities that will going to take place within the investigation. The project management plan
includes various strategies that are supportive in implementation of the whole project. In context
to the present study, researcher have developed project management plan for better execution of
research activities. In this regard, all the elements of plan is given below:
Cost: It is referred as the amount used for developing and implementing all the activities
associated to research. It is said that for conducting every research work requires some sort of
money so that researchers can easily conduct investigation (Kellehear, 2020). For the present
study, investigator will require $500 for executing all activities of research. The amount will
sufficient for incorporating all activities that will be supportive in attaining research outcome. It
is important for researcher to finalize the budget of every activity at the initial level so that it can
implement as per the plan.
Time: It is defined as one of the important component that is needed in order to attain
objective of investigation within given timeframe. It is important for researchers to decide the
starting and ending time of every activity in order to avoid delays and decline the level of
discrepancies. In context to the present study, the time given for this investigation is 3 months in
order to complete all the activities effectively and properly.
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