Managing People: Flexible Working, Diversity, and Inequality at Tesco

This report discusses the impact of flexible working on diversity and inclusion at Tesco, along with analyzing the role of human resources in promoting it. It also examines the concerns of inequality due to flexible hours and how HR can address them. The report covers various types of flexible working and their benefits. It concludes with the importance of personal and professional development programs and the role of HR in addressing inequalities.

Assessment 1 managing people

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Flexible working in relation to the diversity and inclusion at work, analysing the role of human
resources in promoting diversity and inclusion through flexible working..................................3
Inequality at work due to flexible working and analysing the role of human resources in
addressing the concerns of inequality due to flexible hours........................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Flexible working effects the organization in the way of diversity and inclusion as it is
both interconnected and will analyse what role does human resources play in promoting both
diversity and inclusion through flexible working. Discuss the flexible working in relating to the
inequality at work along with it analysing the role of human resources addressing about the
concern of inequality that may arise form flexible working. As will discuss the Tesco, it is one of
the largest retailer in UK having more than 1000 employees, which has a portfolio food and
beverages, clothing, home appliances and some financial services. Tesco I the reputed company
which sale its product for value, low price and always being customer oriented. Human resource
team at Tesco always work day and night to improve their value in concern of money or
reputation. Here all the employees are directed and instructed towards the effectively working in
the organization to achieve the organizational goal. Bringing innovations toward the company or
at the store and along with that forward thinking environment makes environment which offers
effective structure and culture to meet organization requirement. In this report will discuss
flexible working in relation to diversity and inclusion at work and inequality at work due to
flexible working along with that will analyse the role of human resource.
MAIN BODY
Flexible working in relation to the diversity and inclusion at work, analysing the role of human
resources in promoting diversity and inclusion through flexible working.
Flexible working is not only create issues to the organization but also helps the
organization in recruiting of new employees as their reputation enhance if they allow the
employees to work as a flexible way. They also feel that organization is not discriminating in the
higher level employees and lower level employees as they are getting hear and seen at the same
time. At Tesco observed that with time needs of employees and colleagues are changed. Tesco is
the one of the company which allows the employees to work flexibly (Stahl and et.al., 2020.). As
everyone has to maintain their work life balance, So flexible working help the employee to have
healthy work life balance. As there are young employees are continuing their studies along with
working in Tesco, this is the most beneficial thing for them to do both together studies and
earning As well as it allows attracting more employees to join the company by enjoying the
environment and wide range of activities. Diversity also provide opportunities to the companies
to grow more and global which helps them to identifying and it helps employees to manage both

their needs and customer need too. Flexible working in Tesco means which suits both employees
and Tesco. It is helping Tesco in growing, so there is a rule that Tesco has decided that any
employee can make a request for the flexible working as they complete their 26 working weeks
in Tesco. They also keep options to apply for the flexible working:
Part time Working
It means employee can work for fewer hours except full time. Where they can work for few days
or some hours a day.
Job Share
It is the option in which two people can split there working hours for a certain role but
responsibilities are shared equally and jointly. This is common in management teams.
Phased retirement
This technique is about reducing hours of colleague to let them prepare for their retirement.
Here, in Tesco when colleague has ten-year's service for last six months before retirement, by
1/5th they can reduce their working week.
Lifestyle break
Lifestyle break means they have the policy that employee can take break from business as leave
from the business for about four weeks to one year.
Blended working
In some roles' colleague can work from home as well as office as they are comfortable. Some
work is done from home and some form office.
Fixed shift patterns
There are some work which can not be stop or change so Tesco allow them to work from home
as they will able to manage work load with the proper commitment. From home, they can work
for overtime.
Staggered shift patterns
As it is the ways where employee can work as their suitable time in which they think that they
can work more passionately and which fulfil Tesco's needs, except the form where every
employee should work at the same timing. It helps Tesco to have low employee turnover rate.
Tesco allows its employees to work for flexible hours as some people/student who want
to help their parents to balance their responsibilities and work life. At the certain time period

Covid-19 working from home has increased the opportunities as it is the part of flexible working
in this younger generation there is increase in demand of flexibility in workplace.
Human resource has a role in diversity and inclusion ass hiring employees to work in the
workplace is the main job to do. Workplace is increasing globally. Human resource always
promotes Diversity in the basis that it gives opportunities to the company to grow in the unique
way as diversity means having something unique and getting identify some new trending which
help the company to grow faster. Human resource have a key role in diversity as correct
leadership creates and empowers a diverse culture (Borkowska, 2021). It grants the opportunities
to employees to grow, learn and contribute towards the company. As all the companies want to
bring changes by adding diversity into their programs and it can not be done overnight it need
some efforts, team and management.
Monitoring Diversity
In most of the companies it is tough that what kind of diversity will be helpful to the
organization. This work is done by HR team as this can be done though different ways. This is
not only for the current employees as it can be done at the time of recruitment. This allows
measuring progress effectively.
Widening talent pool
Here Human resource increase the talent pool as they allow and focus on the employee's talent
and welcome more talent to the organization through recruitment process. It can be also done
will give training and development round (e Aquino, 2018). It can be done by management team
like some events in the organization or practices in the organization that helps to find the
innovative ideas and creative mindset of the employee.
Mentoring and Diversity
As recruitment process is done mentoring can also be done by the HR professionals like making
contact with some youth groups and colleges/school which helps in enduring the talent and make
them aware about some opportunities which might help them in growth.
Supplying Diversity
Supplying diversity here means, HR here work as taking care of customer's demand bringing
some diversity in the organization which help the organization to grow. Here everything depends
on customer's want.
Future of diversity

It is being clear that HR has role in Diversity and it helps to bring innovation in the organization
and help in completing goals by bringing little changes to the process of recruiting and put into
implement soon. These also helps the company to be at their positive side. Along with the focus
on recruitment management also should think about the further process as implementing,
developing, mentoring, supplier chain diversity and in all this steps there is a need of leadership
to bring every step into implementation (Grissom, 2018). At Tesco inclusiveness is always very
important for the organization. As Tesco is a big retailer in UK it considers the basic employee
needs too as they want to make their employee as colleagues who work with them not for them
and always commit helping each other by which friendly environment will be in organization. In
Tesco is known for their building inclusive workplace, they believe in actively celebrating all
cultures and preference of the colleagues, which helps to achieve success of the organization.
Inequality at work due to flexible working and analysing the role of human resources in
addressing the concerns of inequality due to flexible hours
Tesco may be highly interested in providing flexible environment to the employees in
orders to enhance their motivation levels in the current Covid-19 scenario. It may be suitable for
some employees by reducing their stress and workload but the phenomenon may have certain
negative impacts on the overall management of employees. Various factors such as
implementation gap, perception of organizational unfairness and greater work intensification
may also be associated with flexible working. These factors may establish concerns such as
inequality and discrimination in the organization which may not be beneficial for its
sustainability.
Flexible working sometimes lead to procrastination which may reduce the efficiency of
employees in order to deliver better results. This may reduce their quality of work and arise
various problems in order to manage the daily targets. It may not be appropriate for all the
workforce as many individuals may have responsibilities at their homes which may affect their
contribution at work (Ferreira Gregorio, 2018). By adopting flexible working, employees may
feel socially disconnected and the possibility of mental health issues may frequently arise in the
employees. These mental issues may lead to a decrease in the productivity of the individuals
which may affect the sustainability of Tesco. The work from home aspect may reduce the social
contact of individuals which may hamper their overall growth and motivation. The social

disconnect between employees may impose negative impact on their development and may
reduce their ability to contribute towards the organizational aims and objectives.
The HR department of Tesco may use several digital platforms in order to connect with
the employees effectively and establish better communication with them. By adopting this
practice, the organization may be able to reduce the negative impact of the social disconnect
which was established by the flexible working approach. It may be useful for the organization to
enhance their current performance towards the business. The organization may adopt advanced
software in order to monitor the performance of employees while they are working from their
homes. It may be helpful for the company in order to give valuable feedbacks to the employees
for managing their work appropriately. This practice may reduce the pressure from the
management in order to organize their employees and may provide better assistance to the higher
management to experience better results. It may help in reducing the inequality in the
organization as each employee may be given the due attention.
Personal and professional development programs may be offered by the management to
the employees in order to enhance their crucial skills (Jena, 2020). These skills may be beneficial
for the employees for developing their ability to contribute more towards Tesco. This may
provide equal opportunities to all the employees to gain better promotions and appraisals in the
organization. These programs may help in establishing a fair system where the employees may
be able to get better recognition from their superiors and increase their self-esteem. Flexible
working means working own way which might bring negative impact to the Tesco as employees
working from home are getting paid same as employees working at the office it is a fact of
inequality. Procrastination here shows that working from the environment which is not suitable
to bring motivation and it needs very high level of concentration power. This may lead to bring
pettiness in the behaviour of employee which directly effect the company. By flexible working
employees might have to face some problems like communication difficulties as person is
working from different place or at different timing then properly communicate is tough job to do
and this could be not a good point for the Tesco.
Human resource has an important role in contributing toward the inequalities. Unequal
pay to the employees. As it is considered that unequal pay system was very harmful to every
organization as employee who are working at the same place and for the same position are
getting pay unequal. As everyone is running for their increment so here racism takes place and is

in the environment that women are treating as a compensated in the workplace (Tomaskovic-
Devey, D and et.al., 2020). Earnings are also getting varied when comparison with men as how
much they are getting compensated. Here biggest issue is of gender inequality like in many
organizations recognized that men are getting promoted much more than women. So despite
being this organization should consider qualities, education and strength of work. After all this
when times come of asking to get paid more as much the worth of the efforts and of person,
women always have to struggle more than a man to get for work what they are working. At most
of the places recognized that negotiating with women about the payment is done more than male.
As wage gap is generally seen between men and women (Harnois, 2018). As recruiting is the
process which is done by Human resource team so it has definitely role in inequality. In the case
of female if company provides the position or important role then they surely pay an employee
lesser with smaller salary base (Kalev, 2018). Human resource plays role as:
 They don't provide salary on company standard they provide by looking their previous
salary base.
 Bar employees from discussing salary with one another.
 They never get open with the salary compensation and pay grade.
 Employees get not pay equally for the similar jobs or similar position.
 At some places along with men and women inequality white and BIPOC employers are
paid differently.
 Age based discrimination also exist till date, recruiters does not consider skills and talent
but age if someone is older will get pay higher in concern that person might be
knowledgable as older in age (Manzi, 2019).
 Disability plays a role as person with disability having same amount of knowledge and
skills will get salary way lesser than normal person without any disability.
 Occupational inequality is a treatment that are being done by organization as people are
treated as based on Gender, height, accent, disability at the place where they work
(Rasmussen, 2021).
CONCLUSION
In the above report, appointed as a Human Resource manager for company Tesco in UK,
where discussed what diversity and inclusion relate to flexible working as in positive way. In

what way it effects to Tesco and all the techniques that are being used to influence the employees
to work in this environment and in the report got to know some types of flexible working that are
being used by Tesco. For the most of the part, role of human resource is explained in the way
that it promotes the diversity and inclusion. Also, discussed the different diversity strategies used
by management and human resources department. Further, in conclusion discussed facts that
brings inequality to diversity and inclusion with flexible working environment and discussed
what are the facts that are against flexible working. Last but not least, discussed role of human
resources which are relation to inequality which helps in arising flexible working.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Borkowska, M., 2021. Diversity and Inclusion Practices among Different Cultures. In Facets of
Managing in Cross-Cultural Diversity;. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
de Aquino, C.T.E. and Robertson, R.W., 2018. Diversity and inclusion in the global workplace.
Springer.
Ferreira Gregorio, V., Pié, L. and Terceño, A., 2018. A systematic literature review of bio, green
and circular economy trends in publications in the field of economics and business
management. Sustainability. 10(11). p.4232.
Grissom, A.R., 2018. Workplace diversity and inclusion. Reference & User Services Quarterly.
57(4). pp.242-247.
Jena, R.K., 2020. Measuring the impact of business management Student's attitude towards
entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention: A case study. Computers in
Human Behavior. 107. p.106275.
Stahl, G.K and et.al., 2020. Enhancing the role of human resource management in corporate
sustainability and social responsibility: A multi-stakeholder, multidimensional approach
to HRM. Human Resource Management Review. 30(3). p.100708.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D and et.al., 2020. Rising between-workplace inequalities in high-income
countries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(17). pp.9277-9283.
Harnois, C.E. and Bastos, J.L., 2018. Discrimination, harassment, and gendered health
inequalities: do perceptions of workplace mistreatment contribute to the gender gap in
self-reported health?. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 59(2). pp.283-299.
Kalev, A. and Deutsch, G., 2018. Gender inequality and workplace organizations: understanding
reproduction and change. Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, pp.257-269.
Manzi, C., Paderi, F., Benet‐Martínez, V. and Coen, S., 2019. Age‐based stereotype threat and
negative outcomes in the workplace: Exploring the role of identity integration.
European Journal of Social Psychology. 49(4). pp.705-716.
Rasmussen, D.W., 2021. The Height of Inequality: A Policy Perspective. Available at SSRN
3809144.

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