Impact of Covid-19 on Retail Sector (Waitrose)

Professional Development and Practice (PDP) Part
1 Management Report

Table of Contents
Topic of the research is “to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on retail sector (Waitrose)”.............3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Research aim ..............................................................................................................................3
Research objectives ....................................................................................................................3
Research background..................................................................................................................4
Rationale for research ................................................................................................................4
To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose .......................................................5
Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of company
.....................................................................................................................................................6
To analyse measures taken for retaining employees during lock down situation ......................7
Research methodologies .................................................................................................................8
Presentation of research ................................................................................................................12
Data interpretation.........................................................................................................................14
Analysis of findings ......................................................................................................................22
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................23
Recommendations .........................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25

Topic of the research is “to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on retail sector
(Waitrose)”
INTRODUCTION
The situation of COVID -19 has impacted retail industry at huge level. The corona virus
is spreading continuously across the world. This has impacted various marketing factors
including customer behaviour, retail store, product demand, logistics service, factory, etc. There
is a statistics which concludes that growth in retail sector has halved after the COVID -19. The
sectors which are affected badly includes fashion, furniture and electronics (Barrero, Bloom, and
Davis, 2020). The present research is based upon challenges of human resource management of
Waitrose while COVID -19 situation. Waitrose is a British brand which is selling groceries and
there are approximately 300 shops of this across UK. Founders of this company were Wallace
Waite, David Taylor and Arthur Rose.
Research aim
“To analyse the issues faced by human resource while retaining talented employees in Waitrose
during COVID-19”.
Research objectives
 To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose
 Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of
company
 To analyse measures taken for retaining employees during lock down situation

Research background
It is concluded that supermarket shopping trend has been affected in Covid -19. there is
high decline in the sales of supermarket during this period. Waitrose is a supermarket chain of
UK which has experienced decline in profit and market share. The topic for present research is to
analyse the impact of Covid -19 on retail (supermarket) sector (Bartik, and et.al, 2020). This
research will help to know what are the different challenges that Waitrose faced due to Covid -
19.
Rationale for research
This topic is chosen for completing the research as retail sector has affected badly due to
Covid-19. Customers are not going out and purchasing products from stores. After conducting
research on this topic, it will be easy to enhance knowledge about how a company working in the
retail sector is affected due to this pandemic (rewin, 2020)(Chetty, and et.al, 2020). It will enable
to know what are the regulations, policies and laws that will be changed.
Illustration 1: Source:
change in supermarket shopping during Covid 19 , 2020

Literature review
To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose
According to views of the present impact of COVID-19 has created a very significant
impact on functioning of all retail brands. In addition to this, it is determine that companies are
facing many issues due to COVID-19 which impact negatively on their present and future
presence. Due to this pandemic diaereses, the buying power of consumers is decline that directly
has reduce the level of sales and profitability of company. It is determine that in UK, most of the
retailers face cash flow issues and the companies are not able to give salary to their employees
on time. One major impact on respective organisation due to COVID-19 is lack of raw materials
as transportation is not allowed in such pandemic. This impact negatively on company as they
are not able to fulfil the demand and supply of market. There has been a complete Change in the
way organisation are now perceiving their function. Moreover, another issue is arise when
company start providing online home delivery as employees are not ready to go out and deliver
the products at home. This decline the overall profitability and market share of company
negatively. Such as now more home delivery options are being generated. With instance to
Waitrose this organisation has expanded their home delivery options to ensure that they are able
to keep their procedures in the events of lock down. They have adopted strategies according to
their competitor brands like John Lewis. This has been a main reason why this brand has
assumed a 89 percent enhancement in their sales after end of January. Their home delivery
strategies is one of most prominent in their success. They have assumed a impressive 50 percent
increase since last 12 weeks and they are now planning for opening of more customer fulfilment
centres till end of next month. This is one of most necessary requirement to fulfil the needs of
customers that has been shifted towards online mediums. COVID-19 hags resulted into a catalyst
for the long term establishment of online business for Waitrose. There is a potential impact that
has to be explicitly quantified by partnership that is because of worst scenario that has been faced
by many retail brands line decline in 35 percent in sales by retail giants like John Lewis & 5
percent for waitrose. UK shoppers are spending more on online availability of channels as
compared to offline stores. People are not willing to visit physically available stores and it is not
safe for them (Waitrose expands home delivery fulfilment to cope with COVID-19 demand,

2020). It is important for respective company to provide quality service and increase the number
of home delivery areas in order to maintain the level of sales and profitability level. In addition
to this, the company is required to develop effective strategies and increase its online presence so
that customer can order easily and the overall loss occurred due to such pandemic disease is
covered in a rapid and effective manner.
Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of company
It is concluded from the views oF (Colbert, and et.al, 2020), there are different factors
which got affected due to the covid-19 situation. Covid – 19 had created physical, mental and
financial complications for the company. The main issue of human resource department is to
ensure that workforce is engaged and there is high level of satisfaction. There are basically three
challenges which are faced by HR professional of Waitrose. These are mentioned below -
Communication – There is change in regulations and policies of health authorities,
government and labor organisations. Thus, there is need for effectively communicating with
employees and inform them about updates. The senior executives of company are connected with
the employees through the human resource management. Managers must be connected with staff
on daily basis and reassure that government guidelines are followed properly. When employees
are given work from home, it is assured that business progress meetings are held every week in
order to discuss about progress of business.
Trust – There are different companies that are doing remote working. This led to change
in workplace culture. Trust between company's management and employees is necessary for
proper functioning of the organisation. It is concluded that trust is the key factor on which
organisations must focus upon for functioning effectively. There are various techniques used for
increasing trust across different departments (Cronin, and Evans, 2020). Managers of Waitrose
can organise daily meetings in order to discuss about various business task priorities. There is
need for facilitating and enabling good communication in order to make employees do work
from home.
Rapid policy change – The time of pandemic is an extraordinary time and every
company policy and regulation is affected. These are regularly updated according to the Covid –
19 clauses. The main aim of HR department is to keep updated about new policies and inform
employees. Few factors are present within the company according to which the HR department