Impact of Talent Management Strategies on Organization Performance in the UK Retail Sector

This research proposal aims to analyze the impact of effective talent management strategies on organization performance within the retail sector of the UK. It focuses on the case of Marks and Spencer and explores the concept of talent management, different strategies for managing talent, challenges faced by the company, and recommendations for enhancing talent management strategies. The research will use qualitative research approach and data will be collected through questionnaires.

RESEARCH PROPORSAL

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................6
TIMELINE.......................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Topic: To analyse the impact of effective talent management strategies upon organization
performance within retail sector of UK.
INTRODUCTION
Background
Talent management is referred to as the process of attracting and retaining the employees
within the company for longer period of time. This involves many different types of functions to
be performed for retaining the employees within the company like performance management,
training and development, motivation and many other function of human resources (Taylor,
2018). Managing talent within company is very essential because of the reason that when
company will not manage talent then there will be high employee turnover. This means that more
of the employees will leave and go to other organizations. This will decrease efficiency and
goodwill of company to a great extent. Hence, for managing the employee’s turnover in
company and keeping employees satisfied talent management is very important.
The present company is based over company Marks and Spencer which is a British
multinational company headquartered in London, UK. The company deals in selling clothes,
food products, home products, footwear, beauty products and many other related product and
services. The present research is based on Marks and Spencer and how it manages the talent
within the company. This research will list out the meaning of talent management and different
strategies which company uses in order to attract talent and retain it within the company itself.
Aim and objective
Aim
To investigate the impact of effective talent management strategies upon organization
performance. A study on Marks and Spencer.
Objectives
 To develop understanding of concept of talent management.
 To evaluate different strategies for managing talent in organization in order to improve
the performance of company.
 To examine various challenges which M&S can face at time of talent management within
company.
 To recommend some of the measures for enhancing talent management strategies for
betterment of M&S.

Research questions
1. What is the concept of talent management?
2. What are the various kind of talent management strategies for managing talent?
3. What are different challenges faced by company in talent management to improve
performance of company?4. To recommend some of the measures in improvising the talent management within the
company?
Rationale
For the selection of talent management as the research topic is that in this highly
competitive market retaining employees is the top priority of company. The major reason for this
is that there are many different competitors working in same marketplace and it is essential for
company to keep the employees satisfied. This is done with the reason that this will keep
employees engaged with the company and for this talent management is used. Hence, this
research will assist in developing knowledge relating to different strategies used for managing
talent. Further, another major reason for selection of this topic is that this is very common and
current problem going on in business environment. Thus, research on this will assist other
companies as well in managing their talent. In addition to this the present research topic that is
talent management is also the personal and academic interest of researcher.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1- Concept of talent management.
As per the views of Krishnan and Scullion (2017) talent management is a concept which
relates with the management of talent that is recruiting right person at right place and assisting
them to stay for longer within company. Managing talent is very helpful for company in
improving its performance as this will assist the company in retaining experienced employees
within the company. This will improve the performance of company as all the experienced
employees are working within the company and help in attaining the objective of the company.
On the flip side Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and Scullion (2020) argues that talent
management is a concept which can also be defined as a strategy of company in direction of
attracting employee to remain connected with the company for a longer period of time. This
includes many different types of functions like recruiting, training and development,
performance management, compensation, workforce planning, succession planning and many

other related activities. All these activities are required to be performed in order to manage and
retain the employees within the company. Hence, if talent management will be used in proper
and effective manner then this will be of benefit to the company and will improve performance
of company to a great extent.
Theme 2- Different strategies used in managing talent with intention of improving
performance of company.
With the opinion of Pandita and Ray (2018) managing talent is very important for success
of company and for this there are many different strategies to be used. These strategies provide a
direction to the company in order to maintain the employees within the company and to keep
them happy and satisfied.
For this Collings, Mellahi and Cascio, eds., (2017) states the major strategy being used is
to promote from within the company. This is a strategy under which the company tries to
promote the people from within the company. This is a good strategy for retaining employees
within company as if employees are promoted then this will motivate employees to work in more
effective and efficient manner. Hence, for this promotion will assist company in managing the
talent and this will also motivate other employees as well to perform in much better manner. This
is particularly because of the reason that when one person from a group of person then this will
motivate other employee to get promoted and for this they will be engaged more towards their
work.
On the other side Khoreva, Vaiman and Van Zalk (2017) argues that another major
strategy of talent management is to develop realistic hiring target and try to stick to those target
only. This is a method in which target are set which are realistic and not hypothetical. This is
necessary as if the targets will be unrealistic then the employees will not be in a position to attain
the targets. Thus this might decrease morale of employees and this will have a great impact over
their working capacity. Hence, for this before setting the targets company must first analyse the
situation of employees and their condition and then try to set the targets. This is necessary as this
will assist the company in managing its performance and as the company will be able to manage
the targets then it will be easier for the employees to attain the targets. Hence, of the targets will
be attained by employees then this will motivate them as they will have a feeling that they are
capable of attaining the target set by management and will be motivated to work in much better
manner (8 talent management strategies for fast- growing companies, 2020).

Theme 3- Challenges faced by company in managing talent within the company.
Makarius and Srinivasan, 2017() sought to determine the fact that, human resource
department tends to have wide set of tasks and policies which in turn mainly focuses on
improving the business operations with high degree of accuracy and relevance. It becomes
challenging for the company to retain wide set of prospective employees to improve the business
efficiency and operations. Increased degree of turnover among the employees who has been
offered better job roles and opportunities by the other company leads to higher employee
turnover. This way it brings high degree of challenge for the company to maintain prospective
set of employees. Retention of the perspective employees is considered to be of utmost
importance which leads to overall growth and success of the company. However, high degree of
employee turnover can quickly affect the bottom line of the company.
Subsequently, Scullion and Mullholland, (2020) argued that, unappealing company
culture is one of the major challenge which in turn has been faced by the company. The
employees of the company are looking for a relaxed and flexible work environment where they
get the opportunity to build up their skill set and improve the business efficiency and credibility.
However, companies who do not meet such needs of the employees and has unethical business
culture in turn tends to largely impose greater challenge in managing the talent within the
company. On the other side Ott and Michailova, (2018) argues that, unemployment rate and
tightened talent market tends to impose high degree of challenge upon the company to retain
talent within the company. Lack of leadership is also one of the major factor which in turn
largely affects the business operations and impose greater degree of challenge.
METHODOLOGY
 Research approach- this is defined as the method through which the researcher can
continue with the research. There are three different types of approach of research that is
qualitative, quantitative and mixed approach of research. The qualitative is the one in
which attributes and values are undertaken relating to research topic. On the other side
the quantitative is the one which includes analysis of numeric facts and figures pertaining
to topic of research (Dodds and Hess, 2020). In against of this mixed approach is the one
which includes combination of both qualitative and quantitative research. The present
research will undertake the use of qualitative type of research for completing research on
strategies of talent management. The reason underlying this fact is that this will assist

researcher in developing in- depth knowledge relating to various strategies of talent
management in improving performance of company.
 Research techniques- research techniques are the methods through which researcher can
complete the research in proper and effective manner. Proper use of research technique
will assist in attaining of aim and objective of research in successful manner. The major
research technique used in collection of data is questionnaire. Under this approach the
researcher will make use of the questionnaire which will include open ended and closed
ended questions and will be asked to respondent.
 Data collection method- this includes use of primary and secondary sources for
collecting the data. The primary is the one which includes data collected for the first time
whereas secondary sources includes collection of already used data. For the completion
of present research, the researcher will make use of combination of primary and
secondary source. In primary data will be collected from sample of 30 respondents of
Marks and Spencer. Further with help of secondary data views of respondent will be
authenticated. The sample will be chosen with the help of random sampling method as in
this there is probability of every respondent to be selected.
 Data analysis- this is the most essential stage for the completion of the research in
successful and effective manner. For this there are two different methods which
researcher can apply for analysing data that is thematic analysis and quantitative methods
like SPSS and other statistical tools. For the present study the researcher will make the
use of thematic analysis. The reason underlying this fact is that this includes the use of
tables, graphs and charts and this makes it more presentable and attractive.
 Ethical consideration- this is also the essential aspect to be taken care of at time of
conducting research in successful and effective manner. This includes taking the written
consent or signing of the consent form by the respondent. This is essential as this includes
the personal data of respondent and if it will not be kept secure then this will affect the
quality of research (Mohajan, 2018). The major reason underlying this is that the
respondent will not provide their data in future research. Another ethical consideration is
that the researcher must use all the valid and authentic data and data must not be very old.

TIMELINE
The timeline includes all the sequential steps in the process of doing the research along with the
time taken to complete all stages of research process.
Activity 1th
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3rd
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12th
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Selection
of the topic
of research
Doing the
literature
review
Deciding
for method
of research
Making
and
drafting of
questionna
ire
Collection
of the data

relating to
research
topic
Analysis
of the
collected
data with
help of
data
analysis
technique
Reconcilin
g and
rechecking
of data
Final
submission
of the data
after
rechecking

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W.F. eds., 2017. The Oxford handbook of talent
management. Oxford University Press.
Dodds, S. and Hess, A.C., 2020. Adapting research methodology during COVID-19: lessons for
transformative service research. Journal of Service Management.
Gallardo-Gallardo, E., Thunnissen, M. and Scullion, H., 2020. Talent management: context
matters.
Khoreva, V., Vaiman, V. and Van Zalk, M., 2017. Talent management practice effectiveness:
investigating employee perspective. Employee Relations.
Krishnan, T.N. and Scullion, H., 2017. Talent management and dynamic view of talent in small
and medium enterprises. Human Resource Management Review. 27(3). pp.431-441.
Makarius, E.E. and Srinivasan, M., 2017. Addressing skills mismatch: Utilizing talent supply
chain management to enhance collaboration between companies and talent
suppliers. Business horizons.60(4). pp.495-505.
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People. 7(1). pp.23-48.
Ott, D.L. and Michailova, S., 2018. Talent management challenges and possible solutions for
New Zealand businesses. New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management. 18(2).
pp.19-32.
Pandita, D. and Ray, S., 2018. Talent management and employee engagement–a meta-analysis of
their impact on talent retention. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Scullion, H. and Mullholland, M., 2020. Global Talent Management. The SAGE Handbook of
Contemporary Cross-Cultural Management, p.212.
Taylor, S., 2018. Resourcing and talent management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Online
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