Talent Management and Human Resource Development

This assignment delves into the world of talent management and human resource development. It discusses various legislation that should be considered while making policies and strategies. The importance of knowing job specifications and expectations to increase employee satisfaction is also highlighted. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for cost-effective, efficient, and suitable approaches to recruitment and selection. The assignment draws from a range of sources, including books, journals, and online resources, providing a comprehensive overview of talent management practices and human resource development strategies.

Resource
And
Talent Planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Analyse current labour market trends that influence talent management and workforce
planning. .....................................................................................................................................3
P2. Different legal requirements an organization take into consideration while workforce
planning.......................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3. Current and anticipated skills requirements in organizational context.................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4. Appropriate illustration of job description and person specification....................................8
P5. Application of different recruitment and selection methods for effective talent resourcing
and planning................................................................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P7. Evaluation of integration of Stages of HR life-cycle within organizational HR strategy.. 11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Resource and talent planning is a vital function of various aspects ranging from analysing
the requirement of human resource, creating network and choosing appropriate hiring channel,
recruiting best and potential employees, maintaining labour pool for future recruitment and many
more. In other words, the main function is to identify and attract key talent from the market who
are capable to create competitive advantage and help entity to achieve its goals viz. Short term
and long term (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The chosen company in this report is Argos Ltd. It
is a British catalogue retailer in United Kingdom and Ireland having its headquarters at
Buckinghamshire, England. Further, this report covers current labour market trend, different
legal requirements for workforce planning, evaluation of different processes and methods of
recruitment and selection and HR life cycle together with HR strategy.
TASK 1
P1. Analyse current labour market trends that influence talent management and workforce
planning.
HR is an important department that formulates various plans and policies for people
working in the organization. The strategies prepared and implemented by HR has objectives to
combine organization's culture, employees and system by synchronizing the various actions in
order to get desired goals of company. It must be aligned with mission, vision and goals of the
entity. Also, these are necessary to resolve and maintain a healthy and good work environment.
Talent management is the continuous process of HR to attract, develop, motivate and retain best
and potential employees. Argos must use this strategy to employ potential human resource,
increase their knowledge and skills by providing training, give them professional development
opportunities and retain high-performing manpower (Church and Silzer, 2013).
Workforce planning is a core systematic business activity to implement changes in
strategies so that employees can be engaged in modified environment. It provides a more stable
way to understand market and industry challenges and issues so that long-term changes can be
made for competitive advantage and sustainability.
The impact of systematic approach to strategic HRM and resourcing of talent:
Strategic approach to HRM contains a set of actions that are carried for effective
management of human resources. It follows a system that starts from talent resources which

includes preparation of job description, creating opportunities, performance appraisal and
effective selection processes. The motive behind this is to get the right person for the right job.
Argos should develop a fine co-ordination between all these in order to have high performing
employees for gaining competitive advantage.
A company must analyse market trends before the formulation of policies. Labour market
means the platform or place where employers and employee can interact with each other. It
depends greatly on the jobs rate in domestic market as well as global trend of employment.
Economic composition and its impact on HR processes
An organization is a part of economy, that conducts its business by complying with and
adopting economical changes. UK's economy has been fluctuating due to financial crisis and
now due to BREXIT (Dessler, 2013). These affects entities operating in an economy. Level of
employment greatly influence overall objectives of a company. Therefore, an economy is
required to be stable for gaining competitive advantage. Argos may adopt strategies and make
changes as per the industry changes to hire required workforce who will be capable to attain its
objectives.
Impact of Demographics
The study of population on the basis of age, race and sex is known as demographics.
These changes impact on the innovation, agility, flexibility in the workplace and performance of
employees. There is a interlink between labour demand, supply and productivity. If the
proportion of old people is more than young ones then it is a matter of concern as older people
tend to have poor memory and skills. The problem in UK market is that population rate has been
reduced in the past years which has affected employment adversely. HR department of Argos
will face hurdle in hiring efficient employees due to the this.
Political composition and social trends
The companies are becoming ethical by implementing corporate governance practices as
employees look for opportunities to work an ethical company. Also, government imposes
enhance rules and regulations to control companies and protect the investors. The domestic
power in UK has provided a stable per capita income which made it easy for the companies like
Argos to conduct its business smoothly (Gold and et. Al., 2013). One of the current social trend
is that women are participating more and more in various activities. A country blessed with
higher population provides better chances to companies to hire best employees. On the contrary,

there will be limited human resources available to be choose from. The HR department and
manager of Argos should formulate and implement strategies and policies which will enable it to
hire efficient employees who can make adjustments and work towards organizational goals.
P2. Different legal requirements an organization take into consideration while workforce
planning.
A company can not operate without complying with the applicable laws. These promotes
an uniformity in the company which is crucial to productivity and growth. Also, identification
and analysis of legislations benefits to understanding its applicability along with the amendments
in order to form appropriate strategy (Guerci and et. al., 2012). The objective for such analysis is
to provide customer satisfaction by fulfilling ever changing demands. Also, future plans will
greatly depends on this and proper solution can be provided to resolve problems. Argos will be
required to abide by the following legal requirements for workforce planning:
 Employment Rights Act, 1996- It governs modern day labour in UK. This act was
passed by Parliament to regulate and protect employee's rights. It also includes,
regulation of pay leave, unfair dismissal, redundancy etc. It is mandatory for HR manager
of Argos to comply with the provisions of this Act in order to provide a legal and ethical
working environment.
 Equality Act, 2010- It have been enacted with an objective to protect people from
discrimination on the basis of sex, colour, ability-disability, nationality etc. at the
workplace. It has replaced previous anti-discrimination law with a single Act. Argos
should make an environment that treats everyone equally and they should be rewarded
according to their work. This will help it to retain employees for a long term.
 Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974- This Act of Parliament contains provision to
regulate health, safety and welfare of the human resource of an organization. It extends to
whole UK. Further, duties of employers, employees, suppliers, etc. HR manager in Argos
must comply with this law in order to save itself from any legal consequences (Kavanagh
and et. al., 2017). This will impact its goodwill in the market, which will ultimately affect
its sales and revenues.
Analysis of labour demand and supply forecasting
As mentioned above, the core element of workforce planning is to create and maintain
sufficient labour pool so that current and future goals can be achieved. This analysis provides an

insight about the capabilities of existing employees, assess the requirement and appoint potential
candidates. This will help Argos in striking a balance between demand and supply of labour and
assigning the right job to the right person. Further, forecasting of labour is necessary to save
costs by selecting unskilled persons. All these will contribute to the success of Argos.
Contemporary HR issues
A company can not avoid the issues that may occur in workforce planning. Such issues
are majorly related to legislations. This influences the overall working of an organization. Argos
may have many issues ranging from compensation and incentives of workers, environmental
issues, working conditions, etc. (Longenecker and et. al., 2013). Prompt actions should be taken
to resolve all the current issues and appropriate arrangements should be made to minimise
occurrence of problems in future due to this, Argos can achieve its goals smoothly.
Human and Social capital: Human resources of a company is the most important assets.
It is a combination of skills, talent and knowledge manpower. Argos should plan its budget so
that sufficient amount can be invested for development of employees. This will increase its
productivity due to which company can create a positive and strong image in the market and pay
its owners their expected returns. Social capital means beliefs, values, perception of group of
people. A proper understanding is necessary for effective synchronization. Due to this, Argos
will be able to provide a well managed and co-ordinated work environment for its employees.
TASK 2
P3. Current and anticipated skills requirements in organizational context.
Human capital is the key asset of an organization, therefore, it is essential to assess the
efficiency of existing workforce. HR department should conduct job analysis for this purpose. It
has been defined as procedures in which information about duties, responsibilities, work
environment etc. are gathered to ascertain that right person is placed in the right job. It provides a
detail insight which help company to determine the best fit for specific jobs (Meyers and et. al.,
2013).
Methods of Job analysis
Interview Method: In this, HR manager of Argos will ask questions regarding their
work performance, expectations, problems face by them within the organization.

Observation Method: HR personnel together with the one responsible for job analysis
will observe and monitor the performance of each employees. The techniques that can be used by
HR manager of Argos are work method analysis, direct observation and critical incident
technique.
Questionnaire Method: A questionnaire is prepared by the manager and senior leader
and provided to employees for gathering their views and opinions (Siikaniemi, 2012). However,
it is not used much as opinions can differ person to person and there will be problem if a single
conclusion is not determined.
Proper application of these methods by Argos will increase the productivity due to which
it will be able to achieve its goals within the assigned time (Job Analysis Methods, 2018).
Methods of collecting data and information
Primary and secondary methods are used for data collection. These have been described
below:
1. Primary Method- This is the source of fresh data. Only those data are collected which
contain first hand and have not been published or used anywhere else before. By
applying this method, new and first hand information is gather about the employees. It
includes, direct and indirect interviews, questionnaire etc.
2. Secondary Method- It has the information that have been used before. HR gather
information from the sources which have been published before. Feedbacks, computer
database, existing files about employees are some of the examples of this method.
Job Design
Job design is also known as task design or work design. It is vital and major activity of
HRM and is related to specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in according to
organizational, social, technological and personal requirements of personnel. Argos may use it to
provide improved job satisfaction.
Succession planning to identify skills and abilities of employees
Succession planning refers to a process under which, entity assess that potential
candidates have been hired to fill key roles within the company (Sparrow and et. al., 2015). Also,
this is done with an underlying assumption that experienced employees will replace the retired.
Argos must do succession planning to improve its productivity by removing inefficient workers
and replacing them efficient ones.

However, HR managers of Argos will have some required capabilities for talent
management and planning of workforce. These are as follows:
Current Skills-
 Communication skill: Argos' HR managers communicate very effectively with its
employees. They possess efficient and impactful interaction and communication skills.
These have certain elements which are necessary such as listening to employees
attentively, verbal and written skills. These make employees comfortable in sharing their
thoughts as well as problems. In the absence of these skills, Argos will face conflicting
situations which will impact its overall performance (Stredwick, 2013).
 Tasks management: A company divided its overall objectives into small tasks. Due to
huge number of tasks, there management becomes imperative. Argos HR manager have
the skills to manage the individual tasks and combine the results with overall objectives.
Without effective management, a company will suffer losses due to inefficiency in
management.
Anticipated Skills-
 Change management: An industry is ever changing, with the rapid changes in the
external as well as internal environment, it is necessary to have change management as
core activity. Argos HR department must work towards providing a work environment in
which employees can freely present their views and expectations. Also, they should
conduct and make employees aware and under the changed policies.
 Forecasting and planning: Future is uncertain and a company must predict the future
for formulating appropriate plans and strategies to attain objectives without any
hindrance. HR manager of Argos have to make incorporate this skill in order to increase
efficiency.
TASK 3
P4. Appropriate illustration of job description and person specification
Person Specification
Post: Accountant
Department: Accounting

Attributes Essential Desirable
Qualification & Experience Certified Accounting
Technician. Member of
Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and
Wales. Experience of 10 years
as Accountant in a reputed
MNC.
Certified Membership along
with minimum of 5 years in
Accounting department.
Skills or knowledge Analytical skills along with
good presentation skills.
Must have strong knowledge
of accounting and finance
along with proficiency in MS-
excel.
Job Description
Job Details
Post: Accountant
Company: Argos Ltd.
Job Purpose
To maintain records of daily transactions in the head office of company and conduct internal
audit at fixed intervals to detect errors or omissions.
Roles & Responsibilities
 Guide the management about mismanagement, misappropriation of funds, and
efficiency of internal control
 Analysis of financial position and trends and provide forecasts for budget
 Help external auditor in audit by providing complete information
P5. Application of different recruitment and selection methods for effective talent resourcing and
planning.
HR manager of Argos can opt for different approaches which are as follows:

 Internal Recruitment: This gives preference to existing employees to fill the vacant post
within the organization. Employees are selected by conducting written examination
followed by interview and group discussion. It saves costs of advertisement.
 External Recruitment: this give chance to new candidates who are potential and
talented. This employees recruited through this methods have fresh, innovative and
unique ideas, that will create competitive advantage for Argos.
HR of Argos can select suitable employees through below mentioned methods:
1. Interview: It is the most adopted method. In this, various questions ranging from
background to the job position applied are asked. Furthermore, they are given situations
to check their confidence and analytical skills (Tansley and et. al., 2013).
2. Written Test: An written examination is conducted to test performance level and
efficiency of applied candidates. These may contains questions of reasoning and maths
and sometimes, technical things are also asked where the job position requires expertise
and skills.
HR department of every company should make plan before deciding the methods and
criteria for selection. This will save time, costs. Argos will have right person for the suitable job
within allotted time.
TASK 4
P6. Evaluation of stages of HR life cycle applied to specific HR context.
HR life cycle is about employees and their involvement in the company. It has five
stages, which are as follows:
 Recruitment and selection: This is the initial stage, which involves activities such as
advertisement of job, collection of CV/resume of applied candidates, interviews and GD.
Argos' HR manager appoint best employees through this.
 Orientation: This is the second stage, in which Argos conduct orientation to have a
interaction with new employees and make them know about the company, its objectives
and ways to achieve them.
 Career planning and performance management: Argos will provide opportunities to
its employees for their professional development in order to achieve its goals (Waheed
and et. al., 2013). This will improve their skills and experience of performing various

assigned tasks. HR manager of Argos will evaluate the performance of its employees and
provide guidance for better performance.
 Succession Planning: HR department of Argos will assess potential employees and
replace them with inefficient employees. This will increase its market position.
 Exit: In this stage, HR is responsible for managing the procedure of entry and exit of
employees. Personnel look for better opportunities, may have desire to join Argos Ltd,
this will have to be managed by its manager (Ulrich and et. al., 2012).
P7. Evaluation of integration of Stages of HR life-cycle within organizational HR strategy.
The above-mentioned stages are required to be implemented by converting them into
actions. Also, it should be aligned with HR strategy to achievement of goals. The integration
have been discussed below:
First stage: HR manage of Argos will have to make suitable process of recruitment and
selection by formulating strategies that will help in attracting potential candidates for the
available jobs in the company. Further, these should be marketed to a large number of people by
marketing strategy.
Second stage: In this stage, it is the duty and responsibility of HR manager of Argos to
make the new employees familiar with company, objective, vision and mission statement. Also,
guidelines will be provided to make them aware about the ways to achieve set goals.
Third Stage: In this stage, assessment of the work performance of employees are done.
This will make Argos know where its employees are lacking and provide appropriate framework
and motivation to keep them going (Thunnissen and et. al., 2013).
Fourth Stage: In this stage, policies should be made in favour of employees. They must
be rewarded in order to retain them in the company. This will increase the employment
engagement of employees in Argos.
Last Stage: In this stage, HR manager of Argos will maintain an effective database about
employees containing each and every details about them. These records are from the time they
join the company till the resignation or termination, as the case may be. This will enable the
company to find right person for vacant job.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that workforce planning is important for
every company to have suitable and talented people. Before reaching to a conclusion about
recruitment of employees, analysis should be conducted to know the requirement of employees.
HR is important for an entity to provide fresh and innovative personnels. Also, various
applicable legislation should be considered while making policies and strategies. Further,
company should opt for appropriate job analysis method for know the specification and their
expectation to increase their satisfaction. Along with this, approach to be used for recruitment
and selection must be chosen, provided, it must be cost-effective, efficient, and suitable for
organization.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Church, A. H. and Silzer, R., 2013. Going behind the corporate curtain with a blueprint for
leadership potential: An integrated framework for identifying high-potential talent.
People & Strategy. 36(4). pp.50-59.
Dessler, G., 2013. Fundamentals of human resource management. Pearson.
Gold, J. and et. Al., 2013. Human resource development: Theory and practice. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Guerci, M. and Solari, L., 2012. Talent management practices in Italy–implications for human
resource development. Human Resource Development International. 15(1). pp.25-41.
Kavanagh and et. al., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics, applications, and
future directions. Sage Publications.
Longenecker and et. al., 2013. Creating human-resource management value in the twenty-first
century: Seven steps to strategic HR. Human Resource Management International
Digest. 21(2). pp.29-32.
Meyers and et. al., 2013. Talent—Innate or acquired? Theoretical considerations and their
implications for talent management. Human Resource Management Review. 23(4).
pp.305-321.
Siikaniemi, L., 2012. Information pathways for the competence foresight mechanism in talent
management framework. European Journal of Training and Development. 36(1). pp.46-
65.
Sparrow and et. al., 2015. Strategic talent management. In Do We Need HR? (pp. 177-212).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Stredwick, J., 2013. An introduction to human resource management. Routledge.
Tansley and et. al., 2013. The currency of talent management—A reply to “talent management
and the relevance of context: Towards a pluralistic approach”. Human Resource
Management Review. 23(4). pp.337-340.
Thunnissen and et. al., 2013. A review of talent management:‘infancy or adolescence?’. The
international journal of human resource managemen. 24(9). pp.1744-1761.
Ulrich, D. and et. al., 2012. HR talent and the new HR competencies. Strategic HR Review.
11(4). pp.217-222.
Waheed and et. al., 2013. Talent management in four stages. The USV Annals of Economics and
Public Administration. 12(1 (15)). pp.130-137.
Online:
Job Analysis Methods. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-analysis-methods.htm>.