What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain people?

This report analyzes the challenges and strategies of talent management in organizations. It explores the talent management strategies adopted by Sainsbury's and TESCO to retain and attract employees. The report includes a project plan, primary and secondary research, and a literature review. The research aims to evaluate different talent management strategies that can be used by organizations to retain and attract employees.

Learner Name ID
Unit Number and
Title
Unit 6 – Managing Successful Business Project
Credit Value 15 Unit Level 4
Cohort January 2021
Project Title
E- Portfolio: What talent strategies do the best companies use to
attract and retain people?
Learner Name: Date:

Table of Contents
Project aims & objectives. ..............................................................................................................4
Research aim: .............................................................................................................................4
Research question: .....................................................................................................................4
1 – Project planning.........................................................................................................................5
Primary and secondary research......................................................................................................7
Step 2 – Conduct primary and secondary research..........................................................................8
Literature review..............................................................................................................................8
Step 3: Present findings.................................................................................................................10
Step 4 – Reflective Practice...........................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
2 – Project Logbook.......................................................................................................................16
3 – Performance Review................................................................................................................18
4 – Business Case Presentation......................................................................................................20
References .....................................................................................................................................33

Title: “What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain people?”
Introduction:
Talent-management is a procedure that is adopted by organisation to attract, retain and
further develop talent. Organisations can use talent management as a strategy for the purpose of
profit maximisation (Poisat, Mey and Sharp, 2018). Present report is based on analysing the
challenges that arise in the process of talent-management in organisations. There is further
required to formulate suitable strategies that is essentially required by applying various primary
and secondary methods to reach relevant conclusions and recommendation.
Project aims & objectives.
Research aim:
“To evaluate different talent management strategies that can be used by organisation to retain
and attract employees.” A study on Sainsbury's
Research objectives:
 To realize the basic idea of talent-management
 To identify various challenges arsing in Sainsbury's in the process of implementation of
talent-management strategies
 To formulate talent-management scheme that are to be utilized by Sainsbury's for the
purpose of attraction and retention of employees.
 To analyse the talent management strategies that can be adopted by TESCO and
Sainsbury's for the purpose of retaining employees.
Research question:
 What is the basic meaning of talent-management practises in organisations?
 What are some of the challenges that are faced by Sainsbury's in the process of
implementation of talent-management practices?
 What are various talent-management strategies that are to be used by Sainsbury's to
attract and retain employees in long run?

 What are some of the talent management strategies that can be adopted by TESCO and
Sainsbury's for the purpose of retaining employees?
Literature review
Basic concept of talent-management
As per views of Ghosh (2021), Talent-management is a basic concept of attracting best
employees it is a process where there is sourcing, hiring, development and retaining of
employees. In this the organisation is willing to retain best talented employees that can help
Sainsbury in achievement of competitive advantage. Talent management process is associated
with retention of talented workforce so that they are able to contribute up to a maximum level as
per their present potential and competence level (Marinakou and Giousmpasoglou, 2019).
Individual productivity leads towards enhancing the overall productivity of organisation in long
run and helps them in achievement of laid mission and vision objectives of the organisation.
challenges arsing in Sainsbury's in the procedure of implementation of talent-management
strategies
As per view points of Hejase (2016), there are several challenges that may arise in the
process of utilizing talent management scheme. Such as it may arise in the process of recruiting
of talent. In context of Sainsbury's it includes challenges associated with recruiting of talent
(Mupepi, 2017) Further there are some issues that may arise in the process of training and
development talent. Another associated issue is development of leadership skills amongst
employees that is required for leading and managing of teams. Sainsbury has to work towards
creation of a culture that can support employees
Talent-management strategies that are to be used by Sainsbury's for the purpose of
retaining and attracting employee
As per view of Vulpen (2020), there are some of the appropriate talent management
scheme that can be utilized for the aim of possession of talented personnel. In sainsbury it
includes offering motivation to employees both in monetary and non monetary form. There is
recognition of employees who are performing exceptionally towards their assigned roles and
responsibilities (Gallardo-Gallardo, Moliner and Gallo, 2017). Employees are offered with
career development prospects as they are offered with on the job training opportunities so that
there can be up gradation of their present skill and knowledge.

Talent management strategies that can be adopted by TESCO and Sainsbury's for the
purpose of retaining employees
As per view points connor (2020), of there is need of effective colleague engagement that
is key to success of organisation. TESCO is the retail and technology operations centre that is
operating across different parts of the world and has 4000 colleagues. In TESCO there is focus
on building of awareness, platforms for connecting with volunteering and leadership
opportunities so that employees can pursuit their passion towards community development.
There is also development of colleague engagement programmes in order to drive this
engagement process and building up of pride for colleagues. It is based on having business
focussed activities (How Tesco creates opportunities to boost employee engagement, 2020).
Where as in Sainsbury's, in CSR the commitment is great place of work. In sainsbury's
the main focus is to create a bond that is being valued in the organisation. There is continuous
reinvention of different talent management programs for the purpose of transition and promotion
of new roles that helps in employees in their overall personal and professional development.
Sainsbury's is also working towards having proper employee engagement to develop ideas that
can make overall customer experience better by linking of the talent management programs with
cohesive business strategy (Sainsbury's Talks Talent and Joins the Employee Engagement
Taskforce, 2020).
1 – Project planning
Project management plan is a document that is related with having information with respect to
cost, activities and other resources needed to perform the research work. Some of the factors that
are part of project management plan are mentioned below:
Scope: Talent-management strategies can assist organisation in retention of talented employees
for long time duration (Mousa and Ayoubi, 2019). In present report there is analysis of the way
talent management organisations can help sainsbury in discovering various talent management
strategies that can assist in long term effectiveness.
Cost: It is the important factor that can help researcher for setting budget based on all activities
that are to be executed. The allocated budget in present report is $8000 in which the all activity
are to completed.

Time: It is one of the aspect that is affiliated with specified time frame that is needed for
completing activity that is associated time period. In present report the time frame is 20 weeks
(Jooss, Burbach and Ruël, 2019).
Quality: This is a factor that is related to maintaining quality and effectiveness of research work.
In present report there is utilization of both primary & secondary resources for the intention of
collecting the data.
Communication: It is a element that is used for determination of resources that is required to
communicate as per specific needs of report. In existing report there is utilization of both verbal
and non verbal abstraction methods for the intent of communicating with the researcher
(Collings, Mellahi and Cascio, 2019).
Resources: In present report there is need of some specific resources to execute and complete
the research work.
Risk: There are different risk factors that includes lack of communication, difficulty in resolving
of conflicts, linked finances that may arise while planning of the research work. All the risks
have to be anticipated in advance to have proper risk mitigation measures to deal with long term
implications on the investigation.
Work Breakdown structure: It is defined as the project management tool that is adopted for
dividing the work in small activities as per the study (Turner, 2017). It is going to assist
researcher in dividing the work in manageable activities.

Gantt chart:
It is a bar chart that illustrating the schedule of project that has to be followed by the researcher.
It includes the way in which each activity is assigned a specific time duration. There is graphical
representation of activities. In this horizontal axis represent time frame to be allotted to each
activity.

Primary and secondary research
Qualitative research method: It is method in which data is in theoretical form that is there is
no use of numerical information.
Quantitative research method: In this method the data is collected in numerical form (Ansar
and Baloch, 2018). It helps researcher in having in depth information to analyse various issues
that are part of research topic.
Primary method: It is a method that is used by research for addressing research problem. It
includes resources from which information can be collected through surveys, observations and
questionnaire to collect first hand information (Mujtaba and Mubarik, 2021).
Secondary method: In this method the researcher is willing to use particular sample for the
purpose of collection of data from existing origin.
Sampling: In sampling there is use of a subset from the target set of population. In existing
research report there is questionnaire that is adopted for the intent of having effective based of
information from employees who are presently working in Sainsbury (Lesenyeho, Barkhuizen
and Schutte, 2018). For this a sample size of 30 respondents is selected by the researcher.
Step 2 – Conduct primary and secondary research
Questionnaire
Q1. Do you have basic idea of the conception of talent
management?
Frequency
a) Yes 22
b) No 8
Q2. What are various elements that are related to the concept of
talent management?
Frequency
a) Career development prospects 7
b) retention of talented employees 9
c) planning for hiring of suitable talent 6

d) Managing performance 8
Q3. What are some of benefits of having effective talent-
management process?
Frequency
a) Increasing the organisation productivity 7
b) Improvement of suitable brand image 8
c) Higher Employee contentment 8
d) Achievement of competitive advantage 7
Q4. What are best talent-management strategies that can be
adopted by Sainsbury for attracting and retaining of talented
employees for long run?
Frequency
a) Offering opportunities of training and development 10
b) competitive pay 8
c) Enhancing the present employee participation 6
d) Offering recognition 6
Q5. As per your view, does ineffective talent management process
may employee performance at Sainsbury ?
Frequency
a) Yes 23
b) No 7
Step 3: Present findings
Theme 1: concept of talent management
Q1. Do you have basic idea of talent management? Frequency
a) Yes 22
b) No 8

Interpretation: It is understood from the graph that when it was questioned about the
basic thought of talent management. 22 respondents had a optimistic view point and remaining 8
respondents had a negative view point.
Theme 2: Components of talent management
Q2. What are various elements that are related to the concept of
talent management?
Frequency
a) Career development prospects 7
b) retention of talented employees 9
c) planning for hiring of suitable talent 6
d) Managing performance 8
22
8
a) Yes
b) No

Interpretation: It is understood from graph that when it was questioned about the
elements related to talent-management. 7 respondents had a view that career development
prospects, 9 respondents felt that there is need to retain talented employees, 6 felt that there must
be planning of hiring suitable talented employees and 8 respondents had a view that performance
management is also a related element.
Theme 3: Benefits of talent management
Q3. What are advantages of having effective talent-management
process?
Frequency
a) Increasing the organisation productiveness 7
b) Improvement of suitable brand image 8
c) Higher Employee satisfaction 8
d) Achievement of competitive advantage 7
7
9 6
8
a) Career development
prospects
b) retention of talented
employees
c) planning for hiring of
suitable talent
d) Managing performance

Interpretation: from graph when it was asked to 40 respondents about the benefits of effective
talent management process. 7 respondents had a view that it can assist in enhancing the
organisation productivity. 8 felt that there is requirement to develop suitable brand image, 8 felt
that it can help in achievement of higher employee satisfaction. Remaining 7 had a view that it
can lead towards achievement of competitive advantage.
Theme4: Talent management scheme to attract and retain employees
Q4. What are best talent-management plan of action that can be
adopted by Sainsbury for attracting and retaining of talented
employees for long run?
Frequency
a) Offering opportunities of training and development 10
b) competitive pay 8
c) Enhancing the present employee participation 6
d) Offering recognition 6
7
8 8
7
a) Increasing the
organisation productivity
b) Development of suitable
brand image
c) Higher Employee
satisfaction
d) Achievement of
competitive advantage

Interpretation: It is understood from the graph that when it was questioned about the
talent management strategies that can be adopted by sainsbury to retain and attract talented
employee. 10 respondents felt that there can be opportunities for training and development. 8 had
a view that there is requirement of competitive pay, 6 felt that it can help in enhancing employee
satisfaction. 6 had a view that there must be recognition of talented employees.
Theme 5: Impact of talent management on retention of employees
Q5. As per your view, does ineffective talent management process
may employee performance at Sainsbury ?
Frequency
a) Yes 23
b) No 7
10
8
6
6
a) Offering opportunities of
training and development
b) competitive pay
c) Enhancing the present
employee participation
d) Offering recognition

Interpretation: It is interpreted that when it was asked to respondents about if ineffective talent
management is affecting employee performance level. 23 respondents had a positive view point
while remaining 7 had a unsupportive view.
Step 4 – Reflective Practice
It is reflected from the above made analysis that in the present report there is reasoning of
various skill sets that has helped the me in achievement of the laid aims and objectives. It has
assisted in the course of developing present researching skills. Further I have learnt of
communication skills that is both verbal and non verbal communication skill. Further for the
purpose of managing teams there has been enhancement in collaborative working practises that
can lead towards dealing with various internal conflicts that may arise in the overall functioning
of the organisation. I have also learnt personal development of skill sets that includes researching
skills that is going to lead towards long term assistance in the future course of research work. I
used primary and secondary information that is very important for the purpose of achieving the
aims and objectives of the report. I faced difficulties in terms of not having adequate and relevant
information in the context of present report.
23
7
a) Yes
b) No

Recommendation:
It is recommended from the above made discussion that sainsbury's has to adopt some of
effective talent management practices in order to deal with the unsatisfied base of employees.
 The management has to start by identification of organisational goals, in sainsbury
organisation have to set up their strategic priorities and then based on such priorities
further there is requirement to build up a connection between talent management process.
 It is suggested that there is need to build a inclination of effective human resource
practise with talent management process for the purpose of maintaining capabilities.
 Training is a crucial element of talent management process that is very important for the
purpose of enhancing the present skill sets that is required to make impact on people. It is
associated with development of future career prospects for employees.

Conclusion
It is concluded from the analysis that talent management is a very essential process that is
relate with managing the performance level of employees in the organisation. It is very important
for the purpose of having a competent workforce. In organisation while there are several
challenges that are faced by employees and it becomes important to deal with all such challenges
in order to minimise its negative impact over the overall organisation productivity and
performance level.

2 – Project Logbook
Project Logbook
Name:
Project title: “To evaluate different talent management strategies that can be used by
organisation to retain and attract employees.” A study on Sainsbury's
Date:
Update on period of development
Points to consider: What have you completed in this period? Did you complete the
work that you had planned? Are you on track and within deadlines set? Did you need to
make any changes to your project plan?
Yes, all the activities are taking place as per the specification. The project is on deadline
and was completed based on the specification of project.
Risks and/or issues identified
Points to consider: Did you identify risks/issues related to a lack of knowledge or skill
required to undertake the work you had planned? Did you identify any additional
risks/issues that have an impact on your project plan?
There were some of the risk that were related to shortage of resources that arise in the
course of present report. There were issue of less time period in the process of completion
of report. All these issues were resolve with use of gantt chart to divide all the work as
per specification of the report.
Problems encountered
Points to consider: What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them?
There were some of the challenges that arise in the course of project such as related to
team management and scarcity of resources that was resolved through using of various

leadership skills to manage the team activities.
New ideas and change of project direction
Points to consider: In developing work, addressing risks/issues, has the direction of your
work changed? How does your work justify the change of direction? Is this clear? Do you
feel this change of direction has enhanced your work? How?
The change in direction has helped me in the process of dealing with various risks factors
such as risk of non achievement of laid aims, objectives, there were also issues that arise
and affected but was dealt with proper strategy formulation and risk management
techniques to deal with uncertainties.
What have you learned about yourself through your work?
Points to consider: What are the most important things that your work has revealed to
you? How might this learning apply in the future? How did you feel when you had to deal
with challenges/problems? How well do you feel you have you performed? What can you
improve?
In the present report the main focus of learning was on the process of analysing the issues
that arise while performing the work, it includes instances of internal conflicts, resource
management and difficulty in the process of establishing communication channels.
Next steps for your work
Points to consider: What aspects of your work should you prioritise? Have you allowed
sufficient time for completion?
The main aspects of the work that had to be prioritised was relate to researching the
information and identification of reliable sources for the purpose of having sufficient
information base. After that the main focus was on analysing the information for the
purpose of reaching to relevant recommendation and conclusions.
Project plan status to date
Points to consider: Do you feel you are on track to complete your work on time? If not,

how will you address this? Do you feel your work shows your achievement of the
Learning Outcomes? If not, what do you need to do?
Yes, the overall activities are on track. For the purpose of ensuring that all activities are
timely completed there is use of work break down structure to divide the whole tasks in
small activities that helped in the course of managing each task with higher effectiveness.
Tutor Feedback
3 – Performance Review
Performance Review
What did you aim to achieve through your work?
“To evaluate different talent management strategies that can be used by organisation to
retain and attract employees.” A study on Sainsbury's
Did your work succeed in achieving your aims? How do you know? Specifically, please
outline any evaluation and assessment undertaken.
Yes, the work succeed in the process of achieving the laid aims and objectives.
What aspects of your development process do you think worked well and why? Evaluate
all aspects of the project (e.g. initial research, concept development, development
process, presentation, etc.) from a range of perspectives.
The concept development and initial research work were the two main aspects of the
research work that worked well.

What problems emerged during the project and how were they tackled? Was there
timely identification of issues and resolution during the project process?
There were some of the conflicting situations that arise in the project that was resolved by
use of collaborating working practises.
What did you learn from undertaking the project?
The main learning from the project was related to maximisation of the present researching
skills, communication skills that is going to help in the future professional development.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your process that you have identified?
The main strength of the researcher is related with managing of resources as there has been
optimum utilisation of resource that has helped in the process of achievement of laid
objectives. The weakness of the research work was mainly of managing people that lead to
some of the issue and affected the quality of research work.
How could your process improve for the future?
There can be future improvement of the future course of research work by having improved
quality. The knowledge and skills that have been acquired in this research work is going to
lead towards better professional development.

4 – Business Case Presentation

References
Poisat, P., Mey, M.R. and Sharp, G., 2018. Do talent management strategies influence the
psychological contract within a diverse environment?. SA Journal of Human Resource
Management, 16(1), pp.1-10.
Mousa, M. and Ayoubi, R.M., 2019. Inclusive/exclusive talent management, responsible
leadership and organizational downsizing: a study of academics in Egyptian public
business schools. Journal of Management Development.
Jooss, S., Burbach, R. and Ruël, H., 2019. Examining talent pools as a core talent management
practice in multinational corporations. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, pp.1-32.
Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W.F., 2019. Global talent management and performance
in multinational enterprises: A multilevel perspective. Journal of management, 45(2),
pp.540-566.
Turner, P., 2017. Talent management in healthcare: exploring how the world’s health service
organisations attract, manage and develop talent. Springer.
Ansar, N. and Baloch, A., 2018. Talent and talent management: definition and issues. IBT
Journal of Business Studies (IBTJBS), 14(2).
Mujtaba, M. and Mubarik, M.S., 2021. Talent management and organizational sustainability:
role of sustainable behaviour. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Lesenyeho, D.L., Barkhuizen, N.E. and Schutte, N.E., 2018. Exploring the causal relationship
between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career
academics in South African higher education institutions. SA Journal of Human Resource
Management, 16(1), pp.1-10.
Mupepi, M. ed., 2017. Effective talent management strategies for organizational success. IGI
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Marinakou, E. and Giousmpasoglou, C., 2019. Talent management and retention strategies in
luxury hotels: evidence from four countries. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management.
Gallardo-Gallardo, E., Moliner, L.A. and Gallo, P., 2017. Mapping collaboration networks in
talent management research. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and
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