Project Planning for Talent Management Strategies: A Case Study of British Bakeries

This project plan aims to evaluate strategies used by organizations for talent management, with a case study of British Bakeries. It includes a project management plan, work breakdown structure, primary and secondary data collection, analysis of results, and recommendations.

UNIT 6 PROJECT
PLANNING

Table of Contents
Aim and Objectives.........................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Project management plan.................................................................................................................3
Work break down structure and Gantt Chart...................................................................................4
Primary data.....................................................................................................................................4
Secondary data.................................................................................................................................6
Analysis of results............................................................................................................................7
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................12
Reflection.......................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Aim and Objectives
Aim
Main aim that will be focused upon for this project plan is “To evaluate strategies used by
organization for talent management. A case study of British Bakeries”.
This aim has been selected for understanding what talent management is, strategies used by
organization for talent management, and ways in which it can be supported within the
organizations.
Objectives
Main objectives that will be focused upon to be achieved are as follows:
 To evaluate strategies that organizations adopt for talent management.
 To identify ways in which talent management can be supported within workplace or
organizations.
Project management plan
Project management plan directly helps in identifying ways in which main objectives of
the project can be achieved. Project management plan for this project have been explained
below:
 Scope: this project will be focusing upon identifying different strategies that can be used or
adopted by SME like British Bakeries. Scope of this project is limited to evaluation of
different strategies that support talent management within organization.
 Time and importance in project management: time period required for completion of this
project is 3 months and it is extremely important to identify time period in which this project
will be completed is because it directly helps in evaluating ways in which whole project can
be managed and goals or objectives required to be achieved.
 Risk: one of the main risks associated with this project is cost risk. It is one of the main risks
because overall budget of this project is only £300 and collection of primary data with the
help of questionnaire is cost consuming because of which budget of project can exceed.
Strategy adopted for overcoming this risk is conducing online survey where questionnaire for
survey will be sent to selected respondents working British Bakeries will be sent with the
help of email.
 Cost: Cost associated with this project in which this whole project will be completed is £300.
Resources/Activity Cost

Secondary data collection (access to online
libraries)
£30
Primary data collection (survey with the help
of questionnaire through emails)
£70
Internet £50
Laptop £100
Others £50
 Resources: Some of the most important type of resources required for this project are: laptop
for collection of primary and secondary data, conduction of survey online through emails,
internet connection, MS Project software for development of Gantt Chart. Ms project will be
used again and again for updating time period of each task or activity, updating resources,
tracking what activities or task have been completed till date and what task or activities are
required to be completed.
 Communication: During this project communication with respondents will take place
(employees or Hr managers working within British Bakeries), and mentors will take place so
that it can be ensured that project is moving in correct and same direction. Communication
with selected respondents will take place at the start of survey for primary data collection for
explanation of need of conducing survey and providing details of project. Once in a month
meeting with mentor will be held in order to ensure that project is on track.
Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart
Gantt chart is bar that is used to schedule project activities related to talent management and
the way they are being used by company to achieve the set goals in limited time frame. The
sequence, mile stones, expected time required to complete the activities are clearly mentioned in
the below Gantt chart. Along with it, the Gantt also represent the dependencies of one activities
on another. Such as
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Manually Scheduled Initiation 8 days Mon 1/4/21 Wed 1/13/21
Auto Scheduled Development of
Idea 2 days Mon 1/4/21 Tue 1/5/21

Auto Scheduled Goals and
Objectives 2 days Wed 1/6/21 Thu 1/7/21 2
Auto Scheduled Outline 2 days Fri 1/8/21 Mon 1/11/21 2,3
Auto Scheduled Recognizing the
stakeholders 2 days Tue 1/12/21 Wed 1/13/21 4
Auto Scheduled Planning 11 days Wed 1/6/21 Wed 1/20/21
Auto Scheduled Survey 3 days Wed 1/6/21 Fri 1/8/21 2
Auto Scheduled Development of
plan 3 days Mon 1/11/21 Wed 1/13/21 7
Auto Scheduled Budget
preparation 2 days Thu 1/14/21 Fri 1/15/21 8
Auto Scheduled Structuring 3 days Mon 1/18/21 Wed 1/20/21 8,9
Auto Scheduled Execution 8 days Mon 1/18/21 Wed 1/27/21
Auto Scheduled Allocating
resources 3 days Thu 1/21/21 Mon 1/25/21 10
Auto Scheduled Marketing 3 days Mon 1/18/21 Wed 1/20/21 8,9
Auto Scheduled Risk Analyzing 2 days Tue 1/26/21 Wed 1/27/21 12,13
Manually Scheduled Monitoring 10 days Thu 1/28/21 Wed 2/10/21
Auto Scheduled Ensuring
operation 3 days Thu 1/28/21 Mon 2/1/21
Auto Scheduled Feedback 7 days Thu 1/28/21 Fri 2/5/21
Auto Scheduled Modifying
errors 3 days Mon 2/8/21 Wed 2/10/21 17
Auto Scheduled Closure 52 days Thu 2/11/21 Sat 4/24/21
Auto Scheduled Reviewing
operations 2 days Thu 2/11/21 Fri 2/12/21 18
Auto Scheduled Approving
changes 1 day Mon 2/15/21 Mon 2/15/21 20
Auto Scheduled Evaluating
success 1 day Mon 2/15/21 Mon 2/15/21 20

Work break down: The workbreak down is tools that is mainly utilize to break down task into
smaller activities so that the desired objective of project can be completed. In another words, it is
hierarchical outline of task or key activities that are associated with the project. In order to
complete the project, the key activities that has been performed are explained in detailed through
work breakdown structure that can be illustrated as follows:

Primary data
Primary data is a kind of data which is collected by the researcher for the first time. This
primary data can be collected in many different ways such as: with the help of questionnaire,

survey, interview, observation etc. For this project, survey will be conducted for collection of
primary data in which data from HR managers of British Bakeries will be asked to participate
(Pandita and Ray, 2018).
Primary data collection can directly help researchers in gaining more understanding about
the project, collecting new and important information about the selected research topic. Primary
data collected will directly help in understanding what talent management is, what are its main
benefits, strategies used for supporting talent management and other ways through which it can
be supported in a positive manner within organization (Claus, 2019). As per the primary data
collected, talent management can be defined as a kind of approach which is used for processing
right talent that can directly help an organization in achieving desired goals and objectives in an
appropriate and accurate manner.
For collection of primary data, here survey would be conducted. In this survey 5 closed
ended questions will be developed. For this survey 20 respondents will be participating for
collection of primary data and employees and HR management staff members will be
participating within this survey. Questionnaire for survey for HR management staff members and
other employees of British Bakeries are as follows:
1. What according to you is talent management?
 Process of attracting, selecting and retaining employees
 Process of planning workforce and enhancing employee engagement
 Process of enhancing performance of employees and selecting and retaining talented
employees
 All of the above
 No idea
2. Do you think Talent management is important for British Bakeries?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
3. What are the benefits of talent management?
 Enhanced employee experience

 Positive employee engagement
 Minimum employee turnover
 Improved employee performance
 Others
4. What are the main strategies adopted by British Bakeries supporting talent management?
 Tracking and measuring performance
 Provision of feedback and reviews to employees
 Rewarding top performers
 By promoting mentoring
 Others
5. What are the recommended strategies according to you that can be adopted by British
Bakeries for supporting talent management in more accurate and appropriate manner?
 Providing career development paths
 Motiving employees by providing incentives or salary increment
 Standardizing talent review process
 Others
 No idea
Secondary data
Secondary data is a kind of data will be collected by the researcher from already
published data sources (Whysall, Owtram and Brittain, 2019). Secondary data is mostly collected
by researchers for understanding studies that have been conducted till date, gaps within these
studies that have not been covered. In other words, secondary data basically helps in developing
a base for the researcher and further helps in providing details knowledge about the chosen or
selected research area in an appropriate and accurate manner.
Literature review
According to the view of Meyers and et. al., (2020) talent management is a
methodological approach that helps in organizing, sourcing, positioning, process of getting,
retaining right talent onboard that can directly help then in enhancing or optimizing their overall
skills, capabilities and bring improvement within their overall performance as per organizational
objectives. It is also defined as a way of predicting required human resource that are required by
organization meeting or achieving their desired goals and objectives in an appropriate and

accurate manner. It is one of the most important part of organizations human resource
management because with the help of talent management organizations can directly bring
improvement within their overall business values that can further help organizations in
achievement of desired goals and objectives.
As per the view of Ahammad and et. al., (2018) talent management helps in development
of strategies that can directly help an organization in optimizing overall performance of
employees. For this organizations for focus upon adopting different kinds of strategies that can
be used by organizations for effective talent management. Some of the most commonly used
strategies that are used by organizations for talent management are as follows: usage or adoption
of adoption of employee training tools or software’s is one of the best and most commonly used
companies for talent management. These tools are used by business organizations for managing
their employees, their overall performance, as well as by providing them within professional’s
opportunities to enhance their skills, knowledge with the help of good and effective training and
development tools and software’s.
However as elaborated by Collings, Mellahi and Cascio eds., (2017) there are many other
kinds of strategies that can be adopted by organization for supporting talent management. One of
those strategies is tracking and measuring overall performance of employees. This can be done
by setting KPI and goals to be achieved for all the team members. This directly helps in setting
criteria’s for employees on the basis of which their overall performance can be tracked, goals
they have achieved can be identified this further helps in providing feedbag and reviews to
employees which is another strategy. This provision of reviews and feedback help organizations
to help employees in identifying areas of improvement and skills that they need to develop or
enhance so that overall improvement within their performance could have been brought.
As per the results of study conducted by Crane and Hartwell, (2019) there are other kinds of
strategies that are slowly being adopted by organizations for supporting talent management
within company. Each of these strategies are adopted for different purposes such as: rewarding
top performers. This strategy is used as a motivational strategy that can be used by organizations
for appreciating employees hard work, target achievement by them so that they can work even
more hard and focus bringing improvement within their overall performance. Promoting
mentoring is another kind of strategy that can be used by organizations bringing improvement

within overall performance of employees and enhancing interaction among employees. This can
further help organization in bringing improvement within decision making skills of employees.
Analysis of results
Question 1:
Question 1: what is talent management?
Options Respondents
Process of attracting, selecting and retaining
employees
3
Process of planning workforce and enhancing
employee engagement
4
Process of enhancing performance of
employees and selecting and retaining talented
employees
3
All of the above 10
No idea 0
Analysis: From the above graph it can be clearly analysed that different employees or HR staff
members have different definition of talent management. As per this primary data collected,
talent management is process of attracting and retaining talented employees, process of planning
employee engagement, process of enhancing employee performance.
Question 2:

Question 2: Talent management importance
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 10
Agree 7
Neutral 1
Disagree 1
Strongly Disagree 1
Analysis: From the above graph it can be clearly analysed that most of the respondents think that
talent management is extremely important for British Bakeries to focus upon talent management.
This is majorly because it can directly help them in bringing improvement within their
employees performance, motivate them which will eventually help them in enhancing their
overall business performic that can eventually help them in achieving desired goals and
objectives.
Question 3:
Question 3: Benefits of talent management
Options Respondents
Enhanced employee experience 5
Positive employee engagement 6
Minimum employee turnover 4
Improved employee performance 3
Others 1

Analysis: From the above graph it can be clearly analysed that talent management can help in
providing various kinds of benefits to British Bakeries. It can directly help in enhancing positive
experience of their employees, enhance positive engagement of employees within main business
processes or operations of organization. Not only this, it can further help them in reducing or
minimizing employee turnover in an appropriate and accurate manner. Lastly, talent
management can help British Bakeries in bringing improvement within overall performance of
employees as well. Other than this, there are many other kinds of benefits that talent
management can provide to British Bakeries.
Question 4:
Question 4: Strategies adopted by British Bakeries supporting talent management
Options Respondents
Tracking and measuring performance 4
Provision of feedback and reviews to
employees
6
Rewarding top performers 5
By promoting mentoring 4
Others 1

Analysis: From the above graph it can be clearly analysed that there are many different kinds of
strategies that can be adopted by British Bakeries for supporting talent management within their
organization. Some of the most common type of strategies that can be adopted by British
Bakeries are: rewarding employees with top performance, promoting employees to be mentors of
other employees, providing review and feedback to employees. Lastly by tracking and measuring
overall performance of employees.
Question 5:
Question 5: Recommended strategies for supporting talent management
Options Respondents
Providing career development paths 6
Motivating employees 6
Standardizing talent review process 5
Others 2
No idea 1

Analysis: From the above graph it can be clearly analysed that there are many other kinds of
strategies that can help British Bakeries in supporting talent management. Some of the suggested
strategies are: provision of career development paths, motivating employees this can be done by
providing incentives or salary increment to employees. Other than this by standardizing talent
review process is another kind of strategy of supporting talent management within British
Bakeries.
Recommendation
From the above analysis it has been understand that talent management is important for
company as through this manager is able to retained talented individual within firm for longer
time frame. Different companies make use of different strategies to attract and retained
customers within the organisation to achieve their desired goals. While, there are many firm in
current scenario, that are facing issue related to talent management strategies that could be used
by company to grow and succeed. Therefore, the key recommendation that could be adapted by
the firm to retained highly skilled, qualified and talented individual within the company can be
illustrated in detailed as follows:
1. British Bakeries need to focus on providing safe and secure environment to employees
where they can easily share information with each other. Likewise, it need to promote
open communication between individual so that they can easily share their innovative
idea with other (Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and Scullion, 2020). That could be used
by firm to stay ahead in retail sector of United Kingdom.

2. Secondly, it can be suggested that it has to provide better reward and recognition to
employees for their hard work and dedication. Attractive salaries and wages will motivate
talented individual to work for company growth. At the same time reward also acts in
influencing employees to be part of organisation as they feel proud to be part of company
that recognition their hard work and dedication. So, social media platform can be used by
British Bakeries to recognise people (Narayanan, Rajithakumar and Menon, 2019).
3. Furthermore, it can be stated that the it need to advance career growth opportunities so
that employees have more chance to grow or enhance their existing skills and capabilities
for bright future ahead. Likewise, it need to promote employees as per their capabilities,
give new accountabilities and responsibilities so that they are influence to work for it
rather than any other enterprise operating in external environment of UK.
Reflection
After the completion of project, I have realized my strengths and weaknesses as well
which I can use in the future as well. I have performance well as I have given my best to
complete the project. I have put my 100% efforts to make the project a success. For attaining
objectives of the projects I stated the clear goals right in the start and then created the plan with
clearly defining milestones. I have worked early on the project to deal with the difficult parts of
the project such as research. This have provided me the way to deal in early with the significant
issues. It have helped in completion of the project before the deadline.
I have also faced various obstacles during the completion of this project. The major obstacle was
less and scarce resources. However the obstacles was managed through collaboration with other
researchers. Breaking down the work into smaller proportions and then performing it have
worked really well in this project. It has made me easier to find where to start which part and
when. It has worked to provide detailed planning which is essential for the project to go
smoothly. However, taking same time to complete each task has not worked as for every task
different time was needed. I have learnt various skills and capabilities from this project such as
time management skills, organization and collaboration etc. I have also learnt how I can use my
strengths to overcome my weaknesses.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahammad, M.F., and et. al., 2018. Strategic talent management in emerging
markets. Thunderbird International Business Review. 60(1). pp.5-8.
Claus, L., 2019. HR disruption—Time already to reinvent talent management. BRQ Business
Research Quarterly. 22(3). pp.207-215.
Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W.F. eds., 2017. The Oxford handbook of talent
management. Oxford University Press.
Crane, B. and Hartwell, C.J., 2019. Global talent management: A life cycle view of the
interaction between human and social capital. Journal of World Business. 54(2). pp.82-
92.
Meyers, M.C., and et. al., 2020. HR managers’ talent philosophies: prevalence and relationships
with perceived talent management practices. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management. 31(4). pp.562-588.
Pandita, D. and Ray, S., 2018. Talent management and employee engagement–a meta-analysis of
their impact on talent retention. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Whysall, Z., Owtram, M. and Brittain, S., 2019. The new talent management challenges of
Industry 4.0. Journal of Management Development.
Gallardo-Gallardo, E., Thunnissen, M. and Scullion, H., 2020. Talent management: context
matters.
Narayanan, A., Rajithakumar, S. and Menon, M., 2019. Talent management and employee
retention: An integrative research framework. Human Resource Development
Review, 18(2). pp.228-247.
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