Challenges and Importance of Talent Management in Retail Sector - Case Study of M&S

This research project focuses on the challenges and importance of talent management in the retail sector, with a case study of M&S. It explores the strategies to overcome these challenges and improve talent management practices. The study aims to understand the concept and importance of talent management, identify key challenges faced by the retail sector, and recommend strategies to overcome these challenges. The research methodology includes qualitative research methods, such as primary data collection through a questionnaire and secondary data collection through literature review. The findings will provide insights into the importance of talent management and ways to improve it in the retail industry.

Talent Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1- Aim and Objectives...............................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................4
Talent management importance within business ........................................................................4
Challenges faced by companies from talent management practices............................................4
Strategies to overcome from the talent management challenges.................................................5
P2 project management plan .......................................................................................................5
P3- WBS and Gantt Chart ...........................................................................................................6
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Research Methodology ..........................................................................................................8
LO4................................................................................................................................................10
P5 data Analysis and findings ...................................................................................................10
P6 Recommendations.................................................................................................................19
LO4................................................................................................................................................19
P7 Performance review and logbook ........................................................................................19
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
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INTRODUCTION
Aim of the study is to identify key challenges and obstacles facing Retail sector of UK in
terms of talent management. Every organisation recruit and hire talented and experience people
to make their workkforce strong and effective within retail sector. For that they apply various
types of recruitment strategies. It is because strategy enable in hiring right candidate for right job
role Strategies like Reward management, training and development etc. Moreover, staff must
possess relevant skills and knowledge so that job roles are performed by them (Bailey,Jones and
Rosen Baugh., 2018). They need to retain and attract a lot of people so that goals are attained
like increase in growth, productivity and increase in sales. However, retaining of staff is
necessary as it helps in gaining competitive advantage in industry and also positive culture is
developed. The use of strategy depends on company needs. Moreover, concept of talent
management consists of many things such as hiring, motivating, performance appraisal,
retention, etc. of staff. So, it is responsibility of HR to apply different practices of talent
management. Besides, it is important to attract more people as it brings in new talent and
creativity within the retail industry of UK.
This research project will cover case study of M&S which is one of the leading organization
within retail industry. Researcher will discuss importance of Talent management within the
company and how it can help M&S to lead the market and take competitive advantages.
LO1
P1- Aim and Objectives
Rationale
The main objective behind conducting this research is to identify the importance of the
talent management within the Retail industry. Employees are most important part of the
company but having a skilful and talent employee can become the reason behind company's
success (Gordwin, 2021). HR department who are responsible to retail talent within the
organization should attract and retain the high quality employees so companies within this
industry can achieve success. This research outcome will provide benefits of talent management
and how HR department of M&S can achieve success thorough talented workforce. Reason
behind choosing the particular topic is to identify the challenges that are faced by M&S and how
they van overcome from the challenges.
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Aim- The key challenges and obstacles facing Retail Sector of UK in terms of talent
management- Case study of Mark's and Spacers
Objectives
 To understand the concept and importance of talent management
 To Identify Key challenges and obstacles faced by Retail sector related to talent
management
 To recommend strategies and ways to overcome challenges
Research questions
 What is the importance of talent management in organization?
 What are challenges and obstacles faced by business in talent management?
 Strategies to overcome from the challenges and improvement in talent management
practices ?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Talent management importance within business
According to the Whysall, Owtram and Brittain. (2019) Talent management is important
for the organizations within the retail industry to get skillful and talent employees and make their
workforce strong What is Talent Management? All You Need to Know to Get Started (2020).
However, in a argument Tafti, Mahmoudsalehi and Amiri. (2017) Talent management
implementation have proper process that should be followed by the Human resource department
otherwise it can be ineffective.
Challenges faced by companies from talent management practices
As per the view of Johennesse and Chou., (2017) There are various challenges and
obstacles from the talent management like Poor hiring strategies, poor leadership can result in
failure in implementing talent management practices.
In a argument Ali and Guha. (2018) believe that there are some strategies that can be
useful for the organization to overcome from the problems like taking advice from experts,
following proper process etc.
Strategies to overcome from the talent management challenges.
According to the Krishnan and Scullion. (2017) some of the strategies that can be used by
the organizations to overcome from the talent management challenges like improvement in
leadership, skill based training to employees.
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P2 project management plan
A project management is the formal document that helps to define how the project is
going to be carried out. It covers elements like project time, budget, goals, scope, timeline and
deliverables of the project management plan and its essentials for a project on track
Cost
Project cost are the funds that are needed to the project managers to create budget for
their plan. Project manager make an estimated budget by using the funds and cover the cost of all
the activities that will be done on the basis of cost. To conduct whole project estimated cost will
be $4450.
Scope
The scope of this research will cover only The key challenges and obstacles facing Retail
Sector of UK in terms of talent management. (Iarygina., 2019). Further the research will be
solely based in UK only.
Time
Time is most important factor in the project management plan and project manager have
to ensure that how many times project could take to complete. To complete this project, project
manager will take around 5 weeks and 36 days in total.
Quality
Quality in the project plays most significant role to deliver the project objectives and
goals. To ensure the project quality, manager will use quality management tools like Flowchart,
Histograms etc. To provide the best possible quality to the project primary research methods will
be used and Questionnaire will helps to provide appropriate result as a outcome of the research.
Communication
Communication within the project is necessary to make it successful and project manager
should ensure that each and every stakeholder of the project should have communication
between them, so they can share the detail and ensure the project goals.
Risk
There are various risk factors that can affect the project and make it fails so project
manager will identify the risk factors that can affect the whole project, so they can reduce the
likelihood of the risk like Errors in information, lack of resource etc.
Resources
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The resource basically signifies the assets that will be required by the researcher and
includes the technological or human resource assistance that will be necessary to complete the
current research successfully (Ika, Söderlund, Munro and Landoni., 2020).
P3- WBS and Gantt Chart
Work Breakdown Structure
The work Breakdown Structure is the project management tool that helps project
manager in getting a proper step. it can be followed project manager in their project plan done
successfully and project team can accomplish the goals and objectives of the project plan.
Project Gantt Chart
Project Gantt Chart is the most important tool that is used by the project manager to
assisting in the project planning and scheduling of the project size and make the complex project
simpler and arrange the activities within the whole project plan (Johnson, A. B., 2019). Gantt
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chart will help to provide path that can be followed by the project managers both critical and
simple path.
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LO2
P4 Research Methodology
Research methodology is the special procedure or the tool that is used by the researcher
to identify, process, select and analyse the information about the sleeted topic and collect the
research outcomes.
Research Type
There are two type of research qualitative and qualitative research and to make this
research study successful investigator will use Qualitative research method (Kivilä, Martinsuo
and Vuorinen., 2017). reason behind selecting quantitative method is that researcher will able to
gain the understanding the needs and importance of the research topic and it will help to develop
the idea or hypotheses of the potentials.
Research Philosophies
There are 5 Research philosophies but two mostly used for the research project that are
interpretative and positivism. To make this study successful, researcher of this project has used
interpretivism. Reason behind selecting this method is that it will help to identify that what
people believe and think about the talent management and how it can be helpful for the M&S.
Data collection
There are two data collection method, Primary data collection method and secondary data
collection method. Both the method is effective and helpful to collect the best possible outcomes
but some differences make them different from each other.
Primary data collection- Primary data collection methods are used by the investigator to
collect data directly by themselves thorough observation, rather than depending on the data that
are collected by the other researchers, Advantages of this method is that there are very rare
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chances that data could contain errors and mistakes, more accurate and provide the best possible
and fresh outcomes to the researcher. Primary method also has disadvantage like- it's a long
process and costly as well. Researcher personally need to observe and collect the data.
Secondary data collection- In this method researcher collect the data about the topic from
the secondary sources like internet articles, Magazines, surveys etc. They use information that
was collected by the any other author. Advantages of this method is that it is easy and time
saving methods and researcher can get some free survey on the internet (Larsson and Larsson.,
2020). On the other side it also has disadvantage like some of the survey are available on the
internet but researcher have to pay for it not every survey is free, side can be blocked and
information collected thorough survey can be wrong because old information has no use in
current time.
To make this research successfully, investigator will use primary research and secondary
method both by making questionnaire and conducting literature review. Employees of the M&S
will perform survey and researcher will collect information from their given answers. It will
provide fresh information about the talent management and what kind of practices can be used
by the M&S within their workplace related to the talent management.
Sampling
Two type of sample that most of the researcher used in their project research that is
probability and Simple Random. The Researcher of the project will use Simple random sampling
sampling to make this study successful. 30 respondents will be selected randomly from the
population of employees working in M&S.
Data Analysis
Data analysis tools that are used by the researcher in their study are SPSS, excel, thematic
analysis etc. To make this research successful, researcher will use Thematic analysis that will
helps to formed various charts, graphs and figure and by using them researches will collect the
result on the talent management (Mirakyan and Golomejic., 2019).
Ethical consideration
The researcher of this project will make sure all the compliance and the ethical
consideration by making each participant sign on the Consent form, it will help to maintain their
privacy. Researcher will private the name and other information of participants and 30
employees will take participation so the result can be accurate.
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Validity and reliability
The researcher has used valid sources that are not copied from the internet , and they also
ensure that information and outcomes should be relocatable to the topic.
LO4
P5 data Analysis and findings
Data analysis is one of the critical part of the whole research, where all the data and
information collected by the researcher are interpreted by the researcher, so they can create
proper outcomes and result for their research.
Questionnaire
1) Do you think Talent management practices are helpful to grow retail sector?
 Yes
 No
2) Does Marks & Spencer Human resource management perform Talent Management
practices at their workplace ?
 Yes
 No
3) What kind of talent management practices run by the HR department of the company?
 Recruitment and selection
 Employees training
 Reward management
 All of the above
4) Are you satisfied with the practices provided by the HR department of the Marks &
Spencer ?
 Agree
 Strongly agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
5) Challenges and obstacles faced by the organization in terms of talent management?
1) Increase in employee’s turnover
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2) Lack of leadership
3) Effect on workplace culture
4) Lack of knowledge about practices
5) Availability of skilful employees within market
6) What strategies can be recommended to the company to overcome from the challenges and
obstacles from the talent management?
 Strong leadership
 Identification of skills that company needed
 Considers carrier development offering
 Skill based training to employees
7) Provide suggestion to improve talent management practices within the organization for their
growth and development ?
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Theme 1- Majority of the employees believe that talent management practices are useful for the
organizations waiting the retail industry to grow.
1) Do you think Talent management practices
are helpful to grow retail sector ?
Frequency
Yes 20
No 10
Total 30
Interpretation
As per the above graph participants believe that talent management practices are helpful
to provide growth to the retail industry so it is necessary for the business within the retail
industry to implement talent management practices for retaining talented employees. 20 out of
30 employees says ye and 10 says no.
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Yes
No
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Column C

Theme- 2- Most of the employees were agreed that M&S use talent management practices at
their workplace.
Does c Human resource management
perform Talent Management practices at
their workplace ?
Frequency
YES 25
NO 5
Total 30
Interpretation
On the basis on above chart 25 employees says yes that Human resource department of
the Marks & Spencer provide Talent management practices retaining skillful employees at their
workplace and 5 says no.
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25
5

Theme- 3- maximum number of the participants agreed that M&S provide all the three strategies
that are Recruitment and selection, employees training and reward management.
What kind of talent management practices
run by the HR department of the company ?
Frequency
A) Recruitment and selection 5
b) Employees training 5
C) Reward management 5
D) All of the above 15
Total 30
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Interpretation
As per the above analysis employees were asked to give answer that what kind of
practices HR department of Marks & Spencer runs within their workplace. Majority of the
employees 30 out of 15 says each practices given in the option are provided by the company.
Practices like Recruitment and selection, employee's training and rewards management.
Theme- 4- Employees were strongly agreed that Talent management practices provided by the
M&S provide satisfaction to the employees.
4) Are you satisfied with the practices
provided by the HR department of the Marks
& Spencer ?
Frequency
 Agree 10
 Strongly agree 15
 Neutral 3
 Disagree 1
 Strongly disagree 2
Total 30
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Interpretation
On the basis of above chart 15 employees were strongly agreed and satisfy with Talent
Management Practices provide by the Human resource department of M&S. 10 Participants
says they are agreed and other participants who were left says neutral, disagree and strongly
disagree.
Theme- 5- Majority of the participants think that Lack of leadership can create challenges and
Obstacles in the talent management practices.
5) Challenges and obstacles faced by the
organization in terms of talent management ?
Frequency
1) Increase in employees turnover 5
2) Lack of leadership 15
3) Effect on workplace culture 3
4) Lack of knowledge about practices 5
5) Availability of skilful employees within
market
2
16

Total 30
Interpretation
The above chart indicate that Lack of leadership can be reason behind creating challenges
for the company to run their talent management practices. Almost 15 employees say that, its lack
of leadership, 5-5 employees believe it increases the labor turnover and lack of knowledge about
the practices can be challenging. There were few employees they believe that it can affect the
workplace culture and availability of skillful employees.
Theme-6- Skill based training and strong leadership was voted mostly by the participants
because they believe it can help to overcome the challenges.
6) What strategies can be recommended to the
company to overcome from the challenges
and obstacles from the talent management?
Frequency
 Strong leadership 10
 Identification of skills that company 5
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needed
 Considers carrier development offering 5
 Skill based training to employees 10
Total 30
Interpretation
On the basis of above diagram participant suggested the strategies that can be used by the
M&S to overcome from the challenges. 10-10 employees believe that strong leadership and skill
based training and be the best strategies that can help to improve talent management practices
and remaining 10 says that Identification of skills that company needed and considering the
carrier development offerings can also be option.
Theme-7- Provide suggestion to improve talent management practices within the organization
for their growth and development?
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Strong leadership
Considers carrier development offering
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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In the end participation were asked to give suggestion and improvement strategies that
can be used in terms of talent management so company and can grow and develop
(Nachbagauer., 2019). Participant says that strategies like skills base training, various interview
and test to retain skillful employees etc. can be useful strategies for the M&S and it can also be
used to overcome from the challenges and obstacle from the talent management. There were few
employees they believe that it can affect the workplace culture and availability of skillful
employees.
P6 Recommendations
As per the above data analysis M&S can improve their talent management practices
improving their workforce, so they can use their workforce skills to achieve success and make
their business productive. Here is some suggestion that can be used by the M&S to improve their
talent management practices and can be used by their Human resource management practices.
 Identify the job role on the basis of job within the company, this strategy will be useful
for the company because they will able to find employees who are having skills that can
be useful for the company. company can use the talent of the employees to achieve
success within their business.
 Identify the goals and objectives or make vision for the employees, so they can
understand that what they need to achieve and how they are going to achieve within the
business.
 Effective leadership is necessary for the company, so they can lead the employees and
motivate them, good leaders always help their employees for their improvement and they
help to provide them a leading that can be used for the improvement in the employee's
performance, so they can give their best for the company.
LO4
P7 Performance review and logbook
The whole research project helps me to develop various skills that can be used by me in
my future development. I have learned how to identify potential research outcome by using the
research methodologies like Research types, research approaches, data collection methods etc.
The time management was one of the biggest issues that I faced where it was difficult for me to
meet the deadlines that were allotted to me. While conducting the research I was in the habit to
study each and every aspect very closely and this ultimately led to the delay in the completion of
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different tasks and achievement of the milestones that I had developed. However I learned that
by proper planning and by implementation of the smart work and learning, I could be able to
achieve the milestones that I had developed so I will bale to collect the best possible outcomes
and develop myself as the professional researcher.
While conducting the research I was in the habit to study each and every aspect very
closely and this ultimately led to the delay in the completion of different tasks and achievement
of the milestones that I had developed. Personally I believe that ways and skills that can be used
by the researcher to conduct and research and the methods that I used within the research can be
helpful for me in the future if I work on any research project, I will able to identify the good and
better outcomes related to the topic that can be easily understandable and useful for the
companies to take competitive advantages. Provide skill based truing so employees can develop
new skills that will be useful for the both company and employees. Company will able to make
their employees more productive and help them to achieve success, while employees will able to
develop their carrier as well, and they can become professional in their work (Picciotto., 2020).
I can use this knowledge to conduct more research on the various research project to
collect best possible information. This kind of research sources can be useful for me within
business. In a business research plays huge importance because surveys can also be conducted on
the customers. I can use my knowledge to collect the information about the product and services
that helps to satisfy the customers needs and demand and this information can be used by the
production team of the company to develop new products or bring some changes within the
product, so they can satisfy the customer needs and demand within the business. This is k=how
knowledge gained by me within whole product can be useful for me in future and there are many
more use of the research.
In a whole research my performance was average but with the times I will able to create
more experience and I will able to use that knowledge to conduct the researches Some of the
areas like Use the primary and secondary sources, I was confused that what kind of research
method can be more effective I can use within the research project.
CONCLUSION
As per the research project has been covered study on the topic of talent management and
it has been identified importance of the talent management and how it can be helpful for the
M&S to grow their business. Research also has been identified the challenges and obstacles
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faced by the organization on the basis of the talent management practices. In the end of this
report researcher has been identified outcomes of the research as the strategies that can help
company to overcome from the challenges from talent management.
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Online
What is Talent Management? All You Need to Know to Get Started (2020) Available thorough
<https://www.digitalhrtech.com/what-is-talent-management/>.
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