Professional Development and Practice: COVID-19 Impact on Waitrose

This report, part of a Professional Development and Practice (PDP) assignment, analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the retail sector, using Waitrose as a case study. The report investigates the negative impacts of COVID-19 on Waitrose, focusing on challenges to human resource management, including communication, trust, and rapid policy changes. It also examines the measures taken by Waitrose to retain employees during lockdown, such as open communication, incentives, appreciation, workload balancing, and encouraging teamwork. The research includes an introduction outlining the research aim, objectives, and background, along with a rationale for the research. It also features a literature review assessing the impact of COVID-19, the challenges faced by HR, and employee retention strategies. The methodology section covers research philosophy, approach, and strategy. Finally, the report presents findings, data interpretation, analysis, and recommendations, with a conclusion summarizing the key points. The report emphasizes the shift towards online business and home delivery strategies adopted by Waitrose to maintain sales and profitability during the pandemic.

Professional Development and Practice (PDP) Part
1 Management Report

Table of Contents
Topic of the research is “to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on retail sector (Waitrose)”.............3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Research aim ..............................................................................................................................3
Research objectives ....................................................................................................................3
Research background..................................................................................................................4
Rationale for research ................................................................................................................4
To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose .......................................................5
Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of company
.....................................................................................................................................................6
To analyse measures taken for retaining employees during lock down situation ......................7
Research methodologies .................................................................................................................8
Presentation of research ................................................................................................................12
Data interpretation.........................................................................................................................14
Analysis of findings ......................................................................................................................22
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................23
Recommendations .........................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25

Topic of the research is “to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on retail sector
(Waitrose)”
INTRODUCTION
The situation of COVID -19 has impacted retail industry at huge level. The corona virus
is spreading continuously across the world. This has impacted various marketing factors
including customer behaviour, retail store, product demand, logistics service, factory, etc. There
is a statistics which concludes that growth in retail sector has halved after the COVID -19. The
sectors which are affected badly includes fashion, furniture and electronics (Barrero, Bloom, and
Davis, 2020). The present research is based upon challenges of human resource management of
Waitrose while COVID -19 situation. Waitrose is a British brand which is selling groceries and
there are approximately 300 shops of this across UK. Founders of this company were Wallace
Waite, David Taylor and Arthur Rose.
Research aim
“To analyse the issues faced by human resource while retaining talented employees in Waitrose
during COVID-19”.
Research objectives
 To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose
 Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of
company
 To analyse measures taken for retaining employees during lock down situation

Research background
It is concluded that supermarket shopping trend has been affected in Covid -19. there is
high decline in the sales of supermarket during this period. Waitrose is a supermarket chain of
UK which has experienced decline in profit and market share. The topic for present research is to
analyse the impact of Covid -19 on retail (supermarket) sector (Bartik, and et.al, 2020). This
research will help to know what are the different challenges that Waitrose faced due to Covid -
19.
Rationale for research
This topic is chosen for completing the research as retail sector has affected badly due to
Covid-19. Customers are not going out and purchasing products from stores. After conducting
research on this topic, it will be easy to enhance knowledge about how a company working in the
retail sector is affected due to this pandemic (rewin, 2020)(Chetty, and et.al, 2020). It will enable
to know what are the regulations, policies and laws that will be changed.
Illustration 1: Source:
change in supermarket shopping during Covid 19 , 2020

Literature review
To assess the negative impact of COVID -19 on Waitrose
According to views of the present impact of COVID-19 has created a very significant
impact on functioning of all retail brands. In addition to this, it is determine that companies are
facing many issues due to COVID-19 which impact negatively on their present and future
presence. Due to this pandemic diaereses, the buying power of consumers is decline that directly
has reduce the level of sales and profitability of company. It is determine that in UK, most of the
retailers face cash flow issues and the companies are not able to give salary to their employees
on time. One major impact on respective organisation due to COVID-19 is lack of raw materials
as transportation is not allowed in such pandemic. This impact negatively on company as they
are not able to fulfil the demand and supply of market. There has been a complete Change in the
way organisation are now perceiving their function. Moreover, another issue is arise when
company start providing online home delivery as employees are not ready to go out and deliver
the products at home. This decline the overall profitability and market share of company
negatively. Such as now more home delivery options are being generated. With instance to
Waitrose this organisation has expanded their home delivery options to ensure that they are able
to keep their procedures in the events of lock down. They have adopted strategies according to
their competitor brands like John Lewis. This has been a main reason why this brand has
assumed a 89 percent enhancement in their sales after end of January. Their home delivery
strategies is one of most prominent in their success. They have assumed a impressive 50 percent
increase since last 12 weeks and they are now planning for opening of more customer fulfilment
centres till end of next month. This is one of most necessary requirement to fulfil the needs of
customers that has been shifted towards online mediums. COVID-19 hags resulted into a catalyst
for the long term establishment of online business for Waitrose. There is a potential impact that
has to be explicitly quantified by partnership that is because of worst scenario that has been faced
by many retail brands line decline in 35 percent in sales by retail giants like John Lewis & 5
percent for waitrose. UK shoppers are spending more on online availability of channels as
compared to offline stores. People are not willing to visit physically available stores and it is not
safe for them (Waitrose expands home delivery fulfilment to cope with COVID-19 demand,

2020). It is important for respective company to provide quality service and increase the number
of home delivery areas in order to maintain the level of sales and profitability level. In addition
to this, the company is required to develop effective strategies and increase its online presence so
that customer can order easily and the overall loss occurred due to such pandemic disease is
covered in a rapid and effective manner.
Identify challenges that COVID -19 has created for human resource management of company
It is concluded from the views oF (Colbert, and et.al, 2020), there are different factors
which got affected due to the covid-19 situation. Covid – 19 had created physical, mental and
financial complications for the company. The main issue of human resource department is to
ensure that workforce is engaged and there is high level of satisfaction. There are basically three
challenges which are faced by HR professional of Waitrose. These are mentioned below -
Communication – There is change in regulations and policies of health authorities,
government and labor organisations. Thus, there is need for effectively communicating with
employees and inform them about updates. The senior executives of company are connected with
the employees through the human resource management. Managers must be connected with staff
on daily basis and reassure that government guidelines are followed properly. When employees
are given work from home, it is assured that business progress meetings are held every week in
order to discuss about progress of business.
Trust – There are different companies that are doing remote working. This led to change
in workplace culture. Trust between company's management and employees is necessary for
proper functioning of the organisation. It is concluded that trust is the key factor on which
organisations must focus upon for functioning effectively. There are various techniques used for
increasing trust across different departments (Cronin, and Evans, 2020). Managers of Waitrose
can organise daily meetings in order to discuss about various business task priorities. There is
need for facilitating and enabling good communication in order to make employees do work
from home.
Rapid policy change – The time of pandemic is an extraordinary time and every
company policy and regulation is affected. These are regularly updated according to the Covid –
19 clauses. The main aim of HR department is to keep updated about new policies and inform
employees. Few factors are present within the company according to which the HR department

has to consider all the policies, regulations and laws in an effective manner. Communication is
the key for managing different business activities. When employees are working from home,
then there is need of enhancing communication for better functioning.
To analyse measures taken for retaining employees during lock down situation
It is analysed from the views of (Donthu, and Gustafsson, 2020), there are different
measures which are taken by companies in order to manage the employees during lockdown.
There are some effective employee retention strategies used by the companies for managing
good performance of company. Some of these are described below -
Encouraging open communication – It is very important to manage open communication when
employees are given work from home. It is responsibility of HR personnel to focus upon
providing open communication within workplace. Moreover, there is need to elaborate the
process to all employees so that efficiency can be increased.
Providing incentives and bonuses - When management of company provides incentives and
bonuses to employees, then they will work in more effective manner. They will be encouraged
towards working enthusiastically and completing the goals in less time.
Appreciating employees - This is termed as giving compliments to employees for doing good
work. It enables to motivate and encourage employees and staff for achieving the goals in less
time. When employees are given work from home, they must appreciate the employees (Dunn,
Hood,and Driessen, 2020). This will help in making employees to feel engaged and involved
within the company.
Balancing the workload – The balancing of work load is a factor needed for managing the burden
that employees have while working. This is known as the way in which employees can work
without tension or anxiety. A schedule is maintained for the employees to work which enable
them to complete the organisational targets in less time. It is important to encourage and
motivate the employees for working in effective manner and reaching the goals.
Encouraging teamwork - When employees of organisation are working as a team then there are
more chances of success. When culture of collaboration is maintained then employees can work
in their own manner for managing the teams. The creation and development of collaborative
culture is helpful in a manner of increasing the possibility of successful projects.

Research methodologies
Research methodologies can be referred to various strategies and processes of researches
that are used by researcher in order to conduct their research efficiently. There are a number of
factors included in research methodology (Goddard, 2020). These includes research approach,
strategy, method, time horizon ways to collect data and so on. Below mentioned is research
methodology:
Research Philosophy- This refers to management of various believes and values which a
researcher follows while conducting a research. There are two types of research philosophy
which are:
 Epistemology means various ways in which knowledge can be obtained efficiently.
 Ontology means different ways with the help of which existence is understood.
There are also positions in this philosophy which are interpretivism and positivism. The
quantitative and qualitative debate is also performed in order to complete aims and objectives.
Research approach-Research approach is called as the nature of research which is either
deductive or inductive. Inductive approach consists of proper theories on which work is
conducted. On the other hand deductive approach are those approach in which first hand data is
collected in order to conduct a research.
Qualitative research:In qualitative research approach use of there is use of open ended
questions, observation and other and use of statistical data in this kind of approach is not
conducted by any company.
Quantitative research: Quantitative research on the other hand are researches that actively use
number and statistic to showcase the finding from the research. There are a number of raw data
available which are used by researchers in order to carry on this method of research effectively.
A number of different ways can be used in order to collect the data which is required for such
approach of research which includes experiments, questionnaire and so on.
Research Strategy- Research strategy includes the research opinion based on which the research
is carried upon. In the following part all the steps that are related to collection and processing of
data are included effectively.
Time Horizon-Time horizon refers to the time which is required in order to make sure that all the
objectives of the organisation are completed and the research is carried on smoothly. There are

different ways in which time horizon can be displayed. Cross sectional as well as longitudinal
time horizon. Longitudinal time horizon refers to data collected over a period of time.
Data collection and analysis-
Data collection method: Data collection is defined as the method which is used by
investigator for collecting information and data regarding the research topic (Hailu, 2020). In this
case, investigator is collecting information about affect of Covid -19 on the retail sector. There
are two types of data collection methods and these are primary and secondary data methods.
Primary data collection are the first hand information. Interview, questionnaire, field research,
observation and others are sources of the primary data used in this research. Secondary method is
used for completing the research in effective manner by using the already existing data. In the
present research, books, journal, online articles and other published data is used to gather data
about covid -19 pandemic affect on companies. In primary method, questionnaire has been
selected by the investigator under survey method. Whereas, books, journal, online articles and
other published data has been adopted by the investigator as the main secondary source.
There are a number of ways in which data can be collected. For primary research first hand data
is required. Whereas, in order to conduct a secondary research it is necessary that already
existing data is to be refined by a number of means.
In the following report first hand data is collected by the means of personal interview.
The sample size of data is selected randomly (Hall, and et.al, 2020). There are questionnaires
prepared which are to be filled by managers of Waitrose throughout the world. For the following
research 30 respondents are chosen randomly.
Questionnaire
Q 1) Is COVID -19 situation is affecting sales of Waitrose?
a) Yes
b) No
Q 2) According to you, is Waitrose is adopting proper measures for preventing COVID -19 at
workplace?
a) Yes

b) No
Q 3) Do you think Waitrose human resource management is facing problems while working
during COVID -19 ?
a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q 4) What are the various challenges faced by Waitrose HR department during lock down ?
a) To keep updated about personnels
b) Recruiting people through online techniques
c) Managing employee engagement
Q 5) How the role of HR has changed during COVID-19?
a) Conducting activities to increase employee engagement
b) Personally call employees
c) Managing E-learning portals
Q 6) Was there decline in efficiency of human resource management of Waitrose?
a) Ineffective communication with employees
b) Unavailability of technology
c) All of the above
Q 7) Do you think what are the possible barriers that led to declined employee engagement ?
a) Ineffective communication
b) Unavailability of technology
Q 8) What are the different ways by which HR management of Waitrose can manage talent
retention during lock down ?
a) Increasing employee engagement activities
b) Promoting employee welfare
c) Increasing benefits and perks for employees

Q 9) Any recommendation for effective talent strategy within the organsaition……

Presentation of research
Questionnaire
Q 1) Is COVID -19 situation is affecting sales of Waitrose? Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 5
Q 2) According to you, is Waitrose is adopting proper measures for
preventing COVID -19 at workplace?
Frequency
a) Yes 14
b) No 16
Q 3) Do you think Waitrose human resource management is facing
problems while working during COVID -19 ?
Frequency
a) Agree 17
b) Disagree 13
Q 4) What are the various challenges faced by Waitrose HR department
during lock down ?
Frequency
a) To keep updated about personnels 12
b) Recruiting people through online techniques 10
c) Managing employee engagement 8
Q 5) How the role of HR has changed during COVID-19? Frequency
a) Conducting activities to increase employee engagement 13
b) Personally call employees 10
c) Managing E-learning portals 7
Q 6) Was there decline in efficiency of human resource management of
Waitrose?
Frequency