Employee Resourcing Report for Food 4 U: A Retailer in West Midlands

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee resourcing challenges and solutions for Food 4 U, a small retailer operating in the West Midlands. The report, written from the perspective of an HR consultant, examines various aspects of the employee life cycle, beginning with job analysis methods, specifically recommending the interview method for roles such as E-commerce project manager and web developer. It emphasizes the importance of job descriptions and person specifications in the recruitment process, outlining key responsibilities, duties, skills, and desirable traits. The report then explores ways to improve the selection process, advocating for structured interviews to reduce bias and predict outcomes. Furthermore, it outlines a recommended approach to performance management, including planning, monitoring, developing, rating, and rewarding. The report also considers factors for analyzing external labor markets when opening a second store, and it discusses talent management approaches to address high employee turnover. The analysis provides valuable insights into managing the workforce effectively and improving overall organizational performance. This report is designed to help students understand the concepts of employee resourcing and management by providing a practical approach to addressing the issues of a small retailer.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Employee Resourcing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
1 a. Appropriate Method of Job Analysis and Benefits of Going through this Process..................2
1 b. Role of Job Description and Person Specification as Priority in Recruitment Process............4
2 a. Ways of Improving the Selection Process................................................................................8
2b. Outlining a Recommended Approach for Managing Performance.........................................10
3 a. Factors for Analyzing External Labor Markets before Opening a Second Store...................12
3b. Approaches of Talent Management and How to Address Issues of Higher Turnover............12
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................14
References:....................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing remedy into some of the issues of Food 4 u, a small retailer
operating in West Midlands and thereby put across a fresh view on managing the concerns from
the point of view of the HR consultant. The report put forward a discussion on the accurate
method of job analysis and benefits for appointing an experienced E commerce project manager
and an experienced web developer. The report also provides an insight into explaining and
discussing the importance of job description and person specification has within the recruitment
process. The report discusses about the selection process and outlines a recommended approach
for managing the performance. The report even put forward factors for the analysis of the
external labor market for opening second store. There are also discussions about the different
approaches of the talent management and the ways of addressing higher turnover.
1 a. Appropriate Method of Job Analysis and Benefits of Going through this Process
There are various methods of job analysis like observation method, interview method and
the questionnaire method. Choosing one or combination of more methods depends on the
requirements and needs of the organization and objectives of the procedure of job analysis.
Although all methods focus on the collection of the basic information but whenever used in
combination helps in bringing out the overlooked or the hidden information thereby acting as
great tools for the creating perfect fit for a job candidate. However, selection of an appropriate
method of job analysis in reality depends on the organizational structure, hierarchical levels,
nature of the responsibilities and the job and the duties involved. Nevertheless before execution
of the method, all the advantages and the disadvantages requires analysis since the collected data

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through the chosen process serves greater deal and helps the organizations in coping with the
current trends of the market, changes within organization, higher rates of attrition and various
day to day problems.
The most appropriate method of job analysis for appointing an experienced E-commerce
project developer and E-commerce project manager is the interview method (Taylor, 2008). In
this method, the employee interviewed such that they come up with their own styles of working,
portray the problems faced and usage of techniques and skills while performing job and the put
across the fears and insecurities about careers. The interview is a flexible method that generates
et al. 2019). In fact, the interview method seems useful in (Semmer and Zapf 2017):
 Investigate issues in an in-depth manner
 Discover how the individuals feel and think about a specific topic and the reasons for
holding opinions
 Investigate use, effectiveness and the usefulness of specific library services and
collections.
 Inform strategic planning, decision making and allocation of resource
 Add human perspective to the impersonal data
 Deepen the understanding and explaining the statistical data.
This method enables the interviewer in knowing the thoughts of employee regarding their
jobs and the responsibilities involved. However, for generating true and honest feedback or
ensure the collection of genuine data, questions asked during interview needed to be decided

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carefully (Bratton and Gold 2017). And in order to avoid the errors, it is better to interview two
or more individuals that help in generating pool of responses so that it can be generalized.
Some of the benefits of the interview method include (Noe et al., 2017)
 Useful in obtaining detailed information about the perceptions, opinions and the personal
feelings.
 Allows the interviewer to ask detailed questions
 Helps in generating a higher rate of response
 Allows clarifying any ambiguity and imperfect answers
 Precise wordings are tailored and the precise meaning of the questions clarified
 Interviewees does not remain influenced by the others in group
 Some of the interviewees might remain less self conscious in one-to-one situation
1 b. Role of Job Description and Person Specification as Priority in Recruitment Process
Job descriptions are a crucial step in the process of planning of the staffing programs.
They act as the foundation of various key processes that includes recruitment, job postings,
selection and setting of expectations, compensation, performance and training management. The
key purpose of the job description of the store supervisor lies in outlining the primary
responsibilities and duties involved in the particular role (Zairis 2013). The description will help
the candidates in understanding that the key function of store supervisor lies in overseeing a team
of the staff members within the retail store. It also helps in understanding that store supervisor is
also responsible for meeting the financial objectives along with ensuring that all the aspects of

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the store are run smoothly. Some of the duties, responsibilities and skills of the store supervisor
that the job description needs to mention are as follows:
Responsibilities and Duties:
1. Overseeing Staff: It is one of the key duties of supervisors to oversee all professional
activities of the sales people, shelf shockers, cashiers and the other employees in the floor
(Cantor, Morrow and Blackhurst 2015). It also involves advising the staffs providing them with
the regular performance reviews, scheduling shifts and training the newer staff members.
2. Meeting Financial Goals: It is another key duty of the store supervisors to ensure that
the store is able to meet financial objects (Odle-Dusseau et al. 2016). This includes drawing the
budgets, analysis of the expenditures and evaluation of the merchandize delivered against the
quantity of the merchandize sold.
3. Maintaining Inventory: They also remain responsible for the maintenance of the
store inventory (Evans 2015). This involves ensuring on time delivery, accuracy and sufficiently
stocked and involves no wastage.
4. Maintaining Sales Floor: They also hold the responsibility for the maintenance of
sales floor. This implies setting newer displays, ensuring store cleanliness and ensuring
sufficient sales in the shelves of the store (Noble, Esmark and Ashley 2015).
5. Record Keeping: They must have detailed records for making informed decisions.
This includes sales figures, employee performance and expenditure report.

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6. Undertake Customer Service: This involves addressing the concerns, questions and
comments of customers and helping them in finding specific items, resolving complaints and in
sorting the complicated refunds (Marchington et al. 2016).
Skills:
These include (Block 2016):
1. Skills Related to Customer Service: They need to have experience in the customer
service as they need to frequently have face to face interactions both with the happy as well
dissatisfied customers.
2. Attention to the Details: Need to possess an excellent capability of ensuring attention
to the details as the store supervisor needs to get involved in variety of factors.
3. Be a Financial Acumen: This skill is necessary as the store supervisor requires not
only filing but also analyzing large financial documents for the creation of budgets, entering data
into the spreadsheets and use of financial software along with analysis of the expense report.
4. Have Communication Skills: This is necessary for undertaking adequate
communication with both the customers and the employees.
5. Have Management Skills: This is required as they remain in charge of the
monitoring, training and the disciplining of the multiple staff members.

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On the other hand, person specification is a vital part of the toolbox of the recruiter
(Ellis and Abbott 2014). This allows communicating the desirable traits found desirable in the
ideal candidate. This includes past work experience, education and any additional traits that adds
to the role. However, the five key purposes of person specification include:
 Ensuring a more streamlined and refined interview process from the beginning
 Allows job seekers in accessing themselves before application and helps them in
understanding whether they suitable for the role. This allows them in matching
themselves as per suitability and not simply the skills.
 It helps in clarifying two kinds of personal qualifications vital to employer which are
essential and desirable. This enables employer in being explicit in whatever they want
and the way in which they match the criteria.
 It aids in communicating the policies of equal opportunities within the culture of
recruitment of a particular business. In other words, person specification allows in
assessing candidates based on the abilities.
 This implies testing all the candidates against the similar priority list set in advance. This
aids in removing the prejudice, bias and the personal interest that acts problematic in
ensuring successful recruitment.
Nevertheless, the criteria that need to be included in the person specification are as follows
(Role 2013):
1. Attainments: This includes experience, positions and the qualification held.

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2. Soft Skills: This includes capabilities related to public speaking, time management and
relationship building
3. Specific Job Capabilities: This involves usage of various software, team management or
program.
4. Personality Traits: This involves being patient, proactive, paying attention to detail and
motivated.
5. Physical Attributes: This involves the eyesight and height. These attributes should be
justified requisite for the completion of the task with role and should not be preference.
2 a. Ways of Improving the Selection Process
It has been found that in Food 4 U, staffs are mostly selected through informal interview
where screening of the employees takes place based on the willingness to work in shifts and
commitment instead of other important qualities like product knowledge, customer service,
teamwork and communication.
However, the most effective and valid methods of selection of employee includes,
general mental ability, structured interview and the judgment test based on situations. Amongst
them, the best method of selection seems to be the structured interview (Cascio 2015). This is
because in a structured or behavioral based interview, applicants are mostly asked series of
predetermined, specific and job oriented questions and the responses gets scored based on the
detailed criteria. This method of selection involves an interview panel comprising of two or three

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trained managers who ask questions along with maintaining a separate score for each of the
response. On completion of the interview, the ratings are often compared for the determination of
the consistency or reliability. In case of consistent responses interviewers discusses the rationale
thereby coming to a consensus.
However, the requirement of the process involves (Slaughter and Kausel 2013):
 Development of the interview questions along with scoring guidelines necessary for
guiding the selection of the expert. For example, conduction of job analysis and
interviewing the current incumbents for the identification of the critical incidents.
 It is necessary for the interviewing managers to possess a perfect understanding of
process involved in the conduction of structured interviewing that might require 1 or 2
days of training.
The outcome of conducting a structured interview is as follows (Kallio et al. 2016):
 They are immensely good at the prediction of outcomes
 The development of the scoring guides help in reducing the personal bias of the
interviewing managers
 Applicants are mostly evaluated on the cultural, organizational and the job oriented
dimensions
 Allows integration of existing competencies
 They are used for any kind of job and any level
 They can be considered as the final selection method thereby helping in the selection of
the higher performers.

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 Once the process of structured interview is created, it might be used for quite a number
of times
2b. Outlining a Recommended Approach for Managing Performance
It is recommended that the approach towards managing performance should be a
systematic process involving planning, monitoring, developing, rating and rewarding. Each of
the process is described as follows:
Planning: This implies setting the performance expectations and the goals of the
individuals in channelizing the efforts towards the achievement of the organizational objectives
(Wamba et al. 2017). Involving the employees in process of planning helps them in
understanding the organizational goals regarding what requires to be done, why they are needed
to be done and the ways in which it should be done. However, the regulatory requirements for
planning the performance of employees involve establishment of the standards and elements of
the performance appraisal plans.
Monitoring: It is vital to continuously monitor the projects and assignments. This
implies consistent measurement of performance through ongoing feed back to the work groups
and the employees on the progress towards reaching the goals (Doherty, Horne and Wootton
2014). The regulatory requirements for the monitoring of the performance include conduction of
the progress reviews with employees where the performance remains compared against the
standards and elements. Ongoing monitoring provides supervisor with the opportunity of
checking how well the employees are able to meet the predetermined standards thereby making
changes to the unrealistic or the problematic standards. Besides, continuous monitoring enables

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the supervisors in identifying the unacceptable performance at any given time during the period
of appraisal thereby providing assistance in addressing the performance.
Developing: Effective managers address and evaluate the development needs of
employees (Mone and London 2018). Developing implies increasing the capacity of the
performance through training thereby introducing new skills that includes higher responsibility,
improvement in the work process and the other methods. In other words, providing the
employees with the required training and the developmental opportunities not only encourages
the good performance but also strengthens the skills related to job thereby helping the
employees in keeping up with the changes in workplace through introduction of newer
technology.
Rating: Periodic rating of the performance is useful to the managers in summarizing the
employee performance (Crashaw, Budhwar and Davis, 2017). This enables the manager in
looking at and comparing performance over time or across specific set of the employees. It is
vital for the organizations to identify the best performers. In context of the requirements for the
performance appraisal rating implies evaluation of the employee or the group performance
against the standards and elements in the performance plan of employees. The assigned rating is
based on the procedures included within the appraisal program of the organization and the work
performed during entire period of appraisal. The rating has bearing on other personalized actions
like increase in pay along with determination of additional retention.
Rewarding: Effective managers have an understanding on the importance of rewarding
the good performance. Rewards imply recognition of employees individually and as the member
of the groups, for performance and acknowledging the contribution towards the mission of the

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agency (Bullock et al. 2015). One of the basic principles of the effective management implies
that consequences are responsible for controlling behavior. The consequences are both formal
and informal and at the same time positive as well as negative. Good managers do not wait for
recognizing performance as it is a natural, day to day and ongoing experience. A simple ‘thank
you’ can act as a reward for the good performance.
3 a. Factors for Analyzing External Labor Markets before Opening a Second Store
There are five key factors that affect the labor market. This includes unions,
discrimination, income inequality and unemployment (Barrientos 2013). These factors impacts
labor market since they remain subjected to how markets hold up and what is necessary for
keeping the employees happy. Discrimination can impact the labor market provided they do not
treat the employees with respect and fairness. If the union workers went on strike then the labor
market comes to standstill when the projects are not completed due to the non working mode.
Unemployment on the other hand also makes it difficult for the companies for keeping up with
the work. When a large number of employees remain unemployed it creates an impact in putting
back the money that is generated. Income inequality refers to another issue that hugely
influences the labor market. When there is huge number of people working for a company with
different pay structure overtime then it likely results in issues.
3b. Approaches of Talent Management and How to Address Issues of Higher Turnover
Talent management refers to a strategy in relation to the business that helps in
recruitment, hiring and retaining best talents in the field of the work. However, the goals of the
talent management needs to be planned and well thought off to become successful. Some of the
approaches to talent management include (Cappelli and Keller 2014):

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1. Development of the Job Descriptions: For every job opportunity whether internal or
external, choosing the accurate descriptions seems important. It is necessary to clarify the duties
that go into performance of the job that will ensure that the candidates applying for it exactly
knows what they expected to do. This will prevent a higher rate of turnover since people are no
longer misguided. Besides, mentioning all necessary requirements for application helps in
minimizing number of applications discarded since people have not been qualified enough.
2. Ensure Development of Opportunities: For the existing employees it is vital for
offering ongoing opportunities in order to develop in the profession. This might include
something as simple as the two way training class or something new for aiding duties on a day to
day basis. It might also include programs related to management training that allows the entry
level professionals in gaining valuable experience, knowledge and opportunities. Introducing the
schemes for the employee development would help in reducing the rates of turnover.
3. Assessing Performance: A suitable way for the employees in finding how the
employees are doing and can improve for doing day to day assignments. This might either be
done quarterly or twice every year for being effective. The assessments are done by management
and provide an overview of what has been done by the employee through analyzing how their
performance have been and how it could be improved in moving forward. This eliminates any
surprises during the bonus time or the time for the raises. This also helps employees in
understanding the flaws and work towards improving it thereby reducing the rates of turnover.
4. Process of Selection: There are times when candidates stand out as being one of the
suitable choices for job and there are times when there lies a bigger pool of people to make
choice from. A true process of selection would help in making easier and faster decisions. This

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done based on meeting the basic criteria for the job. Implementing a proper process of selection
would result in the reduction of the turnover rates.
5. Ensure Effective Compensation: For hiring good talents, the rates of compensation
needed to be impressive. The company does not need to have thousands of employees for being
at par with the competitors but it needed to have distinct reputation for being good company
offering suitable compensation packages. Additional perks as well as health care benefits helps
in attaining talent and keeping them on board. For instance, something simple as on site facilities
and free parking could impact the decision of a person in quitting the company. Ongoing bonuses
and raises acts as reward and great incentives for a well performed job. These facilities are
believed to reduce the rates of turnover.
Talent management usually stems from the mission and vision of the company in doing
their business. This allows employees in finding niche and thereby works towards the final goal
of the organization. Strategically, these approaches allow the people at every level to become the
part of something big.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that as far as the interview method is considered as
the most appropriate method of job analysis for appointing experience e-commerce project
manager and web developers. The report shows how job description and person specification
helps in making the right choice of candidate within the recruitment process. The report also
shows how improvement in the selection process reduces employee turnover and shows that a
systematic process of planning, monitoring, developing, rating and rewarding has been one of the

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most suitable approach in managing performance. The report also puts across five factors for
analyzing the external labor market. The report also mentions the approaches of the talent
management that is adopted for reducing the employee turnover.

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