Managing a Successful Business Project: H&M Diversity Case Study

This project is a case study analyzing the strategies and initiatives employed by H&M to build a diverse and inclusive workforce within the UK fashion clothing retail sector. The study begins with an executive summary and an introduction, outlining the research questions, aims, and objectives. It provides an overview of H&M and the UK clothing retail market. A detailed project management plan, including scope, cost, time, resources, and risk assessment, is presented alongside a Gantt chart. The project includes a literature review, research methodology, data interpretation, results and discussion, personal reflection, and recommendations. The research explores the importance of an inclusive workplace environment, strategies to improve workforce diversity, challenges faced by organizations, and the role of aging diversity. The project concludes with recommendations and a conclusion, offering insights into building a diverse and successful workforce within the context of H&M and the broader UK fashion retail landscape. References are provided at the end of the project.

Submission Front Sheet
Project Code:
Unit Title and Number: Managing a Successful Business Project
Unit: 6
Name: Camelia –
Is this a First
Is this a First Submission or Second Submission
Word Count (max.5000)
Turnitin Score
Learner’s statement of authenticity
Student’s Name: Student’s ID Number: I certify that the work submitted for this project
is my own. Where the work of others has been used to support my work then credit has
been acknowledged. I have identified and acknowledged all sources used in this project
and have referenced according to the Harvard referencing system. I have read and
understood the Plagiarism and Collusion section provided with the project brief and
understood the consequences of plagiarising.
Signature: Date
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Topic : “Strategies & initiatives to build
a diverse workforce in the UK fashion
clothing retail sector”- A case study
base on H&M

Executive Summary
Study has been discussed significant importance of inclusive workplace environment is it
attracts and retained potential employees and to accomplish the business objectives. Study also
has been conducted research by collecting information from primary as well secondary
resources. Therefore, study also summarized research methods by supporting information and
data which has been collected through primary as well as secondary resources. Overall, the
purpose of the study is to elaborate the deep understanding on the topic of workplace diversity.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the study and Research Questions.....................................................................1
Overview about H&M and UK clothing retail sector............................................................1
Aims:......................................................................................................................................2
Objectives...............................................................................................................................2
Questions................................................................................................................................2
Project Management Plan.......................................................................................................2
Gantt Chart.............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review...................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology...........................................................................................................7
Data Interpretation..................................................................................................................9
Results and discussion..........................................................................................................18
Personal Reflection...............................................................................................................18
Recommendations................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
2

INTRODUCTION
Diverse workforce environment is a strategic imperative and a strategic advantage.
Customers suppliers and vendors increasingly expect their partners to have culturally relevant
workforce and who is work under the diverse workplace environment. In other words,
workplace inclusion assists employees of all ethnicity, background, religions and sexual
orientation thrive and feel safe in the modern workplace environment. Present research will be
based on the topic of strategic imperative to build up the diverse workforce environment. Further
research will outline the important aspect of the research topic. Furthermore, research outline the
concept of diversity in the context of strategic initiatives taken for the employees. Therefore
study will be perform their discussion in the context of H&M which is an Clothing organization
situated in UK.
Overview of the study and Research Questions
It has been observed that organizations often equate diversity in within the workplace
environment (Wondrak and Segert, 2015). Diversity within the workplace environment is
specifically generate more new ideas and innovative thoughts. Every organization creates their
own workplace ideas with having culture where all employees comes from different background.
The significant importance of inclusive workplace environment is it attracts and retained
potential employees within the organization. With high potential sources. Basically, the purpose
of this study is to examine the importance of strategies and initiatives adopted by the
organizations to adopt the better results and growth for the business. Apart from this it also
makes and differentiate one environment with other it also makes the good employee
performance (Jonsen, Schneider and Maznevski, 2016). Also the topic describes the ageing
diversity at workplace where the study outline the significance and role of aged workforce.
Overview about H&M and UK clothing retail sector
H&M is the leading fashion clothing retail supermarket which highly accepting brand.
H&M and its associated companies operate in 62 countries with over 4500 stores and as of 2015
employed around 132000 people. UK retail market is highly competitive and trendy various
retail brands which has been already exist in the market such as M&S, Zara. So In order to
analyze the market, it has been concludes that UK retail market is highly engaged with the new
trend or technology services.

Aims :
“To examine the strategies and initiatives to build a diverse and inclusive workforce in the UK
fashion clothing”. A Case study base on H&M clothing.
Objectives
 To determine the strategies and initiatives which improves diverse workforce in UK.
 To identify the role play of diversity in workplace environment.
 To identify the diversity challenges and issues faced by the organization.
 To identify the importance of inclusive workforce environment at workplace.
Questions
Q. What are the strategies and initiatives which improves diverse workforce in UK.
Q. What are the role play of ageing diversity in workplace environment.
Q. What are the challenges and issues faced by the organization in diverse workforce
environment.
Q. What are the importance of inclusive workforce environment at workplace.
Project Management Plan
Scope : Scope of the study define the importance or substance of the selected topic.
Scope is one of the major substance that helps to create the positive outcomes of the study. In
other words, scope is one of the those things that can be difficult to determine (Harding, Nelson
and Glover, 2016). Basically, the main purpose of the scope is to define the importance of
research topic to improve the importance. Such as present aim of the topic On the same side it
can be anything that can affect the scope of the study and also influence the other systematic way
of research outcomes and performance. However, scope also decides the aim and objectives of
the research topic which clearly helps to understand the purpose of the study. As like the given
topic is to determine the strategies and initiatives that has been taken by the organization to
introduce effective lighting source. Present study scope is to justify that inclusive and diversity is
essential for the productive growth of the organisation and also the role play of ageing workforce
diversity (Burnette, Williams and Imker, 2016).
Cost: Cost plays a most essential role to accomplishing the research goals. Without
investing funds research can never happen. So it has been defined the cost is important element
in project management which is required as per the resources. Like for present research it will be

cost around £550 (Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016). also, it is important for project manager to ensure
the cost and make sure to complete the project duration under the pre decided budget cost.
Time : Time is the core element of the whole research process which create reliability of
the project. Time can be become the profit and can become constraint for the project as well. It is
also analyse that every project has one starting data and ending date. So as with the present
project 25/07/2016 to 29/08/2016.
Resources : Resources which is required by project members during the implementation
process. Like human resource who is directly connected with the other stakeholders every time.
Technical resources which helps to get the fast results and transform the statistics results.
Financial resources which helps to fulfil the project requirements. So it has been analysed that
resources is one of the another most crucial element in project management.
Risk : Risk is uncertain and uncontrollable majorly risk present in project are limitation
of resources, limitation in understand or ethical or legal risk can be occurred while implementing
or gathering the data information (Chen, Kang and Lee, 2017). Along with that, it more
effectively capable and long lasting decision making process to be more energetic. In order to
certain the future risk or mitigate the risk it has been done by the contingency plan. I prepared
my plan B in case of any uncertainity.
Communication : Communication is the way to transfer the information from one place
to another. Also, it can help to clearly understand the aim and purpose of the research to.
Communication forms or medium can helpful to get the direct medium and approach to
communicate with other people (Lientz and Rea, 2016). So as performed this project it will
taking help of communication mode like through e-mails, Skype, face to face etc.
communication is the process or helpful tool in this research to pass they essential information to
the other team member.
Gantt Chart
Task Name Start Date End Date Duratio
n (Days)
Days
Complet
e
Days
Remainin
g
Percent
Complet
e
Task One 25/07/2016 30/07/2016 5 2.50 2.50 50%
Task Two 27/07/2016 01/08/2016 5 3.75 1.25 75%
Task Three 27/07/2016 04/08/2016 8 2.00 6.00 25%

Task Four 29/07/2016 06/08/2016 8 8.00 0.00 100%
Task Five 01/08/2016 09/08/2016 8 6.00 2.00 75%
Task Six 01/08/2016 05/08/2016 4 1.40 2.60 35%
Task Seven 03/08/2016 10/08/2016 7 1.75 5.25 25%
Task Eight 05/08/2016 12/08/2016 7 4.90 2.10 70%
Task Nine 03/08/2016 09/08/2016 6 0.90 5.10 15%
Task Ten 06/08/2016 10/08/2016 4 2.40 1.60 60%
Task Eleven 07/08/2016 13/08/2016 6 3.90 2.10 65%
Task Twelve 10/08/2016 16/08/2016 6 1.50 4.50 25%
Task Thirteen 14/08/2016 19/08/2016 5 1.50 3.50 30%
Task Fourteen 15/08/2016 23/08/2016 8 4.00 4.00 50%
Task Fifteen 16/08/2016 26/08/2016 10 4.00 6.00 40%
Task Sixteen 17/08/2016 28/08/2016 11 3.85 7.15 35%
Task Seventeen 18/08/2016 29/08/2016 11 1.65 9.35 15%

Literature Review
As per the view of Trehan and Glover (2019), At workplace, diversity generally means
that the organization consist of employees who are from different country and thus differ in their
culture, values and ethics. Inclusivity is basically the strategy used by the organization for
encouraging employees to participate and thus helps to create a culture of cooperation. There are
various strategies as well as initiatives that improves the workforce diversity in UK. Creating
workforce policies which are friendly enough is one of the main strategy which eventually leads
top diverse workforce within the organization. Having a well defined strategies at the workplace
eventually leads to better employee engagement and their commitment which in turn increases
the work force diversity of UK. For example While posting the various job opening, the person
description can be tailored so as to reach the wider audience of different parts of the world which
ultimately will result in the migration of varied range of people in UK. Understanding the values
and ethics of each and every employee as the organization have people from different states and
countries will lead to the immigration of people from different places and will increase the
diversity of UK.
Another strategy which will be helpful in increasing workforce strength of UK is
effective communication which will create a diverse workforce within the country. Employing
Task One
Task Eight
Task Fifteen
7/25/16
7/30/16
8/4/16
8/9/16
8/14/16
8/19/16
8/24/16
8/29/16
9/3/16

the effective internal communication policies within the organization will make the employees
more engaged in various tasks and activities and will also make them feel comfortable for
interacting with the top management. This will in turn stimulate greater feedback and will ensure
greater employee retention. Thus, this will attract the candidates from farther area and place for
employment and will enhance the diversity of workforce in UK. This will also lead to the greater
effectiveness of recruitment and selection and thus will strengthen the workplace culture of the
organization.
Now a days, each and every organization is equipped with the workforce from the varied
cultures who have different values, customs and ethics. Besides the employees form different
state and country the ratio of the older employees within the organization have also increases and
thus has compelled the organization to modify their policies and practices accordingly. The
major advantage of having the aging diversity at the workplace environment is that it fosters the
knowledge base. As the older employees are likely to have more experience as compare to the
younger employees thus the amount of knowledge which the aging people posses is
automatically larger. This in turn impacts the overall performance of the organization as there
would be greater ability and potential to deal with varying roles. Besides this, having the older
employees not only is productive for the organization but also for the younger employees who
are able to learn form their experiences. This helps them in solving the issues not only in their
professional life but also in the personal life. Their experiences and learning provides the other
employees with wide range of knowledge which eventually helps them in achieving the
organizational objectives. This benefits the H & M in a great way as they have majority of
employees who are older.
According to Kaminska and Borzillo (2018) the most common diversity challenge which
the organisations normally faces is the difference in the ethics and the cultures. There remains
some employees in the organization who hold the prejudice against some people who belongs to
different culture, backgrounds etc. As the organization comprises of the employees from
different background thus there cultural and thought differences clashes at some or the other
point. Another challenge which the dominates the organization due to the aging diversity is the
difference in their language as well as the communication. The variety of people working in an
organization have different language and generally communicate in different form as all comes
from different background. This becomes the basis of conflict among employees as every

individual interpret the message passed by the another in different way and in their language.
This distorts the communication and thus becomes the main challenge faced by the organization.
These are the various challenges which are faced by H & M as their organization contain people
from varied cultures.
As illustrated by Supalo (2015) the primary importance of inclusive workforce at the
workplace is that it results in greater job satisfaction. An inclusive organization values the
contribution of the employee and thus recognizes their hard-work which eventfully raise their
satisfaction level towards the organization and work. Another benefit of having the inclusive
workforce environment is that it results in lower turnover number. Due to increased satisfaction
level, employees tend to retain in the organization when they see that the company is embracing
their backgrounds and perspectives. This eventually raise their morale and thus helps the
organization to reduce the turnover number.
According to () the legislations also play crucial role in ensuring the effective
management of diversity and promoting inclusivity in organisation. The UK equality act 2010
imposes duty on all organisations to promote and foster good relationship among divers groups.
The act ensure that there must be no discrimination on the basis of diversity. Thus all individuals
must be treated with dignity and provided with equal opportunities at work place. The legislation
also prohibit workplace discrimination on criteria of diversity. It encourages organisation to
encourage inclusivity at workplace so that all individuals can have equal growth opportunities.
Research Methodology
Data collection
There are generally two sources of data collection primary and secondary. Secondary
data consist of the information which has been collected and gathered by other individuals and
thus provide ready-made information to the researchers. The main role of secondary data in
research study is that the time and efforts of the researcher are saved, and they do not have to
search for the fresh information. Thus, it has an important role. The source which is being used
for the collection of data is is primary source. Primary source usually provides the first hand
information which helps the researcher to analyze the results and draw conclusions. Within the
primary source, the data and information is collected through the use of questionnaire (Sutton
and Austin, 2015). A questionnaire is the series of question on the paper which h is used for
gathering the information on various attributes. In this research, questionnaire is used which was

being distributed to different target customers for their feedback and thus they data was collected
through the administration of this questionnaire. The study also gathered secondary data from
books, journals etc.
Sampling process
Sampling process is basically used for the statistical analysis of the sample collected for
the purpose of research from larger population. There are various types of sampling techniques
like probability sampling, stratified sampling, multistage sampling, cluster sampling, systematic
random sampling, simple random sampling and each one has its own advantages. This sampling
process is generally divided on the basis of the amount of sample taken which differs in every
process. Here, among the various processes, simple random sampling is used. Random sampling
is basically the sampling process in which each and every sample has the equal probability and
opportunity of being selected. In short, every member of the sample are exposed to the similar
opportunity of being chosen in the sampling process. In this study a survey will be conducted
with sample size of 20 employees as a respondent to collect primary data.
Research techniques
In order to make the process of research effective, various techniques are used which
helps the researcher to perform the work more thoroughly. There are mainly two research
techniques qualitative and quantitative (Johnston, 2017). Quantitative techniques are the one in
which quantifiable information as well as data are gathered and thus the information is being
collected from potential customers. Here for the research process, qualitative and quantitative
technique is used. Qualitative technique is basically the research technique which focuses on
gathering the information via open-ended communication. It is the procedure of collecting non-
numerical data.
Ethical consideration:
In the primary data collection ethics are also considered so that research validity and
accuracy can be increased. It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that all participants
are informed about study objectives and methods. During entire research the safety and privacy
of participants must be assured. Further the participants must also have the right to withdraw
from the study at any instant of time. Research participants must also be treated with dignity and
respect.
Methods for gathering data