Project: Strategies for a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce at H&M

This project examines the strategies and initiatives employed by companies, specifically H&M, to cultivate a diverse and inclusive workforce. The project begins by outlining aims and objectives, followed by a brief project management plan, which includes scope, cost, time, quality, and communication considerations. A work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart are implemented to manage tasks and timelines. The research incorporates both primary and secondary approaches, including questionnaire-based primary data collection. The project then focuses on data analysis, using appropriate tools and techniques, leading to recommendations for building a diversified and inclusive workforce. The findings are communicated to draw valid conclusions, and the project reflects on the value of meeting the stated objectives and personal learning outcomes. The study explores the concept of a diverse and inclusive workforce, identifies challenges faced by H&M, and highlights the benefits of various strategies and initiatives. The project log book is also provided to track the progress of the project.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
TOPIC: “Identification of the different strategies and initiatives do companies put in place to
build a diverse and inclusive workforce.” A case study on H&M...................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario....................................................1
P2 Develop a project management plan in brief.........................................................................3
P3 Implement a work break down structure & Gantt Chart to deliver time frames & aspects
for completion.............................................................................................................................4
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................7
P4 Carry out scale research applying primary & secondary approaches for meeting project
objectives and aims.....................................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5: Evaluation of Research & data by using appropriate tools as well as techniques................9
P6 Communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of findings and data analysis to
draw valid and meaningful conclusions....................................................................................16
Reflect on the value of undertaking the project to meet stated objectives and own learning and
performance...............................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

TOPIC: “Identification of the different strategies and initiatives do companies
put in place to build a diverse and inclusive workforce.” A case study on
H&M.
INTRODUCTION
Owing to extensive increment in competition with the passage of time, businesses have to
undergo several dynamic changes. One of the major changes in this regard is acknowledged to be
the need to expand the market base by gaining entry into new territories. Within the bounds of
new markets, it becomes important for the organisations to recruit skilled and talented employees
who are compatible with carrying out business activities and practices within the confines of
hyper competitive world. When companies recruit new candidates from the local background of
that country, the staff becomes diverse. Development of inclusive and diverse workforce is
important for an organisation in order to make sure that a pool of ideas and ideologies are
collected which provide a boost to the performance of the enterprise. The present project is based
upon Hennes & Mauritz AB, most commonly referred to as H&M. This is a well renowned and
established Swedish multinational clothing retailer which has gained extensive popularity among
the masses for its trending clothing for the different categories like children, men, women,
teenagers, etc. The report includes aim and objectives along with a project management plan
which will cover the various aspects linked to the study. Further, it comprises of primary
research carried out by way of questionnaire. Lastly, it consists of recommendations and
reflection given on the basis of the study carried out over the subject of inclusive and diverse
workforce.
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario.
Business practices emphasizing over development of inclusive and diverse workforce are
required to be promoted within an organisation. This is so because these lead to the generation of
a positive atmosphere within the bounds of the organisation. This even implies the efforts
undertaken by an organisation to create equal opportunities for all the employees irrespective of
the strata to which they belong. H&M has been selected to comprehensively carry out this study
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over the subject of inclusive and diverse workforce. To effectively conduct this study within the
prescribed time frame, the researcher has develop the research aim and objectives which are
briefly given as follows:-
Aim: “To identify the different strategies and initiatives do companies put in place to build a
diverse and inclusive workforce.” A case study on H&M.
Research Objectives:
 To understand the concept of diverse and inclusive workforce.
 To identify the different challenges that can be faced by H&M to develop inclusive and
diversified workforce.
 To identify benefits of various strategies and initiatives that H&M can take into
consideration of building diversified and inclusive workforce.
Research Questions:
 What is meant by the concept of diverse and inclusive workforce?
 What are the different challenges that can be faced by H&M to develop inclusive and
diversified workforce?
 What are the benefits of various strategies and initiatives that H&M can take into
consideration of building diversified and inclusive workforce?
Literature Review
Concept of diverse and inclusive workforce
As per the views and opinions presented by Booysen, L.A., Bendl, R. and Pringle, J.K. eds.,
(2018), inclusive and diverse workforce is acknowledged to be the workforce which is composed
of individuals belonging to diverse national and cultural backgrounds. This workforce effectively
includes individuals of any caste, creed, gender, religion, country of origin without
discriminating with them. Inclusive and diverse workforce is an important part of multinational
corporations as they constantly carry out business expansion in a range of countries making it
essential to recruit employees from the local market place. Across the globe, it is seen that
customers and government appreciate companies which take due initiatives and measures to
develop an inclusive and diverse workforce. This boosts the morale of employees as they feel
empowered. This inflates their productivity levels and output delivered by them within the
company.
Different challenges that can be faced by H&M to develop inclusive and diversified workforce
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According to the view point expressed by Andersson, E., Johansson, M., Lidestav, G. and
Lindberg, M., (2018), development of an inclusive and diverse workforce is not an easy task for
companies. Each and every organisation has to face a number of challenges when developing
such a task force. In this relation, one of the biggest challenges is to deal with the employee
resistance that may be encountered by the organisations as the employees become accustomed to
the old workforce and are often not ready to accommodate individuals from different
background. Yet another challenge that can be faced by company is identified to be the extensive
finance that needs to be invested by the firms in conducting diversity workshops and providing
training to employees stressing upon the significance of showing cultural sensitivity for
employees.
Benefits of various strategies and initiatives that H&M can take into consideration of building
diversified and inclusive workforce
In accordance with the ideology of Bowl, M., (2018), it is determined that the initiatives
taken up by an organisation to develop a diverse and inclusive workforce hold several benefits
for the company. One of the prime benefits in this regard is acknowledged to be the collection of
diverse ideas and thoughts. Yet another benefit is recognised as the development of a positive
atmosphere at workplace. In addition to this, a company also witnessed increment in productivity
levels of employees as a result of promoting the development of inclusive and diverse workforce.
Further, the brand image of the company also gets enhanced when it takes initiatives for
developing a workforce having employees from different backgrounds.
P2 Develop a project management plan in brief.
Every project requires plan as it clears and states what, how objectives, functions,
operations, will be carried during a research as well as project. A project management plan is the
concept of in which it guides and depicts how goals and objectives will be achieved . Through
the use of plan, it will be easier to make necessary decisions regrading the equality & diversity.
In PMP, it focuses on several functions which are discussed below-
 Scope- A scope reflects area to which the research is going to be done or explored. In
other words, it reflects what is going to be covered or specified during the research.
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This help in understanding of project in most efficient way. The chosen entity has wider
scope and which is beneficial as more new ideas will be generated.
 Cost- It refers to amount which will be required to initiate the project and do the
research. It is important to be aware about finance and other things so that input and
output of management is is successfully carried out. So, the estimated cost is $100 of the
research which is to be used most effective manner.
 Time- A project require a planning and which is time consuming as because it includes
a long procedure which is needed to be done in systematic manner. Thus, the
undertaken project require 5 months for completion. It is crucial for selected entity to
focus on deadline of every task so that it is easier to complete the project.
 Quality- It is one of most crucial element which is needed to be maintained and
managed with proper considerations. It is essential that project and information is to be
present with high quality and are to be reliable. The present research have been done
with reliable sources which reflects the quality of project.
 Communication- Another factor is that when planing is done effective communication
is to be carried out so that message between team members and manager is
communicate effectively. Through use of suitable communication methods goals and
objectives are to be achieved in proper way.
After a brief analysis of above paragraph it has been examined that it is essential to focus
on the above stated elements so that it is easier to carry out PMP in appropriate manner without
facing any problems or issue in near future. Thus, when producing PMP correct measures and
decision are to adopted so that risks are eliminated.
P3 Implement a work break down structure & Gantt Chart to deliver time frames & aspects for
completion
WBS
It is a procedure which is being used by investigator to segment the work into smaller
tasks so that final output is achieved in appropriate way. It is time consuming and require a deep
level of knowledgable and expertise so that work is being allotted within the team members
properly. Through this, managers are able to examine the performance of project in appropriate
way. With help of this, it is possible to reduce errors and conflicts as well as eliminate the
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workload which also result sin effective decision making. To properly use WBS, smart qualities
are to be present within in the manager.
Gantt Chart-
It is a graphical picture of every activity & task which depicts which task is to be performed by
whom and when also every task is divided and accordingly decisions are being made.
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Project Log Book
Weeks Date Update
1 14/06/20 This day has been about brainstorming about
the module: strategies of managing a
successful project
2 26/06/20 I thought about what to expect from the
project and what direction my research would
do
3 28/06/20 On Tuesday after class with the lecturer on
the subject I started thinking of carrying out a
research on inclusivity and diversity.
4 29/06/20 On that day, I set the budget for the project to
have
5 06/07/20 Having successfully completed writing the
proposal, I wanted to get ready for the next
phase of the project.
6 06/07/20 On this day, I will concentrate on formulation
of the questionnaires to use in primary data
collection
7 08/07/20 It is on Monday when I am carry out research
from the secondary resources
8 18/07/20 It is on Monday when I travel to the company
for distribution of questionnaires for data
collection
9 22/07/20 It is a new week since I collected data. On
this particular day, I concentrate on data entry
for the sake of analysis
10 27/07/20 It is on Thursday when I am doing data
analysis for the collected results
11 04/08/20 I have just finished writing the report ready
for presentation to the project team and
project sponsor.
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From the above given paragraph and picture it has been analyse that both WBS as well
as Gantt Chart are to be used with proper considerations. Moreover, it is responsibility of the
manager to make ensure that everything is to be carried out appropriately. D
TASK 2
P4 Carry out scale research applying primary & secondary approaches for meeting project
objectives and aims
A research comprises of various concepts, functions & operations and various activities.
In a research, there are different types of research approaches which are used in project which
are qualitative and quantitate. It depends upon researcher to select the most appropriate one.
Also, both methods can also be used by researcher as it will help in gaining information from
both he approaches.
Primary research- It is defined as research in which information and data is gained as
new. It is mostly used there is requirement of new and updated information. As credentials
obtained by this method is fresh as well as new which can be used by researcher with confident.
There are various methods through which this approaches can be carried out such as
questionnaire, surveys, interview etc. All these methods are suitable as they all have different
uses.
Secondary research- Another method is secondary research in which information is
being collected through use of secondary such as newspaper, books, magazine, etc. Also, it is
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used by most of researched as it is less time consuming and cost effective as compared to
primary research.
In this present report, data collection is being done through both the research methods.
The taken questionnaire is bade upon 50 respondents.
Qualitative research- This is a method which is used to examine and analyse the
concept of theoretical concepts and models. This help researcher to use the factors which are
essential for understanding the project. Through this, concept of research is understood in
proper way.
Quantitative research- In this method, numerical data, calculations etc. are being used
for gaining credentials for the undertaken project & research. Through this, it will be also easier
to know about the figures, values of project. To use this approach, it is necessary to have a
proper knowledge of accounting and audit so that decisions and information is used effectively.
Thus, after analysing the above shown matter it has been seen that the approaches are to
be selected after deep market analysis so that correct methods are being adopted by researcher &
changes are to be made during the process. Moreover, when using them decision making is also
done consulting with every team member so that new ideas and thoughts are generated.
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you have the understanding of inclusive and diverse workforce concept?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Are you aware with the importance of inclusive workforce within organisational workplace
structure?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) According to you which strategy proves to be beneficial for entity to have inclusive and
diverse workforce ?
a) Acknowledge bias
b) Practice inclusive leadership
c) Celebrate Workers Differences
d) Form an State of affairs Council
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