Comprehensive Analysis of Human Resource Management Practices at Tesco

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Tesco, a UK-based multinational retail company. It begins by defining HRM and outlining its purpose and functions, particularly in workforce planning, recruitment, and selection. The report explores the strengths and weaknesses of both internal and external recruitment methods, providing a comparative analysis. It then delves into the benefits and effectiveness of various HRM practices at Tesco, considering their impact on both employees and the organization's profitability and productivity. The importance of employee relations in influencing HRM decision-making is discussed, alongside key elements of employee legislation and their impact. The report also provides practical examples of HRM practices in the context of Tesco's operations, highlighting how the company motivates its employees and maintains a productive work environment. The conclusion emphasizes Tesco's commitment to employee satisfaction as a key driver of its business success, supported by the coordination between superiors and subordinates and the use of both internal and external recruitment strategies. The report offers insights into the role of HRM in driving productivity, coordinating organizational departments, and ensuring employee satisfaction, ultimately contributing to Tesco's overall growth and competitive advantage.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................1
Purpose and Functions of HRM............................................................................................1
Strengths and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection......................4
ACTIVITY 2....................................................................................................................................8
Benefits of Different HRM Practises in Tesco for Employer and Employee Both................8
Evaluation of effectiveness of different HRM practises helping the organisation to increase
their profitability and productivity.........................................................................................9
ACTIVITY 3 .................................................................................................................................10
Importance Of Employees Relations....................................................................................10
Application of HRM practices in TESCO ..........................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is defined as the activity of recruiting, hiring, selecting,
inducting employees which is done with the purpose of maintaining human resource in an
organisation (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018). The following assignment will start with making
its focus on the purpose and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning along with the
strengths and weaknesses of approaches to selection and recruitment. In addition to this, it will
cover benefits and effectiveness of different HRM Practises in an organisation for both employee
and employer and for increasing the organisation profitability and productivity. Lastly, the
discussion will be made about the importance of employee relation in influencing HRM decision
making, key elements of employee legislation and the impact upon decision making and some
examples will also be provided about the application of HRM Practises in relation to the work
related to context. The company chosen for the completion of this assignment is Tesco, a UK
based multinational organisation founded in the year 1919 and provides various products and
services to their customers which they can purchase from supermarkets, hypermarkets,
superstores and convenience stores of Tesco.
ACTIVITY 1
Purpose and Functions of HRM
Human resource management is an approach to help an organisation to gain a
competitive advantage by effectively managing people of a company. It is a process of
recruiting, selecting, hiring, training of employees and motivating them to achieve goals of an
enterprise (Bratton and Gold, 2017). It plays a crucial role in improving the condition of a
company by developing programmes that are designed to increase effectiveness of a business.
Tesco is a popular retail company of UK which is third largest retailers in whole world measured
by gross revenues. This company is operating its business in twelve countries globally and have
6780 stores over there. It has around 360k employees working in their company all over world.
Tesco has started to offer range of other products and services such as personal finance and
mobile phones (Brewster, 2017). HRM plays an vital role in influencing and motivating
employees of Tesco and this is one of the reason of growth of this company. Human resource
management serves various purposes which includes-
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Develop organisation structure - The basic purpose of HRM is to define how the
structure of organisation works. Its very important for an employee to know the structure of a
company . It will help employee to work more efficiently to achieve overall objectives of an
enterprise.
Driving productivity- A proper HRM helps in driving productivity by increasing
efficiency of employees through providing them proper training and development. It also focuses
on problems and try to avoid them through proper measures (Brewster, Brookes and Gollan,
2015). Tesco focuses on increasing productivity and achieving goals.
Coordination between organisational departments- It aims at coordinating various
activities in an organisation and maintains healthy relationship between superiors and
subordinates. The activities in Tesco are properly coordinated and working environment of this
company is fine which helps employees to work in an effective manner.
Providing employees satisfaction- Tesco aims at achieving profits but it also care about
its employees . With HRM, it provide training to its employees and provide proper working
conditions to them which results in satisfied workers.
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Quality of Work- Tesco focuses on quality of work which makes employment a desirable
situation and employees feel happy to work in this enterprise (Friedman, 2017). It had been
noticed that in corporate world basic thing that motivates employees towards work is what kind
of work they are doing. If they are satisfied with their work than their work will be more
effective.
HRM serves various functions which can be seen below-
Recruitment and Selection –It is a process of enlisting new people in working force and
selecting the best among them. Tesco uses an annual appraisal scheme for this purpose by which
job seeking people can apply for any vacancy. It has many stores globally where it requires
workforce in different segments. Tesco select candidates who are appropriate for a particular role
among people who have applied for that position (Harrison and Lock, 2017). This company uses
both internal and external recruitment for their recruitment process.
Training and Development- It is provided to employees who recently joined an
organisation and sometimes existing employees are also trained in order to perform new tasks.
On the job training is given to freshers who are new to a company to make them aware about
working structure of a enterprise. It is done with a purpose to make employees understand the
process of doing work so that it will easy for them to join the company. Tesco provides proper
training and development to their workers in order to make them efficient and effective.
Compensation and Benefits- A company can satisfy their employees by giving them
various perks along with salary. (Lu, Zhu and Bao, 2015). Employees also look for what they are
getting other than salary and these perks motivates them to work with more passion. Tesco
provides various compensation and benefits to its workers like flexible working hours, job
security, incentives, extended vacation, medical insurance, paternal leave and so on. These
benefits together attract large number of job seekers.
Performance Appraisal- In most of the companies, performance of employees is
evaluated and if employees perform well they are given performance appraisal for their work.
Tesco give rewards its workers when they perform well in terms of increased salary, promotion ,
certificates or by giving them titles like star performer, best worker, and so on. These things
motivates workers and aid in fulfilling their self recognition needs and this will increase their
performance. It also helps the organisation to evaluate performance of an employee and to know
whether goals are achieved or not.
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From the above discussion it has been evaluated that Tesco is doing its best in order to
satisfy its employees which results in the growth of this organisation. This multinational retail
company is growing day by day because its basic aim is providing quality work to its workers.
They take care of their workers by providing them various benefits like medical insurance,
paternal leave, bonus and incentives (Marchington and et. al., 2016). It has been evaluated that
the reason behind success of this company is that it gives importance to its employees.
According to this enterprise , satisfied employees generate business. If employees are satisfied ,
they will motivated to work effectively which will result in growth of a business. The
coordination between superiors and subordinates is maintained which aids workers to
communicate properly. It has been evaluated that Tesco uses both sources of recruitment which
is internal and external sources. They post their job vacancies on a job portal and perform
external recruitment process (Mosakowski, 2017). They also hire workers from their
organisation and promotes them to upper level or transfers them to other locations. They also
give performance appraisal to their employees in order to motivate them to work hard and
achieve organisational overall objectives.
Strengths and weakness of different approaches to recruitment and selection
Human resource management (HRM) is basically a process of recruiting, imparting
training, developing and managing employees of an organisation. Main aim of this is to make
employees more valuable and to increase their efficiency and effectiveness. Recruitment and
selection process are an important part of HRM as they decide quality of workforce, which
directly affects overall success of a business. Recruitment is a process which includes attracting
sufficient numbers of individuals on timely basis, having appropriate qualification as per the
requirement of organisation (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). It also includes encouraging
these qualified person to apply for job provided by organisation. It involve two stages, proper
planning that defines objective and goals of organisation for which purpose new staff is required
along with human resource planning to identify whether there are surplus or shortage of
employees for doing that particular task. Recruitment creates a pool for management which
provides potential employees from which they can select right person for job.
Selection process is related with choosing best applicant from group of individuals which
is suitable for that particular job. TESCO is a UK company having branches in more than 12
countries and thus it is required to have a large number of employees to work for them. For
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better financial results and for more success, it becomes necessary to recruit and select the best
ones, suitable for the job (Alfes and et. al., 2013). This can be possible only through adopting an
effective and efficient process of recruitment and selection. For that purpose, TESCO need to
have information about different approaches of recruitment and selection which are as follows;
Internal recruitment
It is a process of filling new vacancies from its exiting work force. This saves time,
money and resources and also encourages loyalty, sense of progress in mind of employees. The
main methods used for internal recruiting are promotions, transfers, employee referrals and also
include converting temporary job or intern into permanent employee. Promotion means giving
higher authorities or promoting employees to higher grade according to their work experience
and overall performance (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). Transfer is basically shifting of
employees from one department, office, branch, place or situation to another as per their
qualification and need of organisation. Company can also advertise within the organisation
providing information about new vacancy which encourages exiting employees to apply for
better job opportunity.
Advantages Disadvantage
It reduces cost like cost on training, cost
incurred for public advertisement etc.
It reduces scope for new perspective as hiring
from exiting employees miss out new
employees with fresh idea.
Existing employees already know about how
company operates and also aware about its
work culture.
It can create jealousy and conflicts between
employees which can lead to resentment
between superior and subordinate.
Provide motivation among exiting employees
to work hard to get timely promotion.
It may results in creating lack of diversity
which means people from different religion,
background are not available which limit scope
for idea related to different culture.
External recruitment
It means hiring new people from outside the organisation. Before this a company must
carefully analyse the number of position vacant and qualification required to do that job after that
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a company can select any suitable method for recruitment (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017).
Different methods available for external recruitment are advertisement, campus replacement,
labour contracts, e-recruiting, walk -in interviews, job fairs and many more other methods.
External recruitment process includes posting of positions (mainly through advertisement),
closing posting, analyse the resume and qualification of applied individuals and shortlist them for
written exam or interview. Final step includes selection of candidate and proper check of
documentation after which job can be provided to applicant.
Advantages Disadvantages
Provide large number of option hence
increases the chance of finding right person.
It is more costly as includes cost of
advertisement, and cost of other resources
required.
More scope for fresh skill and outlook that
makes company more competitive.
It may reduce the morale of current employees
as hinder their growth and might create internal
dispute.
Hiring candidates from external environment
increases diversity and can create more
opportunity for growth and development of the
company.
Require more time to train selected candidate
and also in making him habitual with company
operation and atmosphere.
Current method of recruitment and selection used by TESCO
TESCO is currently using interview method for selecting suitable candidate from
shortlisted individual from internal and external source both (Ehrnrooth and Björkman, 2012).
This is helpful as it provide a direct interaction and HR manager can conduct a mini mock test
also to check the qualification and knowledge of applicant.
Strength Weakness
It is easy to rectify any misunderstanding or
mistake as both interviewer and job seeker are
physically present.
This process is not suitable to check the
overall/complete knowledge as compare to
written exam.
It helps in saving time as a short but well Success of interview greatly depends on
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focused communication can provide enough
information to check whether candidate is
suitable for job or not.
efficiency and knowledge of interviewer. Any
inefficiency of interviewer can give negative
result.
TESCO can use any other method for more better result like application form method for
recruitment of employee both from internal and external source.
Advantages and disadvantages of this method are as follows:
Advantages Disadvantage
Provide easy comparison which helps
employers.
It is a time consuming method and some time it
might be complicated.
Gives a standard format which every one need
to follow.
It is possible information provided by
candidate is untrue.
Provide complete information about candidate
and left no scope for any misses.
If proper care is not taken, personal details of
candidate can be misused or fall in wrong
hands.
There are many more methods that can be used like personality test, written exam, etc.
For this TESCO should carefully examine the qualification they needed in its employee
according to which a most suitable recruitment process can be selected.
Approaches for training and development
On job training: This training is given at the time when employees are actually
performing their job. It provides a practical training and hence become easy to understand and
learn (Ganopoulos and et. al., 2013). This will ultimately increase the effectiveness of
employees.
Approach to reward system
Total reward approach: This provide motivation to employees to complete their work
on time and with efficiency to get more rewards. Reward can be provided in form of bonus, extra
incentives, pensions and also by providing flexible working environment.
Approach for performance management
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Total quality approach: It is related with quality of work done by the employees by
keeping a check on performance of employees which provide high quality and ensures
achievement of business goal.
ACTIVITY 2
Benefits of Different HRM Practises in Tesco for Employer and Employee Both
In different organisations, different HRM Practises have been adopted by the
organisations according to its suitability and need. Likewise, Tesco has also implemented some
of the HRM practices and the discussion of which is provided as under:
 Training and Development: It refers to the effort that has been made by an organisation
for making improvement in the personal and professional skills and efficiencies of the
employees working in an organisation (Gheiratmand and et. al., 2015). It is beneficial for
both the employer and employee as the employer will get more profit and productivity
from the work of their employees and for the employees, it is beneficial because it
provides them with the increase in their skills and efficiencies and confidence level which
makes them enable to work more efficiently.
 Working Hour Flexibility: In the following HRM Practice, the employees are provided
with flexible working hours so that they can work according to the time which they
found most suitable for them. It is beneficial for employer as good relation with
employees can be maintained and they can be retained in the organisation for a long
period of time. For the employees, it is beneficial because it will be possible for them to
manage their other works also and will become loyal for the company. Also, they will be
able to work without any stress.
 Good Employee Relations: The following HRM practice focuses on making good
relation with the employees in an organisation such as Tesco. This will be done with the
help of creating positive work environment in the organisation (Gomes and et. al., 2012).
This will benefit employer as their will be low conflicts and long term employee retention
in the organisation. For the employees, it will be beneficial as the they will be able to
create good relationship with their other colleagues at the workplace and will feel good to
work using their full skills and efficiencies.
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 Compensation and Benefits: In this practice, the organisation such as Tesco provides
appropriate pay as well as other benefits for the work performed by them. The benefit of
this HRM Practise for the employer will be in the form of increased productivity of
employees and make them remain with the organisation for long period of time. For the
employees, it will be beneficial as their motivation and dedication level will be increased.
Due to the following above presented statements, it can be said that HRM Practises are
beneficial for both the employees as well as employer.
Evaluation of effectiveness of different HRM practises helping the organisation to increase their
profitability and productivity
Every organisation makes the implementation of different HRM Practises for the
betterment of their organisation as well as of the employees. But about their effectiveness, it will
come to know at the time of implementation of those Practises in the situations in which they
will provide good and effective results (Guest, Paauwe and Wright, 2012). For Tesco, the above
explained HRM Practises could help in making an increment in the profitability and productivity
of the employees working in the organisation.
Training and Development will help in making an increment in the performance of
employees which has been explained above. So with the new and improved ways of working, it
will be possible for the employees to complete the work in lesser time for which earlier they took
more time, so time is saved. In other words, the employees could now produce more in the lesser
time. So the productivity of the organisation will be positively impacted and the increase in the
production will result in increase in the sales and profits of the organisation.
Compensation and Benefits as the HRM practices are also effective in increasing the
organisation's productivity and profitability as providing the employees with their pay and this
will help the employees to make them motivated as are one of the factors for which an individual
is working in the organisation (Storey, 2014). So providing the employees with their pays in a
timely manner will keep them motivated and dedicated to work good for the growth and
development of the organisation. With the help of their motivation and dedication, it will be
possible for the organisation to make increment in the profitability and productivity of the
organisation.
Working Hour Flexibility is also one of the most important and effective HRM practice
that has been adopted by the organisation and has proved much effective in increasing the
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profitability and productivity of the organisation such as Tesco. The following HRM practice is
also effective as with the help of this practise, it will be possible for the company to get some
extra work time from the employees. They will also do extra work for the organisation happily as
the organisation had understood their concern so they will also understand now.
For example, in Tesco the employees are provided with performance based incentives at
the end of every week and the best performer is provided with shield and some amount. So this
will prove to be effective for both types of individuals as those preferring monetary amount as
well as non monetary amount as the performance based incentive (Welch and et. al., 2011). This
will motivate both types of employees to work efficiently and for increasing the profitability and
productivity of the organisation.
Tesco could also provide their employees with training and development programs which
will not only make improvement in their professional behaviour but also in the personal
behaviour as well. So with the help of these programs, the efficiency level of the employees will
be increased. This will help them in performing better in comparison to before and this
difference will also be created by them will also be shown in the work performed by them.
Hence, the HRM Practises explained above are effective in organisational contexts and
also will help it in making an increment in the profitability and productivity of the organisation.
Critical Evaluation
Training and Development programs can prove to be both beneficial or not because in
mostly cases these programs are made at the time of implementing changes in the organisation
but some employees may resist to changes their way of working and could leave the
organisation. In this way, with the positive impacts the HRM Practise do also contain negative
impact as well.
In addition to this, working hour flexibility provided to the employees may also prove to
be wrong. As there is possibility that employees become lazy to work and the operations of
organisation may come across with shortage of workforce for completing the work processes of
the organisation. So this will led to increase in the employee turnover rate of the organisation
which is a negative thing.
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