The Impact of Talent Management Strategies on Sainsbury's Performance

This research project investigates the impact of effective talent management strategies on the performance of Sainsbury's, a major UK retailer. The study aims to evaluate the relationship between talent management and organizational performance, addressing key research questions such as the significance of talent management in the UK retail sector, challenges faced by firms in managing talent, and potential solutions to improve performance. The research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing both primary data collection through surveys and secondary sources from literature reviews. The methodology includes inductive research, interpretivism, and thematic analysis. The report outlines the research approach, data collection methods, sampling techniques, and ethical considerations. Limitations include a restricted timeframe of 12 weeks and a budget constraint of £10,000. The project's structure includes an executive summary, background, objectives, literature review, methodologies, activities, and a timeline, aiming to provide a comprehensive analysis of talent management's impact on Sainsbury's.

Research Project (Unit 11)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section One: Executive Summary...................................................................................................3
Section Two: Title, objective, responsibilities.................................................................................4
Background..................................................................................................................................4
Aim..............................................................................................................................................4
Objectives....................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions......................................................................................................................4
Section Three: Reasons for choosing this research project.............................................................5
Rationale of the study..................................................................................................................5
Significance of the study..............................................................................................................5
Section Four: Literature sources searched.......................................................................................5
Literature Review.........................................................................................................................5
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies......................................................................7
Research type...............................................................................................................................7
Research Approach......................................................................................................................7
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Data Collection............................................................................................................................7
Sampling......................................................................................................................................7
Data Analysis...............................................................................................................................8
Ethical Consideration...................................................................................................................8
Reliability and Validity................................................................................................................8
Limitation.....................................................................................................................................8
Section Six: Activities and timescales.............................................................................................8
Activities and Timescale..............................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
Research Ethics Approval Form................................................................................................14

Section One: Executive Summary
In the last 20 years, there is consistent issue pertaining to the talent management and
nowadays, it has become important to work with talent management. Despite increase in interest,
there is no clear understanding pertaining to what talent management is and the way in which the
entity should deal with it. The core aim and objective of this study is to determine the impact of
talent management strategies over the performance of the organization in respect to UK retail
sector, a case on Sainsbury. This research topic is selected because there is increase in the need
for effectively handling the talent within the organization otherwise, there is an increase in
chance of higher employee turnover rate which will directly affect the performance of the
organization. If the talent is handled and deployed at the right place then the result of this is that
the business entity would be able to make captive use of it for attaining growth and profitability.
For successfully completing the research, qualitative research type is being selected along with
the primary and secondary sources for collecting the relevant information. The time-frame
provided for the completion of the study is 12 weeks with the expected cost to be incurred is
£10,000 which is considered to be a limitation in effectively conducting the research.

Section Two: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title: The Impact of Effective talent management strategies on the performance of the
organization. A Case Study of Sainsbury.
Background
Talent management is basically the business strategy which enables the human resource
management in retaining the talented employees which helps in overall improvement in the
performance of the organization (Borisova and et.al., 2017). The performance of the employees
is highly dependent upon the performance of the employees, which makes the role of talent
management more crucial. This research provides an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the
effective talent management strategies in respect to enhancing the performance of the
organization.
Aim
To evaluate the impact of effective talent management strategies on organization performance in
respect to the Sainsbury organization.
Objectives
 To examine the concept of talent management strategies and its significance within UK
retail sector.
 To asses challenges facing by UK retail firms in managing talent.
 To analyse relationship between talent management strategies and organizational
performance.
 To recommend talent management strategies for improving organization performance of
Sainsbury's.
Research Questions
1. What is the idea behind talent management strategies and its significance to the UK retail
sector?
2. What are the challenges which are being faced by UK retail firms in managing talent?
3. What is the relationship between the talent management strategies and the performance of
the organization?
4. What are the adequate solutions to identified problems in improving the performance of
the Sainsbury organization?

Section Three: Reasons for choosing this research project
Rationale of the study
The reason behind the selection of this research topic is that there is an increase in the
importance of the talent management as it strives to develop and retain the existing talented and
skilled employees which provides the company's with the managerial talent source along with
the competitive human resource advantage. This has greater influence over the performance of
the organization which makes it an important topic.
Significance of the study
The selected topic is of value as it will help in gaining the greater perspectives on the
topic which will help in gaining relevant knowledge and skills about the topic resulting in better
career growth. This topic is related to the other fields as well since the human resource
department is needed to implement strategies which will help in developing and retaining the
talented employees in all the departments. This leads to making this topic more important from
the point of research.
Section Four: Literature sources searched
Literature Review
According to Sheehan, Grant and Garavan (2018) the talent management strategies
accounts for the commitment which is being put for the purpose of hiring, managing, developing
and the retaining the talented and the excellent employees. In addition to this, talent management
plays a crucial role in the business strategy as well since it handles the most crucial assets of the
organization which is people. As per Pandita and Ray (2018) the business organizations are
required to make investment in the talent management which is because of the benefits it brings
to the business such as it helps in attracting new talent, motivating the employees which results
into creating more reasons for the employees to stay and undertake task. The talent management
has equipped the entities with the activities or work which requires critical skills for the purpose
of planning and addressing the crucial roles within the workforce. This also means that the
company will be having continuous flow of talented and skilled employees with the aim of
filling the critical roles for running the business operations smoothly. The talent management
assists the employees in feeling engaged and motivated which results into allowing them to work
within the direction of the organization's business goal.

The HR department of an organization has various tasks to be fulfilled but among many,
recruitment and retention is the most difficult. As stated by Thunnissen and Gallardo-Gallardo
(2017) talent management has certain greatest challenges such as employees feels the pressure to
provide well to their families and dependents which makes them feel their compensation is not
good s. it is being determined that the pay is the most crucial aspect which plays an important
role in the overall employee job satisfaction. This leads to creation of tough situation for the
organization in keeping employees satisfied along with keeping the cost low. In addition to this,
Narayanan, Rajithakumar and Menon (2019) also stated that the unappealing company culture
makes the employees unhappy as they are not happy to sit at a desk, meeting with the job
opportunities and going home at the end of workday. Employees are actually looking for the jobs
having perks like relaxed and open communication policy, flexibility in working with clear
objectives. Another important aspect is that even the high level executives are experiencing the
high turnover which results into creation of the problem of lack of leadership within the entity.
This is one of the serious problem which results into prompting others to leave the organization.
The talent management sustains the organizational performance through the way of
providing knowledge and strategies in regard to the improvement and change. This helps in
business entities in recognising the most talented employees having the potential of becoming
the future leaders. According to Taylor (2018) the aim of talent management is to develop the
growth strategies in relation to the organization's goals and objectives, mission and vision which
leads to prosperity and sustainability of the company's performance. Through the way of
integration of the talent management strategies with the end goals of the organization will lead to
enhancing the performance and productivity of the employees which can result into effective
management of the workforce. The author furthers stated that the use of the effective talent
handling tactics will be advantageous for the business organization and this will result into
motivating the employees towards work which creates their higher engagement with the
organization. As per Collings, Mellahi and Cascio (2019) in contrast to it there are few critical
points which the management is required to accounted for in the process of formulation of
strategies otherwise, it might result into ineffective management for the employees of the
organization leading to higher absenteeism and turnover rate.

Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
Research type
There are mainly two types of research one is qualitative and other is quantitative
(Mohajan, 2018). In regard to this study, the researcher will be using qualitative research type in
which the researcher will be using the data which is non-numerical in nature and is collected by
way of observations, interviews, case study analysis etc. which will help in effectively meeting
with the research objectives.
Research Approach
In this research, the scholar will be using inductive research in which the pattern is
searched from the observation which helps in effectively carrying out the qualitative research
(Worthington and Bodie, 2017). It concerned with the creation of new theory from the general
data. Therefore, this approach is appropriate from evaluating the impact of talent management
strategies over the business performance.
Research Philosophy
Pertaining to the philosophy, the research will use interpretivism research philosophy in
which the researcher performs a specific role in regard to the social world. In this research data
is gathering on the basis of survey and the observations.
Data Collection
The research will be using both primary and secondary approach to data collection. For
primary sources of data, survey will be conducted among the employees of the organization
which will help in gaining real time data (Cuervo‐Cazurra and et.al., 2017). In secondary
research, the already published articles, books, journals etc. will be used. Thus, covering
different aspects of data sources for getting relevant information resulting into effectively
meeting the stated objectives.
Sampling
In respect to sampling, the researcher will be making use of simple random sampling for
the purpose of collection of data. In this, the researcher will be collecting responses of 20
employees working within the Sainsbury organization. This will help in gaining prospects about
the existing employee for better evaluation and analysis of the topic.

Data Analysis
For doing data analysis, there are mainly ways, one is thematic analysis, in which the
topic is divided in various themes which helps in covering all the crucial aspects of the topic. In
contrast to it, SPSS is used in the quantitative research for doing statistical analysis. Therefore, in
this study, the researcher is using thematic analysis which will help in grabbing getter and in-
depth information about the topic resulting into meeting with the aims and objectives.
Ethical Consideration
The scholar has ensured that the research will be carried out in an ethical manner. It is
being made sure that the participant are not subjected to any type of risk or harm and the consent
form has been filled in written for getting full consent of the participant and along with that the
respect and dignity of the participant is given top priority (Ngozwana, 2018). The information
which is being collected will be remained confidential and proper compliance to the data
protection Act will be done. Also, any form of communication in regard to the research will be
done with full honesty and transparency.
Reliability and Validity
Pertaining to reliability and validity, the researcher has ensured that the proper and
appropriate sources will be used for collecting information and in addition to this, proper
approval of the sources of data will be done from the mentor before utilizing it (Zawacki-Richter
and et.al., 2020). The researcher has ensured that the valid and authentic sources of data is being
used.
Limitation
The major limitation pertaining to the research study is the limited time frame along with
the insufficient funds for carrying out the research in an effective way as it requires costs to be
incurred £10,000. Also, due to the restriction in time (12 weeks), the number of respondents are
limited to 20 which can be other constraint on the part of getting more accurate and useful data.
Thus, the accuracy of the final outcome cannot be guaranteed and it might given biased result.
Section Six: Activities and timescales
Activities and Timescale
Activi
ties
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week
7
Week
8
Week
9
Week
10
Week
11
Week
12

Selecti
on of
resear
ch
topic
Frami
ng
resear
ch
aims,
objecti
ves
and
resear
ch
questi
ons
Drafti
ng of
resear
ch
propos
als
Selecti
on of
the
resear
ch
approa
ch and

metho
dologi
es
Analy
sing
the
secon
dary
source
s of
data
for
develo
ping
thesis
Drafti
ng
questi
onnair
e
pertai
ning
to
open
and
close
ended
questi
ons
Gather

ing of
data
throug
h
questi
onnair
e
Gather
ing
and
analys
ing
the
collect
ed
data
set
Concl
uding
the
findin
gs
Reco
mmen
ding
ways
for
better
perfor
mance

Organ
ising
the
file in
a
structu
red
way
Takin
g
feedba
ck
from
the
mento
r
Imple
menti
ng
chang
es as
per
the
feedba
ck
Final
submi
ssion