Introduction to People Management: A Report on Tesco's Practices

This report delves into the realm of people management, focusing on the practices of Tesco, a leading UK supermarket chain. It begins with an executive summary and introduction to human resources and people management. The report identifies contemporary issues faced by line management, such as management changes, leadership development, and workforce training, with specific examples from Tesco and theoretical underpinnings. It then explores the knowledge, behaviors, and skills essential for effective managers, including communication, problem-solving, planning, and decision-making. The report also examines HR processes that support effective performance management, like performance reviews and 360-degree feedback. Recommendations are provided to improve people management practices at Tesco, followed by a conclusion summarizing the key findings. The report utilizes references to support its arguments and analysis, offering a comprehensive overview of people management in a real-world context.

INTRODUCTION TO
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Contemporary issues faced by line management in managing people........................................4
Knowledge, Behaviours and Skills required for an effective manager.......................................5
HR process underpinning and supporting management regarding the effective performance
management.................................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Executive Summary
The report focussed on the Human resource and the role of managers in managing the
people of the organisation especially at the time when there is a change in the operations and
strategies of organisation. The company highlighted in the report was Tesco, UK. The
contemporary issues which are faced by the line managers in managing the people were
highlighted. The various skills, knowledge and behaviours of the managers were mentioned and
described which are responsible for increasing their effectiveness. The ways were discussed in
which the performance management practices of HR such as 360-degree feedback etc. helps the
managers to manage the performance of the people. lastly, various strategies were recommended
which helps in improving the people management at Tesco.
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INTRODUCTION
Human resources is basically used to describe the people working for the company as well
as the department which is responsible for managing the resources regarding the employees. It
focusses on providing welfare to the employees as well as the organisations. It performs various
functions like recruitment and selection, provides compensation, organises training, maintaining
employee relations etc. People management can be defined as the processes which helps in
encompassing the end-to-end talent optimization, acquisition and retention by providing constant
guidance to the people and support to the business. It focusses on the ways people work, engage
and behave and faces a rapid growth at the work. The report will shed light on the HR, managers
and the people management at Tesco which is the largest supermarket chain in United Kingdom
performing its operations worldwide (Tesco, 2020).
Contemporary issues faced by line management in managing people
Human Resource Management focusses on managing the people working at the workplace
in all the situations ensuring that their needs are satisfied. The human resources of today works
in very different manner as of the earlier times because of the changing market, needs of the
people, regulatory demands and compliances which is forcing the HR to develop and implement
various strategies which can help in resolving the issues as well as helps in gaining advantage.
There are various issues which the Human Resource face while managing the people and
especially in the time of Pandemic of COVID-19 when the people were resisting the changes.
The various issues are as follows:
Management Changes
With the growth of the business, there is a growth in its strategies, internal processes and
the structure. It is not easy for all the employees to cope with the changes happened or brought.
This can lead to decreased productivity and morale because of the change (Martin and Siebert,
2016). Tesco also faces the same issue in COVID-19 when the company shifted all its operations
to online, it had to manage all its employees but still some of the employees left as they
considered themselves inefficient to perform the operations in Tesco. In this case, the business
owners of Tesco must communicate the needs of the change to the employees which can be done
by regular staff meetings.
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Leadership Development
Leaders in Tesco help in keeping the management team motivated and engaged which
further helps the, to take more responsibilities in the upcoming time. The leaders must create
opportunities for them. If they accomplish the goals, they will be motivated to enhance their
skills. The leaders of Tesco can use transformational leadership which can help the leaders to
inspire, encourage and motivate the employees so that they can create and innovate the change
that will help in growing and shaping the future success of the company (Azeez, 2017).
Workforce Training and Development
Trainings are necessary to enhance the skills of the employees so that they can perform
more effectively. But the issue in this case is that the companies like Tesco have to make a large
investment in order to hire the external specialists to train the employees and also they need
many resources to organise training at the workplace (Juarez Tarraga, Santandreu Mascarell and
Marin Garcia, 2019). Employees in the front line of Tesco also do not get time to get the training
course. So, HRM of Tesco must develop and implement strategy to provide online trainings to
the employees so that they can learn at their own pace. The company should not think before
investing in this as it will lead to productive and loyal team.
This is how the Tesco can solve the issues while managing the people at the workplace.
Knowledge, Behaviours and Skills required for an effective manager
There are various skills which are responsible for making the manager of the Tesco
effective. Some of the skills are as follows:
Communication and Motivation
The managers of Tesco must be master in all types of communication such as written,
listening and verbal. The managers of the team acts as the line of communication between the
frontline staff and senior management. They need to interact with different kind of people from
employees to head of departments through various modes like email, social media, presentations,
meetings etc. The leaders of Tesco must build stronger and trusting relationship with its
employees so that they can feel free to communicate with the managers and share the
information (Ahmady, Nikooravesh and Mehrpour, 2016). The managers must be readily
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available and accessible to address the queries of the employees and they can discuss their issues
that arise. They must always show open and positive attitude which can help in creating a
healthy work environment. They can also have some gestures including the higher
encouragement and taking interest in the lives of employees will make them feel much more
valued and this will also help in developing the happy and motivated employees.
Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
In the managerial position, the managers are spotted on a daily basis. The managers are
required to remain calm even in the pressurized situations. In order to get the results in the form
of productive team which enables the workflow to run smoothly, the mangers must stand on the
feet when the problems are raised. In order to come up with innovative solutions, creative
thinking is required which will help in minimizing the impact on the team and business (Kim,
2019). The managers of Tesco think on the feet which helps them in making quick decisions in
order to successfully complete every task or to meet certain business goals. They become able to
analyse the merits and demerits of the situation which makes an informed decision which is
essential.
Planning
This is considered as a management function as well the most important skill which
makes a manager effective. This is a vital aspect within an organisation. Under this, the
managers must have the ability for organising the activities according to the set guidelines along
with remaining in the limits of the resources including the money, time and labour. The
managers of the Tesco formulate action or set of actions or many other strategies which can be
pursued and which helps in achieving the goals of the organisation (Abubakar and et.al., 2019).
This is the initiation step before taking any action in the organisations which affects all the
employees as well as all the operations of the business. It includes the identification and setting
of goals which can be achieved, also develop various strategies and tasks outlining and
scheduling on the ways in which decided goals can be achieved. With a good planning, the small
as well as the bigger goals can be achieved.
Along with all the above mentioned skills, the good and effective managers are aware of the fact
that in order to engage the team members to achieve the vision of the team and the organisation,
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they must be given attention, time and genuine appreciation. Their behaviour must be to treat
everyone equally without discriminating on any basis. The managers of Tesco also do not treat
the employees as units of production instead value time and give them sincere and timely praise.
HR process underpinning and supporting management regarding the effective performance
management
Performance management is considered as the continuous process of communication
between the employees and the managers with the main goals to achieve the strategic goal of the
organisation by engaging the employees and supporting them to reach their maximum potential
which helps in boosting the productivity and success. The performance management system of
HR in Tesco helps the managers in tracking and monitoring the performance of individual
employees as well as departments and even the complete organisation. The following functions
of HR helps the managers in performance management:
Performance Review: Under this, the employees receive the feedback regarding their
performance. HR considers feedback as the recognition of the strengths of the employees in
which challenges are involved to analyse the requirement of improvement and coaching. This
part helps the managers to build new plans for further development. They ensure that the plans
are clear and measurable which represents the beginning of the complete process. The managers
must focus on the demands of the technology and advancement and must change the system of
performance review to the real time feedback rather than doing its annually at the time of
compensation discussion (Cappelli and Tavis, 2016.). This leads to missing of various
opportunities for the employees to be aware of their performance and bring improvement in the
weaker areas so that performance can me much better. The next gen systems are used by the
managers of Tesco which helps in giving the real time feedback, the employees can course
correct and check the performance on the daily basis. This is how the HR of Tesco helps the
managers of different departments to be aware of the performance of the employees in their
respective departments and the weaker areas where there is a need of improvement.
360-degree feedback: This is a professional opportunity which is given to the co-workers in
providing the 360-degree feedback regarding the fellow employee’s performance. The HR of
Tesco or the reporting manager tells the subordinates for providing feedback. Tesco also uses the
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online survey method in the time of pandemic of COVID-19 which helps in collecting the
feedback and clear evaluation about the performance of the employees. The HR focuses on the
contribution of employees’ skills and the competencies in achieving the goals of the
organisation. This balanced way helps the managers of the company to take certain actions after
getting the feedbacks. This helps in viewing the actual performance of employee in various areas
including the leadership, management. work habits, communication and many more which are
based on the job profile of the employees. After the HR does this, the manager judges the actual
contribution the employee on the basis of the performance by getting the feedbacks from the
peers, customers and subordinates (Gorbatov and Lane, 2018). The main reason to do so is this
the managers come to know about the impact of performance of one employee on the fellow
employees. this can be done by formal feedbacks or sometimes informal or verbal feedbacks so
that the behaviour and work attitude of the employee can be judged.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The managers of Tesco must increase the accountability by clarifying and redefining the
main performance measures. They must engage the employees and have regular check so that
they can perform in line with the changed operating environment. The company must also
support the employees working remotely in this time of pandemic by providing the infrastructure
and resources such as power, data, laptops etc. The employees must be upskilled to get success
in the new digital world. It must also comply with all the laws and regulations regarding the
hiring as well as safety. They must also create various opportunities for the employees where
they can use their strengths in accomplishing the goals which makes them motivated and also
enhances their skills (Buck and Morrow, 2018). Also, they must aware the team about the need
for improvement and its benefits and must provide the training accordingly so that they can get
comfortable and perform must better to increase the productivity.
CONCLUSION
The above report focussed on the human resources and the people management in Tesco. It
shed light on the contemporary issues such as management changes, workforce training and
development and leadership development which are faced by the line management in managing
the people. It was further followed by highlighting the knowledge, behaviours and skills which
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are required by the effective managers such as communication & motivation, problem solving &
decision making and planning. Furthermore, the ways were discussed in which the HR process of
performance management helps the managers of the company and which were performance
management review and 360-degree feedback. lastly various recommendations were given to the
company to being improvement in the people management in the time of changes especially in
COVID-19.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abubakar, A.M. and et.al., 2019. Knowledge management, decision-making style and
organizational performance. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. 4(2). pp.104-114.
Ahmady, G.A., Nikooravesh, A. and Mehrpour, M., 2016. Effect of organizational culture on
knowledge management based on Denison model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences. 230. pp.387-395.
Azeez, S.A., 2017. Human resource management practices and employee retention: A review of
literature. Journal of Economics, Management and Trade, pp.1-10.
Buck, B. and Morrow, J., 2018. AI, performance management and engagement: keeping your
best their best. Strategic HR Review.
Cappelli, P. and Tavis, A., 2016. The performance management revolution. Harvard Business
Review. 94(10). pp.58-67.
Gorbatov, S. and Lane, A., 2018. Is HR missing the point on performance feedback. MIT Sloan
Management Review. 59(4). pp.65-71.
Juarez Tarraga, A., Santandreu Mascarell, C. and Marin Garcia, J.A., 2019. What are the main
concerns of human resource managers in organizations?. Intangible Capital. 15(1).
pp.72-95.
Kim, S.S., 2019. The role of knowledge and organizational support in explaining managers’
active risk management behavior. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.
Martin, G. and Siebert, S., 2016. Managing people and organizations in changing contexts.
Routledge.
Online
Tesco, 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :< https://www.tesco.com/>
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