M&S International Expansion: Resourcing and Talent Planning Report

This report discusses the international resourcing and talent planning strategies of Marks and Spencer as it expands into new international markets. It identifies internal factors like employer resistance, training and development needs, cultural issues, and HR policies, as well as external factors such as economic conditions, social and cultural factors, technological advancements, and political/legal factors. The report further explores organizational and HR strategies that Marks and Spencer can implement to accommodate these changes, including outsourcing, training and development programs, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and managing diversity. Recommendations are provided to enhance the company's approach, such as utilizing rewards and appraisals, investing in change management plans, and creating a supportive organizational culture. The report concludes that effective human resource planning is crucial for successful international expansion.

International
Resourcing and Talent
Planning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Range of factors that can have an impact on international resourcing and talent planning.......1
Organisational and HR strategies can be developed to accommodate those changes................4
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
References:.......................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In current world of globalisation, the organisation keep expanding themselves into the
international market in order to have diversification and growth. Expanding into international
market is not an easy task therefore, organisations put efforts in finding new ways to advance
their competitive position to have sustainable competitive advantage. International resourcing
and talent planning is key priority for an organisation while expanding internationally because
workforce drives the performance of the organisation (Onwugbolu and Mutambara, 2021). The
present report is discussion on the “Marks and Spencer”- a British multinational retailer that
offers clothes, food products, home products and accessories to their customers. The company
was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer and is headquartered at London,
UK. The report aims to discuss range of factors that impact international resourcing and talent
planning and further strategies are explain to accommodate the changes.
Main Body
Marks and Spencer is the multinational organisation and is planning to expand into new
international market. For this the company is planning to arrange the CIPD branch meeting on
the international HR planning and talent management issues.
Range of factors that can have an impact on international resourcing and talent planning
When expanding internationally there is huge importance of international resourcing and
talent planning within an organisation. As the employees of the Marks and Spencer are the assets
that drive performance and productivity within the company. Therefore, to expand successful
and to mitigate the management issues of HR the Marks and Spencer must pay attention to each
and every detail of planning and managing the talent (Gitonga, 2019). But during the
international resourcing and talent management there are several internal and external factors
that impact the process of Marks and Spencer. The factors are discussed below:
Internal factors
 Employers and employees resistance: at the time of international HR planning the
Marks and Spencer will come across the resistance issue from the employers and
employees. During HR planning some employees are shifted from headquarter to the new
country to optimise the productivity at new place and employees does not will to go and
show resistance. There are employers that are also not in support of going to other new
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emerging market as they may have fear losing their productivity. Due to this factor the
company is not able to manage its talent at new market because to source talent it takes
time.
 Training and development : the training and development is one of the key function of
the HRM. When Marks and Spencer expand in international market they are required to
have talented team of human resource that can work effectively and increase the
development of company in market. In every country there is different technology for
which training and development of human resource is highly important (SHRM-SCP,
2018). This factor highly impact international sourcing and talent planning for Marks and
Spencer because company will provide training and development to the talented human
resource for there effective talent planning.
 Culture issue: culture, values, believes are the important motivational factors for the
human resource. Therefore during international HR planning and talent management the
leaders of the Marks and Spencer has to take care of different cultures which is issue for
company. The company has different culture in UK and different in new international
market this makes difficulty during the resourcing of the international talent as the
company has to hire employees that flexible with different organisational culture
(Kabeyi, 2019). And also for the talent planning company has to plan and manage the
talent for different cultures in order to have diversity in the human resource of the Marks
and Spencer at new international market.
 Internal HR policies and strategies: when expanding internationally the Marks and
Spencer as a large size organisation has its own HR policies and strategies to manage,
recruit, resource, plan and do various activities related to the HRM. During the
international resourcing and talent planning these HR policies and restart plays major role
in decision making process and if the policies and strategies does not seem to match with
the international resourcing this will impact the talent planning too because the Marks
and Spencer won't be able to conduct effective an efficient international resourcing and
talent planning due to the barrier of this internal factor (Biech, 2017).
External factors impacting the international resourcing and talent planning are as follows:
External factors are several elements that influence and impacts the operations of business from
outside. Most of these factors can't be controlled directly so the organisation needs to come up
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with strategies in order to overcome this difficulties. There are factors in the external
environment which impact the tasks of HRM such as planning of talent and recruitment of
employees from other countries (Suarlan, 2017). Few of such factors are discussed below in
context with resourcing tasks performed in Marks & Spencer
 Economic Conditions- This is stated to be one of the most impactful external factor, as
this is directly related with the human resource planning in the organisation. Hiring
people from other country for the businesses operating in UK or in other countries would
be difficult as the economical barriers such as unemployment rate, Gross domestic
product play a huge role in the talent planning (Bonisteel and et. al., 2021). In context of
Marks and Spencer, they are currently operating in around 29 countries for which they
continuously need to hire people. Factors such as inflation impact the conditions such as
pay scale and compensation of employees.
 Social and cultural factor- The cultural environment in which an organisation operates
has a great impact on the talent planning and international resourcing. The ethics and
beliefs of people working in the organisation plays a huge role in attaining the goals of
the business. In context of Marks and Spencer, the cultural beliefs of the country in which
the organisation's store are functional plays a huge role in the mindset and workings of
the employee. Recruitment of candidates who are from other country brings a different
set of values and cultural in the organisation.
 Technological advancement- Advancement or innovation in the technology helps in the
process of talent planning and international recruitment (Hossain, 2019). For planning
and executing the recruitment process there are several software which makes the work
easy for the management. In context of Marks & Spencer, they use video conferencing
software in order to take tests and interviews of international candidates. The usage of
HR software to plan the recruitment process helps the organisation in increasing
efficiency.
 Political and legal factors- These are the factors which are related with government
interference, there are laws in the legislation that puts an impact on the resourcing of
humans in the company. Marks & Spencer being an international clothing brand needs to
adjust their recruitment and HR process according to the laws of the country. Laws made
by the government in regards of employees and international recruitment must be treated
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with respect otherwise the organisation may have to face legal obligations against them
(Gliszczyńska, 2018).
Organisational and HR strategies can be developed to accommodate those changes
For the effective and successful accommodation of changes in the international market of Marks
and Spencer the company can develop some organisational and HR strategies that will assist the
leaders and managers of the Marks and Spencer in effective international resourcing and talent
planning. Some of the strategies are discussed below:
Outsourcing external firm strategy: the Marks and Spencer has developed new international
resourcing and talent planning strategy that will utilize the outside firm to search and recruit the
best talent for the company. Marks and Spencer will outsource a recruiting company in new
market that will help the company in resourcing appropriate candidate for the new changes and
also the talent will be acquired by the company.
Training and development: for the effective talent planning the employees of the Marks and
Spencer will be provided with trainings and development sessions. This strategy of the Marks
and Spencer is effective as this will help the employees to understand the needs of change and
also how to apply its skills with new working environment. In the training and development the
company will also provide a session for learning of new technology for the employees which is
useful in effective talent planning (Rema, Akhi and Adnan, 2018). As after the training on the
basis of the skills the talent can be allocated to different areas of Marks and Spencer.
 Fostering a culture of continuous learning- The set of beliefs and culture, new policies
and several such factors must be understood by the Human resource of the organisation.
This helps in developing a adaptive nature in the organisation which helps the
organisation in smoothly adjusting with the environment. Marks & Spencer needs to
develop a culture in their organisation where they learn to adapt to the new changes that
are implied by the government or any other external factor.
 Managing the diversity- While recruitment of international employees the HR should be
able to apply techniques while dealing with candidates with different backgrounds. An
organisation which is open to hiring people from any country and culture would be able
to recruit to a better workforce in the organisation. In context of Marks & Spencer, they
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hire their employees from several countries which helps them in establishing a good
diversified workforce with excellent skill sets.
RECOMMENDATIONS
After analysing the factors that impact the international resourcing and talent planning of
the organisation and the strategies to accommodate the change in the Marks and Spencer it is
analysed that company requires some modifications in order to acquire optimal profitability from
the expansion into international market (Onwugbolu and Mutambara, 2021).
 Marks and Spencer is recommended to utilize rewards and appraisals strategy in order to
reduce the employees resistance towards the change. As when the needs of the
employees and employers are fulfilled in effective manner and their work is appreciated
and recognised they feel motivated and encouraged to work more for the company in
order to enhance their performance for the rewards and appraisals in salary.
 The company is also suggested to invest in change management plan and strategies by
this company will be able to plan and organise all its workforce effectively as per the
change (Biech, 2017). For the international resourcing and talent planning the change
management is effective in developing the strategies that has full potential of attaining
the most effective talent for the organisation.
 It is suggested to Marks and Spencer to create a organisational culture that fosters the
productivity of the employees. In order to sustain from the cultural issue company
should adapt different cultures in their organisations and create an environment through
its policies and actions that respect each other culture and believes (Gitonga, 2019). For
this Marks and Spencer is recommended to conduct cultural programs on different
occasions as per the diversity of people this will help the company to create and friendly
and cultural barrier free organisational culture. By this the diversity of workforce and
talent the company will gain the sustainable competitive advantage.
 In order to mitigate the challenges of economic factor the company must take assistance
of its financial department and create a budget for the international resourcing and talent
planning. This will help the Marks and Spencer in saving the extra expenses of the
company (SHRM-SCP, 2018).
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded form the above information that expanding the business into international
market is considered as the factor of the growth. For the successful execution of the resources
and plan of the internationalization the company must focus on their human resource planning.
The international resourcing and talent planning if tough task as it requires different strategies to
recruit the best talent for the company. Factors like internal HR policies and strategies,
economic factors, technology are some of the factors that impact the HR planning of the
company. Thus, building appropriate strategies such as training and development, outsourcing
external company are best for the international resourcing and talent planning.
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References:
Books and Journals
Biech, E., 2017. Starting a Talent Development Program. American Society for Training and
Development.
Bonisteel, I and et. al., 2021. Reconceptualizing Recruitment in Qualitative Research.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20, p.16094069211042493.
Gitonga, A.G., 2019. Influence of Human Resource Capability in Relating Talent Management
Strategy and Competitive Advantage. Journal of Human Resource Management. 7(4).
pp.120-130.
Gliszczyńska, B.C., 2018. The Influence of Recruitment Process on the Enterprise Development.
Przedsiębiorczość i Zarządzanie, 19(4.1), pp.19-30.
Hossain, M., 2019. Recruitment & Selection Process to Export Manpower: A study on The
Intralink.
Kabeyi, M., 2019. Organizational strategic planning, implementation and evaluation with
analysis of challenges and benefits. International Journal of Applied Research and
Studies. 5(6). pp.27-32.
Onwugbolu, M.C.N. and Mutambara, E., 2021. Talent Management Strategies and Employees’
Job Performance in the Retail Sector of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A Structural
Model. African Journal of Business and Economic Research. 16(3). pp.215-233.
Rema, U.T., Akhi, A.A. and Adnan, A.T.M., 2018. Business Intelligence and Databases; An
Empirical Study On Its Application Towards Recruitment Process.
SHRM-SCP, J.D., 2018. 6 Key Elements of an Effective Talent Acquisition Strategy.
Suarlan, M., 2017, December. Competitive Recruitment and Ethical Leadership. In 1st
International Conference on Administrative Science, Policy and Governance Studies
(ICAS-PGS 2017) and the 2nd International Conference on Business Administration
and Policy (ICBAP 2017) (pp. 261-269). Atlantis Press.
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