Job Evaluation's Role in Tesco's Human Resource Management

This research proposal examines the role of job evaluation in human resource management, specifically within Tesco, Goodge Street. The proposal outlines the research questions, objectives, and provides a background on Tesco. A comprehensive literature review explores various job evaluation methods, including the Canadian and Hay methods, and their advantages. The research methodology employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative data collection through interviews and focus groups with quantitative data analysis. A detailed timeline and ethical considerations are included, along with a discussion of potential limitations. The study aims to understand the impact of job evaluation on HR practices within the organization.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Role of job evaluation in the management of Human Resources in Tesco, Goodge Street
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Company background......................................................................................................................3
Research questions...........................................................................................................................3
Research objectives.........................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Research Methods............................................................................................................................8
Time scale........................................................................................................................................8
Collection of qualitative data...........................................................................................................9
Collection of quantitative data.......................................................................................................10
Ethical Considerations...................................................................................................................11
Limitations of the study.................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
The role of job evaluation is immense for a human resource professional. The job
evaluation is defined as the systematic manner of determination of the value of the job as
compared to other job in the organization (Cheramie et al. 2014). The act of job evaluation is
different from job analysis, which is a close substitute of the term. The job analysis is part of the
overall job evaluation method since job analysis is considered as process of gathering various
information about a job. The very purpose of job analysis is collection of varied information so
that the particular job can be evaluated well (Cheramie et al. 2014). The human resource
department needs to perform both job analysis and job evaluation in order to have a successful
workforce. There are several methods that are being used by the organizations to evaluate
various job openings. The very objective of the job evaluation is to determine the jobs that
should get more amount of pay than that of others.
The definitions of International Labour Organizations (ILO) denote that job evaluation
is defined as the attempt to compare as well as determine the demands of the normal job
performance on ordinary workers (Santero-Sanchez et al. 2015). This excludes the individual
performances and individual abilities of the concerned employees. The objectives of the job
evaluation are the establishment of the orderly, systematic and rational structure of jobs which is
based on the worth of the organizations (Cheramie et al. 2014). The human resource department
aims to justify a proper rate structure which would enforce internal equity in the organization.
The aim of this research is to understand the impact of the job evaluation in the overall
management of human resources in the selected organization. The organization selected for the
purpose of study is Tesco, Goodge Street.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Company background
Tesco PLC is one of the largest multinational grocery as well as general merchandise
retailer in Britain. The company was founded in the year 1919 in London, UK. The headquarters
of the company is located at Welwyn Garden City, England, United Kingdom (Tesco.com 2017).
The company is considered as the third largest retailer among the world as far as their overall
profits are concerned. The brand has stores in more than 12 countries and is one of the grocery
market leaders in UK. The main products of the company include supermarket, hypermarket and
superstore. It has ventured in areas of retailing of clothing, books, toys, furniture, software,
internet services, telecoms and petrol (Tesco.com 2017). There are several subsidiaries of the
company such as Tesco Stores, Tesco Mobile, Tesco Kipa, Spenhill and others. The overall
revenues of the company are £55,917 million in the year 2017 and the net income of the
company in the same year is £54 million (Tesco.com 2017).
Tesco Plc has opened its store in Goodge Street, which is located at Tottenham Court
Road, London. The store timings are from 8 am to 10 pm. There are food counters in the store
such as Free Form, Polish, Kosher and World Food (Tesco.com 2017). The store has a wide store
accessibility features. There is the availability of wheelchairs, disabled parking facilities, fully
accessible toilets, defibrillators and others.
Research questions
The following are some of the questions which would be used in this research proposal-
1) What is the effect of job evaluation in the management of human resources?
2) What are the various ways of job evaluation in organizations?
3) What is the different job evaluation tactics used in Tesco, Goodge Street?

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research objectives
It is important to determine the actual objectives of the research as it would help in the
successful completion of this research. There are several objectives of this research, which are
outlined below-
 To understand the various methods of job evaluation in the organizations
 To determine the effect of job evaluation for the human resources department of the
organization
 To explore the different types of job evaluation tactics used by Tesco, Goodge Street
Literature Review
As opined by Taylor (2014), the job evaluation is considered as one of the methods of
job ratings which is used to understand some aspects of the particular job in comparison with
other jobs which can be located within the organization or outside the organization. As argued by
Schuler, Farr and Smith (2013), the various objectives of the job evaluation are different in
different kinds of organization. The objectives of the job evaluation are the determination of
equitable wage differentials between various jobs in the organization. The human resources of
the organization also aim to eliminate all kinds of wage inequalities (Gao et al. 2016.). It is also
important to formulate consistent wage policy for the organization. The aims of the job
evaluation are to provide a rational basis for bonus and incentive schemes. The HR department
also aims to specify different frameworks for the periodic review as well as revisions of the wage
rates (Schuler, Farr and Smith 2013). They also wish to minimize the different wage
discrimination based on the basis of sex, age, caste, religion, region and others.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The opinion of Posavac (2015) reveals that job evaluation methods in organizations
comprises of two main components such as external values as well as internal values. The
external values are concerned with the HR reviews and analysis of the competitive salary survey
information that has been gathered as well as prepared by the international firms (Raju 2014).
This analysis takes into consideration such as job match strengths, industry, company size,
ownership and geography (Groover 2013). The internal values include the various job
documentation so that the complexity, position scope and the potential scope can be determined
along with the various factors such as effort, skills, working conditions and responsibility. It is
important to assess the issues of internal equity when the worth of a position would be
considered (Sinclair and Keller 2014). The internal equity is concerned with the fairness in the
relationship of the compensation range of a job when there is a comparison with the
compensation of same kind of jobs inside the organization (Cheramie et al. 2014). The
compensation range of an organization is considered as internally equitable when the salary
becomes at par with the level of responsibility in the firm. The range of the salary represents the
fair wage rates for the job which is compared to other job positions.
As commented by Shields et al. (2015), there are several advantages of job evaluation
such as reduction of inequalities in the salary structure of the individuals. The job evaluation
would help in the selection of employees. It helps in the creation of harmonious relationship
between the manager and the employees. This would take place with the help of reduction of the
salaries controversies (Vander Elst, De Witte and De Cuyper 2014). The process of the
determination of the salary differentials for various jobs has become standardized through the
process of job evaluation. The process of job evaluation is relevant in today’s job environment as
one individual would be able to explore the relative value of the new jobs in the organization.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
As opine by Peng et al. (2016), the Canadian job evaluation method is used to evaluate
the various kinds of job types based on the thirteen compensable factors. The job evaluation
factors are job knowledge, mental demands, interpersonal communication skills, physical
coordination, responsibility for work assignments, responsibility of financial resources,
responsibility for physical; assets and information, responsibility for human resources, sensory
effect and multiple demands, surroundings, physical effort, hazards and others (Mertens 2014).
This method is illustrated in the following diagram-
Fig: Canadian job evaluation method

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
(Source: Peng et al. 2016)
As defined by Greene and Mi (2013), the Hay Method is one of the proprietary job
evaluation method which starts with the understanding of the organization and its job roles. It is
then concerned with the breaking of the job into several components and evaluates the same
based on the various compensable factors (EL-Hajji 2015). This model has two specific
components which are closely related to the sub-processes such as performance evaluation and
incentives management. This model can be successfully applied in teaching the essence of
human resource management and it can be effectively applied in both academic as well as
corporate learning avenues.
The findings of Connolly Jr, Connolly and Feinstein (2017) reveal that job evaluation
comprises of the selection of various weighing job factors where job is compared to other
internal or external jobs in terms of significant factors. There are several job factors that needs to
be evaluated such as experience, mental as well as manual skills, working conditions,
supervision required, weights are assigned to various job factors and others. The description of
the jobs comprises of the detailed written description of each job in which it is important to
specify the responsibilities and duties that are involved with it (German, Spanish and Italian
2016). The job description should be thoroughly checked in order to ensure that there are no
omissions and no duplication in it (Cheramie et al. 2014). The process of the job evaluation
comprises with gaining acceptance in the cooperation as well as support to the top management,
trade unions and employees of the organization (Marchington et al. 2016). The constitution of
the job evaluation committee should be done so that the doubts as well as suspicion of the team
members can be reduced.

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Methods
The selection of the most appropriate research methods is a daunting task as the success
of the research depends upon this research method. The primary research method would be used
for this research. This would comprise of a mixture of qualitative as well as quantitative method.
A mixed research methodology would be applied for this research. This kind of methodology
involves the collection, analysis and the integration of the quantitative as well as qualitative data
(Mackey and Gass 2015). The mixed research method is useful when kit is important to make the
data comprehensive. This can include a variety of statistics, numbers, pictures, words and
narratives. This method is also used to answer variety of research questions. The results of the
questions can be used to validate each other when there is stronger evidence that can help in
formulating conclusion (Mackey and Gass 2015). It can also used to increase the general
conclusions of the results (Creswell 2013). However, it is important to collaborate, converge and
validate the result which is being collected by different kinds of methods. This kind of mixed
methods is useful for researchers want to enhance, elaborate and further to clarify the results.
Time scale
The timelines of the project is described below-
Main activities/ stages Week1 Week2 Week3 Week4 Week 5 Week 6
Identification of research topic 
Perform Background search  
Gather information about Tesco 
Formulation of research objective   

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Formulation of research questions  
Performing literature review  
Identification of research methods  
Collection of qualitative data  
Collection of quantitative data
Ethical considerations

Identifying research limitations 
Fig: Gantt Chart
Source: Created by author
Collection of qualitative data
The data collection methods in qualitative research comprises of the various. In this
research, two data qualitative data collection has been applied namely- Interviews and focus
groups. The interviews would be conducted with 5 department heads of Tesco, Goodge Street.
They would be asked questions about their knowledge of the job evaluations in the organization.
Certain unstructured questionnaires would be asked to the HOD in which their opinions
regarding the job evaluation techniques would be understood. This would help in the
understanding of the significant depth in the world of human resource management. A set of
semi structured questionnaires would also be asked and most of the questions would be open

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ended ones. The participants would be allowed to share their opinions about the job evaluation
methods that are being used in the organization.
The focus group discussion would be done with the help of eight group members
belonging to the HR department. The HR personnel would be asked about the various impact of
the job evaluation techniques used in the organization. The degree of impact on the employees
regarding the job evaluation techniques would be discussed. A moderator would be used to
analyze the viewpoints of the various participants from where suitable conclusions can be
deduced.
Collection of quantitative data
The quantitative data is inclusive of the open ended questionnaires that would be used. In
the collection of the quantitative data- there would be interviews and observations. A sample
size of 50 employees of the managers and 3 HR managers would be interviewed. A set of
structured questions would be used to complete the quantitative research. The observations
would be done in the HR department of the organization in which the various job evaluation
methods would be analyzed. The analysis of this form of data would be done by aggregating the
various information categories and presentation of the diversity of the ideas.
The observations and the interviews would be done for exploring experiences, views,
motivations and beliefs regarding the individuals on various specific matters of evaluation of the
job in Tesco. The interviews would provide a deeper understanding of the human research
attributes and how job evaluation benefits the human resource functions of the organization.

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Ethical Considerations
It is important to include ethical aspects while undergoing the research (Mackey and Gass
2015). The following are some of the ethical concerns in the conduct of this research-
 All the participants have been informed about the subject before conducting the research.
The informed consent has been taken.
 No participant in Tesco has been forced to take part in the research and they have
participated willfully.
 The confidential data of the participants concerning their opinions have been protected
and their names have not been disclosed. A complete protection of the participant identity
has been ensured so that they are not criticized for any reason in the organization.
 The participants have given their own opinions and they have not been forced to say
particular opinions.
Limitations of the study
There are certain limitations in this study that should be acknowledged-
 There were several employee resistances and the Tesco employees were not eager to take
part in the interviews. This caused lack of sample size and collection of proper data.
 In the observation method, only the extroverts spoke while the introvert kind of
individuals was unable to place their point. Their opinions were suppressed by the loud
voices of the extroverts.
 Improper questionnaire was set due to the vastness of the research topic.