Managing Talent: A Study of Strategic Initiatives at John Lewis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of talent management strategies at John Lewis. It begins with an introduction to the importance of talent management and outlines the research aims, objectives, and questions. The project plan details the time, quality, and cost considerations, along with the use of WBS and Gantt charts. The research section presents secondary data on the significance of talent management, new initiatives such as training and development, and the challenges faced by John Lewis. The research methodology includes a positivism philosophy, deductive approach, survey strategy, and quantitative data collection. Findings from a survey of John Lewis managers are presented through frequency distribution tables, highlighting the importance of strategic approaches, employee engagement, and new initiatives. The report concludes with recommendations for improving talent management practices, emphasizing communication, regular fund tracking, and fostering a positive work environment. The report aims to provide insights into the challenges and opportunities in talent management within John Lewis, offering practical recommendations for strategic improvement.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT
(Types of new initiatives and innovative ways
of working do companies put in plan to achieve
a strategic approach to talent management)

TABLE OF CONTENT
SECTION 1- INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................3
SECTION 2- PROJECT PLAN.......................................................................................................3
SECTION 3- RESEARCH..............................................................................................................4
SECTION 4- FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................7
SECTION 5- EVALUATION.......................................................................................................11
SECTION 6- CONCLUSION........................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................16

SECTION 1- INTRODUCTION
Companies or organizations in the world run by the assistance of their most important asset
known as employees. It requires proper attention towards every employee so that they could be
motivated to stay in the organization for achieving objectives (Ritz and Sinelli, 2018). For
fulfilling these motives organizations make talent strategies time to time for retaining,
developing and attracting qualified workers in the organization. The current project is based on
new ways and initiatives to strategic approaches to talent management and the selected
organization is John Lewis.
Research Aim: To identify the importance of new way of working for the fulfilment of
attracting and retaining talented employees in the workplace. A study on John Lewis
Research Objectives:
 To determine the significance of talent management in the workplace within organization
 To ascertain the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic approach to talent
management in the workplace within John Lewis
 To investigate about the challenges that are faced by John Lewis while implementing
new ways and initiatives of talent management in the workplace within John Lewis
Research Questions:
 Describe the significance of talent management in the workplace within organization?
 What are the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic approach to talent
management in the workplace within John Lewis?
 What are the challenges that are faced by John Lewis while implementing new ways and
initiatives of talent management in the workplace within John Lewis?
SECTION 2- PROJECT PLAN
Project management plan is referred as the systematic procedure to conduct project with
all the required resources. There are different types of components required for completing the
present project.
Time
It is defined as one of the most needed component of project management plan. Time is
needed for completing every task in an appropriate manner. The project manager needs 5 weeks
for achieving every aim and objectives (Alam, 2019).

Quality
In the current project, project manager has selected primary and secondary sources. Both
sources are great in carrying out high-quality piece of information in order to meet objectives
and aim of the project (Grit, 2019).
Cost
In simpler words cost is defined as needed money to take out each and every activity in a
manner so that predefined objectives could be attained. Project manager has taken assistance of
budget because it allocates required fund to do every activity. The amount needed is £400 to
successfully perform every task.
WBS
Work breakdown structure is an effective method to divide big activities into small tasks.
It is identified that small tasks are easier to complete than large activities. This particular
structure provides assistance to project manager to easily divide activities into task (Brčić and
Mlinarić, 2018).

Gantt chart
Gantt chart is generally known as timeline to complete every task and activity mentioned
in the project. This chart helps in classifying every activity with right time to complete them. It
mentions beginning and ending date of every activity so it becomes convenient for project
manager to perform all activities in a systematic way (Posner and Applegarth, 2019).

SECTION 3- RESEARCH
SECONDARY DATA
Describe the significance of talent management in the workplace within organization?
According to Santhanalaxami and Chandramohan (2019), talent management is simply
not just a key term for human resource that an organisation or an individual would come across.
It is concerned especially to the activities like selecting, managing, retaining and educating the
most skilled, excellent and superior employees in the company. The great talent management
process assists in testing the potential of employees and adding more value to the skills of
employees. This ultimately gives result of decreasing the chances of errors and generates
opportunity of learning.
In the opinion of Akar and Sharma (2018), talent management also helps in eliminating
poor employee engagement that directly assists in increasing the retention level of employees.
The most important asset that is employees are provided with opportunities of training and
development which is important to existing employees and new job seekers.
What are the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic approach to talent management
in the workplace within John Lewis?
According to Ntaopane and Vermeulen (2019), talent management of John Lewis comes
with initiatives and new ways so that their talented employees could be retained in the
organization for the maximum time period. Some of the initiatives to have strategic approach to
talent management are:
Training and development: In the view of Oseghale, Mulyata and Debrah (2018), John Lewis
believes in providing training to employees according to the need of time. These kinds of
training sessions assist in increasing the knowledge and improving the skills of employees so that
they could become more efficient in achieving their targets without taking make much time.
These trainings make employees to develop in their career as they are improving their knowledge
day by day in the organization.

Prioritizing needs of employees: John Lewis with the help of talent management easily finds
needs and requirements of employees at the right time and they provide benefits and perks
according to the employee’s requirement. The company makes sure that they give equal
importance to the needs of employees as they give to their fulfilment of objectives.
Perks and benefits:
What are the challenges that are faced by John Lewis while implementing new ways and
initiatives of talent management in the workplace within John Lewis?
According to D’Annunzio-Green (2018), every organization has to face different
challenges and difficulties at the implementation time of new ways and initiatives of talent
management because sometimes employees do not cooperate and sometime external factors do
not allow in implementation of strategies successfully. Some of the challenges faced by John
Lewis are:
Demand of employees: Mangers of John Lewis have to face problem while implementing new
strategies of talent management. Employees demand large amount of compensation and benefits
from the organization that becomes unable to provide it to every employee.
Need of high amount of investment: In the opinion of Mensah (2019), John Lewis has to keep
large amount of investment aside then only it becomes possible to give different types of benefits
to employees. Company has to invest big portion of money in the formation of talent
management strategies.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is described as procedure that provides assistance for collecting,
gathering, interpreting and analyzing data according to the project.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy is defined as a process that gives foundation of conducting project
as it has variety of beliefs on which project is dependent upon. It has been classified in two main
parts that are positivism and interpretivism. Positivism philosophy chose by project manager as it
facilitates in successful evaluation of data presented in numeric format (Melnikovas, 2018).
Research Approach
Research approach refers to the method for analyzing every piece of information related
to the topic. It is being divided into two types that are deductive and inductive approach.

Researcher chooses deductive approach for measuring and analyzing quantitative information in
a very short period of time and it also does not increase the cost of project manager (Whicher,
Philbin and Aronson, 2018).
Research Strategy
Research strategy is defined as method that is available to researchers so that appropriate
information could be collected at right time. Grounded theory, experimental research, action
research, case study, survey etc. are some of the examples of this strategy. Project manager has
selected survey because it helps in gathering numerical information in the current project
(Ratnam, 2019). This particular strategy is helpful in taking out appropriate piece of information
in short duration.
Research Choice
Research choice is the method that mentions about the type of data to be gathered. It
provides two research choices that are qualitative and quantitative (Arantes do Amaral and et. al.,
2018). The project manager has dependent on quantitative research choice to gather numerical
information related to the topic. This kind of piece of information is accurate, appropriate,
relevant and authentic.
Data collection
Data collection is classified into two significant kind that are primary and secondary data
collection. The current project is dependent upon both the methods of data collection. Primary is
chosen to take out new or fresh piece of information by the assistance of survey strategy whereas
secondary method is chosen to take out existing information for filling the gaps in existing data.
This type of information is taken out by using sources such as journals, magazines, publications,
articles, newspapers etc (Shahar and et. al., 2019).
Sampling
Sampling is defined as effective method for choosing respondents from large number of
population (Zawacki-Richter and et. al., 2020). It has majorly two types known as probability
and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling is chosen by project investigator as it allows
choosing participants with no specific requirements. 10 managers are chosen as respondents
from John Lewis as they have great knowledge approaches to talent management.

SECTION 4- FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION TABLE
The collected information with the assistance of questionnaire is analyzed and evaluated
by taking frequency distribution analysis. MS-Excel is also used to form table and graphs so that
reader could understand the data clearly.
Q1) As per your opinion, does John Lewis should invest in different
strategic approaches to talent management?
Frequency
a) Yes 8
b) No 2
Q2) According to your knowledge, what is the importance of talent
management in the workplace within organization?
Frequency
a) Make employees engaged 3
b) Motivated employees 2
c) Skilled workers 2
d) Client satisfaction 3
Q3) What are the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic
approach to talent management in the workplace within John Lewis?
Frequency
a) Training and development 4
b) Great perks and benefits 2
c) Prioritizing needs of employees 2
d) Developing opportunities 2
Q4) What are the challenges that are faced by managers of John Lewis
while implementing talent strategies in the workplace?
Frequency
a) High demand of employees 4
b) Need of big investment 3
c) Conflict among employer and employee 3
Q5) As per your understanding, what would you suggest to John Lewis
for decreasing the number of challenges faced by managers of John
Lewis?
Frequency
a) More communication 5
b) Regular track on funds 3

c) Positive environment at work 2
Question 1: John Lewis should invest in different strategic approaches to talent management
Q1) As per your opinion, does John Lewis should invest in different
strategic approaches to talent management?
Frequency
a) Yes 8
b) No 2
Interpretation: From the above information majority of managers believe that investment in
strategic approaches to talent management is necessary.
Question 2: Importance of talent management in the workplace within organization
Q2) According to your knowledge, what is the importance of talent
management in the workplace within organization?
Frequency
a) Make employees engaged 3
b) Motivated employees 2
c) Skilled workers 2
d) Client satisfaction 3

Interpretation: With the data it is interpreted that 3 respondents said that engagement of
employees is one of the importance. Motivated employees, skilled workers and client satisfaction
are important for talent management.
Question 3: New ways and initiatives to have strategic approach to talent management in the
workplace within John Lewis
Q3) What are the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic
approach to talent management in the workplace within John Lewis?
Frequency
a) Training and development 4
b) Great perks and benefits 2
c) Prioritizing needs of employees 2
d) Developing opportunities 2

Interpretation: Training and development, great benefits and perks, prioritizing employees’ need
are some of the new initiatives of John Lewis strategic approaches to talent management.
Question 4: Challenges that are faced by managers of John Lewis while implementing talent
strategies in the workplace
Q4) What are the challenges that are faced by managers of John Lewis
while implementing talent strategies in the workplace?
Frequency
a) High demand of employees 4
b) Need of big investment 3
c) Conflict among employer and employee 3

Interpretation: High demand of employees, conflict among employee and employer and
requirement of large investment are some of the challenges of John Lewis.
Question 5: Suggest to organization for decreasing the number of challenges faced by
managers of John Lewis
Q5) As per your understanding, what would you suggest to organization
for decreasing the number of challenges faced by managers of John
Lewis?
Frequency
a) More communication 5
b) Regular track on funds 3
c) Positive environment at work 2

Interpretation: From the data it is analyzed that communications, regular track on funds and
positive working environment are suggested to decrease the impact of challenges.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above mentioned provided data it is recommended to Labour and Wait Ltd to
focus on successfully implementing and executing of strategic approaches to talent management.
Some of the recommendations that are provided to them are:
Keep track on changing expectations of employees: Labour and Wait Ltd should focus on
each and every employee so that their constant changing expectations and requirements could be
identified and fulfilled accordingly. This ultimately would result in making employees more
loyal towards their profession to meet every objective of the organization. This makes employees
more confident to take initiative for doing certain operations. It would also assist in making great
relationship between employee and employer as they would easily share about their thoughts.
Open communication: Labour and Wait Ltd should make sure that every piece of information is
shared and passed to all the responsible employees at right time. This would help in decreasing
the chances of miscommunication and make every employee aware about what all roles and
responsibilities they have to perform for achieving assigned objectives and goals.
Some of the areas that need to give attention by Labour and Wait Ltd are:

COVID-19: Everyone in the world is dealing with the global pandemic. This pandemic made
organizations to lay off employees so Labour and Wait Ltd should make strategy so that
employees could get security in the organization.
Economic barrier: This is another barrier as it needs large amount of money so Labour and
Wait Ltd should make effective plan to use funds for forming talent management strategy.
SECTION 5- EVALUATION
From the above gathered information with the assistance of primary and secondary
sources it has been analyzed that John Lewis adopts different types of strategic approaches to
talent management so that they could have employees who have great skill and talent. Some of
the strategies that are adopted by the company are training and development, perks and benefits,
prioritizing the needs of employees’ etc. These strategies are built to satisfy employee so that
they could be encouraged and empowered towards achievement goals and objectives of
organization (Lotfi, Hasani and Esfahani, 2020).
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
● What was the project supposed to accomplish?
The current research project is based upon To identify the importance of new way of working for
the fulfilment of attracting and retaining talented employees in the workplace. A study on John
Lewis
Yes the project is accomplished by me successfully to conduct project.
● Did the project succeed in its aims?
Yes the project has achieved all its aim and objectives.
How do you know? Specifically, please outline any evaluation and assessment

undertaken.
I know this because I had carried out data from secondary sources such as books, articles,
journals and newspapers.
● What things do you think worked well and why? Evaluate all aspects of the project (e.g.
initial inception, project activities and project outcomes) from a range of perspectives.
Project management plan has worked really great as it clearly mentioned out the needed
resources to achieve objectives.
Another was conducting survey. It was really great experience to collect data from
maximum people.
● What problems emerged during the project and how were they tackled? Was there timely
identification of issues and resolution during the project process?
Yes I had to face different issues while doing my present project. Some of the problem
that I faced include:
I was very poor in managing time as I did not complete starting activities on pre-defined
time.
Another issue was not able to communicate properly with the chosen participants easily.
These problems were solved by attending online webinars of communication. It has
helped me in improving my confidence in interacting with different kind of people very
easily.
The time management skill was improved by rigidly following time table. This time table
had all the activities that are important for attaining objectives of research.
● What did you learn from undertaking the project?
I had learnt about the different challenges that are faced by organizations at the time of

implementing talent strategies in the workplace for successful retention of large number
of talented workers.
● How would you rate your performance as project manager?
I will be rating myself 7 on the scale of 10 as I have put my knowledge and efforts
together to meet every pre-defined objective in proper manner. I also dealt with problem
with patience to take best out of everything.
● What strengths and weaknesses of your performance did you identify?
Some of the strengths are :
Solving challenges and issues easily
Tackle issues and problems without getting frustrated
Hard working
Some of the weaknesses may include:
Ineffective in managing time
Not confident in interacting
Low level of confidence
● How will this inform and support your continuous professional development?
The current project will help in my building my professional career as I would be able to
retain employees easily in the organization I would work.
● The success of the project and its usefulness in supporting your chosen organisation’s

organisational performance;
The present project would help Labour and Wait Ltd to increase their performance by
having employees that are effective and efficient.
● Your own performance.
I had performed as per the need of project so I believe that I had performed greatly.

SECTION 6- CONCLUSION
From the above provided information it has been summarized that every organization
focuses on planning, implementing and executing talent management strategies in the
organization. The basic of all strategies of talent management is retain employees in the
organization so that they could contribute in attaining objectives of the company in the given
time duration. Hence, managers make sure that every employee is satisfied in the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akar, A. and Sharma, G., 2018. An Empirical Study on Different factors of Talent Management
Practices influencing the Employees Satisfaction in Banking Sector (With Special
Reference to Private Sector Banks). Sumedha Journal of Management. 7(4). pp.76-85.
Alam, S., 2019, August. An Innovative Project Management System. In 2019 International
Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) (Vol. 1, pp. 180-
185). IEEE.
Arantes do Amaral and et. al., 2018. Combining Project-Based Learning and Community-Based
Research in a Research Methodology Course: The Lessons Learned. International
Journal of Instruction. 11(1). pp.47-60.
Brčić, M. and Mlinarić, D., 2018. Tracking predictive gantt chart for proactive rescheduling in
stochastic resource constrained project scheduling. Journal of Information and
Organizational Sciences. 42(2). pp.179-192.
D’Annunzio-Green, N., 2018. Cornerstones of talent management as a strategic priority in the
hospitality. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Grit, R., 2019. Project management: a practical approach. Routledge.
Lotfi, A., Hasani, A. and Esfahani, S. A., 2020. Performance assessment of talent management
system via using system dynamic approach and scenario planning (case study: Iran Falat-
Qhare Oil Company). International Journal of Productivity and Quality
Management. 29(1). pp.62-93.
Melnikovas, A., 2018. Towards an explicit research methodology: Adapting research onion
model for futures studies. Journal of Futures Studies. 23(2). pp.29-44.
Mensah, J.K., 2019. Talent management and employee outcomes: a psychological contract
fulfilment perspective. Public Organization Review. 19(3). pp.325-344.
Ntaopane, M. and Vermeulen, L., 2019. Integrated talent management in local government:
theories and philosophies to guide implementation practices. Journal of Public
Administration. 54(3). pp.378-400.
Oseghale, O. R., Mulyata, J. and Debrah, Y. A., 2018. Global talent management.
In Organizational behaviour and human resource management (pp. 139-155). Springer,
Cham.
Posner, K. and Applegarth, M., 2019. Project Management. Pocketbooks.
Ratnam, C., 2019. Listening to difficult stories: Listening as a research methodology. Emotion,
Space and Society. 31. pp.18-25.
Ritz, A. and Sinelli, P., 2018. Talent Management–Überblick und konzeptionelle Grundlagen.
In Talent Management (pp. 3-31). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Santhanalaxami, K. and Chandramohan, S., 2019. Repercussion of Talent Management on
Workforce Retention in Selected Hotels in Madurai. International Journal of Recent
Technology and Engineering (IJRTE). 8. pp.312-315.
Shahar and et. al., 2019, September. Research Methodology Trending in Evolutionary
Computing. In International Conference on Computational Collective Intelligence (pp.
474-485). Springer, Cham.
Whicher, D., Philbin, S. and Aronson, N., 2018. An overview of the impact of rare disease
characteristics on research methodology. Orphanet journal of rare diseases. 13(1). pp.1-
12.

Zawacki-Richter and et. al., 2020. Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application (p. 161). Springer Nature.

APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1) As per your opinion, does John Lewis should invest in different strategic approaches to
talent management?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) According to your knowledge, what is the importance of talent management in the
workplace within organization?
a) Make employees engaged
b) Motivated employees
c) Skilled workers
d) Client satisfaction
Q3) What are the different new ways and initiatives to have strategic approach to talent
management in the workplace within John Lewis?
a) Training and development
b) Great perks and benefits
c) Prioritizing needs of employees
d) Developing opportunities
Q4) What are the challenges that are faced by managers of John Lewis while implementing
talent strategies in the workplace?
a) High demand of employees
b) Need of big investment
c) Conflict among employer and employee
Q5) As per your understanding, what would you suggest to John Lewis for decreasing the
number of challenges faced by managers of John Lewis?
a) More communication
b) Regular track on funds
c) Positive environment at work

Project Logbook
Project logbook
Name:
Project title: To identify the importance of new way of working for the fulfilment of attracting and retaining
talented employees in the workplace. A study on John Lewis
Date:
Update on period of development Points to consider:
● What have you completed in this period?
Aim and objectives
● Did you complete the work that you had planned?
Yes, every step of the current project is completed as per plan.
● Are you on track and within deadlines set?
Yes, I worked hard to stay at pre-defined deadlines.
● Did you need to make any changes to your project plan?
No worked as per the plan.
Risks and/or issues identified Points to consider:
● Did you identify risks/issues related to a lack of knowledge or skill required to undertake the work you
had planned?
Lack of ability to manage time.
● Did you identify any additional risks/issues that have an impact on your project plan?
No I had not determined additional issues.
Problems encountered Points to consider:
● What challenges did you face?
Gathering secondary data.
● How did you overcome them?
Increasing knowledge about sources.
What have you learned about yourself through your work? Points to consider:
● What are the most important things that your work has revealed to you? How might this learning
apply in the future?
Managing time problem
This is important in personal and professional life.
● How did you feel when you had to deal with challenges/problems?
I worked without getting frustrated.

● How well do you feel you have performed?
I performed great.
● What can you improve?
Communication skill
Next steps for your work Points to consider:
● What aspects of your work should you prioritise?
Primary data
Evaluating data
● Have you allowed sufficient time for completion?
Yes
Project plan status to date Points to consider:
● Do you feel you are on track to complete your work on time? If not, how will you address this?
Yes I tried to be on track and even completed at right time.
● Do you feel your work shows your achievement of the Learning Outcomes? If not, what do you
need to do?
Yes
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