Analyzing Talent Management Strategies at Waitrose & Partners

This report provides an in-depth analysis of talent management strategies at Waitrose & Partners. It begins with an introduction outlining the project's aim, objectives, and research questions, focusing on the impact of new initiatives and innovative ways of working on workforce performance. A detailed project plan follows, covering time, cost, scope, quality, communication, risk, and resources. The research section describes the methodologies used, including research philosophy, approach, strategy, and data collection methods. Findings are presented through frequency distribution tables, analyzing responses to key questions about talent management practices and their significance. The report concludes with recommendations based on the research, offering insights into how Waitrose can further enhance its talent management strategies. The study highlights the importance of career opportunities, recognition, and competitive packages in attracting and retaining talent, ultimately aiming to improve employee and business performance.

MANAGING A SUCCESFUL BUSINESS PROJECT
(What are the types of new initiatives and innovative
ways of working do companies put in place to achieve
a strategic approach to talent management?)

TABLE OF CONTENT
SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3
SECTION 2 – PROJECT PLAN.....................................................................................................3
SECTION 3 – RESEARCH.............................................................................................................5
SECTION 4 – FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................7
SECTION 5- EVALUATION.......................................................................................................11
SECTION 6- CONCLUSION........................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................14

SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION
Overview of the project
Talent management is a crucial component for the performance of organization. This is the process through which
right employee attracted and high performer is retain in the organization (Martínez-Morán and et. al., 2021). This also
focuses on adapting, growing and improving employees with time so that performance of organization could be improved.
In the current project, the chosen organization is Waitrose & Partners. It sells groceries and other useful products; the
headquarters is situated in Bracknell, United Kingdom.
Research Aim: To study the impact of different new initiatives and innovative ways of talent strategies on the
performance of workforce and organization. A study on Waitrose & Partners
Research Objectives:
 To understand the significance of strategies of talent in the workplace within Waitrose & Partners
 To identify the new initiatives and innovative ways adopted by the managers of Waitrose & Partners for achieving
a strategic approach to talent management
 To determine the reasons of bringing new initiatives and innovative ways of talent management strategies in the
workplace within Waitrose & Partners
Research Questions:
 Define the significance of strategies of talent in the workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
 What are the new initiatives and innovative ways adopted by the managers of Waitrose & Partners for achieving a
strategic approach to talent management?
 What are the reasons of bringing new initiatives and innovative ways of talent management strategies in the
workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
SECTION 2 – PROJECT PLAN
This is a plan that includes different components and helps the project manager in successfully completing the full
project. There are different components of project management plan that are explained as below:
Time: This is an important component of the project management plan because this facilitates completing each
activity of the project within allotted time (Barkhuizen and Gumede, 2021). These activities are formulation of project
aim and objectives, primary and secondary data collection, research methods etc. Therefore, for completing all these
activities, there is a requirement of 20 weeks.
Cost: This is another significant component of the project management plan that is used by project
manager for conducting project on talent management (TETIK and Halil, 2021). Therefore, in order to complete the full
project, around £19.41 is required by the project manager. This will help them in completing full project in an effective as
well as successful manner.

Scope: Current project has wide scope because it helps in increasing knowledge about the importance of
innovative ways in talent management (Dudzik-Lewicka, 2018). This project also has extensive scope because it is
completed within given time and cost.
Quality: This is an essential component of a project management plan because this helps project manager in
getting valid outcomes for project. Within a current project, quantitative research is used that helps researcher in
collecting data in quality and numbers. This will assist them in accomplishment of each and every objective successfully.
Communication: Communication is a highly important part of a project because it assists in managing all
activities systematically. According to the current project, there are different communication techniques and methods that
are used by the project manager for communicating accurate information about the current project to the intended
audience (Jais and et. al., 2021). These methods are oral communication, e-mail, written presentation and many others.
All these are effective and essential methods that help in communicating all information to participants that result in
attainment of research aim and objectives.
Risk: By conducting this project, there are several risks i.e. time, cost, respondents’ behaviour, development of
project aim etc. These are main risks that have negative impact on project manager. In order to overcome all these risks,
questionnaire is used by researcher.
Resources: There are various resources that are useful in conducting project on talent management i.e.
time, cost and communication. Along with this, books, articles, publication research etc. sources are also used for
collecting secondary data about the topic (Sarangal, Sharma and Manhas, 2020).
Work breakdown structure: This is the structure that has helped project manager to divide big and tough
activities into small and easier tasks. This is very easy and helpful for evaluating performance of project (Mangion-
Thornley, 2021).
Gantt chart: It is the chart that has assisted in classifying activities with appropriate time duration. This
chart gives beginning and ending of every activity and task (Kasahara, 2021).

SECTION 3 – RESEARCH
In this section different kinds of research methodologies are used for gathering, collecting and analyzing information
in systematic manner. Some of the methodologies that are used in the current research are:
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy provides set of beliefs which assists in successful evaluation of
information related to the topic. Positivism and interpretivism are the two types of philosophies. In the current project,
project manager has chosen positivism philosophy because it allows in evaluating numeric information. Another benefit is
it does not consume much time in evaluating data (Al-Zagheer, 2018).
Research Approach: Research approach is defined as methodology that assists in measuring numerical information in
successful manner. Inductive and deductive are its two types. Project manager has chosen deductive approach because it
is concerned about measuring statistical data. Inductive is not selected it is focused towards qualitative data and it
consumes time more than deductive approach.

Research Strategy: Research strategy helps project manager by facilitating the type of data to be selected. It has
multiple types of strategies that include grounded theory, archival research, survey, action research etc. Survey has been
selected by investigator to gather appropriate information. It allows in gathering opinions of respondents and provides
primary information (Gandomani and et. al., 2021).
Research Choice: Qualitative and quantitative are two types of choices that are available to project manager.
Quantitative has been chosen by project manager because it is concerned about collection of numeric information from
selected human participants (Grant, 2020). Questionnaire is selected in which questions are mentioned according to the
topic of project so that objectives could be easily achieved.
Data Collection: Data collection is classified into two significant kinds that are primary and secondary data
collection. Project manager has selected primary as well as secondary data collection. Primary is chosen because it assists
in taking out first hand data directly from chosen participants (Wiblen, 2021). Secondary is selected to carry out existing
data from sources that are available like books, articles, journals, newspapers, publications and many more.
Sampling: Sampling is the procedure of selecting respondents for collecting accurate and reliable data.
Probability and non-probability are two types of sampling (Dayeh and Farmanesh, 2021). Probability sampling is selected
to choose respondents. 15 managers are selected from Waitrose & Partners to gather relevant data.
SECONDARY INFORMATION
This is the section in which project manager has aimed towards gathering information from scholarly sources like
books, articles, journals and many more.
Define the significance of strategies of talent in the workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
According to Smith and McKeen (2017), there is lot of importance of talent strategies in the workplace within
Waitrose & Partners because it helps in managing, arranging and organizing as per the requirement of organization.
Talent strategies help in motivating employees as these strategies focus on fulfilling the expectations of workforce from
Waitrose and Partners. This motivation level makes employees more encouraged and empowered towards their assigned
work and duty (Cocuľova, 2020). Another significance of talent strategies is to improve the performance of whole
business because employees become aligned towards achieving the pre-defined targets of Waitrose and Partners.
What are the new initiatives and innovative ways adopted by the managers of Waitrose & Partners for achieving a
strategic approach to talent management?
According to Rendo, Au-Yong-Oliveira and Dias (2021), there are different innovative ways and initiatives that
are adopted by managers of Waitrose & Partners so that employees and objectives of organization could be aligned
towards one direction. Waitrose & Partners provides opportunity of building career to employees where employees can
easily prove their ability to work with efficiency and effectiveness and increase the chances of getting promotion to higher
position (Vladislavovna, 2021). The other initiative includes recognition and appreciation in which employees are given
appreciation according to their performance.

What are the reasons of bringing new initiatives and innovative ways of talent management strategies in the
workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
According to Nangia and Dudeja (2021), there are multiple number of reasons that make Waitrose & Partners to
invest and bring innovative ways of strategic approaches to talent management. Some of the reasons include: the first
reason is it assists in increasing the performance of employees so Waitrose and Partners adopts strategies so that
performance could be increased. Another reason is attracting talented employees these strategies assist in setting standards
and according to that employees are recruited.
SECTION 4 – FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In this section frequency distribution table is formed for gathering data from respondents and for this frequency
distribution analysis is used to gather quantitative information.
Q1) Do you have required knowledge about the management of talent? Frequency
a) Yes 15
b) No 0
Q2) In your knowledge, what is the significance of talent strategies in the
workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
Frequency
a) Motivation of workforce 4
b) Constant coverage of critical roles 5
c) Improved business performance 3
d) Retaining top talent 3
Q3) According to your opinion what are the new initiatives of working
adopted by managers for achieving a strategic approach to talent
management within Waitrose & Partners?
Frequency
a) Building career opportunities 5
b) Talent development as culture 3
c) Training and development 2
d) Recognition and appreciation 5
Q4) As per your understanding what are the reasons that make Waitrose &
Partners to invest in new initiatives of talent strategies in the workplace?
Frequency
a) Attracting talented candidates 2
b) Delivering competitive package 6
c) Improved performance of employees 3

d) Improved performance of business 4
Q5) As per your view, would you suggest Waitrose & Partners to invest
more for developing talent strategies?
Frequency
a) Yes 11
b) No 4
Question 1: Knowledge about the management of talent
Q1) Do you have required knowledge about the management of talent? Frequency
a) Yes 15
b) No 0
Interpretation: From the above data majority of participants have great knowledge about talent strategies.
Question 2: Significance of talent strategies in the workplace within Waitrose & Partners
Q2) In your knowledge, what is the significance of talent strategies in the
workplace within Waitrose & Partners?
Frequency
a) Motivation of workforce 4
b) Constant coverage of critical roles 5
c) Improved business performance 3
d) Retaining top talent 3

Interpretation: With the data it is understood that there is importance of talent strategies in the workplace.
Question 3: New initiatives of working adopted by managers for achieving a strategic approach to talent management
within Waitrose & Partners
Q3) According to your opinion what are the new initiatives of working
adopted by managers for achieving a strategic approach to talent
management within Waitrose & Partners?
Frequency
a) Building career opportunities 5
b) Talent development as culture 3
c) Training and development 2
d) Recognition and appreciation 5

Interpretation: As per the data there are different types of initiatives are used by managers to develop talent management
strategies.
Question 4: Reasons that make Waitrose & Partners to invest in new initiatives of talent strategies in the workplace
Q4) As per your understanding what are the reasons that make Waitrose &
Partners to invest in new initiatives of talent strategies in the workplace?
Frequency
a) Attracting talented candidates 2
b) Delivering competitive package 6
c) Improved performance of employees 3
d) Improved performance of business 4
Interpretation: According to the graph it is understood that there are various reasons like recruiting employees, offering
competitive package etc.
Question 5: Suggest Waitrose & Partners to invest more for developing talent strategies
Q5) As per your view, would you suggest Waitrose & Partners to invest
more for developing talent strategies?
Frequency
a) Yes 11
b) No 4

Interpretation: As per the data majority of participants have said that there should be invest in talent management
strategies.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above gathered information it is recommended to Labour’s and Wait Limited that they must focus on
employees so that they could be satisfied with the organization easily. The company should give priority to offering
training and development to employees so that they could upgrade their knowledge regarding their responsibility and
duty. Training and development would also help organization to make their low performer employees more efficient and
effective so that every objective could be achieved within the provided time duration. Another recommendation provided
to organization is after deciding the benefit package to employees they should revisit the packages so that it could remain
valid according to the time. This revisit helps in understanding the needs and requirements of employees from company’s
offered benefits and perks.
There are various barriers that also need to be overcome Labour and Wait Ltd, as this present time is suffering from
COVID-19 so they should focus on providing appropriate salary to employees. Another challenge would be economic
condition, as company should decide perks and benefits according to the financial position.
SECTION 5- EVALUATION
From the above gathered information it is evaluated that it is necessary to select different methodologies. In the
present project also project manager has chosen primary as well as secondary data collection. With the assistance of
primary data collection, researcher has carried out new data related to the topic that is different initiatives and ways for
attaining strategic approaches to talent management (AKEFIYAN and RASHIDI, 2017). For this human participants had
been selected from the chosen organization so that they could give appropriate information for achieving the objectives of
project. Secondary is used to collect data that already has existence in this universe and this type of information is easily
collected through sources such as books, articles, journals, publications etc.

SECTION 6- CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned information, it has been concluded that using new initiatives and innovative ways are
effective for an organisation in management of talent within a workplace. There are different types of new initiatives such
as relationship management, role design, job rotation, flexibility etc. All these helped business organisation in
management and retention of talented workers for longer time. There are also various innovative ways such as
digitalisation, internal promotions etc. These are also benefited business organisation in talent management as well as
retention. Along with this, primary and secondary methods of data collection have been used that helps in collecting of in-
depth and numerical data. This helped in accomplishment of each objective in successful manner. Therefore,
management of talent is beneficial for business because it helped them in improvement of their organisational success and
growth as well as accomplishment of competitive benefits.