Analyzing Talent Strategies for Employee Attraction and Retention

This report delves into the critical area of talent management, focusing on strategies employed by organizations, particularly within the retail sector, to attract and retain a skilled workforce. The report begins with an introduction to talent management and its significance, followed by a detailed project management plan outlining the research's aims, objectives, and methodologies. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze various talent management practices, with a specific focus on Marks and Spencer. The research explores key strategies such as recruitment, performance management, rewards and recognition, and training and development. It also addresses challenges faced by managers in implementing these strategies, including retention issues, identifying high-potential talent, and communication barriers. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the data collected, offering insights into the effectiveness of different talent management approaches. It concludes with recommendations for improving talent management practices and a reflection on the values upheld during the research process. The report includes a literature review, data analysis, and a project management plan.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Contents
Title: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain people.......................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1) Aims and objectives of the research................................................................................3
P2) Project management plan for the research.......................................................................4
P3) Work breakdown Structure and Gantt chart....................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P4) Small scale research with the help of qualitative and quantitative research....................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques.................................6
P5) Analysis of the data with the help of various tools and techniques.................................6
Analysis:..........................................................................................................................................6
P6) Recommendations..........................................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
P7) Reflection on the values while undertaking the research...............................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX I.................................................................................................................................18
APPENDIX II................................................................................................................................20

Title: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain
people
Introduction
Talent management is a basic concept that is associated with managing the overall workforce in
organisation. This practice helps in retaining of the talented workforce for longer time duration
which can assist in the process of managing the high associated cost with employee turnover
(Flick, 2018). For this purpose there are some of the effective talent management strategies that
are to be used by retail sector organisations like Marks and Spencer. Present research is going to
analyse the various standard management strategies that can be used and different associated
issues that are to be dealt in order to maximize the effectiveness of retaining and attracting
competent talent.
TASK 1
P1) Aims and objectives of the research
Aim: “To evaluate different types of talent management strategies that are adopted by retail
sector in order to retain & attract competent workforce.” A study on marks and Spencer.
Objectives:
 To understand the basic talent management practises used in retail sector
 To identify various talent management strategies that is adopted by Marks and spacer in
order to retain & attract competent workforce.
 To analyse various issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent
management strategies.
Questions:
 What is the basic concept of basic talent management practises used in retail sector?
 What are various talent management strategies that is adopted by Marks and spacer in
order to retain & attract competent workforce?
 What are some of the issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent
management strategies?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Talent management practices used in retail sector
According to SUSAN, (2019), Talent management is referred as method that can be used
by company for bringing appropriate talent onboard and retaining them significantly and
effectively. In addition to this, by the help of talent management prominent capabilities of staff
members can be highlighted because of which organizational objectives can be achieved within
given time period. There are various dimensions of talent management such as career
development, learning, motivation and many more. In the present time, talent management is
undertaken as one of the important aspect within an organization as it aligned with achievement
of competitive advantage at marketplace. An organization knows that they must have the best
talent in order to gain higher growth and success in this complex business environment. It is
important for an organization to make use of effective practices in order to acquire, develop and
retain talented staff members for longer time period as it help in increasing productivity,
developing brand image, increase profitability, save time and cost, proper implementation of
activities, attainment of competitive advantage and many more (Talent management practices,
2019). In context to the retail sector, there are various talent management strategies used by
organizations. One of the strategies is providing effective employee ongoing and on boarding
training and development opportunities which reflect both the staff members and organizational
requirements. In addition to this, it help employee to gain both personal as well as professional
growth due to which an effective opportunities can be grabbed. Another talent management
practice used in retail sector is performance development planning which focus on the employee
interest for career development.
It is analyzed that talent management is important within the retail industry as it allow such
industry to establish and foster for long term, develop loyal customers, profitable customer
relationship and many more. Apart from this, there are also various talent management strategies
used by retail organization such as allow participation of staff members in decision-making as it
help in making staff members feel valued and motivated towards working due to which
objectives are attained on time period and employee did not think to leave the organization.
Moreover, providing promotional as well as career development of alternative for staff members
within the system help in retaining then for longer time. Furthermore, there are also other
strategies such as rewards and recognition, monetary and non monetary benefits, training and

development session and many more used by retail organizations for managing talent in an
effective manner.
Various talent management strategies adopted by Marks and Spencer for retaining and attracting
competent workforce
According to Corgi, (2021), Talent management is an important tool which contributes to
an organization success by employee motivation, enhancing performance and innovation. In
addition to this, it is analyze those practices especially valuable for large organization working in
highly competitive business environment. Marks and Spencer is one of the largest retail
companies in UK. By the years, it has developed a human resource management strategy that
continuing recruit and retain talent. In order to manage and retain talent, there are various
strategies used by respective organization (Fatah, 2019). One of the strategies is recruitment as it
helps Marks and Spencer to attract new talent at workplace. In order to attain this goal, the
respective organization used recruitment strategies that are targeted recruitment, job advertising,
using career portals. It helps to know about the prospective of employee and to gain knowledge
regarding skills required within the staff member in order to enhance success of Marks and
Spencer. The strategy used by Marks and Spencer is performance management. The company
uses a wide range of key performance indicators in order to measure and assess performance
which states that its approach to performance management is mainly outcome based
(StudyCorgi. 2021). Herein, organization behind their objectives and translate it into employee
performance indicators.
An organization performs monthly appraisals with additional reviews as it allows them to
track the implementation and success of its business strategy with in real time and make possible
alteration if possible. As a result, performance appraisal and talent management method
encourage staff member to show their base and contribute towards effective management of
employees. Apart from this, rewards and recognition is one of the important part of talent
management as it acquire and retain talented as well as competent workforce within the
organization (Ntaopane and Vermeulen, 2019). Marks and Spencer provide mainly two types of
rewards that is performance based rewards and general rewards. This make employees motivated
and they did not leave the organization. It also help organization to make employees put their full
potential and help to achieve the targets and attain objectives timely and effectively. Moreover,
there are also strategies used by Marks and Spencer for talent management such as training and

development, legislative environment, performance appraisal, offering competitive salaries,
providing feedback on regular basis and many more (Rademache and Weber, 2017).
Issues faced by managers and leaders in implementation of talent management strategies
As per the view point of Andre (2018), It is determined that there are various challenges
faced by managers and leaders by implementing talent management strategies. One of the
challenges is retention as in the present time employees are more focused towards their career
and prefer to retain at workplace where they achieve career and learning opportunities. In
addition to this, other challenge is identification of high potential talent which is extremely
difficult in the present time period. Ineffective leadership is also considered as a challenge as due
to which managers are not able to guide and facilitate proper roles and responsibilities to staff
members and this leads to not implementation of activities effectively and timely (Talent
management challenges, 2018). Furthermore, making the right hiring decision is also an issue
faced by organization by implementing talent management strategies. Moreover, team conflicts
and peer conflicts is also one of the issue faced by company due to which there is development
of negative working culture at workplace which in turn effect on the performance of employees
in a negative manner. This also impact on the mindset of employees prevailing at workplace.
Apart from this, there are also other challenges faced such as ineffective communication, non
fulfilment of employee requirement, employee dissatisfaction and increase in cost and so on.
P2) Project management plan for the research
Project Management plan
A project is defined as a study that is undertaken for fulfilling some particular aspect and to
attain objective for which it initialized. In addition to this, a project is mainly developed for some
particular objective and to achieve this effective project management plan is required. Project
management is basically an activity that is advantageous in aligning the efforts towards
achieving research objectives. By the assistance of project management plan, researcher can
finished all the steps and execute them in a desired and effective manner (Al-Lozi., Almomani
and Al-Hawary, 2017). There are different phases of project management such as initiation,
effective planning, implementation, monitoring as well as closing. In addition to this, project

management plan consist of different components that is needed by an investigator to complete.
The components are discussed below:
Time: It is defined as one of the important aspect that is needed for accomplishing
objectives within stipulated time period. In addition to this, timelines help the project to avoid
any delays and decline level of discrepancies (Chakraborty and Biswas, 2019). It is important for
researcher to set the time of each and every activity associated to research so that it can
implement in a proper manner. Timeline is basically the completion date of project and every
project manager should suppose to finish within given timeframe. The time provided for the
present investigation is 3 months so that all the research activities which are required to be
finished are completed within the gap of 3 months.
Cost: It is referred as sum of total expenses that is going to be take place while conducting the
whole resource effectively and appropriately (Shikweni, Schurink and Van Wyk, 2019). Along
with this, the cost component covers all the projections that are done precisely in order to
complete project in a smooth manner. It is vital for researcher to set the budget for a project and
categorize it accordingly to the research activities. The budget for the present investigation is
given as 800 and in this investigator is needed to conduct it the whole research.
Quality: it is defined as a component in which appropriate quality is being rendered through
applying various perspectives (Deters, 2017). In addition to this, for every activity some quality
standards are predefined and these are implemented within the investigation so that the overall
project can be managed in a significant and appropriate manner. In the present research, all the
data is selected through primary and secondary sources which is already gathered by experts and
professionals and this shows that the project consist of high quality.
Scope: It is related with the features and functions existed within investigation that is helpful
in achieving objectives of research. It is analyzed that through undertaking resources scope and
goals of the project it is easy for researchers to implement all the activities and attain objective of
present investigation. In context with the present study, talent management is a broad topic and
allow organization to enhance its profitability and productivity, develop brand image and many
more (Nasiri and Bageriy, 2020). This shows that the scope of present study is wide and have
fair picture in relation to various activities within the project.
Risk: It is considered as one of the important aspect which is required to be undertaken in order
to implement activities without any delays. It is defined as the level of negativity that can be

introduced within a project and might lead to failure. Along with this, for declining such level of
risk it is important for researcher to have a backup plan so that it can be detected in a better way.
It is analyzed that when risk factors are not identified then it may lead to the project failure and
due to which all the resources used will be wasted (van den Broek, Boselie and Paauwe, 2018).
Therefore, it is significant to identify the risk on time and resolve it in a proper manner.
Resources: It is defined as an aspect that is helpful in completion of project within given
timeframe. It is important to develop a resource plan that is needed to be prepared in a manner
that all the activities get appropriate resources and reach out at finishing stage (Maurya and
Agarwal, 2018). Moreover, the various resources required within the present research are
machine, manpower and so on. It is stated that when the resources are optimally utilized then it
will lead to project success and completed within given timeframe.
From the above mentioned project management plan, it is determined that all the elements of
project management plan is important to be evaluated by a project manager so that the objectives
are attained timely. In addition to this, it is also helpful in development of appropriate strategies
in order to execute research activities and achieve research objectives in a rightful manner.
P3) Work breakdown Structure and Gantt chart
WBS
It is basically a project application which is useful to systematic engineering. Along with
this, work breakdown structure is defined as an appropriate tool for carrying out the whole
activities and operations in a systematic and proper manner. It is analyzed that using this
technique is effective as it help project manager to breakdown all the activities in small segments
due to which targets are achieved within specified time period. It is basically a key structure
which organized the teamwork in different sections. In this task, it is analyzed that all the
activities is decided as per the efficiency so that positive outcomes can be achieved. It practically
categorizes activities of the same nature for attaining project targets that will be measured in
easier manner. It is important for researcher to make use of work breakdown structure in order to
divide the whole project into small segments and completed it within given time period. The
work breakdown structure of present study is given below

:
Gantt chart
It is defined as a tool which is used to set the timeline for a specific project by illustrating
schedule of the overall project. In addition to this, Gantt chart is associated with several rows and
columns in which top row represents the time frame of particular activities and the left side
reflects the project activities. Along with this, it represents the time required for accomplishment
of activities as per prescribed time frame of a particular project (Deters, 2018). The Gantt chart
involves starting time and ending time of each research activities which leads to attainment of
research objectives timely and effectively. In order to effectively understand the Gantt chart
diagram is to be presented which are useful in order to examine the progress of a particular
project and measuring activities. The Gantt chart of present study is given below:

TASK 2
P4) Small scale research with the help of qualitative and quantitative research
Primary data: It is the first and information that is collected by investigator. In the present report
there is use of questionnaire as a primary collection data technique to analyse the talent
management strategies used by Marks and Spencer (Halperin and Heath, 2020).
Secondary data: It secondary sources of information that are to be collected from available or
existing sources (Coolican, 2017). It includes collecting information from article, books, journal
sources that are easily available on various online platforms. In this research work there is
formation of literature review based on the overall lead aims and objectives.
Quantitative methods: In this method of research data is collected and further expressed in
various charts and graphs (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2021). It includes collection of information from
various respondents through methods like questionnaire and survey that are to be used in the
present research report (Onwuegbuzie, Gerber and Schamroth Abrams, 2017).
Qualitative methods: Qualitative method of research can also be regarded as exploratory
research method (Bertrand and Hughes, 2017). In this there are different questions are to be
asked from the target segment of respondents based on which their opinion are to be collected
(Valsiner, Chaudhary and Benetka, 2017).
Present research there is development of below mentioned questionnaire that includes for sample
of 40 employees working in Marks and Spencer.
Questionnaire
Q1 Do you understand the practise of implementing talent management
practises in Marks and Spencer?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
Q2 what can be some of the talent management practises that are used by
Marks and Spencer for the purpose of attract and retain talented
Frequency

workforce?
a) Monetary benefits 7
b) Better allowances 6
c) higher commitment of top management 7
d) offering of required training and development opportunities 20
Q3 Do you believe that talent management strategies will help marks and
Spencer for having a desired form of competitive advantage?
Frequency
a) Yes 34
b) No 6
Q4 What are major associated benefits of appropriate talent management
in Marks and Spencer?
Frequency
a) competitive workforce 4
b) Higher satisfaction level of customers 16
c) Enhancing the brand and market image 9
d) reduction of employee turnover 11
Q5 Is their presence of a direct relationship between talent management
process & satisfaction level of employees?
Frequency
a) Positive 25
b) Negative 10
c) Neutral 5
Q6 What are challenges that are faced by management of Marks and
spacer in course of talent management process?
Frequency
a) Dissatisfied base of customers 12
b) Higher turnover of employees 10
c) Negative employees mind set 18
Q7 What can be talent management strategies required to deal with the
issues in Marks and Spencer?
Frequency
a) Improving compensation structure 20
b) democratic leadership style 10
c) both of above options 10
Q8 What are basic beliefs based on which the overall talent management Frequency