Role of Line Managers in Talent Management: Marks & Spencer Project

This project delves into talent management practices, specifically examining the role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-being within Marks and Spencer. The research aims to identify the crucial role of line managers and leaders in fostering employee growth and satisfaction, analyze the challenges organizations face due to ineffective talent management, and determine effective strategies for managing and retaining employees. The project explores the importance of employee training, the impact of compensation, and the significance of a positive work environment. The methodology includes interpretivism, a deductive research approach, and a survey strategy to gather primary data. The findings highlight the challenges of ineffective talent management, such as employee dissatisfaction and technological gaps, and recommend strategies like mentoring, coaching, and providing constructive feedback to improve employee engagement and retention.

Project

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Research Aim..........................................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives................................................................................................................................3
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................3
Rationale for choosing this project..........................................................................................................4
Literature Review......................................................................................................................................4
Role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-being.........................................4
Challenges faced by an organization because of a lack of effective talent management..........................5
Different talent management strategies that can be implemented to manage and retain people...............6
Research Methodology..............................................................................................................................7
Data Analysis...........................................................................................................................................10
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................18
Appendix..................................................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Talent management comprises of various HR practices such as attracting onboarding,
developing, motivating as well as retaining high-performing employees in the company
(Acheampong, Bediako and Acheampong, 2019). The primary purpose of talent management is
to improve the overall performance of the business through practices that increase the overall
productivity of the performance. Talent management helps in making the employees feel more
productive, engaged, skilled as well as motivated. Talent management can have a positive impact
on the performance of the company as well as the employees. The managers as well as leaders
within an organization play an important role in the overall development of the employees
(AKEFIYAN and RASHIDI, 2017). They ensure that the employees are skilled as well as
committed to their jobs. Organization selected for this record is Marks and Spencer, which is a
British multinational corporation that was based within the year 1884 by means of Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer. The organisation is based in London, United Kingdom and operates
across extraordinary parts of the world. The report explains the role of line managers and leaders
in worker development and properly-being and the demanding situations confronted by means of
an organization due to a lack of powerful expertise control.
Research Aim
“To identify the role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-
being. A study on Marks and Spencer.”
Research Objectives
 To identify the role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-
being.
 To analyse the challenges faced by an organization because of a lack of effective talent
management.
 To determine the different talent management strategies that can be implemented to
manage and retain people.
Research Questions
 What is the role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-being?
 What are the challenges faced by an organization because of a lack of effective talent
management?

 What are the different talent management strategies that can be implemented to manage
and retain people?
Rationale for choosing this project
The main rationale for choosing this project is to identify the role of managers and
leaders in the development of the employees as well as the challenges faced during talent
management. This will help the researcher in enhancing their existing knowledge about the same
(Altinöz, 2018). Another reason for choosing the project is that there are not a lot of studies that
have been conducted on this topic and hence, this research will allow the researcher to gain
useful insights about the topic.
Literature Review
Role of line managers and leaders in employee development and well-being
Employee development can be defined as the process wherein the employers support the
employees to go through professional training in order to improve their existing skills as well as
enhance existing knowledge. The line managers as well as leaders within an organization play an
important role in the overall development of the employees (Brown, Sadik and Lauder, 2019).
Management and leadership have proved to be important factors that can contribute to an
increase in the overall level of job satisfaction as well as the productivity of the company. it is
important for any organization to ensure the well-being as well as the development of the
employees (Tetteh, 2018). This can be done by practicing frequent communication with the
employees. The managers at Marks and Spencer assess the training needs of the employees and
thus, conduct various training and development sessions (Chandrasekara and Weerasooriya,
2020). This helps the employees to acquire new skills as well as enhance their existing
knowledge. The line managers are responsible for managing the employees and ensuring that
they are committed to their respective jobs. when new employees are recruited by the company,
the managers as well as the leaders provide them with adequate support.
The managers and leaders provide clear explanations to the employees so that they have a
clarity about their respective roles as well as responsibilities (Darmawati, 2021). The leaders at
the respective company, Marks and Spencer promote a healthy as well as positive workplace
environment. Also, teamwork is promoted in the company due to which, the employees across
different departments are comfortable in working with each other (Employee development: The

role of the line manager, 2021). This leads to an increase in the overall productivity as well as
performance of the firm. The leaders especially play an important role in employee development
by contributing to the overall knowledge by supporting them in their jobs. not only this, they also
encourage effective career development among the employees (Wiblen and McDonnell, 2018).
As a result, they are able to contribute to the overall effectiveness of the company.
Challenges faced by an organization because of a lack of effective talent management
If an organization lacks effective talent management, there are different challenges that it
will have to deal with. One of the challenges can be that faced by the organization due to lack or
effective talent management strategies can be higher demands of compensation. Employees can
constantly feel pressure in order to deliver productive outcomes (Fathi, 2017). And when they
feel that their compensation is not up to the mark, their productivity levels can go down. This can
further lead to a decline in the overall. Levels of job satisfaction. Another challenge that can be
faced by the organization is an inexperience with technology. There can be cases wherein some
of the employees do not have efficient knowledge about using the technology (Hall and Ren,
2020). This can affect the overall performance as well as productivity of the organization in the
market. A strong management as well as leadership form the basis of talent management. And if
the managers as well as team leaders do not take charge of attracting as well as retaining high-
performing employees, the company’s profitability can be affected to a great extent (Tamzini and
Ayed, 2017). Besides this, there is an increase in the overall level of turnover as well as
absenteeism among the employees. It can be said that ineffective or a lack of talent management
can have a negative impact on the overall productivity as well as performance of the firm
(Harsha, 2021). Besides this, one of the other major challenges that Marks and Spencer is
currently facing due to ineffective talent management in its work place is that the employees
think that they are underpaid. And due to this, they do not put in required number of efforts as a
result of which, the company has to deal with the poor outcomes. It .is important for the
managers as well as leaders to adopt effective strategies in order to overcome these challenges.
Lastly, another challenge that can be faced by the organization is a lack of motivation as well as
competitiveness among the employees.

Different talent management strategies that can be implemented to manage and retain people
Based to your skills management practices, you can (re)layout some of workflows. For
example, in case you need to build analytical abilities for your HR populace, you might need to
enforce a new set of abilties for the overall performance evaluation of your HR commercial
enterprise partners. As any other instance, you can help the virtual transformation that the
enterprise goes via with the aid of adding digital skills to your corporation’s pre-choice
evaluation (Hejbarnejad and et.al., 2021). Training is mostly a crucial part of skills management.
Especially on this virtual age where corporation-extensive modifications are not unusual, it's
miles essential to educate human beings and make certain they have the talents needed to make
an effect (as an example by using upskilling them). Lastly, reflect onconsideration on your talent
control metrics; what does fulfillment appear to be in your talent control approach? Define
achievement standards and make them SMART. These are the KPIs that allow you to tune
progress. Make sure to paintings with both leading and lagging KPIs. Leading KPIs are less
accurate but assist you to expect your effectiveness (e.G., tomorrow we estimate rain with 70%
accuracy). Lagging KPIs are descriptive. They are correct but appearance again, so it is hard to
use them to drive choices (e.G., the day past, it rained). However, they do help you examine your
effectiveness in a while.
Marks and Spencer consider its employees to be one of the most important assets that can
contribute to the overall performance of the firm. Keeping this in mind, the company ensures that
the job descriptions that are developed, are concise and targeted towards hiring qualified as well
as experienced candidates who can carry out the job in an effective manner. Also, the managers
as well as leaders in the company are encouraged to provide coaching as well as mentoring to the
employees so that they are able to carry out the jobs in an effective manner (King, 2020). Both
mentoring as well as coaching are important for keeping the employees satisfied as well as
engaged towards their job. The managers at Marks and Spencer provide constructive feedback to
the employees to ensure that they are aware about their strengths as well as weaknesses. As a
result, they are able to work in a productive manner and deliver the desired outcomes. Therefore,
it can be said that by implementing these strategies, an organization can attract as well as retain
people in the workplace in an effective manner.

Research Methodology
Research methodology can be referred to as the specific procedures or techniques that are
used to identify, select, process as well as analyze information about a particular topic (Manjula,
2020). The methodology allows the readers to evaluate the overall validity as well as reliability
critically.
Research Philosophy – It can be defined as the belief about the way in which data about
the research is collected, analyzed as well as used. Research philosophy is an important
component of the research project and allows the researcher to complete the project in an
effective manner. There are two types of research philosophies, such as interpretivism as well as
positivism. In context to this research, the researcher ha used interpretivism research philosophy
because it is associated with a higher level of validity.
Research Approach – Once the research philosophy has been chosen, it is important to
select the most appropriate research approach. Inductive as well as deductive are the two
research approaches that are available and the most suitable one can be selected (Menéndez
Valle, 2017). In context to this studies, the researcher has used deductive research method
because it will allow the researcher to generate useful facts from the statistics that is accrued for
the research project. Also, the researcher will be able to give an explanation for the relationship
among exclusive variables.
Research Strategy – A research strategy can be defined as the overall plan for
conducting the research. It guides the researcher in the planning, monitoring as well as execution
of the study in an effective manner. The different types of research strategies include surveys,
case study, action research or a systematic literature review (Metcalfe, Makarem and Afiouni,
2020). The research strategy for this research is a survey as it will allow the researcher to collect
first-hand as well as reliable information from the participants.
Research Methods – Research methods allow the researcher to collect appropriate data
from the respondents. There are different research methods that can be used by the researcher in
order to ensure effective data has been gathered. These include questionnaire, interview,
secondary methods etc. In context to this research, the researcher has used a questionnaire in

order to collect the information from the respondents (Moeini, 2018). This is because it will
allow the researcher to first-hand as well as reliable information.
Time Horizons – It refers to the time frame of a particular research study and
longitudinal as well as cross-sectional are the two types of time horizons. Longitudinal time
horizon is used when the researcher repeatedly examines the same individuals in order to detect
any changes that might occur over a period of time (Mosca, 2020). On the other hand, cross-
sectional time horizon is used when all the observations are for a particular point of time and
hence, the researcher has used this time horizon for completing the study.
Sampling – It can be defined as the process of selecting a pre-determined number of
observations from a large population. Sampling is an important component of the research and
allows the researcher to save a lot of time as well as money (Murillo Othón, 2019). Besides this,
it also assists the researcher in obtaining useful and valuable insights about the large population.
There are two types of sampling methods such as probabilistic as well as non-probabilistic. In
order to collect data for the research, the researcher has used simple random sampling method
because in this method of sampling, each and every member of the population will have an equal
chance of getting selected in the sample. The sample size for this research is 30 respondents.
Data Collection and Analysis – The reality of the problem is that each company has
issues and inefficiencies. Due to the ever-changing nature of the business climate and society as
an entire, it's miles nearly impossible to perfect how an organisation is administered. That being
said, get entry to top information will make sure which you’re able to identify huge issues early
on and take action to solve them (Park and Glaister, 2019). Related to the manner records
facilitates you perceive short time period troubles, it additionally provides the tools vital to
broaden greater correct long-term theories. Data can be concept of as the constructing blocks
essential to construct coherent fashions that will let you visualize what is occurring in unique
components of your business enterprise. In order to truly put in force powerful solutions, you
need to apprehend what's taking place at extraordinary locations and in different departments.
Data allows you to try this. Everyone appears to have an opinion about the whole thing these
days. Making real positive alternate occur within an business enterprise can be hard due to the
fact it's far not likely that everybody will agree out of the gate. Luckily, if you have the backing
of sound records in your facet, you’ll be in a far better decision to push your ideas forward.

Ethical Considerations – Ethical considerations form an important part of the research
and make sure that the study is conducted in an effective manner. in context to this research, the
researcher has adhered to different ethical considerations to ensure that the project is completed
in an ethical as well as effective manner (Polonia, 2017). For instance, informed consent has
been attained from the respondents. Also, the researcher has briefed them about the research
topic so that they can respond to the questions in an effective manner. Besides this, the
researcher has kept the information gathered from the respondents confidential and anonymous
to avoid any misuse of the same (Santo, 2018). The data that was collected by the researcher was
stored in their laptop and only the tutor had access the same besides the researcher.

Data Analysis
Theme 1: Knowledge about the concept of talent management
Q1. Do you have any knowledge about the concept of talent management?
a) Yes 20
b) No 10
a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
20
10
Chart Title
Interpretation – Talent management is an important component for any organization as
it helps it in attracting as well as retaining high-performing employees in the workplace. From
the above graph, it can be stated that out of the 30 respondents, 20 stated that they were aware
about the concept of talent management because they had either read about it somewhere or their
company had implemented different talent management strategies at the workplace. They said
that talent management helps the organization in enhancing their performance as well as
productivity because the employees are committed to as well as engaged to their respective jobs.
As a result, they contribute to the overall effectiveness of the firm. On the other hand, the
remaining 10 respondents were not aware about the concept of talent management as they had
not heard or read about it anywhere.
Theme 2: Benefits of effective talent management for an organization
Q2. What are the benefits of effective talent management for an organization?

a) Increased performance 12
b) Reduced Turnover 10
c) Enhanced productivity 8

a) Increased performance b) Reduced Turnover c) Enhanced productivity
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
12
10
8
Chart Title
Interpretation – From the above graph, it can be stated that as per the majority of the
respondents, i.e., 12 respondents, increased performance is one of the benefits of implementing
effective talent management within an organization. The reason behind this is that the employees
have a clarity about their responsibilities and hence, work in a productive manner. Besides this,
10 out of the remaining respondents stated that there is reduced turnover and this is because the
employees are committed to as well as engaged in their respective jobs. It can also be stated that
the remaining 8 respondents said that talent management should be implemented in the
workplace as it helps in enhancing the overall productivity of the employees to a great level.
Therefore, these were some of the benefits that were stated by the respondents in the
questionnaire.
Theme 3: Challenges faced by an organization due to lack of talent management
Q3. What are the different challenges that can be faced by an organization due to lack of
talent management in the workplace?
a) Low motivation among employees 10
b) Poor job satisfaction 10
c) Increased turnover 10