Research Report: Talent Management and Employee Performance

This report presents an in-depth investigation into the significance of talent management strategies in enhancing employee performance, with a specific focus on River Island. The research explores the core concepts of talent management, encompassing HR processes designed to attract, motivate, develop, and retain high-performing employees. The report includes a comprehensive literature review, examining various talent management strategies implemented by River Island to improve employee performance, and identifying issues such as unappealing company culture, ineffective leadership, and employee turnover. The methodology section details the mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection through primary (questionnaires) and secondary sources. The report analyzes data, interprets findings, and concludes with recommendations for improving talent management practices. Furthermore, the report reflects on the research methodology and suggests alternative approaches for future studies. The structure of the report includes an executive summary, introduction, literature review, methodology, data analysis, research outcomes, conclusion, recommendations, and references.

Unit 11– Research
Project

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present investigation is related to the examine importance of the talent management
strategies in enhancing the employee performance. Talent management aimed at improving the
performance level of business. Literature review is main part of an investigation as this consists
secondary sources for attaining research objectives. In the literature review, there has been
studied about the various talent management strategies implemented by River Island to in order
to make improvement in performance level of staff members within an organisation. Various
complexities faced by River Island regarding managing the talent at workplace. In doing the
research methodology, there has been research onion considered by including different layers for
an instance research philosophy, research approaches, research strategies, research choices, data
collection methods, sampling and others. There has been considered the mixed methodology by
including quantitative and qualitative methodology. For collection of data, there has been
secondary and primary both methods are considered. The questionnaire has been developed for
collection of data in primary method and the secondary sources has been used for collect
information in literature review part.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of Research.........................................................................................................1
Rationale of Research.............................................................................................................1
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................1
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................2
Research Questions................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
Talent management in context to business.............................................................................3
Different talent management strategies implemented by River Island to improvise the
performance of employees a workplace.................................................................................3
Different issues faced by River Island regarding managing the talent at workplace.............4
Ways implemented through River Island to get over from talent management issues..........4
METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION...........................................................................6
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................6
Research Approaches.............................................................................................................6
Research Strategies.................................................................................................................6
Research Choices....................................................................................................................7
Data collection........................................................................................................................7
Sampling.................................................................................................................................7
Time horizon..........................................................................................................................8
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS...........................................................................9
RESEARCH OUTCOMES............................................................................................................21
Covered in PPT.....................................................................................................................21
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................22
Conclusion............................................................................................................................22
Recommendations................................................................................................................22
REFLECTION & RECOMMENDATION OF ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................24

Reflection.............................................................................................................................24
Alternative Research Methodology......................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
APPENDIX 1.................................................................................................................................27
APPENDIX 2.................................................................................................................................29

TITLE: Talent management as a strategic priority.
INTRODUCTION
Background of Research
Talent management is characterized as a continuous process that involves hiring and
maintaining high-quality talent, improving expertise, and encouraging them on a regular basis to
enhance results. The goal of talent acquisition is to cultivate motivated employees who can stick
with a company for a long time. The talent management encompasses of responsibilities of HR
(Aghaei, Bahrololoum and Andam, 2020). The talent management comprises all work related
systems and processes that are concerned to sustaining and also developing superior workforce.
River Island is London headquarter high street fashion brand that operated in worldwide market.
This organisation was established in year 1948 through Bernard Lewis and brothers in London.
The main focus of this organisation is to provide the high quality and designer clothes to people
as per their requirements. In River Island company, HR focus on providing the business results
by the people. The River Island transform from traditional performance management approach
towards coaching style of the feedback and support.
Rationale of Research
Present investigation has been taken into consideration about significance of talent
management strategies in increasing employee performance. Talent management is used in the
business strategy and also implemented in the daily process by an organization. This cannot be
left solely to human resource function in order to attract the staff members but rather practised at
all level of company. The present investigation is mainly conducted in the personal and
professional context. In personal context, understanding of the learner regarding the talent
management and its related importance in detailed manner (Amankwah‐Amoah, 2020). On the
other hand, in professional context, learner can know about the issue faced by HR regarding the
talent management and its related ways to overcome from them effectively.
Research Aim
The aim of this research is “To examine the significance of talent management strategies
in increasing employee performance.” A study on River Island.

Research Objectives
 To enhance the understanding about the talent management in context to business.
 To study the different talent management strategies implemented by River Island to
improvise the performance of employees a workplace.
 To identify the different issues faced by River Island regarding managing the talent at
workplace.
 To access various ways implemented through River Island to get over from talent
management issues.
Research Questions
 What is talent management in context to business?
 What are the different talent management strategies implemented by River Island to
improvise the performance of employees a workplace?
 Which different issues are faced by River Island regarding managing the talent at
workplace?
 What are different ways implemented through River Island to get over from talent
management issues?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Talent management in context to business
On the basis of Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and Scullion (2020), Talent management
refers to the HR processes which is there in an organisation to attract, motivate, develop and
retain high-performance employee in an organisation. In relation to this, there are some of the
purpose of the talent management that is to identify, recruit and hold on the people who can help
the organisation to achieve the objective of the company. This is the one which have the
responsibility to retain the talented employee in the organisation and to motivate in such a
manner that they can perform well in the organisation. In this, there is need to manage the
talented employee of the organisation in such a manner that they can give their best to
organisation which can leads to high benefits (Anlesinya, Amponsah-Tawiah and Dartey-Baah,
2019). Talent management have definite role to play in the organisation that is to find out the
skill which is highly need for the organisation to achieve the organisational objectives. After
identify the need there is need to attract the right people who can play their role to fulfil the
required skill then it is needed to organise the learning and development of the employee in
relation to give their best in the organisation. In relation to retain the employee there is need to
take provide them health appraisal.
Different talent management strategies implemented by River Island to improvise the
performance of employees a workplace
According to viewpoint of Karim Ansari (2021), concept of the talent management is
regarding dedication of company for doing all they can attract, sustain and develop best staff
members at marketplace. There are various talent management strategies implemented by River
Island to improvise the performance of employees a workplace given below:
Understand power of the job description- It is one of the most necessary strategy that
comes in to be represent an organisation and define success of company. It is necessary that the
job description should be specific by consisting the job title, necessary skills, salary and benefits,
overall duties and work relationships (Bibi, 2019).
Provide the training and development opportunities- Training is related to developing
potential of staff members. River Island will most of the cases lose talented staff members if they
are bored or underused. Provide the training and development helps in enhance the skills and

core competencies of staff members so that they can perform in a better manner (Collings,
Mellahi and Cascio, 2019).
Different issues faced by River Island regarding managing the talent at workplace
On the basis of Jain, (2017) it has been analysed that there are different issues faced by the
manager in River Island company regarding the talent management. Arisen the talent
management issues develops negative impact on the employee performance as well as
productivity of company. Different talent management issues are mentioned below related to
managing talent within an organisation:
Unappealing the company culture- The younger staff member of company expects
various working environment than predecessors did (Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and
Scullion, 2020). Employees are looking for the jobs which provide the perks for an instance
open communication policy, meaningful job tasks, flexible scheduling and others.
Ineffective leadership- In an organization, good leadership is focused on talent
management. Managers and other senior staff members have played an important part in this,
both in terms of cultivating and retaining employees. Staff managers will not have the necessary
direction for cultivating creativity due to poor leadership (Gupta, 2019).
Employee turnover- The primary aim of talent acquisition is to grow workers from
beginning to end. It will assist employees in becoming challenged, valued, and happy with their
work. Without a good implementation of talent acquisition, a high employee turnover rate will be
experienced by the company (Hamad, 2019).
Ways implemented through River Island to get over from talent management issues
Tim Frank Anderson (2021), stated that talent management is effective in making the
organisation successful as it attracts and sustain staff members at workplace. There are different
ways given below which helps in manage the talent at workplace:
Prioritize the results- In this, each one in company has experience of being micromanaged
at some point of the time. Providing the autonomy and flexibility in work will make them to be
feel valued and improve the job satisfaction level. If the employees will be satisfied from the job,
then this will help in enhance organisational productivity (Deery and Jago, 2015).
Develop healthy working environment- Under this, there is a need to assure staff have
healthy and safe working environment for managing talent. Working to maintain such kind of

environment will help in retain talent and make them productive for company. Providing the
healthy environment will give the benefit to employees.
Effective leadership- To make the leadership effective within an organization, then there is
a need to hire the talented managers. Good leaders provide the right guidance to employees and
work with the managers to fit staff within an organization (Elegbe, 2016).

METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
Research methodology is defined as the techniques or process that used to determine, choose
and examine the information regarding topic. It provides reader to evaluate on critical basis the
reliability as well as validity effectively. Research onion suggest mono method, multi method
and the mixed method as the possible choices in order to conducting an investigation. This
framework was developed by Saunders et. al., in year 2017 by considering different layers.
Research Philosophy
It is described as a collection of beliefs about the existence of truth that are being thoroughly
investigated. Both positivism and Interpretivism is regarded as positivist research throughout the
current inquiry. The reason to use the positivism philosophy is that it is related with the
deductive logical reasoning and provide the specific information regarding significance of the
talent managements strategies. On the other hand, reason to use interpretivism philosophy is that
it concentrated on manning that is based on situation and effective ways to interpret (King and
Vaiman, 2019).
Research Approaches
It is the second layer of the study onion, and it illustrates methods that an investigator
might use when doing some type of investigation. Inductive and deductive both types of the
research approaches have been considered. The reason to select the inductive approach is that it
is based on qualitative method and provides the detailed information. On the other hand,
deductive approach has been considered because it is related to the quantitative method and give
the facts concerned with significance of talent management strategies in increasing employee
performance in significant manner (Marinakou and Giousmpasoglou, 2019).
Research Strategies
A survey analysis technique was considered when conducting the new inquiry. The key
argument for using this analysis approach is that it allows for the collection of more data from a
larger range of respondents. Collecting the information from survey is cost saving and time
saving. The survey strategy is effective in providing the detailed information regarding the
significance of talent management strategies in increasing employee performance in significant
manner (Marinakou, 2019).

Research Choices
Both qualitative and quantitative assessment options have been considered. The
justification for using a quantitative method is that it offers accurate details and information on
the importance of talent acquisition techniques in maximizing employee results. Other than this,
there has been qualitative research choice considered because it provides the theoretical
information and detailed understanding about the talent management strategies (Mousa and
Ayoubi, 2019).
Data collection
Both primary and secondary methods have been considered. Since it offers new and fresh
knowledge about the value of talent acquisition techniques in optimizing employee productivity,
the primary approach was selected. There has been questionnaire developed as per the research
area such as significance of talent management strategies in increasing employee performance
(Redondo, Sparrow and Hernández-Lechuga, 2019). On the other hand, secondary method of
data collection has been considered because it provides the information from existing sources.
This method is time saving and cost saving. This method has been used to attain the research
objectives in literature review part by consisting the different secondary sources for an instance
books, articles, journals and internet sources.
Sampling
To choose the sample size for collect information, there has been 40 respondents chosen by
using the random sampling method. The selected respondents are employees of River Island
company as they are very much aware about the operations and activities of an organisation. The
main reason behind using this sampling method is that it helps in remove the biasness and
provide the equal chance to the chosen respondents effectively (Sivathanu and Pillai, 2019).

Time horizon