Effective Talent Management Strategies for Waitrose: Research Report

This report investigates talent management strategies that Waitrose can implement to enhance its business success. The research employs a mixed-method approach, including literature reviews, questionnaires, and interviews to gather data. Key findings reveal that 80% of respondents understand the benefits of talent management, while 40% identify diversity and inclusion as critical tools. The study also highlights employee turnover as a major challenge, with 40% of respondents agreeing. Results are analyzed using frequency distribution and thematic analysis. The report concludes that talent management strategies are essential for Waitrose's success, recommending their use to improve talent management practices. The research covers concepts like job descriptions, continuous training, leadership, and challenges such as employee turnover and lack of leadership, providing a comprehensive overview of talent management within the context of the organization.

Talent Management
(What are various talent management strategies that a
company can adopt to become successful?)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Main aim and purpose of this research project is to determine the different strategies of
talent management that Waitrose can implement to achieve success. For attaining this purpose,
different activities or tasks have been completed successfully. Literature review is a main activity
that has been done with the use of secondary sources i.e. books, articles etc. There are various
types of research methodologies used by investigator for achieving each objective of the study in
successful manner. These methodologies are mixed method, questionnaire and interview etc.
Main findings of current research are 80 % respondents had accurate knowledge about the talent
management and its benefits in improvement of business success. It has been find out the 40%
respondents said as diversity and inclusion is a main tool that helped company in talent
management. It has been understood that high employee turnover is major issue faced by
company while management of talent. For this statement, 40% out of 100% respondents are
agreed. Results and discussion have been done by using frequency distribution analysis and
thematic analysis. Main conclusion of the current project is all objectives are achieved
successfully. Main recommendation of the project is use of talent management strategies would
help company in talent management.

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................4
RESULTS/FINDINGS....................................................................................................................6
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................18
REFELECTION.............................................................................................................................19
Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
business research project......................................................................................................19
Alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in view of the outcomes................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................21
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................21
Interview...............................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
The concept of talent-management is a quite vital concept that consists of the main scope of
HR process. Talent management is a wide scope that comprises of attracting and recruiting the
most talented candidates, along with leading and ensuring their development and improvement
for having improved skills and competency level (Crane and Hartwell, 2019). Beside this,
ensuring proper monitoring and check over the skill level to identify the need of training along
with retaining these talented employees for a longer period who are taken as high performing
employees also forms a vital part of talent management. Thus, an analysis can be made out that
the concept of talent management leads to a way for organisation that is effective in guiding and
directing its employees towards effective and better performance by the way of developing their
skills and competencies.
Waitrose is a given organisation for this research project that is specialising in producing of
food products to the customers. Company was founded in 1904 by Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose
and David Taylor, and headquartered in Bracknell, Berkshire, and Victoria, London, United
Kingdom. Company wants to improve their business performance and growth that is only
possible with talent management. For managing talent, company can use different strategies and
take initiatives such as job rotation, providence of continues development, self-motivation etc.
These strategies are useful for them in talent management that result in accomplishment of
competitive benefits (Abdollahbeigi, 2021).
Aim and objectives
Aim: To determine different strategies of talent management that a company can implement to
achieve success: A study on Waitrose.
Objectives:
 To study about the concept of talent management.
 To examine different strategies of Talent management that could be implemented by
company to attain success.
 To study about various challenges that a company face in Talent management.
Research questions
 What are various talent management strategies that a company can adopt to become
successful?
1

LITERATURE REVIEW
To study about the concept of talent management
As per the information provided by Fadillah Ismail, (2018), it has been analysed that the
concept of talent management in any organisation is vital is to bring out a more positive
influence on the performance and success level. An analysis can be made out that talent
management is a concept that leads to the better and more effective compliances oriented culture
within the internal premises of a firm that regulates and manage by the Human resource
department to bring improved motivation and performance in employees. Thus, talent
management is basically the practise that has been utilised by the manager to identify the
effective competency of workforce for providing them better opportunity platform. Apart from
this, it has been seen that the concept of talent management also includes and comprises of better
strategic planning for effective and flexible recruitment of talented employees to ensure a more
skilled and competent workforce. Beside this, talent management also ensures hiring of potential
candidates along with enforcing to retain them by the way of facilitating the better training and
development towards the employees to have better skills and effective knowledge improvisation
on continuous basis.
To examine different strategies of Talent management that could be implemented by company to
attain success.
According to the Barkhuizen and Gumede (2021), it is important for an organisation use
of different strategies for managing talent at workplace. There are various talent management
strategies that are descried as below:
Know the power of job description: This is an essential strategy of talent management
for Waitrose. A concise job description summaries from the get-go what business expect from
their candidates. There are some specifications such as job title, necessary skills, salary and
benefits, work relationship etc. Therefore, by knowing the specifications of candidates, company
can hire talented employees that help in management of them for longer time.
Provide continuous opportunities of training and development: This is another talent
management strategy for Waitrose to use and mange talent within an organisation in effective
manner (Beamond, Farndale and Hartel, 2021). For this, company become able in providence of
opportunities related to the training and development to their employees. This turn to help in
2

increment of knowledge about the business among employees that result in improve
organisational performance.
Therefore, above mentioned all these are main strategies of talent management that could
be followed by Waitrose for achieving better outcomes and competitive advantages within
minimum period of time and in successful manner.
To study about various challenges that a company face in Talent management.
As per the opinion of Dayeh and Farmanesh (2021), there are various challenges that
Waitrose face while managing talent at workplace. Some challenges are explained as below:
Increased employee turnover: Human resource manager of Waitrose continues faced the
issue of high employee turnover. Expectations of talented employees regarding the pay are too
much high and HR is not able to fulfil their expectations. This turn to increase high employee
turnover that negatively impact on business performance. In order to overcome this challenge,
there is responsibility of human resource to provide rewards and benefits according to
employee’s performance. This will help them in reducing of high employee turnover effectively.
Lack of leadership: This is another biggest challenge faced by Waitrose while managing
talent at workplace (Dina and Selline, 2021). Talented employees require proper leadership
because they work towards achievement of organisational goals and objectives. Having a lack of
leadership at workplace is a major challenge for company. For overcoming the challenge of poor
leadership, there will be a requirement of developing a plan for training to new employees.
3

METHODOLOGY
This section forms out a vital part of every investigation as this the section that facilitates
information about the research method and approaches that are used to perform or carry out an
investigation in more systematic and effective manner. The research method and strategies that
are being applied for systematic collection of data, its proper analysis and interpretation to meet
set objective and reach out a specific conclusion are provided and facilitated as below:
Research philosophy- this section of methodology facilitates information about the way of
collecting knowledge about a specific topic that is divided into two main types i.e. positivisms
and interpretivisim. With respect to current investigation use of positivistic form of research
philosophy is made as it supports objective nature of investigation that is more systematic and
practical to meet the set objective in efficient manner.
Research approach- entire plan for collecting, analysing and interpreting the data has been
facilitated and provided by this section of research methodology that has been also divided into
two main parts i.e deductive and inductive (Dorasamy, 2021). With respect to current
investigation, use of deductive approach is made which is justifiable to support the positivistic
philosophy along with ensuring and leading out more effective testing and scanning of the
numeric form of data which ensures a specific and measurable set of research results.
Research strategy- this forms out a vital part of research methodology which set a base and
framework for data collection and other research activities through leading information about the
tool or strategy used for collection of data. A larger number of research strategies are there which
consist of grounded theory, action research, survey, interview, experiments, observation and
many more. With respect to current investigation, use of survey as well as interviews questions
has been made. The justification and reason behind making use of interview strategy comprises
of the fact that it supports detailed information about the behaviour and attitude of participants
by the way of theoretical information. Beside this, use of survey strategy is also made as it leads
to collection of data in more time and cost efficient manner through making use of questionnaire.
Choice of method- there are three main choices of method are available for every
investigator comprises of qualitative, quantitative and mixed method of research. The qualitative
method of research is mainly associated with collection of data in detailed and theoretical form
that is more complex and time consuming (Nowak and Scanlan, 2021). On the other hand,
quantitative method of research is related with the collection of data in numeric terms that is
4

easier to collect and present. With respect to current investigation, use of mixed method of
research has been made which comprise of application of both qualitative as well as quantitative
nature of research method.
Data collection: There are two effective methods of data collection i.e. secondary and
primary. Within a research project, both methods of data collection are applied by researcher. In
order to gather primary information, questionnaire and interview is developed by researcher. For
gathering secondary type of data, there are some sources that have been used for literature
review. These are journals, books, magazines and many other applicable to the research title.
Main purpose regarding the use of both methods of data collection is helps researcher in
accomplishment of each objective effectively (ODINTSOVA, 2021).
Sampling: There are two important techniques or methods of sampling that are probability
and non-probability. According to the current project, probability is a selected technique of
sampling. With the use of probability sampling 25 employees and 2 mangers of Waitrose are
selected randomly. 25 employees are selected for questionnaire and 2 mangers for interview.
Main reason for selecting probability technique is its cost and time effective as compare to non-
probability sampling.
Research instruments: There are various instruments of the research including interview,
questionnaire, focus group etc. These are effective but in accordance to the current project,
interview and questionnaire are two selected research instruments. Interview is useful in
collecting of qualitative data, whereas questionnaire is effective in gathering of quantitative
information.
5

RESULTS/FINDINGS
Results of the research project are based on qualitative and quantitative data. Within a
research project both types of data are collected from interview and questionnaire. For evaluating
both types of data, there is requirement of using a research analytical technique (Sehatpour,
Abedin and Kazemi, 2021). In order to evaluate qualitative type of data gathered from interview,
thematic analysis is applied by researcher. For evaluating quantitative data, frequency
distribution analyse is used. Therefore, both techniques are shown as below in tabular format:
Frequency distribution analysis
Q1 Are you aware about the concept of talent management in context of
Waitrose?
Frequency
a) Yes 80%
b) No 20%
Q2 How talent management helps Waitrose in improvement of its success
and growth?
Frequency
a) Helps in improvement of organisational performance 28%
b) Increased innovation 36%
c) Helps in achievement of competitive advantages 36%
Q3 What are the main tools that are required by Waitrose for managing
talent at workplace?
Frequency
a) Workforce planning 32%
b) Leadership development 28%
c) Diversity and inclusion 40%
Q4 What are the main reasons for Waitrose to invest in talent
management?
Frequency
a) Attract top talent 40%
b) Increase employees performance 32%
c) Higher customer satisfaction 28%
Q5 What are the initiatives that should be taken by Waitrose for managing
talent at workplace for longer time period?
Frequency
a) Succession planning 36%
6

b) Recognition and rewards 24%
c) Job rotation 40%
Q6 What are the different strategies of Talent management that could be
implemented by company to attain success?
Frequency
a) Know the power of job description 32%
b) Provide continuous opportunities of training and development 32%
c) Cultivate an honest career path 36%
Q7 What are the various challenges that a company face in Talent
management?
Frequency
a) High employee turnover 40%
b) Poor leadership 32%
c) Unappealing company culture 28%
Q8 What ways are useful for Waitrose in overcoming the challenges linked
with talent management?
Frequency
a) Attract the right people 40%
b) Develop strong leadership 32%
c) Development of inclusive working environment 28%
Results of quantitative data
Q1 Are you aware about the concept of talent management in context of
Waitrose?
Frequency
a) Yes 80%
b) No 20%
7

Q2 How talent management helps Waitrose in improvement of its success
and growth?
Frequency
a) Helps in improvement of organisational performance 28%
b) Increased innovation 36%
c) Helps in achievement of competitive advantages 36%
Q3 What are the main tools that are required by Waitrose for managing Frequency
8