Research Proposal on Talent Management Strategies at Burberry

This research proposal focuses on talent management strategies within Burberry, a luxury fashion house. The introduction establishes the research's context, defining talent management and its importance for attracting and retaining employees. The research aims to determine the significance of talent management strategies for Burberry, with objectives including understanding talent management concepts, analyzing various strategies, examining the benefits of aligning workforce management with business goals, and identifying challenges faced by the company. The literature review explores the concept of talent management, different strategies, and the benefits of effective workforce management. The methodology outlines a mixed research approach, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, including primary data collection through questionnaires and secondary data through literature review. The proposal also includes a timeline of research activities and a list of references, providing a comprehensive framework for the study.

Unit 11: Research
Project
(Research Proposal)

Contents
INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH..............................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................5
METHODOLOGY......................................................................................................................................8
TIME LINE OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES...............................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH
Research can be referred to as the procedure wherein the specific technique or procedure
is being used in order to select, identify, process and then analyze the information about the
topic. The present research proposal is based on the theme ‘Talent management’ wherein a
researcher is appointed to conduct a full proof research on the given theme. The talent
management can be referred to as the process which involves attracting new employees and
retaining the existing one. It is a set of human resource processes which integrate with each
other. This simply means that the activities of talent management are bigger than sum of
individual parts. The strategy is required to capitalize on the full potential. It touches all the key
areas of human resource, beginning from hiring the employee to their on boarding (Thomas,
2017).
The organization chosen for this research is Burberry, a luxury fashion house which is
headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It mainly designs and also distributes the ready to
wear clothing which includes trench coats, footwear, leather goods, eye wear, fashion
accessories, cosmetics and fragrances. The company was founded in the year 1856 and is
currently serving in around 400 plus locations. As the present research is based on the theme
talent management, the company is planning to improve its current strategy relating to talent
management in the workplace and explore some new options from which it can manage its
workforce in an efficient manner. By inculcating the system of talent management there are
many practices which can help in effective management of workforce which includes firstly to
align its strategy of talent management with the business strategy so that the goals are achieved
by the employees and are made priority for everyone. By this research, the company can get
engage in attracting new employees and retaining the existing workforce so that the organization
can work on to achieve the goals of the company and take the competitive edge over the other
competitors (O'Leary, 2017). For the present research, the following aims are objectives are to be
achieved by the organization in order to manage the workforce.
Research Aim:

To determine the importance of talent management strategies for the company in order to
retain and attract the employees. A study on Burberry
Research objectives:
 To understand the concept of talent management into the organization.
 To analyze the importance of different strategies to talent management at a workplace.
 To examine the benefits of managing the workforce in the company in order align the
talent management strategies with business goal.
 To identify the challenges or issues faced by company in managing the talent.
Research Questions:
 What do you meant by the term Talent management in a company?
 What is the importance of talent management strategies in a workplace?
 What are the benefits attached in managing employees of company so that business goals
are aligned with talent management?
 What are the challenges being faced by companies in maintaining talented workforce?
Rationale for research
The main reason for undertaking this research is to explore the strategies of talent
management so that it can help companies in managing the employees. While this research is
undertaken, it will also support in clearing the academic concepts on the topic which can help in
future career. This research will also help in gaining the practical knowledge as to how real
companies get engage in this practice in order to retain their talented workforce.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 To understand the concept of talent management into the organization.
According to Ivanna Nosel, 2020, The term talent management can be defined as the
strategic approach to the human resource. It mainly enables an organization to support and
anticipate its performance in long term through relying on the candidates or employees with
highest potential. When developing the strategy of talent management, it is not considered as an

easy task as it is mainly based on the balance between expectation regarding skills by
organization and the skills which are available internally. The process talent management takes
place at two level which includes firstly at the level of recruitment but before integration of
talent. In order to attract and retain the qualified profit, the company Burberry must rely on job
description, headhunting, sourcing to build the pool of candidates, employer brand, etc. Second
level is long investment in human capital which simply means that Burberry must get engaged in
investing the time in training, development and learning, investing the quality tools and
equipment in order to carry future projects, rewards and recognition, etc. (Shiller, 2018).
2.2 To analyze the importance of different strategies to talent management at a workplace.
According to Michael Hocking, 2019, talent management strategy is a magic ingredient
when managing talent as it is important goals of company and the strategy can give competitive
edge to the companies. The strategies for talent management is concerned with following areas-
 Talent recruitment and attraction- The practice helps the company to recruit right
candidate at right place in right time and with significant cost. This practice is focused on
attracting such recruitment strategy which can help in profiling fresh talent.
 Building and employing talent- It refers to addressing specific aspirations and needs of
employees and then balancing it with long and short term goals of company. The strategy
such as hire v. build can help Burberry in acquiring talent in saving more cost by igniting
faith in existing talent.
 Talent retention- As employees are supreme revenue generator for the company in terms
of customer relations, sales and innovation. The company must think from the
perspective of employees when retaining them so that they can feel happy and valued and
can stay for longer time period (Polonsky and Waller, 2018).
2.3 To examine the benefits of managing the workforce in the company in order align the
talent management strategies with business goals
According to Elizabeth Quirk, 2018, there are many advantages which are enjoyed by
companies when having best talent management strategy which are aligned with their business
objectives. In context to Burberry, these are discussed below-

 Retaining top talents- As the global economy is changing, attrition is one of the major
concerns for companies. Retaining employees is essential to growth and leadership and if
talent is not retained in the workforce, it may loosing competitive advantage. So talent
management strategies help in retaining top talent by focusing on their development and
growth.
 Understanding workforce better- A good strategy can help in taking deep insight about
the employees such as their career aspirations, development needs, abilities, likes,
strength, weakness, etc. So it becomes easy for organization to motivate them as per their
needs and wants.
 Better hiring- The quality of the company depends on the quality of employees it
possess. The talent management have become the integral aspect of HR process wherein
the best candidate is recruited out of the pool of application and the programs of talent
management helps in retaining them (Roberts-Holmes, 2018).
2.4 To identify the challenges or issues faced by company in managing the talent.
According to Top Echelon, 2020, there are many challenges being faced by the Human
resource manager on their daily basis which include the following key areas-
 Attracting and evaluating the best employee or candidate.
 Acquiring the best out of all talent.
 Encouraging development of knowledge and skills in order to emerge and develop new
talent.
 Defining, retaining and developing the policy of talent retention.
 Managing succession of the departing workforce.
The key challenges in talent management is narrated below-
 Encouraging passion- The employees requires to work in such pace which can suit their
attitude, values and expectations. They want to get engage in such workplace which
believe in their worth and do something for which they care about. So the main challenge
for company Burberry is to encourage the passion within them to give their best so that
objectives of company are achieved.

 Embracing new interest- It is one of the challenges which the companies face while
retaining and attracting the Talent which involves taking care of their interest. It is
slightly impossible for company to take insight of each employee’s interest and then
make such strategies which can align with their interest (El-Emam and Khamis, 2019).
METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is a specific technique which involves using technique in order to
identify, process, select and analyze the information about the specific topic. In every research,
the section of methodology allows reader to evaluate critically the overall reliability and validity.
Research approaches
These are the plans and procedures which are used in research that spans steps from the
broad assumption to the detailed data collection method, analysis and the interpretation. These
approaches are of three types which are discussed below-
 Qualitative- In this, the investigator is engaged in collecting the information so that
discovery can be on. It involves high and detailed level of involvement in actual
experience. The result of qualitative research is descriptive and its inferences may be
drawn easily from the data which is being obtained.
 Quantitative- It involves collecting the quantified or numerical data wherein the
statistical interpretation can be made in order to bring valid and reliable result. It involves
generalization of the result and is used to test the pre- specified concept.
 Mixed- In this, the researcher is involved in collecting both the qualitative and
quantitative data so that mixed approach can be adopted in order to bring valid outcome.
Herein, both types of information is collected by the investigator in order to bring
quantified and quality result or outcome (Johnsen and et. al., 2021).
For the present research, mixed research approach shall be used which can help
researcher in drawing valid outcome for the research questions. It will help in achieving the
research aims and objectives in an effective manner.
Data collection

It is referred to as the process wherein the information is gathered and measured on the
variable of interest in the established and systematic manner so that research question can be
answered and hypothesis can be tested. The types of Data collection methods are discussed
below-
 Primary- It engages in collecting the first hand information directly from the population
so that original and valid information can be gathered. Herein, the researcher is directly
involved with respondents to collect their data, information, opinion and experience so
that research objectives are achieved. Examples of this may be questionnaire, interview,
observation, etc.
The main advantage of using this data collection method is that it helps in acquiring the original
data which is directly collected from the targeted population. It helps in gathering the first hand
information which consists of collecting its experience, opinion and information.
The main disadvantage of this is that it is time consuming and costly method of data collection
as it involves the researcher to directly get into the field and collect data.
 Secondary- It involves collecting the already existing data wherein less cost and time is
involved of the researcher. The investigator takes the existing data and interprets it in
order to bring valid outcome of the research. Examples may be books and Journals,
national or local statistics, etc. It may be done by using literature review wherein the
words of expert authors are used for drawing valid result.
The main advantage of secondary data collection method is that it helps in taking the already
collected data which saves time and cost of the researcher in collecting the information.
The main disadvantage of this is that it lacks reliability and authenticity as the pre-existed
information and data is used by researcher. It does not help in gathering the relevant information
and lacks proper results.
For the present research, both primary and secondary data collection method is used.
Research Technique

 Questionnaire- It is that method in which there are list of questions along with different
choices of answer which are may be types or printed in the sequence of acquiring specific
data or information from respondents. It consists of close or open ended questions.
 Interview- In this method, the researcher is engaged in collecting the data from small
group. There are structured or unstructured interviews. There is face to face interaction of
the respondent and interviewer and qualitative analysis is done of the interview (Piterska
and et. al., 2019).
For the current research, questionnaire shall be used in order to collect the data from the
respondents in order to achieve the research objectives and aims.
TIME LINE OF RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Gantt chart is referred to as the tool of project management which assist in planning and
scheduling the project of all size. The timeline of project management ate converted into the
horizontal chart which shows the starting and ending time of research together with
dependencies, scheduling and the deadlines. The present research shall take time of 3 months
which shall begin from 1st February 2021 to 30th April 2021.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
El-Emam, R.S. and Khamis, I., 2019. Advances in nuclear hydrogen production: Results from an
IAEA international collaborative research project. International Journal of Hydrogen
Energy. 44(35). pp.19080-19088.
Johnsen, B., and et. al., 2021. Research project preparation within education and special needs
education.
O'Leary, Z., 2017. The essential guide to doing your research project. Sage.
Piterska, V., and et. al., 2019, September. The Method of Transfer of Research Project Results of
Institution of Higher Education. In 2019 IEEE 14th International Conference on Computer
Sciences and Information Technologies (CSIT) (Vol. 3, pp. 77-80). IEEE.
Polonsky, M.J. and Waller, D.S., 2018. Designing and managing a research project: A business
student's guide. Sage publications.
Roberts-Holmes, G., 2018. Doing your early years research project: A step by step guide.
Shiller, J., 2018. The disposability of Baltimore’s Black communities: A participatory action
research project on the impact of school closings. The Urban Review. 50(1). pp.23-44.
Thomas, G., 2017. How to do your research project: A guide for students. Sage.