University Project Report: Talent Strategies at Primark

This report delves into the realm of talent management, focusing on the strategies employed by Primark to attract and retain employees. The project begins with defining aims and objectives, followed by a comprehensive project management plan that outlines costs, timelines, and scope. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are used to organize the project's activities and timelines. Small-scale research is then conducted to gather data, followed by an analysis of the findings, including a literature review that examines talent management concepts, its impact on staff retention, and various strategies. The research methodology includes an interpretivism philosophy, a qualitative research strategy, and an inductive approach. Primary data is collected using questionnaires, with a sample of 20 Primark employees, and analyzed using thematic data analysis. The report concludes with recommendations and a reflection on the value of undertaking research, providing insights into the effectiveness of talent management practices.

Managing the successful
project
1

Table of Contents
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Devise project aims and objectives.........................................................................................3
P2 project management plan........................................................................................................4
P3 work breakdown structure and a Gantt Chart.........................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Small scale research for aims and objectives.........................................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P5 Analyse research and data......................................................................................................9
P6 Communicate appropriate recommendation.........................................................................17
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................17
P7 Reflect on the value of undertaking research.......................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
Appendix........................................................................................................................................20
2

LO 1
P1 Devise project aims and objectives
Every organization recruit and hire talented and experience people. For that they apply
various types of recruitment strategies. It is because strategy enable in hiring right candidate for
right job role. Moreover, staff must possess relevant skills and knowledge so that job roles are
performed by them. Besides that, HR is main pillar of an organization. They need to retain and
attract a lot of people so that goals are attained. However, retaining of staff is necessary as it
helps in gaining competitive advantage in industry and also positive culture is developed. The
use of strategy depends on company needs. Moreover, concept of talent management consists of
many things such as hiring, motivating, performance appraisal, retention, etc. of staff. So, it is
responsibility of HR to apply different practices of talent management. Besides, it is important to
attract more people as it brings in new talent and creativity (Claus, 2019).
It is important for firm to hire right people a right place. Also, they need to give training
to them so that tasks are performed in effective way. There is also need to encourage staff
continuously so that they can be retained for long term. Talent management is a wide scope and
area which is entirely based on employee management. Furthermore, TM plays significant role
for firm as it results in increasing employee performance and efficiency. In addition, it results in
enhancing overall organization productivity. There are many companies who invest a lot of
amounts in TM. This enables them to attract new talent and retain them. Apart from it, TM
strategies include doing job description, specification, etc. Here, strategies must be aligned with
company goals so that it becomes easy to achieve it. Besides, overall success of business
depends on HR as they perform tasks and accomplish goals. Furthermore, there is a particular
process which is followed in TM. The stages are planning, attracting, selecting, developing and
retaining. Each step is dependent on one another and it makes things easy to recruit the best
talent. It entirely focuses on evolution of individual staff. Also, there is need to provide benefit as
well to staff. The strategy is developed on basis of needs of firm. It has become an integral part
of business. Within strategy there are certain practices included in it as well. This enables to
identify which staff is best suited for job role. Also, it shows that what step is to be followed and
where. Then, further process is based on that strategy (Krishnan and Scullion, 2017).
3

Aim — What talent strategies do the companies used to attract and retain people? A case study
on Primark.
Objectives –
 To evaluate concept of talent management
 To analyse impact of talent management on retention of staff
 To determine various strategies in talent management
Research questions
 What is concept of talent management?
 How talent management impact on retention of staff?
 What are various strategies in talent management?
P2 project management plan
For carrying out research there is need to identify various elements of project which will
help in conducting it in effective way. Thus, the elements are defined as below :
Cost – this is an essential component that enables in allocation of resources. Cost is required to
travel, stationary items, etc. increase in cost also results in increasing time of study. For this
project total cost required will be. €2500.
Time –It is also crucial element as it provides an estimation of time in which research will be
completed. The schedule is developed and roles are assigned. Hence, here project will be
finished in 2 months.
Scope – this study will show what are recruitment strategies which is followed by companies.
The project will only focus on it and will not discuss any other topic or subject in it (Pandita and
Ray, 2018).
Quality – It is necessary for scholar to maintain quality of data so that effective outcomes are
generated. Also, it helps in securing of data and information. Hence, data is stored in database
and quality is maintained by setting standards.
Communication – An effective communication is required to conduct study. For this e-mail and
meeting will be used in formal communication.
Risk – The risk assessment will be conducted to identify risk. Then, accordingly proper
measures will be taken to mitigate it. Here, risk can be delay in completion, lack of resources,
etc.
4

Resources- There are various resources required like HR, finance, computer system, etc. in
research. Thus, better and efficient resources aids in doing study in better way (McDonnell and
et.al., 2017).
P3 work breakdown structure and a Gantt Chart
Activity 1 to 2
Week
2 to 3
Week
3 to 5
Week
5 to 6
Week
6 to 7
Week
7 to 8
Week
8 to 9
Week
9 to 10
Week
10 to
11
Week
11 to
12
Week
Identify
research topic
Review of
Literature
5

Drafting
Methodologies
Complete
Proposal
Designing
questionnaire
Collection of
data
Analysing data
and
interpretation
Discussion and
Conclusion
Submission
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Identify research topic 3 days Tue 2/2/21 Thu 2/4/21
Review of Literature 4 days Fri 2/5/21 Wed 2/10/21
Drafting Methodologies 3 days Thu 2/11/21 Mon 2/15/21
Complete Proposal 2 days Tue 2/16/21 Wed 2/17/21
Designing questionnaire 4 days Thu 2/18/21 Tue 2/23/21
Collection of data 7 days Wed 2/24/21 Thu 3/4/21
Analyzing data and
interpretation 9 days Fri 3/5/21 Wed 3/17/21
Discussion and
Conclusion 6 days Thu 3/18/21 Thu 3/25/21
Submission 3 days Fri 3/26/21 Tue 3/30/21
6

LO 2
P4 Small scale research for aims and objectives
For carrying out study there is need to have some methods in it. This is because method
help in collecting data and doing research in systematic way. It provides framework that what
method is to be used. Similarly, it is defined as:
Research philosophy: It is the framework of entire research. It shows how overall study is been
conducted and purpose of research. There are different philosophies available that can be used
such as positivism, interpretivism, realism, etc. Pragmatism uses concepts to develop knowledge
about it. However, in interpretive quantitative data is evaluated which is based on topic. The
researcher will use interpretivism philosophy to find out what strategies is used in TM by
Primark.
Research strategy- It refers to procedure followed in collecting data. Generally, there are two
common research strategies used. In qualitative, only data related to topic is collected and
analysed to get more depth understanding. It is a very easy and simple one. Also, in qualitative,
the data and information collected can be either facts or figures or theory. On the other hand, in
7

quantitative, only recent facts and figures are collected and interpreted. For present study,
qualitative strategy will be used by scholar.
Research approach- It defines how data is gathered and analyses. This will help in conducting
the research in smooth way. Generally, there are three approaches which can be used. It includes
deductive, inductive and deductive approaches. In inductive, there is emergence of innovative
theories and concepts. In deductive approach, some facts and figures are evolved. In inductive no
hypothesis is there. Hence, for current study inductive approach will be used.
Data collection – This is a process in which information is used from other related sources to
search answers of problems and examine the results. It can be divided into two parts: primary
and secondary data. Primary gather fresh data and info through various ways such as
questionnaire, survey, interview, etc. However, in secondary articles, books, etc. are used to
collect data. Therefore, for present study scholar will use primary data collection method. Thus,
here questionnaire will be used (Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and Scullion, 2020).
Sampling method- It is done to filter population for gathering data. This can be done by using
two techniques that is probability and non-probability. In probability chance of selection is equal
but in non probability chance is unequal. There are many sub methods as well in both these
techniques. Therefore, for current study the scholar will use simple random sampling method.
So, sample size will be 20 employees of Primark.
Data analysis- It is a vital element in research as results are based on it. It is a process of
interpreting and analysing data to obtain accurate outcomes. The scholar must be able to analyse
data in effective way so that aim and objectives is achieved. Moreover, to get the desired
outcomes, proper analysis technique must be used. There are various techniques available for
data analysis. Here, thematic data analysis technique will be used (Narayanan, Rajithakumar and
Menon, 2019).
Ethics- There are certain ethics to be followed in study. Here, first of all, the consent of people
have been taken who are involved in research. Also, each individual dignity was maintained, and
they were respected and treated in equal manner. Alongside it, data collected and results obtained
have been protected and secured in database.
LO 3
P5 Analyse research and data
Literature Review
8

As per the view of Tafti, Mahmoudsalehi and Amiri (2017), talent management refer to the
process of developing the talent into the management in organization and also to increase the
process of developing the talent into workplace. Talent management is the management of
human resource talent in the organization. It is one of the crucial factor of the organization and
every organization works on the talent management to increase the overall performance of the
business as that they can achieve the business objective and goals. This is very crucial for the
business and it can be done through various practices from the HR team and the talent
management team of the organization to make sure that they are working in the best
development of talent and the retention of the employee in the organization.
According to the Sheehan, Grant and Garavan, (2018), it can be concluded that the organization
are working in the development of the talent management in the organization because they
understand that retention is one of the most important factor to increase the performance of the
business. They need to make strategies by providing the employee with better process and
practices improving their motivation and confidence so that they can rely on the organization to
increase performance. Talent management help in understanding the employee point of view and
it also helps in increasing the trust of the employee on the company which also increase thee
retention rates. Better talented employee works with quality performance in the organization and
it helps the business in quality performance which is beneficial for the organization in
development and achievement of business objective and goals. Talent management helps the
organization in increasing the overall performance of the business and also in detailed specific in
the process of development in the employee performance and also in the motivation of the
employee which help them in increasing the business goals,
Van Zyl, Mathafena and Ras, (2017), suggested that the impact of the talent management and the
strategies of the talent management is very different as they are working on different ways. The
impact of talent management shows the result and the strategies and practices are the ways in
which the talent management to f the organization develop to increase the performance and
result. It helps in increasing the business result and also to make the business grow it is crucial
for the business to increase the performance. The impact of the talent management in the staff
retention is very high because the talent management increase the staff retention by providing the
different rewards and the appreciation to the employee which help them in increasing the trust on
the organization and develop the process of working.
9

Data Analysis
THEME : majority of respondents agree to that organization specific talent management
maiden in its place
Q 1. Does the organization have specific
talent management maiden in its place?
FREQUENCY
No 8
Yes 12
TOTAL 20
INTERPRETATION
From the above pie chart it can be interpretative that the Primark are providing the talent
management practices in the workplace. The graph is interpretative that majority of the
respondents are agreed to the fact that they are having the talent management practices in their
workplace. The organization is keen and are focused in providing the practices so that they can
develop the process of retaining the employee for a longer period and can utilized the talent for
10
40%
60%
No
Yes

the better performance of the organization. Marks and Spencer are having the low practices
related to the talent management as compared to the Primark (Collings, Mellahi and Cascio,
2017). They need to make sure that the organization are making them aware about the practices
of the talent management and the Marks and Spencers are not providing the enough talent
management practices in their organization.
THEME :
Q 2. Are you aware of the concept of training
and development?
FREQUENCY
Yes 15
No 5
TOTAL 20
INTERPRETATION
The above chart interpretative that the respondents are aware about the training and development
program in the workplace, and they are expecting the organization to make sure that they are
getting the training and development in the regular basis. The chart explains that the majority of
11
75%
25%
Yes
No

respondents are providing the exact situation off the organization giving the 75% to the yes as
they are well-known about the training and development program of the organization. The
remaining 25% of the respondents are not agreed to the fact that the company is using the
training and development or the people in the organization are aware about the practices or not.
Marks and Spencer are lacking in the training and development in the organization which is
causing them in loss of employee and low retention rate which they are facing due to insufficient
development of the employee working for them.
THEME : Majority of respondents feels training and development is best method.
Q 3. Which is the best method of providing
TM in the workplace?
FREQUENCY
Work force planning 8
Training and development 9
Performance management 7
All the above 6
TOTAL 20
12
27%
30%
23%
20%
Work force planning
Training and development
Performance management
All the above