Balfour Beatty Rail: Talent Strategies to Attract & Retain People

This report examines talent management strategies, focusing on attracting and retaining talent within organizations, specifically using Balfour Beatty Rail as a case study. It begins with an introduction outlining the project's aims, objectives, and the organizational context of Balfour Beatty Rail. The report details a project management plan including cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are utilized to illustrate project phases and timelines. Research methodologies, including primary and secondary methods, are described, followed by data analysis and interpretation of findings regarding talent management. The report then provides recommendations based on the research and concludes with a reflection on the learning process.

What talent strategies
do the best companies
use to attract and
retain people
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
The project aims and objectives..................................................................................................3
Project Management Plan...........................................................................................................5
A work breakdown structure and a Gantt Chart to provide timeframes and stages for
completion...................................................................................................................................6
Research Methodologies.............................................................................................................9
Data analysis and Interpretation................................................................................................13
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................19
Reflection..................................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22
2

Topic: “What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract
and retain people?”
INTRODUCTION
The chosen organisation for the report is B alfour Beatty rail which was founded in 1909 in
Germany. It is one of the largest organisation in Germany to give the services to the
people. They are giving good services to the passengers and they are giving the solution
to the customers. The report includes project aims and objectives, project management
plan, a work breakdown structure and a Gantt Chart, small-scale research applying
primary and secondary methods, findings and data using appropriate tools and techniques,
recommendations and objectives and own learning and performance.
The project aims and objectives
Overview of the organisation
The B alfour Beatty rail is the British multinational which was founded in 1909 in
UK. It was founded by George Balfour and Andrew Beauty and has 26000 employees.
It is operating in many countries and is one of the largest organisations
(Kontoghiorghes, 2016). The organisation is communicating with the customers and
giving them the products. It includes different products like rail systems which is
helping them in analysing the performance of the organisation, rail plant services and
asset management.
Balfour Beatty is international recognised German based organisation that leading in rail
construction business. This company offers railway tracks, electrification, highway services and
assets management, project finance, specialist services, civil mechanical and electrical
engineering services. Organisation offers innovative solution in more than 30 countries to meet
costumer objectives. For over an years company shapes the world with new technology and build
new environment. They invest locally and maintain sustainability to link with communities as
well as create world class infrastructure. They provided services like project life-cycle, up-
gradation of construction along with maintenance.
Industry deals in one of the largest complex infrastructure project as well as project with
locality. Supply chain of this company provides invaluable resources to their costumer. The
relationship management with supply chain partner play key role in successful of their project as
3

they deliver all project as per requirement. Vision of this entity is zero harm culture with their
suppler. They work only with those suppliers who are maintaining safety measures. Company
strongly believe that they together can improve safety culture. Efficient and effective provides an
opportunity to innovate more positive results as well as achieve zero harm vision.
Organisation experience almost 110 years in this industry and working almost
complex culture. They apply code of conduct that helps in making right decision in
project execution. It serves many communities and build up trust and confidence which
leads towards in favour of the company. They set a bar which generate link between
stakeholders, costumer,employee and suppliers. Risk management is analysis at all the
level of organisation to improve profitability and cost of operation. Company keep on
establishing strategies for the growth and long term survival in particular industry. It
focus on external as well as internal control that facilitate in achieving long term goal of
the company (Taneja, Sewell and Odom, 2015).
Research Aim
“To analyse the role of talent-management-strategies in attracting and retaining
talent at workplace.
Research Objectives
Objectives
 To know about concept and importance of talent-management.
 To determine various talent-management strategies used by Balfour Beauty rail
to attract and retain talent in organisation.
 To explore the issues faced by Balfour Beauty rail while attracting and retaining
talent at workplace.
Research Questions
 What is talent-management?
 What are the various talent-management strategies used by Balfour Beauty rail
to attract and retain talent in organisation?
 What are the issues faced by Balfour Beauty rail while attracting and retaining
talent at workplace?
Project Management Plan
Project management plan(PMP)
4

It is used by the organisation to define the stages of the plan and it will help in
increasing the performance. The organisation is having stages in the plan that includes
initiation, plan, execution, monitor and control. The project management plan will help the
organisation in communicating with the employees who are helping them in increasing
performance (S mither, Houston and McIntire, 2016) . It helps in reducing the costs of the
organisation and the methods that will help them in giving good products.
Project management plan is a document that describe various stages in a project report in
a suitable way. It includes various stages like planning , executing, monitoring and controlling. It
helps in coordination and communication among different members and assist the project work
by providing information in various departments. This process reduce cost of the manager and
also save time of the project. Through this system whole research will execute in a very
appropriate manner within given time frame.
Cost:- Costing is the amount of which is incurred in the execution of the project. For
research collection of exact information or data is required from the authenticity sources. It is
important to plan a project budget in advance which provides a base for setting up goal of the
project. This is the first step towards implementation of successful project plan.
Scope:- This determine the scope of assignment which is provided in research work. It
helps in decision making for diversified strategy of project file. On the other hand scope of the
project help researcher in expanding business strategy.
Time:- It includes time period which required for the completion of the given work. This
will help in managing all task divided in such way to complete within given time period. It is
framework that depends on company to company ( Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018). It is
most important to set up predefined time period which automatically help in execution of the
project. Timely management of research work will help in managing future work.
Quality:- This aspect includes the quality of the content which is used in the project file.
Data or the information must be collected from authentic resources or the relevant resources.
Content of research must be relevant in a proper manner to avoid any false practice. This
component defined accuracy of the main body content.
Communication:- This element include interaction through various channel, it can be oral
or written. It will improve time, cost and quality of the project ( Buchanan and Huczynski,
5

2019). Communication gap will leads to project delay or project failure. Communication helps
in collecting data from various departments which interlink all project effectively and efficiently.
Risk:- Risk analysis should be done be researcher for the successful completion of work.
In order for the completion of the project risk is involved in various stages like insufficient
budget, lack of information, time period etc. Apart from this company may face unskilled staff,
lack of coordination, demotivation among staff, inappropriate use of resources. All these
resources have to manage very effectively and efficiently for successful completion of project.
Resources:- In conducting research work resources play a key role in project. This
component helps in identify relevant resources. From the point of view of research work
resources are most important in finding accurate data in given time frame. In context of
organisation skilled and qualified staff will provide detailed and accurate project report in
exact time frame at specified budget frame. Researcher must keep on checking all resources
or evaluate according to the demand of the project file.
A work breakdown structure and a Gantt Chart to provide timeframes and stages for
completion
The organisations are having the time frames that will help them in measuring
the performance (Al-Emadi, Schwabenland and Wei, 2015). The methods used by the
B alfour Beatty rail are
Work breakdown structure
The work breakdown structure is the process used by the organisation to divide
the complex task in simpler form and they are easy to improve the performance. It is
used by the project manager to make it easy for them to work. The work breakdown
structure is used by the organisation when there are huge activities and they will have to
communicate with the employees to improve the performance. The organisation will
have to analyse the performance and helps them in making the decisions. The
employees will help them in analysing the cost, work and different factors that will help
them in increasing the performance. The organisation is having may factors that are
helping them in giving the products.
Work breakdown structure is the structure of dividing whole segment or work
into sub segment. It may consist of work data or services that decentralised whole
framework into sub parts. This module mainly focus on sub division of efforts into sub
6

parts that helps in achieving main goal of the organisation. It helps in defining total
scope of a project in the organisation. This framework decentralised the responsibility
between hierarchical structure within organisation. Through this it reduce the work load
among employee of the company. In this element total work divided moves towards in
achieving main objective of the industry. It improves coordination and communication
Gantt Chart
It is the process that will help the organisation in planning the work. They are
having activities and the schedule that are increasing the performance of the
organisation. The Gantt Chart is helping the organisation in the giving the activities on
horizontal and vertical axis that is helping them in analysing the work. It will help the
organisation in planning and controlling of the activities and they will help in improving
the performance.
Gantt chart is a type of bar chart which is majorly used in project management. It
is one of the useful way visual view of task or activity against time scale. Now-days it is
used for tracking schedule of the project. This framework provides details of the task,
project or activities that is useful for the company in project completion. It is useful in
the planing of the project and scheduling what type of project to be done on which
particular day. It enhance maximization of float time that are available in all type of
task.
Activities Duration
Problem Identification 1 months
Aims and Objectives 1 months
Research Methodology 2 months
Data Collection 2 months
Data Analysis 1 months
Conclusion and recommendations 1 months
Reflection 1 months
Submission 3 months
7

Literature Review
Concept and importance of talent-management
As per the view point of SUSAN M. HEATHFIELD, (2021), it is analysed that talent-
management is basically an organisation's commitment to retain, hire, recruit as well as develop
superior and talented staff members prevail at job market. In addition to this, talent-management
8

help company to decline employee turnover rate that has positive impact on the performance of
company. Moreover, it help in developing brand image at marketplace and also aid in raising
performance as well.
Talent-management strategies used by Balfour Beauty rail to attract and retain talent in
organisation
According to Karim Ansari, (2019) it is determine that talent-management strategies
assist business entity to satisfy and retain employees at workplace. One of the strategy is
employee participation in decision making which motivate them and bring innovation at
workplace. Another strategy is providing training and development to staff members that
enhance skills of employees and retain them for longer time. Moreover, providing high
compensation to employees due to which staff members are satisfied and retain at workplace for
longer time period.
Issues faced by Balfour Beauty rail while attracting and retaining talent at workplace
As per the view point of Brek, (2017) it is analyse that there are various issues faced by
companies while focusing on employee retention and attraction. One of the issue is ineffective
leadership due to which the problems of staff members is not resolved. Another issue is high
demand of compensation by employees that impact directly on the performance and profitability
of an organisation. Apart from this, there are also other issue that is increase in employee
turnover rate, decline in profitability and many more.
Research Methodologies
It is the process used by the organisation which is helping them in collecting,
analysing and interpreting the information. The research is important for the
organisation to analyse and interpret the performance and they will help them in giving
the products. This will help the organisation in analysing the information and increasing
the performance. The Research Methodologies used by the organisation are
Primary method- The primary research is the methods used by the organisation
to analyse the information first time and they are helping in solving the issues. The
primary research is the process in which the researcher is having the issues and they are
solving it to improve the performance (Anderson, 2015). It is a time consuming
9

methods used by the organisation and they are increasing the costs. The primary
research includes different factors like focused groups, case studies, telephonic
interview and personal interviews.
Primary method is the source of research that is used in collecting various
information for research report. This type of research is mainly conducted by own-self.
It consist of going directly to the sources for collecting data. Elements of this method
are consist of interview, surveys, questionnaire and focus group. It take long period of
time in doing research and also the cost of the research is high as compare to secondary
method. Basically it conducted two type of data that is exploratory and specific. In
exploratory, lengthy interviews take place that include open-ended questions. Whereas
in specific, it involve more precise, structured and formal interview.
Secondary method- The secondary research is the method used by the
organisation to analysing the information which is collected by the researchers. It is not
the actual issues by the researcher will have to solve it for the organisation ( Guo and Al
Ariss, 2015). It is helping the organisation because it takes less time and it is reducing
the costs. The researcher takes the help of the different factors that will help them in
increasing the performance. The focus of the secondary research is to analyse
performance of the organisation.
Secondary research is the method in which information is collected or conducted
by others. It consist of reports, educational studies, government agencies or articles.
This type of research is less time consuming along with affordable budget. Mainly small
business or start-up company prefer secondary method due to short of time and budget.
This form of research is easy available on the web at free cost. The raw data is already
available from different type of sources which made this method very easy to use. But
the result or output of the research may not specific as per requirement.
For the present research, both the methods of data collection method is used. IN
context primary method, survey method is used and for collecting secondary data,
literature review is used. This assist researcher to gain valid and reliable results in an
appropriate manner.
Qualitative research- It is the process that is helping the organisation in analysing
the qualitative factors of the research. It is including the qualitative factors of the
10

research not the numbers. It includes the interview and observation and the opinion of
the people is important for the research. The sample size of the research is small and the
are expensive for the organisation. The organisation has to focus on the factors that will
help them in improving the performance (Muthuveloo, Shanmugam and Teoh, 2017).
Qualitative research is marketing research method for obtaining data of non
numerical information to understand in depth concepts. It is opposite of quantitative
research and it is used in social science, humanities, education, history etc. It helps in
understanding the reality of society. This methodology involves what people think and
why they think. It is originated from social and behavioural sciences. It usually obtained
information in which respondent experience some problems or issues. This help in
solving complex problems by dividing data into meaningful and understandable. There
are multiple forms of data collection like observation, interviews, documents etc.
Quantitative research- It is the process which is used by the organisation to
analyse the performance of the organisation (Wilton, 2016). They are having factors that
can be analysed in the quantitate research and they will help in solving the issues. The
sample size of the research is large and they are having numbers which is helping the
organisation in analysing the performance. It is including survey, face to face interview
and different factors that will help them in analysing the information of the organisation.
In the present study, quantitative research method is applied by researcher as it
assist in collection of data that is in numeric form. In addition to this, it also aid in
collecting information in less time and cost as well.
Sampling is methodology of selecting small subset of population from whole population.
It analysis numerical and statistical data of the given information. It is the efficient and effective
method of conducting research work ( Scott and Davis, 2015). In some cases large population
is difficult to select, as it would be costly and time consuming then researcher uses sampling
method. This method provides accurate data from the large population. It is the safest way to
collect information and analyses sample can be easily apply to large population. It is assumes
that whatever sample is chosen it fit to be true for whole organisation ( Delery and Gupta,
2016). The sample size in this research is 30.
There are mainly two types of sampling that is probability and non-probability
sampling method. For conducting the research, random sampling which is a form of
11

probability sampling method is taken into consideration. The main reason of using this
method is it assist in providing equal chance and also assist in selecting large sample
size.
From the above statement it is concluded that primary and secondary resources
are needed for the execution of the research report. Through these resources researcher
can achieve all goals of the project and well defined research. For gathering various
information both types of resources are needed. General quantitative method consist of
experiment, observation survey with close ended questionnaire. However general
qualitative method includes open ended questionnaire. These resources help the
researcher to find out different types of relevant information for different research
question. Primary resources is degree of own research but secondary research is depend
on someone else research.
Questionnaire
It is the element of primary research resources that consist of various set of
questions,it collect data from the respondent. It is very excellent way to gather information
quickly. Good questionnaire consist of uniformity, exploratory and sequence question. Lets
discuss in detail about its types.
1- Open Ended – The data is collected in this form of questionnaire where respondent can answer
in free from with no restrictions.
2- Close Ended – It generally include yes no type of questionnaire, it is used in case of necessary
finding.
3- Multiple choice of questionnaire- Multiple choice of question includes various set of incorrect
and one correct options which respondent select one option out of other options.
4- Pictorial questionnaire- This is very easy to use and friendly to respondent in which answer
choice is in image format. It provides more accurate data and respondent reply in a quickly way.
5- Scaling questionnaire – It is based on four principles nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio,
that utilize properties like rank order.
Name-
Age-
12