Tesco Case Study: Using Diversity and Inclusion to Enhance Services

This case study examines Tesco's strategic approach to diversity and inclusion, highlighting its commitment to providing better services and fostering a welcoming workplace. Tesco recognizes the importance of a diverse workforce in a competitive market and actively recruits and trains individuals who reflect the diversity of its customer base. The company's diversity strategy is central to its recruitment, training, and development processes, with a focus on talent management and equal opportunities. Tesco has established several networks to engage with its employees, including groups for LGBT individuals, women in business, and Asian and African/Black British/Caribbean colleagues. The company also partners with external organizations like Stonewall and Opportunity Now to build and improve its diversity strategy. The case study emphasizes the benefits of diversity for the business, including a better understanding of customer needs, access to a wider talent pool, and improved employee morale and performance. Tesco's commitment to diversity and inclusion has resulted in a more flexible and productive workforce, ultimately leading to better customer service and lower costs.

A Tesco case study
Using diversity and inclusion to provide better services
Putting people first
Tesco is a business that puts people first, ensuring its customers and
colleagues are at the heart of everything it does:
‘Our core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime
loyalty. Our success depends on people: the people who shop with us
and the people who work with us.’
Earning customer loyalty is crucial and Tesco focuses on this by helping
customers in lots of small ways which together can make a big difference.
‘Every little helps’ is more than just a slogan. It describes Tesco’s way of
working with all of its stakeholders, and that includes colleagues as well
as customers.
Diversity
Tesco works in a competitive market where products, stores, tastes and even the way customers shop are constantly
changing. Tesco needs to be proactive in preparing to face these changes. This means finding talented people who
will be ambassadors for the brand in the communities it serves. Diverse communities mean that it needs to recruit and
train people who reflect this diversity, so that all sections of society are included.
Demographics
In the UK we have a diverse society: there are people from many different backgrounds and cultures. There are also
changes taking place in the number of men and women in the
population.
These changes to population are called ‘demographics’. One key
demographic is that an increasing number of older people are working –
an ageing workforce. Tesco’s policy is to ensure that its workforce has a
balance of different people. It is keen to search for talent wherever it
lies. At Tesco, ‘Everyone is welcome’. Tesco recognises that every
person is different and will bring unique talents and experiences to a
role:
‘Difference can be our strength because talent and diversity are two
sides of the same coin. To focus on one while ignoring the other is like
trying to run a store with no customers – it just won’t work’.
Talent
Tesco has a particular understanding of what is meant by ‘talent’. It believes in recognising the strengths of each
individual person, regardless of their background and investing in them to help reach the goals that they set for
themselves – being the best they can be. There is a constant hunt for talent:
'Talent is about people and we all have a role in talent spotting, recruiting, developing, promoting, moving, rewarding
and engaging them.'
Tesco has a dedicated talent and diversity team. This team communicates the diversity strategy throughout the
business to ensure that its objectives are reached.
Tesco recognises that within each person there is raw talent, ideas and energy. It sees that everyone is an individual
who is seeking a good work-life balance and aims to help all employees to be the best that they can be.
It encourages the business to create challenging, interesting and flexible opportunities to release this potential at
every level of the business, from the shop floor to the boardroom.
Tesco's diversity strategy
Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities are so central to the workplace that there are laws to ensure fair treatment.
For example, it is against the law to make unfair choices against people on grounds of age, race, disability, gender or
sexual orientation. This is called discrimination.
Tesco’s diversity strategy is central to the way it approaches recruitment, training and development and is reflected
throughout the objectives of the business. In practice, that means that every role and every employee at Tesco has a
place in something called the ‘framework for talent’. This framework is used to find and develop talent for the future
and has three parts:
 talent plans for the business
 career plans for individuals
 succession plans for jobs.
Reviewing performance
All colleagues set objectives and draw up personal plans for development as
part of a regular review process. Every employee has the same opportunity to
discuss his or her performance and career and is given the opportunity to get
on. In addition, managers and personnel teams meet regularly to talk about
who is ready for a move, to meet a new challenge or help them develop. This
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A Tesco case study
all takes place within a regular annual cycle, so each employee’s objectives and development plans can be regularly
reviewed and updated.
Tesco's 4 networks
Tesco has established a number of networks to ensure that it engages with all its people. Its four key networks are:
 Out at Tesco. This group represents those with different sexual orientations. It has over 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender (LGBT) members and is recognised by other groups as an excellent example of how such networks
should operate.
 Women in Business. This is the longest established network. There are a number of branches supporting women’s
issues, raising the profile of women in the business and supporting them to develop their careers through training,
mentoring and career sponsorship.
 Tesco Asian Network. This helps to raise the profile of careers at Tesco to Asian groups. It holds two events each
year where Asian colleagues are invited to attend to network, share experience and to visit a ‘careers fair’ about
opportunities at Tesco. It has inspired a series of ‘parents’ evenings’, which have helped Asian parents to understand
the career opportunities available at Tesco and understand the range of jobs their children could enjoy in the
business.
 ABC Network. This is the most recent network, which builds on an idea raised at an Asian Network event. Its aim is to
make Tesco the employer of choice for African, Black British and Caribbean colleagues and to provide training and
development opportunities which will enable more black people to reach senior positions within the business.
 Diversity partners
Tesco also has strong links with many organisations representing disabled people, such as Whizz-Kidz. It also has its
own Diversity Council. The Council sets the diversity strategy for Tesco. Its goals are to show that Tesco is inclusive,
to make everyone welcome and to play an active role in the diverse communities it serves. Tesco is currently working
with disabled colleagues to establish whether there is a need for a disability network.
Tesco's diversity partners
The business also works with a number of diversity partners. These partnerships help Tesco to build and improve its
diversity strategy. These partners are:
 Stonewall. Tesco is a ‘Diversity Champion’ member of Stonewall, a charity which exists to ensure equal rights for
lesbians and gay men in a society where they can be open, honest and safe at home, at school, at work and in the
community.
 Opportunity Now. This group offers support for gender equality in business. It is committed to supporting the
business to offer opportunities to both men and women. Its key objective is equal treatment of genders but, as it is
women who are most often under-represented, this tends to be its focus.
 EFD (Employers Forum on Disability). EFD is currently working with Tesco to help it to do a better job for disabled
colleagues. It will also help to encourage more disabled people to choose Tesco as a great place to work.
 Interviews for the disabled. A key part of the strategy is
Tesco’s aim to employ people from disabled or disadvantaged
groups. Tesco offers an interview guarantee to candidates from
Remploy, Shaw Trust and Whizz-Kidz - three organisations that
work with disabled people. This guarantee means that where
Tesco has a vacancy and any of these groups has a suitable
candidate, he or she must be interviewed. The interview
guarantee does not mean a job offer will be made, but in many
cases applicants from these partners get the job as they are the
best candidate. Tesco also offers work placements to give
candidates the experience of working in retail.
Diversity good for business
By ensuring that the best people are in the right jobs Tesco is able to compete in a highly competitive market.
Tesco’s diversity strategy brings many benefits to the business. It means, for instance, that Tesco is always aiming to
recruit from the widest possible talent pool, helping it find the best person for the job. The workforce will have a better
understanding of customer needs as it reflects the same diversity as the customer base. It also opens up new ideas
and opportunities that may arise from different cultures.
Having a mixture of different age groups within the workforce can also help to raise morale. The mix of young and
older people brings a broad range of knowledge, experience and social skills to the company. A diverse workforce is
more flexible, since it consists of a wide range of people from all walks of life, all able to work together to deliver the
best service in all circumstances. It also leads to better performance and lower costs, since employees are able to
offer a variety of expertise that enables jobs to be done effectively, improving productivity and reducing waste.
Edited (shortened) from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/using-diversity-and-inclusion-to-provide-better-
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