Analysis of Employee Discrimination and Attrition at Tesco PLC

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Impact of employee discrimination on high attrition rate: a case
study of Tesco
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Acknowledgement
I would prefer to give thanks to my professor for giving me the opportunity to work on this topic.
As he/she has given me this topic, it makes my idea clear in this perspective. In addition to this, I
would like to give thank to my parents, who support me during research. I would also thankful to
the employees and HR managers of Tesco, without whom, I cannot complete the research
properly. Their cooperation leaves high impact on my research.
Dated:
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Abstract
The researcher has considered the topic in order to find discrimination oriented issues in the UK
retail industry and considered Tesco to be the organisation. For this purpose, the researcher has
considered a literature review and primary and secondary data analysis process. The researcher
has interpreted the data with quantitative and qualitative approach. The associated graphs and
tables have been provided in the research and in accordance with that conclusion have been
drawn. On the other hand, the researcher has given proper recommendations, according to the
analysed data. At the end of the research, the researcher has linked the objectives with the
research and provided proper direction to make an approach.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................8
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................12
Chapter 4: Data findings and analysis...........................................................................................16
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation.................................................................................26
Reference List................................................................................................................................28
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Introduction
The concept of employee discrimination in workplace de-motivates the workers, as they do not
get equal treatment due to their religion, gender, age, race, sexual orientation and many others.
As per the Equality Act 2010, every employee needs to get equal treatment in a workplace, so
that, they feel satisfied in time of working (legislation.gov.uk, 2019). Therefore, in this study,
workplace discrimination related issue faced by Tesco’s employees has been negotiated
effectively.
1.1 Background of study
In order to reduce the issue related to discrimination, government has introduced various
legislation such as Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Equality Act 2010, Disability Discrimination
Act 1995 and Race Relations Act 1976 (legislation.gov.uk, 2019). However, in UK, around 20%
gender pay gap is noticed which increase the attrition rate of employees (economia.icaew.com,
2018). Therefore, it is necessary to provide reward to the employees based on their performance
for removing the discrimination concept from the workplace.
Tesco is a public limited company, which is under retail industry. The company has around 6569
shops and they serve in different places such as Ireland, UK, India, Hungary, Thailand, Malaysia
and many others. The net income of this organisation is around £1,208 million and they have
460,000. However, employees face gender and age discrimination related issue, which
increases their attrition rate. It gives negative impact on the venture (tescoplc.com, 2019).
1.2 Rationale and business issue
As per the viewpoint of Combs and Milosevic (2016), in workplace, employees want to receive
good behaviour from their hierarchy so that they can feel comfortable in time of working. At
present, employees of various organisations do not get equal treatment due to their gender,
nationalism, sex, age, religion or many others. Therefore, it leaves negative impact on the
reputation of the company.
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At present, Hollis-Sawyer (2017) stated that, due to gender issue, employees do not get equal
remuneration in workplace. Around 20% gender pay gap is monitored in UK and eventually it
decreases the companies’ goodwill. In addition to this, government has introduced various
legislations, such as Equality Act 2010 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975. No changes are
noticed in workplace of UK.
Figure 1: Age discrimination in UK
(Source: Influenced by theguardian.com, 2016)
As per the report of Guardian, it is found out that employee has faced issue related to gender and
age discrimination. For doing overtime in holidays, Tesco had announced they would pay 3.1%
hike per hour. However, the implementation of this announcement was not observed. Therefore,
appropriate compensation benefit was not given to all employees. It is taken as workplace
discrimination issue in the contemporary market (theguardian.com, 2016). In business of Tesco,
it reduces employee’s performance level as well as it ruins the reputation of this venture.
The study has focused on the issues related to workplace discrimination of Tesco’s employees,
which increases their attrition rate. Creating objectives and aim, analysis has been conducted in
an effective manner so that issue related to employee discrimination can be reduced. It can
decrease the employee attrition rate also.
1.3 Aim and objective
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The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of employees’ discrimination practice of Tesco,
which gradually develops the attrition rate in contemporary market.
Objectives
 To identify that factors influencing high employee attrition rate in the UK retail industry.
 To determine the impact of employee discrimination practices in the UK retail industry.
 To understand the relationship between employee discrimination and high attrition rates
in Tesco, UK.
 To recommend suitable initiatives to help the UK retailer to control employee
discrimination practices and increase the retention figure within the work place.
1.4 Research question
 How will Tesco be able to gain its employees’ trust after the allegations are placed on the
grounds of discrimination?
 Will Tesco be able to retain its most experienced employees?
 Will Tesco be able to provide additional benefits to the staff for working extra hours?
1.5 Importance of topic and reason of selecting it
In UK, as workplace discrimination related issue is increased day by day, the topic helps to
understand the necessity of reducing this issue for running business in a lucrative manner. In
time of tackling the business issue, employees of Tesco are involved so that they can express
their needs clearly. Thus, business issue can be solved or mitigated.
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1.6 Structure of dissertation
Figure 2: Structure of Dissertation
(Source: Created by Learner)
1.7 Summary
In this chapter, bad effect of workplace discrimination is identified. Legislation introduced by
government is also mentioned. However, it is seen that in Tesco, employees face gender and age
related issue. The way of mitigating workplace discrimination and reducing employee attrition
rate is also negotiated thoroughly.
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Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction
Literature review is a process, which is consisted of proper analysis of the relevant literature and
reviewing the opinions of the authors, in order to generalise a particular opinion of an individual.
For this research, the researcher has considered different relevant literatures, which are
associated with proper workforce management within an organisation. In the following segment
different relevant literatures and theories will be taken in order to consideration to generalise an
opinion.
2.2 Factors affecting high erosion of employees
The high employee turnover rate is a big problem for any organisation. In the retail industry the
need of employee retentions is always optimum and in this segment, major issues related with
employee retention are being witnessed. In accordance with (Aguenza and Som (2018), the
management needs to make proper changes after analysing the situation in which the company
employees are working currently. On the other hand the service providers have to make sure that
the employees are getting a balanced environment in the work station. From the viewpoint of
Alam (2015), balanced environment is a necessary thing to be taken into consideration, because
without this business management process cannot grow drastically. There are factors like low
salary, extensive work pressure, and behaviour related issues and many else, which contribute
drastically in managing the workforce. According to Monster Hiring Resource Center (2019), the
business management process relies on the hands of the administration and their sole
responsibility is to provide proper flexibility to the employees, so that the production is
maximised.
It is seen that employee turnover rate in UK is approximately 15% and it is considered as an
alarming state for the retail industry because the highest number of employees are leaving their
jobs from that particular region (Hayward et al., 2016). There have been different conditions for
different workers and that is why the rate of employee turnover is different in each segment. It is
seen that in 2017 around 4.9% engineers, 9.5% financial staffs, 17.7% event management staffs
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and many others have left their jobs. The management process needs to be checked and the
reason has to be found. In accordance with Ertas (2015), the employee retention rate is higher in
different companies due to several reasons but it is seen that discrimination is mostly reported
among them.
2.3 Discrimination in the work culture
According to the viewpoint of Wei (2015), managing the workforce is a necessary thing to be
done in order to have major benefits in the production line up. The factors that often effect
business environment negatively should be managed as per the demand of the situation. As
opined by Wong and Li (2015), giving a diversified culture is always beneficial but this may
intrigue racial discrimination to different companies and this factor has to be assessed and
monitored with supreme priority. The work force management is depending on how the
employees are being treated and discrimination from any perspective cannot be tolerated.
According to Korsakienė et al. (2015), discrimination majorly occurs in a closed work culture
whish has not tasted globalisation and the benefits it has provided. It is seen that employees are
discriminated based on race, ethnicity, language, gender, colour and many other things on which
they have no control.
A discriminated environment is a major threat for the organisations that are performing in a
highly competitive environment. There are situations where it is seen that an efficient and
performing candidate has not received any promotion where that person who has good terms
with the management has received it. In accordance with Jung and Yoon (2016), all
organisations must do a qualitative analysis in order to have information on the employee
performance and this will restrain the discrimination factors drastically. In a survey of The
Independent, it is found that more than 25% people have reported that they have faced workplace
discrimination in their professional career (The Independent, 2018).
2.4 Impact of high employee erosion due to discrimination in the UK retail industry
High employee erosion has a major effect on the work place management process. The
employees who are leaving the jobs are one of the most valuable assets of the organisation. The
management needs to find the issues they are facing in business performing ventures. According
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to Cohen et al. (2016), high turnover rate minimises production rate of a company, and in a retail
organisation were services matter the most, employee turnover creates issues that convey
misinterpreted information to the customers. The high employee erosion negatively affects not
only customers, the employees in a system. The companies to retain their employees can use
some models and they are Zinger Model, ERC's Retention Model, and Integrated System for
Retaining Employees and many others.
The workforce de-motivation is the most important thing to consider because this makes the
entire employee line up disheartened. The effects are seen in performance of the employees and
in the end, the customers give a negative feedback to the organisation’s performance. According
to Lu et al. (2016), a culture full of discrimination intrigues factors that are associated with low
performance, which is a major threat for the organisation. Discrimination gives a negative vibe to
the people who are working in the same work culture, and the ground level employees often
revolt against the higher authorities, which results in production loss of the organisation. From
the viewpoint of Grissom et al. (2016), it can be stated that the management requires to
understand the effect, which they are bringing unknowingly to the system. Often seen that
employees take sudden leaves without telling the higher authority and this makes the
organisation suffer for the day because that absent employee’s production is zero. Sometimes
deadline meeting becomes harder for the organisation and the other employees compensate.
According to Noe et al. (2017), sudden absenteeism enhances work pressure to the working
employees and authorities take harsh decision, which employees consider something against the
organisational protocol.
2.5 Summary
The issues associated with discrimination and effects of it on employee turnover have been
detailed in the previous part. The effect on work ambience in retail segment is highly negative
and the management of different organisation needs to minimise the workplace culture oriented
biasness in a proficient manner. Employee turnover is a major negative impact on the
organisation and it results in production loss. The customer satisfaction rate is falling and the
administration of different organisations’ needs to make sure that they are not practicing biasness
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in their work culture. The issues are rectifiable, but for that, the organisations have to enhance
their analytical skills to identify the threats properly.
2.6 Literature Gap
The above-mentioned literatures have analysed the issues that are present in a work culture,
mostly discrimination-oriented issues have been taken into consideration. The conducted
literature review has analysed the factors in the proficient manner but it has missed the
recommendations part in the objectives. The literature review has not given any idea of
improvements related to the condition betterment. This is the literature gap, which will be
addressed in the following segments.
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