Human Resource Strategies and Practices at Tesco Plc: A Report

This report delves into the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices of Tesco Plc, examining various aspects such as recruitment and selection processes, workforce planning, and employee development and training. It analyzes Tesco's approaches to employee relations, including monitoring work quality, promoting diversity, and ensuring safety conditions. The report also highlights the importance of communication and colleague engagement activities, including CSR volunteerism. Furthermore, it discusses the adoption of flexible working practices, key areas of employment legislation, and the ethical trading initiative. The report provides a comprehensive overview of Tesco's HRM strategies, offering insights into how the company manages its human resources to achieve its goals and maintain a competitive edge in the market. The report covers recruitment strategies, employee engagement, and the impact of employment legislation on the organization's practices, which is crucial for Tesco's growth.

REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
This report is based on Tesco Plc and focuses on various aspects of Human Resource
Department. This plays an important part in forecasting strategies of Tesco for achieving their
aim, objectives and goals to meet their future human needs and requirements by reducing costs
of operations and increasing revenues and sale as well.
TASK 1
A. Overview of an organization
Tesco: It is the biggest supermarket retailer, which is headquartered at Hertfordshire, England.
Their aim is to expand and diversify their businesses worldwide (Butler, 2018). They are
operating in almost 7,000 stores with key market at United Kingdom. Additionally, they sell
products in stores located in other European and Asian countries.
Purposes of HRM: They necessitate various responsibilities comprising of hiring workforce,
handling operations by implementing policies and regulations, promoting employer-worker
relationships by bringing transparency in communication channel. HRM provides instructions on
allocation of resources like capital, promotion, appraisals etc.; training and performance
management, health and safety rules, orientation programs to keep employees motivated and
encouraged. In totality, they are involved in establishment and maintenance of human resource
process and its related activities mentioned above.
Functions of HRM: Their main roles are maintaining environment through discipline, strict
policies etc. and balancing the cultural diversity at Tesco’s offices and stores as well. The tall
hierarchical structure gives immense authority to carry out the operational activities proficiently.
Their technique is to apply educational improvement strategic planning, which enlighten the
employees about their professional growth by participating actively in programs and discussions
to provide a broader viewpoint to the HR department.
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B. Organization’s approaches to recruitment and selection process
Tesco is the largest employer in the UK, whose main focus is to satisfy their
customers. Currently, they have more than 360000 staffs all over the world. They are
operating in almost 12 countries such as China, Ireland, Hungary, India, Japan and many
more. Thus, they have outlined a structured framework while hiring right candidates to
maximize their allocated resource in efficient mode.
Recruitment: This is the method to filter by shortlisting appropriate candidates suitable
for the required vacancies by Tesco using tools like consultant agencies, advertisements
through online and offline modes etc. It is of two types:
Internal recruitment- Here, Tesco lists their current employees who are either looking for
a shift within in terms of promotion or change of role/position. HRM also post an
advertisement on its intranet for at least two weeks.
Strengths- It is a cost effective method where Tesco can transfer the current employee to
another department immediately, which boost the employees’ engagement (Kazlauskaite,
Buciuniene and Turauskas, 2011). With regard to this, referral schemes can also come
under this, where existing employees can recommend few individuals and if selected,
then they receive a bonus for minimizing Tesco’s search of right person in short period of
time.
Weaknesses- This sometimes can limit the pool of applicants for the vacant position,
leading to an internal conflict. Besides, lack of fresh perspective will be evident and can
affect the office culture in rigid manner.
External recruitment- This type includes several sources like Tesco’s website where they
have a simple application process or using offline medias like newspapers or vacancy
boards at their stores, where a proper step by step instructions have been given on how to
apply by filling personal details and sending CV’s for the specified role; advertisements
on job portals and social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn etc.; campus
recruitment at colleges, universities by conducting written test, group discussions and
personal interview; by collaborating with consultant agencies for talent acquisition.
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Strengths- This extends the pool of candidates, involving skilled and experience ones
who can assist in ensuring qualified applicants who can accelerate the growth with
diversity in order to bring freshness at Tesco.
Weaknesses- This is time consuming and long process. Along with, it can be an
expensive way for Tesco to hire candidates with a probability of unfamiliarity among
new joiners and an unwelcoming attitude by current workforce who might feel threatened
by this competition.
Selection: This is the last step after filtration of candidates at preliminary stage. This
involves the management directly who follows a consistent and structured basis such as
scrutinizing application forms and CV’s, engaging candidates in various activities to test
their skills, interviewing with a background check.
Strengths- The stages involved in this method give a clear picture to both employer and
job seeker about each other. It supports Tesco in assessing candidate’s cognitive ability
and personality (Greenidge and et.al., 2012). It reduces operational costs. Furthermore,
when the employer is unable to meet individuals and can use technology to conduct
interviews for overall evaluation
Weaknesses- If poor selection occurs, then it will result in increased costs with low
productivity at Tesco. Sometimes, discrimination or favoritism can also be seen. This a
long methodology and results can be compromised by manipulative answers given by
seekers to fetch jobs.
Figure 1.Stages in Recruitment/Selection process
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(Source: Cooper, 2016)
TASK 2
A. Organization’s approaches
Workforce Planning: It is defined as the practice where Tesco plans the future HR needs
to meet the demands for new staff. This is considered for all types of positions especially
when company expands internationally, employees retire or resign or move to other
positions within and when new technology gets added or any process changes that can
create vacancy. This occurs each year with quarterly reviews in order to adjust the staff
level that might lead to recruiting if required. The important aspects are clear job
description with person specification to garner the best outcomes at appropriate
standards.
Recruitment and Selection: It is considered as a never ending procedure where an
operative search to build a brand at global level must be laid for both current and
prospective employees (Gopalia, 2011). Tesco have a detailed selection procedure and
user friendly approaches for employing that can support their progress and
improvements.
Development and Training: This consists of transforming the raw aspirant into a
dynamic and loyal staff member by effectively boosting their knowledge, skills through
teaching them about their roles. Although, recruitment incurs high costs with time, it is
vital for Tesco to provide an effective induction program successfully that maximizes
productivity with high returns in terms of fulfilling expectations of employees and make
them familiar with their environment including legalities, formal courses, probation
period, work-culture, written documentation etc. This stage assists new applicants to
settle down comfortably, saving both inconvenience and costs.
Performance Management: This concentrates on individual as well as organizational
performance by following constant enhancement techniques like Performance appraisal
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and feedback so that objectives can be managed and achieved efficiently (Snape and
Redman, 2010). This is a continuous cyclic process where learning is the keyword to
monitor and upgrade the tasks by workforce in an appropriate manner which is crucial
for Tesco’s development.
Reward Systems: The aim is to establish a reward system to motivate and inspire
employees. Tesco managers can create this loop by spotting their performance using job
evaluations. They can either follow intrinsic type (non-monetary: promotion,
recognition, fair treatment, appraisal etc.) or extrinsic (monetary/non-monetary: bonuses,
incentives, commissions, insurance, holidays and more).
B. Evaluation of organization’s approach to and effectiveness of employee’s relations and
their engagement
Human Resource Management is a system of interconnected features that support
the foundation of Tesco to conduct its operations including bonuses, work schedules,
hours of work, production targets, disputes and work ambience worldwide smoothly and
without many obstacles. Consequently, employees’ engagement is done internally on
annual or bi-annual basis.
Monitoring quality of work: For fulfilling this purpose, Tesco management must
strengthen relationship with their employees for implementing any strategic changes
ergonomically. This includes fair, reliable and transparent treatment to employees
(Macey and et.al., 2011). There might be disparities and workplace issues that can get
resolved by following a corrective action plan including clarification about disciplinary
actions, policies and procedures, which can support in the cooperative and collaboration
of employees enthusiastically.
Promoting diversity with equality: Their effectiveness has put an insight on the awareness
and counselling of workforce that must be concrete and coherent enough in creating an
amiable environment for sustenance of work-life balance. One of the ways that Tesco can
use is to implement a human resource strategy. These should be designed to accomplish
goals and objectives, along with maintaining the competitive advantages of the market.
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Safety Conditions: There are many programs that focus on the issues faced by the
employees such as safe working conditions, proper health facilities provided with
insurance and benefits. This part also consists of active participation of stakeholders in
their business. They are financially committed towards Tesco’s success or failure and
must be given utmost importance while formulating any employee related guidelines.
Tesco analyses the market trends closely to understand the customers’ demands and
specifications so that their production targets can be achieved hurdle-free.
Communication: This has a significant impact for their overall engagement. All
employees must have a clarity and an understanding regarding the rules, regulations and
policies followed by Tesco. There must be a formal two-way structure but while
implementing it, there must be an open and wider interactions in an informal mode to
make them feel comfortable and supportive by including day-to-day interactions,
organizing activities to break the ice among employees, conducting regular meetings or
surveys so that management can inform them about events and happenings of office
through proper channels like emails or newsletters etc.
Colleague engagement activities: This will assist that employees are heard by each and
every individual at Tesco. They can get engaged by organizing sessions, meetings so that
a platform would be given to all for putting their suggestions, opinions and can share
updates on company’s latest performances and financial results.
Driving engagement through CSR volunteerism: There is an accountability towards CSR,
through volunteering, where a survey can be done to volunteer every year (Voegtlin and
Greenwood, 2016). A 360 degrees’ approach must be recognized to give solutions by
eliminating problems to keep the functioning of operations pertinently and help in the
decision making for Tesco.
Comment: Adoption of flexible organization and working practice and employer of
choice
With the onset of globalization and technological advancements, flexible
workforce has encouraged to re-invent Tesco’s working practices. Along with this, Tesco
has a sound and well-engineered flexibility with low attrition rate with respect to
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operations in all their franchises, that bring an equilibrium on the motivational factor
amongst all employees for their overall development in the market.
C. Key areas of employment legislation
Employment legislations can be defined as the minimum standards that are
applicable for Tesco under law to accomplish values in all the expanded markets. There
are many different forms of legislation required for components like probationary period,
statutory holidays, hours of work, overtime, termination, minimum wages and many
more.
Human Rights Policy: This upholds the basic fundamental rights where Tesco employees
are committed to follow all the mentioned guidelines as per the Declaration of Human
Rights and the International Labor Organization Core Conventions. These are framed so
that any breach of contract can be addressed legally by safeguarding the individual’s
basic needs and rights.
Equality Act, 2010: These laws not only provide opportunities to employees against any
discrimination but also strictly adhere to the policies mentioned in their contract and have
compulsorily made it regulatory not to be biased on the basis of factors like sex, caste,
physical disability, color, religion etc.
Data Protection Act, 1998: This helps in protecting the data used by them that indirectly
restrict any illegal activities like scam, fraud or copying data or concepts of their store
layouts.
National Minimum Wage Act, 1998: They also comply with minimum wages criteria on
the basis of modified currency rates of the economy. Currently, the rate of minimum
wages in UK is 7.38 Euros on an hourly basis.
Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI): It is applied for global supply chains. This is an
important initiative so that businesses must promote decent work with sense of
responsibility. There is an inclusive part called as ETI Base Code which stipulate on the
image of the company’s commitment towards human working house, safe working
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environment, freedom of association and many more (Haddock-Millar and Rigby, 2015).
This also support the migratory laborers and provide them legal protection with basic
necessities of life to live a decent life and stable future in the country they are residing
now. This enforced Tesco to follow an ethical trade route for implementing this base
code effectually.
TASK 3
Rationale behind conducting appropriate HR practices have an influence on
measuring the employees’ performance to sustain the competitive advantages prevailing
in the world. It also has an impact on the customers’ satisfaction level and retention as
well. This concept of amalgamation of various activities such as have paved a successful
path for Tesco to enhance their organizational structure by incorporating technology,
procurement, infrastructure and HRM productively (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012).
The overall connecting link for practicing such activities hold the value chain of Tesco
that affected the entire support in a positive direction by gaining momentum in their
operations and production processes.
Document Portfolio
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9
Job Description Job
Responsible to Regional Manager
Responsibilities  To assist and serve
customers
 To monitor stock
processing by actively
handling of bulky
stock
 To follow senior’s
guidelines in order to
smooth running of
store
 To drive business
improvements and
performance in the
staff
Job Title Store Manager
Department Retail
Area of business Stores- all nonfood zones
Person Specification Qualification MBA in Retail Marketing
Skills  Ability to work long
periods of time under
pressure
 Quick decision
making
 Good communication
skills to deal with
staff and customers as
well.
Experience Minimum two years in the
same profile

Interview Cheat Sheet
Description Rating
Preparatory Notes  Technical questions
related to store
management were
asked to analyze the
competency level.
 Situational case
studies were given to
evaluate the problem
solving ability and
decision making skills
 Aptitude written test
was conducted
Confident, quick thinking
clarity of thought, honest,
good team work qualities.
Selection Criteria Strong CV with two years of
experience and is matched
with the hob specification.
Interview Panel Was challenging as panel had
five members. Candidate
faced everyone with smile,
confidence and patience.
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Job Offer Letter (Sample)
Mr. XYZ
Sir,
Subject: For the post of Store Manager
With reference to your application dated _/_/_ followed by a written test and interview round
at our Head Office, we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the same.
The policies and terms and conditions have been attached with the pdf of this offer letter. For
any queries, please contact on the below mentioned details.
Kindly report to us on _/_/_ with all the original copies of your documentation. Looking
forward to meeting you.
Thanking You.
Yours sincerely,
ABC
HR manager, Tesco
123456987
[e-mail]