Research Proposal: Impact of Employee Retention on Tesco's Performance

This research proposal investigates the impact of employee retention on the organizational performance of Tesco, a major retailer. It begins by introducing the concept of employee retention and its importance in reducing employee turnover, highlighting the challenges Tesco faces in retaining talented employees, such as hiring costs, low productivity, and morale issues. The research aims to analyze the concept of employee retention, its impact on Tesco's performance, the challenges faced by Tesco, and recommend effective retention strategies. The literature review explores different perspectives on employee retention, its effect on organizational performance, and the difficulties Tesco encounters. The proposal outlines a research methodology including research philosophy, approach, strategy, and data collection methods. It also addresses ethical considerations, research limitations, and a timeline for the study. The research questions focus on understanding the concept of employee retention, its impact on Tesco's business performance, the challenges faced, and strategies for retaining employees.

Research Proposal

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
1.1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
1.2 Study background..................................................................................................................4
1.3 Problem statement.................................................................................................................4
1.4 Benefit of undertaking this research.....................................................................................5
1.5 Motivation.............................................................................................................................5
1.6 Research aim.........................................................................................................................5
1.7 Research questions................................................................................................................5
1.8. Research objectives..............................................................................................................6
2.0 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................6
Concept of employee retention...................................................................................................6
Impact of employee retention on organisational performance of Tesco.....................................7
Determine the challenges faced by Tesco for retaining their employees....................................8
Recommend the employee retention strategies...........................................................................8
3.0 Research Methodology..............................................................................................................9
3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................9
3.2 Research philosophy.............................................................................................................9
3.3. Research approach...............................................................................................................9
3.4 Research strategy................................................................................................................10
3.5 Research choices.................................................................................................................10
3.6 Time-horizon.......................................................................................................................10
3.7 Data collection and analysis................................................................................................10
3.8 Sampling method and target group.....................................................................................10
3. 9 Ethical considerations........................................................................................................11
3.10 Research limitation............................................................................................................11
3.11 Time scale.........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

Research topic- Impact of employee retention on organisational performance.
1.0 Introduction
1.1. Introduction
Employee retention is one of the key goals of an organisation where they want to keep
productive and talented employees and workers in their business. It refers to the ability to reduce
employees' turnover or the number of individuals who leave the company over a particular
period of time (Mamorsky, 2022). It can be voluntarily and non-voluntarily in the organisation.
Therefore, the following research will analyse the impact of employee retention on the
performance of business. It will cover different challenges that can be faced by the organisation
when dealing the issue of employee retention.
1.2 Study background
Tesco is one of the largest retailers of consumer products from food to fashion. It offers
products such as bakery grocery, fresh food, bakery, baby products, entertainment products,
household appliances, clothing and many other consumer products. It also covers insurance,
consultancy as well as retail banking services. It indulges those goods and services which are
affordable, sustainable and healthy to the consumers. The company founded in 1919 by Jack
Cohen. The headquarter of this organisation established in Welwyn Garden City, Greater
London, United Kingdom (Tesco Plc: Overview, 2022).
1.3 Problem statement
Till present, Tesco has employed over 4,00,000 employees all around the world who
work in their office, stores customer engagement centres, distribution centres in the Europe, UK
along with Asia. The company is facing issue in retaining their talented and productive
employees who leave their job and work. Many challenges have been facing by the company
such as issues in hiring new employees, low employee productivity, suffer from lower morale,
additional expenses, miss out many sales opportunities and much more. It is important for the
organisation to retain their workforce so that all such challenges can be minimised (Taylor,
2022).
On the other hand, it is found that employees leave the organisation due to many reasons
such as they found lack of opportunities to improve their skills or abilities to do their work, toxic
work culture, high work pressure, no appreciation on hard work and many more. Thus, it is

important for the organisation to work on such issues so that they can be able to retain their
employees.
1.4 Benefit of undertaking this research
Employee retention deals in processes or strategies that is used for the making employees
to stay for a long period in the company. If the organisation works on their strategies then they
could get many types of benefits such as reducing costs to hire new employees which cover
additional costs like advertisement cost, interview conducting costs, training and development
costs so on. It can help in saving expenses while enhancing profit margins. By creating work
culture, the company can also benefit where employees do their work with high morale and
productivity (Szczepański and Kołodziejczyk, 2020). Also, retaining old employees could also
benefit in improving brand image in the market. If the company is knowing for good employee
retention rate then it creates good impression for the upcoming members who may think positive
about the organisation.
1.5 Motivation
The motivation of the current research is that investigating new things will help in
enhancing current knowledge, skills and competences to do any research activity. In current
research, the investigator will need to communicate with the respondents that helps in enhancing
communication skills. On the other hand, this research will also help in professional way where
materials used in the research project can be used for future purpose as well. Information
gathered is also useful and can be used by anyone for their own purpose. Information available in
this research will help in retaining talented and productive employees in the business.
1.6 Research aim
Aim of the research: "To analyse the impact of employee retention on organisational
performance of retail industry"- A study of Tesco.
1.7 Research questions
 What is the basic conception of employee retention?
 How employee retention can impact business performance of Tesco?
 What challenges have been faced by Tesco while dealing the issue of employee retention
in their business?
 Elaborate some key strategies that could be used by Tesco to retain their employees?

1.8. Research objectives
Research objectives:
 To analyse the concept of employee retention
 To analyse the impact of employee retention on organisational performance of Tesco
 To determine the challenges faced by Tesco for retaining their employees
 To recommend the employee retention strategies
2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This section is important for the research where an understanding has been given on the
topic through different sources, articles or journals. Information has been used in this section is
already published on the research area by authorised scholars and investigators. The key goal of
literature review is to share the information to the reader that what knowledge or ideas have been
published on the topic along with what are their drawbacks and benefits are. Thus, this chapter
supports in improving knowledge about the chosen research topic.
2.2 Concept of employee retention
As per the viewpoint of BasuMallick (2021) employee retention is that process or
phenomenon where workers opt to stay with the organisation and do not look other job prospects
actively. Employee turnover is arise when employees leave the organisation and do not want to
stay with the organisation due to many causes such as poor work environment, lack of personal
growth opportunities, lack of appreciation, conflicts between team members, poor leadership and
many more. It is important for the organisation to focus on such retention strategies that can help
in making employees to stay in the business for longer period of time. Retention process ensures
that employees do not leave or quit the organisation (Turner, 2019). In UK retail industry, every
organisation and business different retention rates depending on their work culture.
However, Chadha and Mishra (2021) perceives that employee retention is an ability of
the business enterprise to retain its priceless employees. It is the efforts of the company to
maintain a healthy working environment that helps current employees in remaining with the
business. Various employee retention policies and procedures to address the needs and
requirements of employees to improve their job satisfaction. It also helps in decreasing the costs
covered in recruiting and training new employees. It is assumed that employee leave the

organisation when they found lack of commitment and satisfaction to the organisation and they
start look for other opportunities available in other organisations. The pay does not always play
as a big role in causing employee turnover as is typically considered. Fairness, job autonomy and
recognition are also equally vital to discourage the staff and their intention to stay in the
business.
2.3 Impact of employee retention on organisational performance of Tesco
From the viewpoint of Tenney (2021) it has been found that high employee retention
rates can show that a work group is highly involved and engaged in the activities, well performed
and provide enhanced customer services that can help in improving overall performance of
business. Employee engagement is significant for the organisation who work more about the
company's mission will feel a sense of intention in their job roles and display more commitment
to their job roles. High retention rates in business signifies the reduced turnover rates which is so
vital because the cost of employee turnover can have a withering influence on the bottom line of
the business. Therefore, organisations typically want to neglect this type of situation where they
required to pay more for hiring new employees. It is also researched that high employee turnover
also hurt the morale of employees and lead to burnout. Staff members can become overworked
due to boosted workloads and obligations they have to take on until duties are occupied. Thus, in
this article, it is said that employee retention is important to reduce the turnover in the company.
On the other hand, Miller (2019) views that employee retention is not good for the
organisation as it is more complicated to implement change within the organisation when
employees stay the same. There are many employees who are underperforming or not attaining
the objectives of business effectively and efficiently. It also signifies that organisation is not
creating the top productivity and it is likely has to invest more time in administration and
discipline for these employees. It is also found that employee retention strategies makes
organisation to increase their salary budget to keep their employees. Long term employees will
have important years of experience in their roles and duties and thus it makes company to raise
its levels of pay. It also goes for the expenses of giving benefits such as perks, insurance and
many more (Kong and et.al., 2022). Employee morale also gets damage if the employees stay or
not leave the organisation when there are issues or when some of them are not performing well
for the performance of organisation.

2.4 Determine the challenges faced by Tesco for retaining their employees
According to the perception of Merin (2021) better job opportunities is the common
challenges of employee retention that has been faced by organisation. It is researched that many
employees leave their employment due to the lack of their personal and professional
development, job satisfaction, employee recognition along with career growth opportunities. If
the organisation fails to give the same, then they may face the challenge of employee retention.
Other employees feel the urge to quit the work and jobs by also seeing their co-workers walking
out of the door (Turner, 2020). They feel the ripple effects of over work pressure, new member
trainings and not seeing any business growth.
Sion (2019) thinks that many employees have a tendency to get bored in a short period of
time. Employees might found interesting in the beginning but later they find it humdrum and
look for change in other job prospects. Thus, it becomes difficult for the organisation to convince
the employees in such instances. On the other side, some of the employees also lie in the
interview process about their experiences or working on particular field which leads organisation
underperformance. These employees might not be skilled or competent in branding but would
say yes to in the interview to impress the hirer and snatch the job opportunity. Thus, organisation
faces issues whenever a right employee is into the wrong job profile. It is essential for the HR to
get the references check for better reliability along with stave off confusions later.
2.5 Recommend the employee retention strategies
As per the view of Robert Half 2022, the employers of the organization do not favor the
employee turnover. Since 2021, the employers are being alert of the workers quitting the job
especially the top ones as it happens to be risky. According to the survey, approximately 2000
professionals tracks the job on the basis of current and future prospects. The basic reason behind
the employees leaving the job is because of not getting the wage or salary as per their
requirements, the facilities that is not beneficial or adequate, not getting promoted to the higher
positions, the unsatisfied organization culture, lack of diversity in the job. The company should
offer better facilities, enhance communication and organize mentorship programs for the new
employees for a better guidance. The new members of the team can have a good grip on the
operations of the company for the efficient and effective working which will also create interest
in employees to perform tasks.

However, according to the view point of Singanamalli (2022) the employee turnover can
make the other workers do the same as they would prefer for a better opportunity. The company
should analyze the reason of workers leaving the organization and work on it to reduce it. There
should be better way of hiring such as introducing a better benefits and facilities, compensation,
well awareness of the task allotted to them. The employees must be granted flexible schedules
that can also allow them work remotely. The facilities related to health is also considered
significantly as employees need not to pay high amounts on their health issues especially during
the pandemic. The performance of the employees must be kept on track by communicating with
them and heeding the concerns expressed by them. There must be proper training and
development programs for their better performance in the organization.
3.0 Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This section supports in encouraging the knowledge of instruments, tools or techniques
would be exploited in the investigation. It acts as a blueprint of the intact investigation that how
it is going to be completed in what sense.
3.2 Research philosophy
Research philosophy refers to the evolution of knowledge based on the area of study. It
covers different kinds of philosophies such as interpretivism, positivism, realism as well as
pragmatism. Interpretivism philosophy is beneficial to the research which is qualitative in nature
to collect data in small sample size. Whereas, positivism philosophy best works for the
quantitative research project where researcher gets the data in practical and scientific form. The
current research would be based on positivism philosophy in order to make study more authentic,
reliable and valid to the readers (Hopkins and McKay, 2019). Also, it helps in avoid errors and
mistakes in the research.
3.3. Research approach
Research approach is of two forms such as deductive and inductive approaches. When
researcher wants to perform qualitative research, inductive approach will be used in the research,
otherwise deductive approach will be suitable for quantitative research. The current research will
be based on quantitative research where deductive approach supports in gathering numeric and
statistic data in least possible time. Also, inductive approach would be not used in this research

because it links to qualitative nature which is flexible in nature and does not appropriate to gather
the data.
3.4 Research strategy
Research strategy aims to indulge a way to the investigator through which they can know
what they need to do and how the research will get authenticity. Strategies such as survey, action
oriented research, a systematic literature review, case study and so on can be used in the
research. In this research, survey would be used by the researcher in which they make a list of
questions to be asked from the respondents.
3.5 Research choices
Different research choices are available to conduct a specific research such as mono,
mixed or multi method. Mono method covers one type of research- either quantitative or
qualitative research. Hence, the current research will be based on quantitative research method
where the investigator will focus on numeric data (Pradhan and et.al., 2021). The reason behind
opting quantitative method is that it gives authenticity and reliability on the research.
3.6 Data collection and analysis
Primary and secondary data collection can be used by the researcher. Primary data
signifies the information which is first hand and it collected directly from the respondents.
Whereas, secondary data signifies the used or second hand data which is already taken and
consumed for specific purpose. This research would be based on primary data collection method
where researcher directly collects all the relevant quantitative information by himself.
Questionnaire instrument would be used to collect primary data for the current research. It helps
in getting reliability and validity as information is up to date and gathers directing by interacting
with the participants. For analysing the data, the researcher would focus on frequency
distribution table method to interpret the information. It aims to show data in graphs, pie charts
and tables that makes researcher to analyse the information effectively (Muhamad Nor, 2019).
3.7 Sampling method and target group
Sampling method involves two types of methods that are probability and non-probability
method. The current research would be based on probability sampling method where researcher
selects participants on random bases. The benefit of exploiting this method is that it obviate

biasses among participants. The sample size would be 20 and the target group will be employees
and workers of the company.
3. 8 Ethical considerations
This section is important where researcher needs to conduct the whole research activity in
an ethical way. In the current research, the researcher will ensure that data would be free from
plagiarism and not copied from any source. It will also ensure that there will be free consent
from the participants and no emotions or sentiments will be harmed during the whole process of
the research activity.
3.9 Research limitation
One of the major limitations of current research is that it is based on quantitative research
where researcher will need to meet participants directly or through telephonic conversations that
will involve transportation costs, requires extra efforts and money to purchase stationary,
printings so on. Also, the researcher will need some market skills to attain the best results.
3.10 Time scale

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
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Szczepański, M. and Kołodziejczyk, K., 2020. The Initial Stage of the Implementation of
Employee Capital Plans in Greater Poland from the Perspective of Human Resource
Management: A Research Report. Human Resource Management/Zarzadzanie
Zasobami Ludzkimi.
Turner, P., 2019. Employee engagement in contemporary organizations: Maintaining high
productivity and sustained competitiveness. Springer Nature.
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Kong, D. and et.al., 2022. Employee cash profit-sharing and earnings management. European
Accounting Review, 31(3), pp.761-785.
Sion, G., 2019. Employee Microchip Implants: Technology Acceptance, Capability
Enhancement, and Continuous Monitoring. Psychosociological Issues in Human
Resource Management, 7(1), pp.48-54.
Turner, P., 2020. What Is Employee Engagement?. In Employee Engagement in Contemporary
Organizations (pp. 27-56). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hopkins, J.L. and McKay, J., 2019. Investigating ‘anywhere working’as a mechanism for
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Pradhan, S. and et.al., 2021. Corporate social responsibility and employee
volunteerism. Sustainable Branding: Ethical, Social, and Environmental Cases and
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Muhamad Nor, N.S., 2019. A study on the relationship between employee benefits and job
satisfaction at Pejabat Daerah Dan Tanah Jerantut.
Online:

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<https://www.globaldata.com/company-profile/tesco-plc/#:~:text=Tesco%20Plc
%20(Tesco)%20is%20a,dotcom%20only%20and%20one%2Dstop.>
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#:~:text=Downsides%20to%20High%20Employee%20Retention&text=It's%20more
%20difficult%20to%20implement,goals%20also%20stick%20around%20longer.>
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<https://hrshelf.com/employee-retention-challenges/>
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<https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/management-tips/effective-employee-retention-strategies>
Singanamalli, R., 2022. 12 Innovative Employee Retention Strategies that Work, 2022. [Online]
Available through: <https://blog.empuls.io/employee-retention-strategies/>