Case Study: Innovation & Creativity in Tesco HR - BM632 Report

This report identifies employee retention as a significant challenge within Tesco plc's human resources department and explores the application of creative and innovative methodologies to develop potential solutions. It details the importance of human resources management in gaining a competitive advantage and addresses issues like employee motivation, negative organizational culture, and low productivity. The proposed solutions include fostering a positive working environment, offering competitive pay and benefits, providing flexibility, scheduling social time, giving regular feedback, and implementing training and development sessions. The report selects motivation as the key solution and outlines a plan for its implementation, focusing on individual-level identification of issues, encouragement through compensation and benefits, building employee engagement, offering incentives, and providing manager training. Finally, it applies an innovation audit methodology to identify potential issues arising from flexible work arrangements and provides recommendations for overcoming them, emphasizing the importance of clear communication, written policies, and regular evaluation. The report concludes by highlighting the need for innovative approaches to flexible work arrangements to motivate staff and create a healthier workplace.

Managing and Developing
Innovation & Creativity

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
1. Identifying a specific problem that exists within a company's human resources department.
.....................................................................................................................................................3
2. Applying creative and innovation methodologies to the productions of possible solutions. .4
3. Selecting a solution and construct a plan for implementation................................................5
4. Applying an innovation audit methodology and providing recommendations for
overcoming issues.......................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management is the strategic method used by the company to manage
the organization and its employees in effective way. It is the study of several practices done by
employees while working in the company. If the company manage business services and human
resources then they can gain a competitive advantage. The present report will give detailed
information on issues faced in area human resources by retail company deals in grocery named
as Tesco plc, UK. Further, the report will provide solution to deal with issues faced by human
resources management team. At last, the case study will give the recommendations for
overcoming the problem.
1. Identifying a specific problem that exists within a company's human resources department.
Human resources' management- It is the strategic method used by company to efficient
and effective management of employees working in the firm. It is designed well to maximize
employee performance and overall company's productivity in order to gain competitive
advantages (Aman-Ullah and et.al., 2021). The company's HR department faces many challenges
and issues while recruiting new candidates, motivating employees and providing training in
order to maintain the positive environment of the company. HR professionals have power to
manage issues with the help of tools and techniques that can help them to achieve organizational
goals.
Employee retention
Nowadays, employee retention is the major issue faced by human resources department.
Losing an employee can affect the reputation of the company whether by resignation or
termination (Amushila and Bussin, 2021). This is major loss for the company because they invest
on employees at the time of hiring such as providing training and other hidden costs as well. If
the company face issues like retention team motivation and growth of company can also suffer.
Due to this, other issues like negative organizational culture can occur which is not beneficial for
company's progress. There are many reason behind employee retention such as pay scale, bonus,
compensation, negative environment, workload, low performance, low productivity.
Employee retention is also defined as the ability of company to make their employees
stay with the brand for longer period. Human resources make efforts in order to retain employees
so that it cannot affect the reputation of the firm. Human resources department of the Tesco

invest huge amount of money and efforts on new employees in order to bring them to a same
level to the existing candidates. The company face high loss when employees leave them early
after getting training and development sessions. According to experts, higher the skilled staff
members, higher are their demand in the competitive market.
In today's business environment, keeping the company's reputation healthy in terms of
retention rate is the biggest challenge faced by human resources' management. It is noted that
when employees are unhappy with the company's working culture are more likely to leave the
organization (Capkun and Ors, 2021). Due to this, profitability of the company may get affected,
therefore this will create lack of growth opportunities, lack of motivation among other team
members. So, it is mandatory to find better options and techniques to solve such issues in order
to create a balance in the area of human resources' management.
2. Applying creative and innovation methodologies to the productions of possible solutions.
Many organizations wish to be creative and innovative in order to achieve goals and
objectives. Tesco plc managers wish to grow and survive in the competitive market in order to
adopt innovation and creation as most effective strategies. Innovation in the company allow
employees to think and learn creatively so that they can perform better.
An effective solution is best tool to get employees on the job efficiently, quickly and
easily. A good on-boarding process needs to understand the preferences of employees and their
working flexibility (Choy and Kamoche, 2021). It should also highlight job requirements,
company standards and laws.
The solutions- A positive working environment is mandatory to make employees comfortable
while working. Creating a safe environment will encourage them to work as a team, thus, it is
good for team morale.
Offering competitive pay- In order to motivate employees, human resources department
team needs to offer compensation and other benefits. Tesco plc needs to focus on bonus,
promotions, extra benefits in order to motivate team members. It may also include one time cash
bonuses, pay raises and profit sharing.
Providing flexibility and benefits- the company should provide them flexible working
hours and work from home facilities (Degbey and et.al., 2021). The firm needs to avoid various
issues like mental stress, overburden, pressure. These solutions will automatically boost the

productivity and performance of the individual. With this solution employees can enjoy their
family time, hence this is the best way to encourage them.
Scheduling social time- According to Maslow's hierarchy theory of motivation, social
needs of human beings includes socially active, human relationship and emotional needs. HR
department of Tesco plc should allow their employees to have fun at work. The firm needs to
arrange annual meetings, events, parties, games and other activities. It will increase performance
of employees, and they will feel valued.
Giving regular feedback- Holding performance review on regular basis help employees
be better at their jobs. Tesco plc managers needs to follow up regularly about performance and
problems faced by employees at individual level. Measuring performance lets the staff member
of the company set desired goals.
Training and development sessions- An effective learning management system allows
employees of the company to work effectively and efficiently. It is mandatory to provide proper
training to employees on the basis of their qualifications, experience and preference.
Boost productivity- The company needs to understand the reasons behind low
productivity levels. Tesco plc human resources team needs to understand which departments are
more suffering from low productivity (Nayak, Jena and Patnaik, 2021). Managers must identify
key points of poor output in order to rectify them with the help of HR professionals. Sometimes a
low productivity is all about an employee is going through in their social or personal life. Often,
additional training and encouragement is the only way to increase the productivity.
3. Selecting a solution and construct a plan for implementation.
In today's business environment, employees are more concerned about seeking personal
growth, self-confidence, social needs and desire respect from others (Kryscynski, 2021). For
human resources department and top-level management of the company, it is very difficult task
to satisfy each and every employees needs. This recommends the basic need of motivation for
the staff members of Tesco plc. Motivation plays a vital role in the business environment and to
overcome with the problems like employee retention.
 Motivation is the only solution to resolve the employee retention situation in the
company (Riyanto, Endri and Herlisha, 2021). Firstly, HR needs to identify the issue at

individual level through personal interviews. After identifying select and monitor the
possible actions required to measure about the solution for implementation.
 After that the managers and HR needs to put measures to encourage the employees of the
company. By providing them compensation, bonus, promotion as per the performance of
the employee. Always make sure that the compensation and benefits is appropriate or not.
Another way to keep motivate firm's employee is to provide extra paid time off in order
to boost their performance and productivity.
 Building employee engagement is the best way to keep company's employee motivated.
It has been noted that 90% of employee stay at a firm that acts on feedback. So, managers
needs to provide performance feedback at individual level. In the meeting, employees can
highlights their problems to mangers and HR.
 Giving staff members a chance to speak and share their ideas or creativity starts with
employee engagement will create modern encouragement platform (Soliman and
Altabtai, 2021). These solutions will help the company to reveal how staff members truly
feel about human resources role and managerial duties. So, this is the best way to
measure employee engagement in real time with the help of personal survey.
 After that, the managers needs to offer winning incentives in order to motivate the
employees. Employees who feel appreciated stay at companies for longer period and
work effectively. So, it is important for manager of Tesco plc to explain employees why
their ideas were accepted and why not their innovative ideas has been implemented.
 It has been reported that almost half of staff members quit or leave their job just because
of a bad manager and their attitudes (Implementing your solution, 2021). So, it is the
essential step for human resources department to provide proper training to managers.
Finally, keep a proper record and review for employee wellness in order to understand
the employee experience.
 After that managers needs to focus on team work in order to encourage team morale
through the collaborative process of working, this is the best way for implementation.
4. Applying an innovation audit methodology and providing recommendations for overcoming
issues.
Innovation audit methodology is a process which is used by company in order to analyse
different aspects of current capabilities of innovative ideas and creativity. It also includes analyse

detailed information about processes, procedures and policies of the firm. Determining
weaknesses and strengths, evaluating key elements and performance indicators falls under this
category. Problems become more difficult to handle when there is no proper solution and
strategies to deal with them. So, it is mandatory to identify the solution for potential issues in
order to support organizational culture. The present report has already shows that Motivation
plays a vital role in solving employee retention. Nowadays, HR and managers think a lot about
what motivates employees to move towards their goals.
 Employees Sometimes experience issues like fear of failure thus, it is the reason behind
low performance and misconduct. So, they may take shortcut to achieve their desired
goals. It may stop them from moving forward which is not beneficial for company's
productivity.
 If the HR and managers provides flexibility in order to motivate employees, it will create
self-confidence and self-esteem. Sometimes people may create issues like misconduct,
fraud, blaming others etc.
 Flexible work arrangements can be defined in different ways such as work from home or
any other location, compressed work week and sharing job. There are many challenges as
well to these new work arrangements. Issues like trust, loyalty, misconduct, fraud and
isolation can occur. It sometimes may create conflict between employees working at
same level. Managers may do partiality this is the reason behind staff may feel jealous
when they have to work regular hours while other team-mates get to work whenever they
want. Due to this, female staff in particular suffer as a result of this bias when they work for the
company and taking care of families at the same time. These distractions and pressure of
work can create negative working environment.
Recommendations- The company needs to see innovative ways of making flexible work
arrangement successful in order to motivate staff members of Tesco plc. An effective flexible
work arrangements can increase productivity and healthier workplace.
 The key to run business smoothly into flexible work arrangements and maintaining
positive or safe environment is regular evaluation and effective or clear communication.
 By evaluating the above mentioned issues it is recommended to Human resources
department and top-level management team to have a written policy on the work flow

arrangement. Make sure no one will break the rules made by the company's management
team.
 It is also suggested to managers to communicate with all staff members about the
possible outcomes and results for the work flow arrangements and flexibility (Employee
retention strategies, 2021). Make sure each employee is getting their responsibilities
equally in order to avoid conflicts.
 It is advisable to employees of the company to keep proper record of their working hours
in compressed work week arrangement. It is mandatory to always measure employees
quality work performance with the help of key performance indicators.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, providing people more flexibility and freedom at work while performing
their task will motivate them to work effectively. By evaluating the report, it is concluded that
giving employees time and space at workplace will make them comfortable and create positive
environment. Furthermore, the case study also summarized that HR needs to focus on developing
clear directions to employees. Managers and HR must ensure that all members feel they are
important to the creative and innovative process in the firm.

REFERENCES
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Retention at the Namibia University of Science and Technology: Administration Middle-
Level Staff. SA Journal of Human Resource Management. 19. p.11.
Capkun, V. and Ors, E., 2021. Replacing key employee retention plans with incentive plans in
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Choy, M. W. and Kamoche, K., 2021. Identifying stabilizing and destabilizing factors of job
change: a qualitative study of employee retention in the Hong Kong travel agency
industry. Current Issues in Tourism. 24(10). pp.1375-1388.
Degbey, W. Y. and et.al., 2021. The impact of psychological ownership on employee retention
in mergers and acquisitions. Human Resource Management Review. 31(3). p.100745.
Kryscynski, D., 2021. Firm-specific worker incentives, employee retention, and wage–tenure
slopes. Organization Science. 32(2). pp.352-375.
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Soliman, E. and Altabtai, H., 2021. Employee motivation in construction companies in
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Online
Employee retention strategies. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.achievers.com/blog/employee-retention-strategies/>
Implementing your solution. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.itseducation.asia/article/implementing-your-solution>