Human Resource Management Practices at Tesco: An In-depth Report

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Tesco's human resource management strategies.

Human Resource Management
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
An overview of the organisation......................................................................................................4
An explanation on the purpose of the HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of the
HR function.....................................................................................................................................5
An assessment of the approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection, development
and training, performance management and reward systems..........................................................6
The approach to and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement, and
comment on the adoption of flexible organisation and flexible working practice and ‘employer of
choice’..............................................................................................................................................9
Analysis of the internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-
making, including key areas of employment legislation...............................................................11
An application of the Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context...........12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
2

Introduction
Human Resource helps in the development of the organisation and the recruitment of the
candidates in a company (Sanghi et al., 2016). For the total restructuring of the department, the
HRM has to play a very important role in choosing the candidates and identifying the proper
reasons why the company is lagging behind or is not doing up to the expected mark. The
upliftment of the organisation depends upon the HRM. The Human Resource Officers have been
asked to conduct a review report and the following details have been identified in order to bring
significant changes in the organisation and its structuring which includes both the employees and
the organisation.
3

An overview of the organisation
Tesco is one of the leading UK based multinational groceries and general retailer of merchandise
who trade in the name of Tesco (Coe et al., 2017). Tesco stands in the third position from size by
gross revenue and is the ninth in the number in retailers’ world by revenue measurement. The
market share of Tesco in the UK is 28.4%. Tesco started operating globally in the year 1990 and
expanded in almost 11 countries in the whole World. Tesco is diversified in their business with
almost all retailing commodities like books, furniture, clothing, toys, groceries, financial services
and internet services (Japee et al., 2015). It has expanded in many arenas being a very down
market with a high volume and a low cost retail provider.
4

An explanation on the purpose of the HR function and the key roles and responsibilities of
the HR function
Purpose- The purpose of the Human Resource management is to manage formally the people
within an organisation in a disciplined manner, to increase the productivity, and to increase the
optimisation of the employees (Laudon et al., 2016). The Human Resource management also
helps in increasing the effectiveness of the employees. The officers train the candidates to
develop them in their own respective segments. The main purpose of the HRM is to maintain the
internal relationship of the customers. The HRM also defines and then implements all the
processes and the policies that are necessary to attract the company’s performance in the
different sectors as well the development for the employees. The service towards the customer
also rests in the hands of the HRM. Tesco is retail business where customers are the main base
and enriched service to them is the main task. The HRM of the company maintains the cordial
relation between the external and the internal business (Falola et al., 2018).
Training gap- If the company suffers from reports, complaints despite giving proper training to
the employees and costs the business then keep assured there is a gap, a training gap (Trevino et
al., 2016). Lack of proper training might have incurred these problems. If the proper skill set of
the candidate is not identified then there remains a gap. A person might have some inbuilt skills
but those are may not be important for the development of the company. The difference between
the skill one has the skills required for the completion of the job is called training gap. So
properly identifying the key areas where the candidate fits in and giving him the required
knowledge of the work field he will be working, is of utmost importance. Identifying training
needs of the team members plays a crucial role in outperforming the market.
Role and responsibility - The role of the HR is to look that employees are in the company for a
long haul. The candidates should work enthusiastically and should bring in proper business for
the company. The turnover should be reduced.
The role of the human resource manager is of crucial importance in making profitability of the
organisation. The human resource managers should do a proper competition tracking of the
business. There are many businesses, which are working in the parallel fields. So it is very
important to keep a track which company is doing what and if your company can outperform that
brings good name and profit for the company. Recruiting more candidates from outside increase
the labour cost, consumes time and effort. If the human resource managers keep a track on the
performance of the in-house candidates and choose from them only for the new posts then this
can reduce all the additional cost and can help a company to grow with profits. To meet the
customer demand and their need the Tesco started putting the organic contents and started to
boost the fibre contents in the foods that it sells on its own. The role includes taking initiatives to
satisfy consumers. This initiative has helped to retain the customers because the customers are
now extremely health conscious and they prefer healthy food. This was positive from Tesco’s
human resource management side to retain the customers in a realistic manner.
5

An assessment of the approach to workforce planning, recruitment and selection,
development and training, performance management and reward systems
The HR of Tesco plans a very proper workforce selection through a well managed system
(Cunningham et al., 2017).
HRIS- Used for workforce planning, the Human Resource Information System is a software that
helps in the arenas where the status of the employees gets updated (Julien et al., 2018). The
system plays a pivotal role in understanding the key areas of improvement and the work of the
employees. This online employee platform helps in understanding the employees. To conduct the
main and the vital HR activities the organisation can follow this online platform.
The Best Fit approach emphasizes that the strategies of the organisation and the HR strategies
must be in alignment. The strategies should meet the demand of the operational process as well
the culture of the organisation. The strategy should be such that it focuses on the required need of
the company as well the employees. Tesco’s HRM strongly values the core purpose of the
employees as well the need for the organisation. The Best Fit model is called “matching model”
for HRM. It is mainly based on the development of the HRM policies according to the needs of
the needs of the business strategies. This approach puts forward the question of contingency fit
between the development stage of the organization, the internal structure, and the external
environment like clients, suppliers etc and the HR activities.
Figure 1: Best-Fit Model
(Source: Kenny, 2014)
The above approach is followed by Best Practice approach, which claims that a number of the
human resource activities exist which is expected to support the company in a universal way, that
would definitely help the organisation to reach a desiring position with a competitive advantage.
This practice contemplates the bundles of the human resource practice that might be applied in
almost the entire organizational context that helps in performing the best with a better outcome.
Gradually it allows Tesco to plan the way the needs which can be fulfilled through the proper
recruitment and then training. Every year from the last week of February the planning process
starts. They plan accordingly so that they can review the quarters in May, August and November
6

and recruit accordingly to meet the strategic objectives of the company. As soon as the vacancies
starts coming up, Tesco starts leaving their notices of the requirements. They also do a talent
planning and the employees can identify the roles where they can fit in. In the exact role, the
employees can apply. The employers recruit according to the competencies and skills.
The job of the HR does not end here. After the completion of the workforce planning, the
process of the recruitment starts.
After recruitment, the candidates need to get proper training and there lies the most crucial job of
the HR. They identify the key competencies of an individual and deploy training of particular
sectors to the individual (Quintana et al., 2016). They make him careerist and help them achieve
their personal objectives too which in return help the organisation to grow.
Tesco provides an intrinsic training to its employees. The business of Tesco depends on the
demands of the customers. Hence, their training is based totally on the improvement and way of
services to the customers. Proper help to customers help the business to grow and its profitability
depends on meeting the customers’ needs, as the key entity of the business is customer. They
provide both the on job training, which includes Shadowing, Coaching, Mentoring, Job rotation.
They identify the training needs in an organised way in respect to the target to achieve the goal.
The recruitment process is the fundamental way of organisation’s total HRM and the planning.
There are many processes, which are related in core with the HRM like job design, management
and appraisal, career planning, the transfers and the planning.
Mainly, there are two ways of selection- internal and the external. The internal process of
recruitment implies the selection of candidates from inside the organisation. Many business
operators prefer choosing from their internal work force before they go to the external sources
for employment. It also helps employees to choose and change their positions accordingly inside
the business. If the internal list of the employees are already viewed and the recruiter could not
find any appropriate employee for the business internally then they choose to recruit external
candidates. If the company decides to bring in the fresh blood in the company then they recruit
from outside.
There are advantages of the internal recruitment like the one they help in making quick decision
and recruitment. The employees are already working in the same business, which helps them to
understand the workflow. The recruitment from internal source actually defines the rewarding
process of the organisation who promotes the employees in the form of rewarding them for their
good work and influencing them positively to work more effectively. Tesco mostly uses the
internal recruitment plan, which the employees also look for who work there and look forward
for position improvement. If the process cannot find any proper candidate then they post an
internal E-recruitment method in the internet for their employees. Sometimes they do external
recruitment for which they posts vacancy in the website.
The advantages of bringing the new employee give the organisation the chance to understand the
challenge of the new attitudes of the new recruited towards work and accordingly understand the
employees’ mind. It also helps the company to avoid the ripple effect.
The advantages and disadvantages of the approaches of recruitment are as follows-
7

Internal recruitment reduces the cost of recruiting from external source. The old batch has always
a dedicated performance towards the organisation. The time to go through the whole selection
process and training is saved. On the other hand, those who wish to get a promotion but fails to
meet the race they become dissatisfied and this creates a negative impact on the company.
Candidate pool is limited. External candidates might have been better for the post.
Again, external recruitment helps to bring in fresh blood with new attitude towards work. The
candidate pool to select is vast. However, this also has some weaknesses like it sometimes
demoralises the internal employees who aspire to reach the higher position and that place gets
occupied by an external candidate. The turnover gets higher. Both the selection process and
training is time and cost consuming.
8

The approach to and effectiveness of employee relations and employee engagement, and
comment on the adoption of flexible organisation and flexible working practice and
‘employer of choice’.
Employee relation is referred to the relationship among the employees, who are responsible for
making the workplace better. It is said that an employer spends most of his time in the
workplace, so it is required to maintain a healthy relation with other employees (Ouimet and
Zarutskie, 2014). The employee relation contributes to building a tangible working environment,
which is beneficial for maximising the performance level of employees. According to a report,
the healthy relation between employees is responsible for positively influencing employees. The
human resource takes the initiative to maintain the employee relations in an organisation.
Employee relation can benefit Tesco in many different ways that are discussed here.
Benefit for employees
It helps to increase the productivity of an organisation by promoting positive attitudes. The
positive attitudes are responsible for enhancing employee morale. This helps to increase the
quality and capacity of their production. Many employees have such experiences and critical
skills, which can be useful for the company and the cost of replacing any employee is also high.
Employee relation helps to retain the employees (Hameed et al., 2014). Employee relation
contributes to this process by maintaining the tangibility of the working environment. The
stresses in the workplace often cause employee absenteeism. The conflicts among employees
leave an impact on the employee morale as well as the organisation. Employee engagement is an
extent, which helps to make employees passionate about their job and puts the effort in their
performance. A well-maintained employee relation helps to decreases absenteeism in Tesco.
This helps to increase the production capacity of that organisation.
Benefit for employers
Employee relation helps the employers to maintain a good relationship with the employees. The
employee relationship is responsible for dissolving the hierarchy between the employees and
employers. The employers can also resolve the problems between them (Shields et al., 2015).
Employee engagement is the effort through which the employers can focus on their roles. The
employee engagement motivates the employees to work so that they can achieve higher
satisfaction. An engaged employee is fully dedicated towards the work and contributes to the
progression of an organisation (Dávila and Piña-Ramírez, 2014).
Benefit for employees
Employee engagement helps to increase the productivity of Tesco as the employee engagement
helps the employees to be capable of working in a team. Employee engagement helps to retain
those employees who are beneficial for the company so that the process helps to acquire
employee satisfaction. The working capacity and dedication also increase due to this process.
The employees feel recognised when their success becomes identified the employers that benefit
the company in the longer run.
Benefit for employers
9

The employers of Tesco can identify and reward those employees who are bringing success to
the company. The relation between employers and employees increases so that they can be able
to encourage the employees. This process helps the employers to reduce the extra expenditures
of the company by retaining the useful employees.
10

Analysis of the internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including key areas of employment legislation
The Human resource department plays a key role in the success of the company. The personnel
is responsible for the well being of the company’s employees so that they need to research the
internal and external factors that may leave an impact on the decision-making process of the
human resource department. The internal and external factors are discussed in this section.
External factors
Competition: The competition for recruiting qualified candidate is increasing daily in the
market. Every organisation requires recruiting such employees who will be able to bring changes
in an organisation. This may leave an impact on the decision making power the human resource
department, as they have to plan new strategies for attracting more talented and qualified
customers (Cristina, 2015). The personnel also has to make decisions on the wages according to
the market as that can be the reason for losing experienced employees.
Legislation: The employee legislation can leave an impact on the decision-making process of
the human resource management department. The employee rights act 1996 is such an act which
empowers the employees to protest against the unethical behaviour in an organisation (Rogers,
2016). The human resource department has to follow the rules and prepare the company
standards. There are some other acts which can also affect the decision making the power of
human resource departments such as Equity act 2010, Working time act and others. The
department has to make new decisions on the working times of their employees.
Trade unions: trade unions are such unions, which represents the normal employees and
empowers them. The employees who are connected with the trade union can avail extra facilities
while the other employees cannot be able to avail those facilities so that it can lead the
organisation towards conflicts. The decision making the power of the human resource
department of Tesco is highly influenced by the trade union representatives, as they need to
communicate with the representative before making any decisions. This promotes the biased
facilities in an organisation (Harrison, 2018).
Internal factors
Conflicts: The lack of communication can be the reason behind a conflict. The conflicts leave a
negative impact on the production capacity of an organisation. Conflicts can also negatively
influence the corporate image of the brand. The human resource department has to resolve the
conflicts efficiently so that can influence the decision making the power of the department
(Haggard and Kaufman, 2018).
Organisational culture and workplace safety: The personnel of Tesco are responsible for
maintaining the organisational culture and workplace safety. The absenteeism and other factors
influence the decision making the power of the department (Elsmore, 2017). The department
keeps track of the health condition of employees so that they can increase the attendance rate of
the employees. The department has to provide their employees with different schemes and others
so that they can achieve employee satisfaction. The department has to make decisions on the
11

bonus schemes and eligibility of employees and has to establish in a way that the expenditures
are not being increased.
12