Managing People in Organisations: A Tesco Case Study

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MN4F03 Managing People in Organisations
Assignment 1: Individual Report

Executive summary
The following body of work actively illustrates that there are skills required for the
management of people in a given organisation especially if it is of a leading
supermarket chain like that of Tesco, PLC. The learner is being given an opportunity to
implement and gather a hands-on experience of selection and recruitment, training and
induction and the application of motivational theories by preparation of this report.
Individual and the team cooperation are looked into for the purposes of study keeping
established theories in mind.
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1: Recruitment and Selection..................................................................................4
Task 2: Induction and Training.........................................................................................9
Task 3: Motivation theories............................................................................................ 11
Task 4: Individual behaviour at work and effective teamwork........................................13
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 17
References.....................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Tesco is owned many people and it is often referred to as a public limited company
(Tesco.com, 2019). It has offered shares to the masses that invest and has a limited
liability. As a trainee Human Resources assistant in Antal International, United Kingdom
it is the job of the learner to find a candidate for HRM for the same. Since there are too
many people involved the opportunities for growth are manifold but people organisation
may also pose to be a challenge as the atmosphere is too dynamic and stocks going up
and down may affect the system badly.
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Task 1: Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is described as the number and the categories of individuals being required
that should be specified for a particular position in a company. It is a program derived
from the Human Resource Plan (Franco-Santos and Doherty, 2017). Selection is the
task of creating a population of applicants who are qualified or are interested for working
in the company. Selection is getting on board the best person to do a certain job.
Considering that the company wants to give a chance to fresh talent they have foregone
the focus on being economical and have chosen to recruit via walk-ins, advertisements,
websites, employee agencies and e-recruitment. Time taken will be more as the number
of applicants are large based on mobility of workforce and labour market (Siebert and
Martin, 2016). The company is not choosing to hire any part time workers as this job is
crucial and needs a dedicated person chosen after three rounds of interview at least
from a pool of qualified aspirants.
Figure 1: Steps in recruitment
Source: (Tesco.com, 2019)
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Internal talent plan is looked into to fill the vacancy. External methods of advertisement
are made by advertising through www.tesco-careers.com (Tesco.com, 2019). A waiting
list of the top job applicants is made.
Figure 2: Steps taken by HR while hiring in Tesco
Source: (Tesco.com, 2019)
Job Advertisement
Job description: An Hr Assistant is a part of the organisation mainly involved in helping
the HR directors and officers to finish with their tasks. They help in running the system
by delegating and connecting with almost all the services and programs. The work is
mostly administrative in nature like sorting out grievances and payroll duties.
Job title: Assistant HRM
Location: United Kingdom, Leeds
Purpose of the role: To effectively deal with the tasks of administration including
gathering contacts and references and posting for internal job openings.
Duties and responsibilities of the role:
 Accountable for answering employee queries
 Organise the employee documents
 Supervise and develop benefit enrolment processes
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 Ensure, maintain and manage the company reputation by seeing to it that
background checks are complete
 Examine newer employee assessments
 Provide and record new recruit documentation and orientation
 Control of sickness and vacation information of employee for payroll purposes
 Advise resolution for any kind of payroll error
 Assist in benefit tasks like claim resolutions
 Give guidance to performing of file audits
The person specification
Company name: Tesco, PLC
Job title: Assistant HRM
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Criteria Essential Desirable
Qualifications Bachelor’s
degree in HR or
BBA.
Degree from a
university in
UK
specializing in
HRM, being a
leader, labour
issues and
recruitment.
Skills/competencies Problem solving
and negotiation,
interpersonal
skills, clear
communication,
good with words
and numbers,
organized,
dependable.
Being time
bound and
adept in all of
the same.
Knowledge HR planning,
payroll duties,
compensation,
staffing, training,
career planning,
organizational
prudence,
employee
relations etc.
The same with
a
Management
degree or
MBA
qualification.
Previous experience As an HR
assistant.
As an HR
assistant
elsewhere
within the
same industry.
Experience Practical
training while in
Certificate of
having been

Table 1: Person specification
Source: (Created by author)
Hours of work: Forty hours a week minimum
Pay rate: Twenty to thirty thousand GBP per annum as per interview
Any other important information: Candidate is required to make prior enquiry about
the company in case they have no experience in the same industry.
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Task 2: Induction and Training
Induction is the process of inducting a new hire to a post or organisation. Training is the
process of teaching people or animals a certain set of skills or behavior (Reason and
Hobbs, 2017). Inducting a candidate is important because it reduces stress and
anxiousness associated with the start of a job role. The confidence of the candidate is
built by making them feel like a part of the company, helping bond with co-workers,
ensuring of better awareness of safety policy and procedures. The benefits of training
for the organisation are the chances of higher productivity due to efficacious use of
human resources, company goals being met, zero cost impact as it reduces labour
attrition, errors and mishaps and a capable and mobile workforce is built. The
employees are benefitted by being given the chance for improvement, more job-
satisfaction, a chance for learning newer things and gives greater faculty to adapt to
changes.
The challenges while induction are as the HRM is strained while performing work
sampling and interviews and employee retention is a concern in Tesco like other big
companies. List of responsibilities may be given but it is not the be all and end all of task
or employee management. Role-clarity stays in question even if the candidate is
typically informed of their long-term employee goals enhancing confidence and clarity
(Pullan and Murray-Webster, 2017). If there is no manger in the company that can take
care of the new hires it becomes a fruitless pursuit. The coordination can be better
managed by Tesco between employee and managerial staff. The new employee may
not be able to adapt culturally and hence feel neglected. The company needs to see to
it that this does not happen by allocating jobs to the best fitting candidate and also
allocate teams like so. Socialisation of the company can be enhanced by
intercommunicative events like mixes and potlucks all aligned with the company history
and culture. The employee cannot feel detached or it will result in a negative outcome
like de-motivation and increased level of truancy. Training challenges are like
inconsistency in training being spread across locations with different trainers having
different levels of grasp over their subject and different teaching styles therefore the
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company must create a standardized module or curriculum with inputs and the approval
of trainers or the subject matter experts (SMEs) (Perri et al., 2016). Since some
employees work in shifts it is difficult to keep track if someone has irregular hours of
work hence better technology is to be used for the same.
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Task 3: Motivation theories
There are many theories that come in handy while an organisation manages employees
as the HR is mostly employee satisfaction driven in Tesco, PLC. Businesses with
employees of diminished motivation have low productivity and higher turnover rates
(Northouse, 2015). The theories are only suggestive methods that may or may not work
for someone in the organisation. Theories alone may not be the best way to retain
employees and increase worker productivity however here is looking at a few of them in
slight detail as follows:
Theory X and Theory Y: Douglas Mcgregor in the year 1960 or so had proposed two
such theories relevant to management and employee motivation (Kakabadse and Bank,
2018). Theory X states that employees shirk work and hate responsibility. In order for
bringing discipline punitive measures and rules need to be brought out into the forefront.
In the context of Tesco the same will be harmful as the employees as there are too
many negative connotations to the word punishment. The advantages are none too
obvious but rare cases of discipline being brought into the work front. Theory Y
propounds that due to workplace flexibility and having more control the employees are
happier about working more efficiently. Employees must be given the chance to forecast
their creative side for better motivation. Tesco may give employees a chance to
innovate which will make them ooze of confidence but too many cooks might spoil their
broth. Theory Z was brought forth by Dr. William Ouchi encouraging group activities and
socialising motivating the employees however too much of that can lead to the
employees getting carried away and lose focus on their jobs. This idea is best if
supported by some other idea or implemented in moderation (Mayo, 2016).
Manslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: It has five levels that are instrumental in shaping
employee motivation styles. Moving up the needs pyramid the employee needs have to
be met for successful motivation (Goffee and Scase, 2015). This however might lead to
excess of resources being used, especially monetary capital on the same however the
results may not always be in the positive. The bottom part of the pyramid is basic
physiological needs like asylum, sleep and bodily nourishment through food. Safety and
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