HRM Practices at Tesco: An Analysis of Workforce Planning & Relations

This report provides an analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Tesco Plc, a leading UK supermarket retail chain. It explores the purpose and functions of HRM in workforce planning, recruitment, selection, training, and employee engagement. The report evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of different recruitment and selection approaches used by Tesco, highlighting the benefits of HRM practices for both management and employees, including motivation, conflict resolution, and skill enhancement. Furthermore, it reviews HRM practices in the context of organizational productivity and profit, emphasizing the importance of employee relations in fostering a positive work environment and minimizing workplace conflict. Finally, the report discusses key elements of employee legislation and their impact on HRM decision-making at Tesco. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and resources in
Tesco.....................................................................................................................................................2
P2: Explaining the examples of the organization for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of
different approaches to recruitment and selection..................................................................................3
P3: Evaluate HRM practices benefit the management and employees of Tesco....................................4
P4: Reviewing of HRM practices in context of organizational productivity and profit.........................5
P5: Analysing the importance of employee relation in organization Tesco...........................................6
P6: Key elements of employee legislations and its impact over influencing HRM decision making.....7
P7: Application of HRM practices in work related context through examples......................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................12
Reference.............................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Human Resource management applies to be the most important part of an organization which
denotes for all types of resources of an organization can be well organized and well executed
with proper enhancement of skills and propensity of the employees for gaining competitive
advantage. The HRM defines for employee management with various implications for
exhibiting a fruitful atmosphere for the company. In retail market, HRM department adheres
to be an important part as it helps in gaining economic proficiency. Tesco Plc has adopted to
be the most versatile and recognized supermarket retail chain of UK which employ across
360000 employees in various departments and has been headquartered in Hertfordshire in
Welwyn garden City London. The CEO of the company is Dave Lewis has been continuously
serving the company for many years and announced to be a sound personality within the
organizational structure of employees (Cushman, & Burke, 2014). The organizational
structure of Tesco is hierarchical which reflects the large size of its business consisting of a
10 members in their Board of managers including John Allan to be the chairman of Board of
Managers, Dave Lewis as CEO, Alan Steward as Chief Financial Officer and other four non-
executive managers. The following report will analyze the HRM functioning at Tesco Plc in
terms of different approaches to human resource applicable to workforce planning.
P1: Explain the purpose and functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and
resources in Tesco
The purpose of the HRM within an organization determines for usage of various resources
through designing and orientation for achieving a coherent workforce fitted for the
organizational culture. The scope of the HRM implies for manpower planning, recruitment
and selection, placement in various posts, rewards and appraisals, training and development,
employee engagement and enhancing employee productivity. In a retail sector like Tesco, the
functioning of HR applies to be the most distinctive one as it apprehends for all these
functions:-
 Manpower planning – It reciprocates for planning for quantitative amount of
individuals for strengthening the man-power of organization for hitting on productive
utilization of strategies adhered by respective department.

 Recruitment and selection – HR is responsible for selecting and recruitment of ideal
candidates with proper job descriptions at right vacancies of organization and utilize
them according to demand of time (Bach, 2013).
 Rewards and appraisals – HR motivates employees through rewards and appraisals
programs which enhances employee performance and job satisfaction.
 Training and development – HR is responsible for enhancing their skills of the
employees through training and development programs so that it can sharpen their
aptitudes for business operations in implied tasks (Zhao, 2014).
 Employee engagement – This empowers the employee’s decision making process
through engaging them in different crucial times of business and thereby building up a
coherent work culture.
Tesco applies all these vital functioning of HR at various stages of business process which
effectively manage them to indicate a bright future in competitive retail market business in
UK. The HRM at Tesco applies for individualistic and varied activities for employees which
provide for them an opportunity for working in a collaborative atmosphere and also aims at
treating them equally which imbibes within them a sense of responsiveness. Moreover the
importance of the HR manager at Tesco implies for understanding the motivation of the
workers through reward and compensation for making the talented individual satisfied in his
job and make them free to share their decision in every strategical discourses. Employee
engagement is one of the main functioning of Tesco HRM as they adhere for employee
retention to be their most vehement organizational objectives (Brannen et al., 2013). Tesco
also provides additional support for employees in training and development programs so that
they can be more passionate about their respective role and can attain for best skill and
aptitudes in their work for smoothening the business operations.
P2: Explaining the examples of the organization for evaluating the strengths and
weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection
In an organization recruitment and selection process recognizes for consideration of capable
and endowed individuals inside the workforce of the organization. It is one of the real
fundamentals of HRM. The HR manager of an organization holds on to both internal and
external advance to recruitment and selection. The internal sources of recruitment
distinguishes for hiring of people from the current referrals of employees, while the outside
sources remain for different type of methodologies like enlistment through organizations,

online recruitment through organization sites, news paper notices and through employment
fairs. One of the primary advantages of utilizing inner methodologies of recruitment
characterizes for the perspective that the HR administrator can get a total photo of the work
force that he is employing and can suggest sets of responsibilities and investigation as
indicated by his abilities (Lowe et al., 2012). However, it likewise poses with a few
impediments like the HR managers can be at risk to get one-sided of their decisions over
existing workers. The recruitment through outside sources like offices is profitable by
methods for time as they can choose candidates from an immense number inside a shorter
timeframe. In any case, it likewise pays for certain inconvenience regarding biasness of
picking right applicants by deluding through ramifications of higher expenses. Online
platform of selection or official websites gives the HR manager the perfect stage for carving
out the best candidates for recruitment in a simple route with a cheaper cost and adaptable
ambience for hiring. The selection process inside an organization is characterized through the
applicant's abilities, learning and encounters. The internal procedure of selection sticks to
ways to deal with board interviews, a mass discourse and one-to – one meeting. The external
choice of selection recognizes for evaluation communities for interviews, early on screening
of candidates and capability test. The significant disadvantages of the internal process of
selection stands for the way that HR manager definitely thinks about job orientation state of
mind of the selected individuals for the post; though it can be identified in external selection
process that, the HR manager needs to judge through beginning discussion where for which
the selected individual gets ready himself and can be beguiling for HRM (Wood et al., 2016).
The Hr model of David Ulrich suggests that a HR attains his business objectives through his
styles of operation and the process of recruitment and selection identifies to be an important
propaganda as he suggests that the process of recruitment and selection identifies to be best
fit process of finding on right individuals at right place. It saves the cost and time of enacting
right strategies to be executed in an effective way. The HR model also suggests that both
recruitment and selection process identifies for assessing the candidate’s skills to be right for
the work culture and their qualification is judged for focussing over knowledgeable resources
for a strategic move in this decision making process.
P3: Evaluate HRM practices benefit the management and employees of Tesco
The role of the HR manager is based on both the functional elements of the organization and
the human elements so the HR manager bridges the gap between these two aspects of the

operation. Tesco considered being the largest retail market chain in UK adheres to be
practicing some of the best practices in their organization for achieving benefit for
management and employees of the organization. They are as follows:-
The primary duty of the HR manager is the use of the human resource for the
fulfillment of the various organizational responsibilities that are necessary for the
operations. This entails the use of the compensation and rewards which is used by the
organizations to maximize the motivation of the employs and increase employee
loyalty.
Moreover the HR is responsible for establishing direct contacts with the customers by
employees which establishes a higher dependence of customers towards management.
Tesco also provides proper training and development programs which helps the
employees to enhance their skill base and this act for fulfilment of customer needs in
a smoother way.
Tesco implies on motivation and inspiration to employees through reward and
compensation which helps the employees to pay loyalty to management (Tesco, P. L.
C. 2014).
Conflict resolution is another HRM practice of Tesco which affects the workers being
able to work in an effective way.
Practices like “hiring and retaining the best one” by HR of Tesco applies for finding
right candidates for right job descriptions.
The Maslow’s motivational theory is one of the best examples to determine that employee
motivation level is directly related to the HR functioning for achieving organizational goals
and objectives (Taormina, & Gao, 2013). The Four “Quadrant theory of organizational
reward and recognition” is an important one for determine that a HR manager is responsible
for determining the creativity and innovative approaches within the employees through
training and development programs so that they can implement reward and recognition of the
employee fit for the best management practices. For example, it can be adhered that Tesco
follows on attaining the employee skills through such HR practices like training and
development. Moreover they also incur upon compensation and benefits programs for
motivating the employees through satisfying their basic needs of life and job satisfaction.

P4: Reviewing of HRM practices in context of organizational productivity and profit
In addition, the use of the human resource in a way that benefits the organizations the most is
also under the responsibility of the HR manager. Therefore it can be virtually defined that HR
manager of an organization like Tesco implies for addition assigning the human resource and
developing them is also responsible for recruiting competent individuals for the organization.
This indicates the role of the HR managers as the development and planning of the human
resource for the organization and its use for maximum benefit to the organization. Moreover,
human resources managers in the training and development of the various employees to
fulfill the organizational needs while helping their career development are also an important
phenomenon as it determines for employees to be aligned to the organizational culture and
make a retrospective decision in various strategy formulation as they are imbibed with
maximum loyalty towards the organization. This helps Tesco to retain in maximum employee
who signifies for a retail organization like Tesco to more cohesively maintain a customer
relation and thereby defining organizational productivity in customer retention through brand
management. Moreover practices like “hiring and retaining best one” is also aligned with
getting positive and fruitful outcomes from employees in each department and this is
vehemently associated with the organizational growth and productivity in terms of best
practices being nurtured by an employee in his job role (Thomya, & Saenchaiyathon, 2015).
The conflict resolution is another practice by HR which depicts for a smooth workforce
culture and this effect the organizational overall strategic implementation process and
employee retention for outcome best brand support to the customers. Tesco HRM also
supports for employee engagement practices which vehemently support their competitive
landmark among other rivals like Sainsbury, Asda etc through implying over less employee
turnover per year.
P5: Analysing the importance of employee relation in organization Tesco
Employee relation is an important factor in which the management of an organization
intercommunicates with a worker on diversified viewpoints and in addition considers to
support an expansive connection among them; in this manner dropping each kind of work
environment strife. In an organization like Tesco, keeping up profound employee relations is
a more basic for their hierarchical achievement. Flourishing employee relations are essential
for more prominent adequacy and talented work environment culture inside the organizations.
Employee relations fundamentally handle clashes in addition to assenting of issues

identifying with individuals that may leave, generally influence the work condition
(Pettinger, 2013). The HRM goes about as a key capacity in keeping up a bond among the
workers with the businesses that in time turns into a basic actuality for affecting the diverse
choices that HR manager puts in. The employee relation within the company adheres for
proper communication to be established which helps in effective of working of employer and
employees together. The HRM department of the company follows on different employee
relation techniques like monetary reward, promotion of employees, providing job security,
different types of formal and informal modes of communication and most importantly
employee participation like feedbacks of their performance etc – all these proves to be
vehemently supporting the benefits of making a coherent work culture with less employee
turnover in the retail sector of UK (Day, & Moorman, 2013). Moreover the inclusion of
social media acts as an interactive web-based communication and feedback services for the
employees and employer which helps them to create a service-specific profiles for facilitating
their improvement in employee-employer communication or communication among
employees. This process of communication in online platform has come out for Tesco to be
an effective procedure for carving out best decision and ideas from the employees and make
strategical moves in challenging business dimension to be effective.
P6: Key elements of employee legislations and its impact over influencing HRM decision
making
The UK employee law identifies for strict compliances for HR manager of companies. Some
of them are as follows:-
The Equal Pay Act (1970) – entitling equal payment for workers without any gender
biasness, and paying equal amount to an employee ranking in different organizations.
The Sex determination Act (1975) – protection against discrimination occurring on
background of sex in various HRM practices like recruitment and selection,
promotion, rewards and compensation, training and development (Hepple, 2013).
Healthy and Safety Work Act (1975) – Ensuring healthy and conflict free workplace
culture within organization by HRM so that there can be even distribution of work
standards among employees ensuring employee’s physical and psychological safety
guidance.
Working Time Directive Acts (1999) – HR manager should imply for a guaranteed
hours of working like 448 hours a week and employees should be given the privilege

of selecting their working hours and their own wish would be considered regarding
hours of extra work.
The HR manager of Tesco is thoroughly should thoroughly involved with all the key aspects
of the employee legislations as well as the key importance of the employee relations so that
they can adhere for smooth workforce planning and operational movements through
supportive employee’s decision making process for carving out the best possible outcome for
the organization. it can be identified that employee-relation within Tesco imbibes for a better
approach to the conflict resolution services and this has helped them to enact for best
strategical choices in business decisions (Lukic, 2016). Moreover the HRM of Tesco also has
to abide by the UK legislative laws and regulations for employee’s recruitment process, their
periodical hours of working for employees like store assistant, line managers, customer
service assistant etc so that there cannot arise any controversial issues regarding payment
method and other systems like rewards and bonuses, compensation etc. moreover the HR
manager’s decision for recruiting talented individuals should be also avoided from gender
and discrimination biasness as this can hurt the employee’s motivation and turn up for
hazardous results for the company Tesco.
P7: Application of HRM practices in work related context through examples
Designing a job specifications of Customer service assistant
Experience
 2 to 3 years in customer service assistant or support.
Responsibilities
 Building a good customer base
 Appraisals for employees working under him.
 Conduct of question and complaints from customers in front desks.
 Supporting staffs through training for customer handling.
 Arranging promotional events for customer responses in different stores.
Skills required Communication skills Perseverance and patience for customer feedback and enquiry Motivational skills for enhancing team dynamics among staffs

 Interpersonal skills for handling challenging situations.
CTC £12000 – 20000
Qualification required Masters in business administration Customer relation management
CV for student applying for the post
1st Applicant
Name – Jackson Trench
Personal details
 Languages known – English, Spanish, German
 Address - ******
Personal skills and traits Good communication aptitude. Customer focussed about trendy living and shopping styles Motivational aptitudes for staff orientation. Responsive behaviour towards customer handling. Good at handling customer feedback and responses.
Summary of experience
 Experience of working in customer service in grocery store.
 Had worked as promotional officer for supporting customer service.
 Equipped in carving out customer preferences for different products.
Qualification
 Masters in Business Administration
Career Objectives – To make my career in customer supportive role as facing diversified
customer bases in front store has been enjoyed by me all through my career.
2nd Applicant
Name – Emily Allan
Career Objectives – To work with a reputed retail company in any department, but with a
special
Qualification

MBA in social relation and marketing
HND in hospitality
Personal details
Languages known – English, and Japanese
Personal skills and traits
Love to interact with different types of people.
Understanding customer preferences and sensitivity in contemporary market.
Allocating the demands of the customers according to necessity
Summary of experience
Has worked in customer support officer in Asda.
Meeting with customers and receiving feedbacks of customers in customer service
desk.
Criteria for selection and justification
The criterion for selection and recruitment of candidates for the preferred job description of
Customer Service Assistant is requisite of effective communication skills. The panel of
interviews suggested for the interviewee is ascribed to be denoting for preparatory notes
indicating about the resonance of the interviewee about the current philosophy about
customer service phenomenon in a retail sector. Moreover through the interview, it is also
developed about the psychological set up of the candidate for handling customer service
pressure during festive openings at different stores as well as handling situations
diplomatically. The outcome of the interview is inclining towards qualification and relative
experience of the interviewee in the respective field of customer service. By analysing the
CV of both Jackson and Emily, it can be found that Emily suits to be more applicable for the
post as she have previous experience of working with a retail company in the requisite
position of customer service. She has got some enough competency factors better than
Jackson and it is also imperative according to psychological mind set up of Emily, that she
can handle customer pressure during peak times in an effective way.
Job offer to the selected candidate

Dear Emily,
We are hereby offering you the selected post of Customer Service Assistant in our company.
Your CV has been admirably approved by our interview panel; specially your interactive
responses, we think is right for such responsible post.
I think you can understand that how much brand image our company has iin the international
market. We hope you will show all your sparks in your respective job description whatever
you have indicated us in the interview and work efficiently with us. You are urged to join the
office from 28th May 2018 at our respective branch and is earnestly requested to come up
with 2 passport size photo and any of your ID proof.
If you have any query, you can contact us on the below address.
Thanking You, Yours
sincerely,
James
Goodman
HR
Manager
Tesco
Plc, UK
Evaluation of the process and rationale for conducting appropriate practices
The procedure for electing a candidate for the post of customer assistance is explicitly
deciphers to the communicative power and resilience in the candidate so that he or she can
effectively establish a good relation with the customers in respect of the company. For a
esteemedretail company like Tesco, it is always to remember the fact that individual must be
eloquent to the proper responsiveness and dimension of the business position, so that they can
effectively pursue the brand management of the company in their own hands through
providing customer service at best level. His educational credentials is therefore is also an
important quality to consider over and therefore it also must be made sure through personal
interviews and group-discussions about the ability and skills he possess to become suitable
for the post. The selection procedure also establishes the fact that her language skills also