Report: Analysis of Tesco's Recruitment Challenges and Strategies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the recruitment challenges faced by Tesco, a global retail giant. The executive summary highlights key issues such as demographic factors, talent management in a competitive environment, labor shortages, cultural diversity, and organizational image. The report delves into each challenge, offering specific recommendations to improve Tesco's recruitment process. These recommendations include leveraging effective advertising, implementing employer branding strategies, improving incentive plans, and fostering cross-cultural training. The analysis emphasizes the importance of a valuable recruitment process for organizational growth and success, concluding with a summary of recommendations aimed at attracting and retaining skilled employees and improving Tesco's overall organizational image. The report underscores the need for Tesco to adapt to changing demographics, competitive pressures, and cultural complexities to ensure its long-term sustainability.

Running head: Managing Human Resources 1
Managing Human Resources

Managing Human Resources 2
Executive Summary
The aim of developing this report is to have an in-depth understanding of the several challenges
faced by the companies in the process of recruitment of employees. The report will present the
challenges in respect with the selected organisation i.e. Tesco. There will be presented a series of
recruitment challenges experienced by the company and adequate recommendations to overcome
those challenges and having an improved recruitment process. There will be highlighting the
significance of some renowned recruitment strategies such as taking use of effective
advertisements, employer branding, etc. for attracting skilled and competent individuals. The
report will help in gaining a good understanding of the significance of valuable recruitment
process in the business organisations and its vital role in the growth of the organisation.

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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Recruitment challenges experienced by Tesco and recommended strategies to overcome these
issues................................................................................................................................................3
Demographic factor as the key issue in the recruitment process of Tesco..................................3
Talent management and Competitive Business Environment as the major issues in the
recruitment process of Tesco.......................................................................................................5
Shortage of labour Supply as a recruitment challenge for Tesco................................................6
Cultural Diversity as the prime recruitment challenge for Tesco................................................6
Organisational image as another recruitment challenge for Tesco..............................................7
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Recruitment is not an easy job in present time as the organisations are experiencing a number of
issues while recruiting the individuals. The future and sustainability of any company is more
dominantly depended upon the type of human resource the company possesses. For attaining the
organisational objective and competitive advantages in modern globalised world, there is vast
dependency on ten competence and talent of the employees. The companies experienced a
number of challenges in consideration with aspects such as rapidly ageing workforce, high level
of generation gaps, competitive environments, increased level of cultural diversity and various
other demographic aspects. Such issues hollow the process of recruitment and make an
organisation weak and due to this various challenges related to sustainability and existences are
aced by the organisations (Hurst and Good, 2009).The study will highlight the challenges
associated with recruitment in consideration with Tesco PLC which is a giant retailer of
groceries across the globe as well as a renowned super market chain that offers huge
opportunities to the individuals to achieve employment. Tesco was established in the year 1919
i.e. almost a century ago and is presently giving employment to 476,000 people at its 6,553
stores but has experienced a series of recruitment challenges which are necessary to get
overcome for better organisational working (Tesco, 2017).
Recruitment challenges experienced by Tesco and recommended strategies to
overcome these issues
Tesco is global player that have its existence across many overseas nations. The organisation is
effective enough in offering extensive opportunities of employment to the masses. But in such
vast business operations, there are times when the company ahs to experience some of the
challenges in its recruitment process that are posing a negative impression of the organisation
and impact on the business operations.
Demographic factor as the key issue in the recruitment process of Tesco
Tesco has experienced a certain issues related to demographic factors that comprises of issues
related to ageing workforce and the continuously increasing generation gaps. The retail
industries experienced a big threat due to the challenge of ageing workforces where there exist

Managing Human Resources 5
high numbers of people who are of elderly age group. It has been observed that the ageing
workforce usually do not possess creative and innovative skills and eagerness to work on
updated and techno savvy gadgets and tools. For having an increased customer base, it is
essential for the Tesco to manage working on innovative technologies and to have young talent
in the organisation (Beck, 2014). And thus, it occurs as one of the major recruitment issue for
Tesco. Due t the increased presence of employees who are of elderly age and appointment of
young ones to manage innovative technology based operations, there occurs a challenge of
managing the generation gap among the workforces. Because of higher generation gaps, there
takes place a number of conflicts and issues at the organisation. Because of higher presence of
old age employees, the youth try to escape from such job opportunities because of increased
autonomy and squat chance of growth in the company and yahoos, it creates recruitment
challenges for Tesco (Broadbridge, 2017).
To manage the demographic factor based recruitment challenge, it is essential for Tesco to
manage fetching attention of the youth through interesting and eye-catching advertisements. The
advertisements must be done on social media platforms as well as various other locations where
there is increased presence of young individuals. Once the young individuals will be attracted
and will have an insight about the significant role, there can be increased applications of
recruitment. And to overcome the challenge of generation gap at Tesco, it is suggested that more
informal communication should take place between the new as well as the old employees so that
interchanging of ideas and better communication flow can reduce the gaps and can have a more
united workforce (Billett, et al., 2011).

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Talent management and Competitive Business Environment as the major issues in
the recruitment process of Tesco
Next key issue faced by Tesco in its recruitment process is talent management and operating in a
highly competitive business environment. In other various sectors, there are other recognized
companies that offer high wages, employments offers and incentives to the potential candidate
for seeking their attention and recruit them. In such competitive environment, it is extremely
challenging for Tesco to retain its employees as well as to recruit competent candidates and this
results in decreased number of applicants (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011). The primary
reason that gives rise to the issue is the incompetency of the retail sector to fetch attention of
talented and skilled candidates. Due to absence of professionalism as well as no requirement for
specific knowledge, the most of the crowd is just under graduate or graduates and this restricts
the talented one to join retail sector for their career. Because of absence of good knowledge and
talent there becomes very difficult to manage and integrate the talent and this is one of the key
recruitment challenges for Tesco (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
For sustaining the challenge of talent management and competitive business environment Tesco
is recommended to implement the employer branding strategy. It is a process by which an
organisation is developed as an employer of choice in the viewpoint of the specific group of
individuals who are the potential; employees of that company. These employees themselves want
to join the organisation and retain themselves in that organisation because of its renowned
culture and other various benefits (Wilden, Gudergan and Lings, 2010). Tesco is required to have
huge investments in employer branding so that more talented and competent employees can join
the organisation. therefore, it will help in both managing a pool of talented employees as well as

Managing Human Resources 7
gaining competit8ve advantages through effective employer branding (Schuler, Jackson and
Tarique, 2011).
Shortage of labour Supply as a recruitment challenge for Tesco
Another recruitment issue is the increased demand of labour and extreme shortage of supply of
labour. In the regions of Australia, there has been analysed a sudden decrease in the availability
of the labour and especially in the retail sector. Because of industrialisation and globalisation, the
demand for the workers has been increased by several other industries and in that scenario,
retaining or recruiting employees in the retails sector becomes an extremely tough job for the HR
managers. Due to shortage of labour supply, the operations and functions of the company also
impacts as there is unavailability of workers to carry on the large operations and thus productive
its gets negatively impacted (Watson, 2008).
For managing the issue of shortage of labour supply, it is recommended to Tesco that it must
improve its incentive plans, recruitment policies, reward plan and wages of the workers so that
more number of workers can be attracted. There must be offered higher work life flexibility to
the employees so that competent and skilled individuals can also give their applications and thus
the demand can be met (Ruhs and Anderson, 2010).
Cultural Diversity as the prime recruitment challenge for Tesco
Being exist in a multicultural society, the companies usually face high challenges related to
cultural diversity. Tesco similarly experienced a number of recruitment challenges due to
cultural diversity aspect in the recruitment process. Managing workforce becomes a difficult job
for the company in upsurge cultural diversity in the organisation (Alexandre-Leclair, 2014). Due
to difference in culture of the candi9dteas and the recruiters, there develops a misunderstanding
of concepts which results in either recruitment of an inappropriate candidate or rejection of a
competent individuals (Herring, 2009). As well as there are challenges as because of fear of in-

Managing Human Resources 8
adjustment in a multicultural organisation, the potential candidate does not applied for jobs in
such organisations. Thus, because of higher number of culturally diverse employees, Tesco also
face some of these challenges in its recruitment process (Armstrong, et al., 2010).
Managing the challenge of cultural diversity is essential for Tesco to have improved productivity
and recruitment of competent candidates. For this, it is recommended that Tesco must give its
employees good training of cross cultural aspects so that there can be flexible adjustments of
employees. This issue can also be resolved by having open discussion, informal communication
channels and feedback sessions o that the issues do not raise and are resolved at primary stage
only (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Organisational image as another recruitment challenge for Tesco
Organisational image is one of the key factors that impact the recruitment process of the
company. Tesco holds a strong brand image and is well-known in the retail sector but from the
perspectives of the individuals and competent candidates the retail sector is one of the not least
favoured industries to get employed in due to several reasons as lack of knowledge requirement,
sales work, etc. And because of this, there are less skilled individuals as applicants in Tesco.
Another image associated with Tesco is high pressure and burden upon the employees for
meeting the monthly sales targets. Thus, such organisational image binds the candidates to work
in retail sector and it occurs as a big recruitment challenge for companies like Tesco.

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For managing the recruitment challenge posed because of the organisational image, it is
recommended to Tesco that there must be take steps for changing the image of the industry and
the company in the minds of the people by highlighting the various career and growth
opportunities present at the organisation. The organisation must also build a strong culture to
fetch attention of the employees and also give the employees opportunities for their career and
personal development.
Conclusion and recommendations
For attaining continuous growth and long term sustainability, it is essential for the organisations
to have efficient recruitment process and effective management of the human resources. Tesco is
one of the most renowned organisations in the retail sector and somehow rules the supermarkets
but thereat re various recruitment challenges that are holding back the success and growth of the
company. From analysis of the various recruitment challenges of Tesco, it is evaluated that there
must be take initiatives to improve the recruitment process. The various issues comprising of
talent management, competitive business environment, and labour shortage can be overcome if
the employees are offered with adequate incentives, wages and rewards. It is also necessary that
improvements must be made in the policies and plans of recruitment for fetching the attention of
the competent candidates (Boussebaa and Morgan, 2008). It is also recommended to Tesco that it
must have huge investments on employer branding as well as on advertisements so that there can
be a better organisational image and increased visibility among the masses so that potential
candidates can apply for jobs in the company. Hence, it is concluded that Tesco must have
effective use of its strong brand image and extensive capital for having a better recruitment

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process with no such above mentioned challenges and can attain recruitment of skilled and
competent employees

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References
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impact of diversity and equality management on firm performance: Beyond high
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Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
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Beck, V. (2014). Employers’ views of learning and training for an ageing
workforce. Management Learning, 45(2), 200-215.
Billett, S., Dymock, D., Johnson, G., & Martin, G. (2011). Overcoming the paradox of
employers' views about older workers. The International Journal of Human Resource
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Herring, C. (2009). Does diversity pay?: Race, gender, and the business case for
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Ruhs, M., & Anderson, B. (Eds.). (2010). Who needs migrant workers?: labour shortages,
immigration, and public policy. Oxford University Press.

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