Recruitment and Selection at Tesco: Methods and Selection Process

This report provides an analysis of Tesco's recruitment methods, focusing on how the company attracts and selects candidates. It examines both internal and external recruitment strategies, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of external recruitment. The report also discusses the benefits of using interviews and assessment centers in the selection process, emphasizing their role in evaluating communication skills, confidence levels, social behavior, and identifying training and development needs. The assessment center's elements, including presentations, group interviews, and personality tests, are also discussed, underscoring its accuracy and contribution to building the employer brand. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Recruiting at Tesco
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Table of Contents
Question 1:.......................................................................................................................................2
Method of Attracting and Recruiting Candidates in Tesco.............................................................2
Strengths and Weakness of the One of the Methods.......................................................................3
Question 2:.......................................................................................................................................4
Benefits for Organizations like Tesco in Using Interviews and Assessment Centers in Selection
Process.............................................................................................................................................4
References:......................................................................................................................................7

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Question 1:
Method of Attracting and Recruiting Candidates in Tesco
In Tesco, recruitment involves attracting the appropriate candidates for filling in the
vacancies. The company puts up its job advertisements depending on the availability of the job.
The company first looks into the internal talent plan for filling in the vacancy. This particular
process comprises of a list of the current employees who mostly look forward to a move either at
same level or through the promotion (tesco-careers.com 2019). In case of non availability of
suitable candidates, Tesco undertakes internal job posting for two consecutive weeks. On the
other hand, for recruitment of the external candidates, Tesco advertises its vacancies either
through its website www.tesco-careers.com or through the vacancy boards within the stores for
external recruitment. However, applications for the positions of the managers are done online.
Tesco opts for external advertisements for more specialist jobs like the pharmacist and
the bakers. These advertisements are done externally either through offline and website media or
radio and television or putting advertisements on the Google or in magazines like The
Appointment Journal. Tesco also makes it easier for the job applicants in finding the available
jobs by going through the company website, Here the applicant can get a clue about the
management post, local jobs and the positions at the head office and apply directly by filling in
an application form.
The selected candidates are then called for interview and then assessed at the assessment
centre for the final selection (Ballantyne and Povah 2017). People having interest in the store
jobs can either directly approach the stores or get them registered through the Jobcentre plus. A

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waiting list is prepared for the people applying in this manner who receive a call based on the
availability of the positions.
Strengths and Weakness of the One of the Methods
The strengths of external recruitment method are as follows:
1. Leads to Increased Chances: This method allows Tesco in receiving a variety of
candidates who owns the knowledge and holds the ability in handling the job. In external
recruitment there is an increased chance of finding a suitable candidate. In other words, this
method leads to the better availability of the qualified and the skilled professionals (Noe et al.
2017).
2. Possibility of Fresh Input and Skill: This method leads to better chances of
identification of a fresher candidate capable of delivering newer skills for the company’s
betterment.
3. Results in Better Competition: In this particular method of recruitment the company
is able to meet candidates who have better capability of handling skilled jobs and better ability of
handling risk.
Some of the weakness of the external recruitment method is as follows:
1. Chances of Higher Risk: In this particular method of employee selection, the selected
candidate might not be suitable for the offered position and thereby can take undue advantage of
their position.

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2. Extensively Time Consuming: There is always a possibility of receiving too many
applicants for a particular post and therefore the recruiter needed to be more careful about the
decision of choosing the most suitable candidate from each round of the selection process which
could be time consuming.
3. Results in Higher Cost: This method might prove to be a bit expensive for the firm in
terms of posting advertisements in radio, television and magazine (Stone and Stone 2013).
Besides, screening of the candidates involves consumption of more money. In addition the
company also needs to offer the best possible deals for attracting the candidates.
Question 2:
Benefits for Organizations like Tesco in Using Interviews and Assessment Centers in
Selection Process
Interviews refer as the process of interaction through question answering between the job
seeker and the interviewer (Miles and Sadler-Smith 2014). The benefits of interviews in the
selection process of organizations like Tesco are as follows (Olszak 2016):
1. Enables in Forming a Bridge Between Sender and Receiver: Interview is the
process that allows the recruiter to know the candidate better thereby bridging certain gaps.
2. Enables Judging the Communication Skills: Interview allows the better evaluation
of a person based on his/her communication skills. Good communication skills are not possible
to be known through writing.

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3. Helps in Checking the Confidence Level: Organizations like Tesco requires efficient
people for carrying out the responsibilities of a job. Interview allows in identifying whether a
person is confident enough in speaking up in front of other people.
4. Helps in Analysis of Social Behavior, Body Language and Smartness of
Individuals: Interviews helps in judging the basic etiquette of individuals. The process also
allows companies like Tesco in judging the smartness and the present ability of the individuals
by observing the body language.
In organizations like Tesco, assessment centre are more like the selection centre that
comprises of number of exercises designed for assessing the complete range of personal attitudes
and skills necessary for its job. It represents one of the most reliable methods for assessment of
the employees (Venclova, Salkova and Kolackova 2013). While interviews can generate 15
percent accuracy, results of the combined processes of the assessment centre leads to 60 percent
accuracy. There are seven important elements of an assessment centre which includes
presentation, group interviews, in tray exercises, role plays, personality test, ability test and
group exercise.
Thus, the assessment centre helps in identification of the training and the development
needs as per the needs and the requirements of the positions or vacancies. One of the vital
characteristics of the assessment centre lies in evaluation of the potential participants and the
management skills. The emphasis lies in identification of the selection and the promotion
decision of the participants based on the dimensions of the job performance. The feedback along
with the development suggestions of the employees forms the basis for the further training. Thus,

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in organizations like Tesco, assessment centre acts as the needs assessment programs that helps
in identifying the hiring and the development needs of the employee.
The common benefits of the assessment centre include better accuracy since they allow
broader methods of selection used during the process. They even facilitate assessment of the
existing performance thereby predicting the job performance in the future. Some of the other
benefits include (Bryman 2013):
 The opportunity of assessing as well as differentiating between the candidates who might
seem similar while providing the candidates with better insights into roles that they
applied for.
 Helps in building not only the employment proposition but the employer brand. Business
that allows candidates in attending the assessment centers often impresses the candidates
even when they get rejected provided the assessment genuinely reflect the organization
and the job.
 The costs related to the assessment centre are lower in comparison to potential cost
associated in various phases of recruitment. As most of the recruitment centre reduce or
mitigate the recruitment errors therefore it results in intrinsic reduction of cost.

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References:
Ballantyne, I. and Povah, N., 2017. Assessment and development centres. Routledge.
Bryman, A., 2013. Leadership and organizations (RLE: Organizations). Routledge.
Miles, A. and Sadler-Smith, E., 2014. “With recruitment I always feel I need to listen to my gut”:
the role of intuition in employee selection. Personnel Review, 43(4), pp.606-627.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Olszak, C.M., 2016. Toward better understanding and use of Business Intelligence in
organizations. Information Systems Management, 33(2), pp.105-123.
Stone, R.J. and Stone, R.J., 2013. Managing human resources. Wiley.
tesco-careers.com 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.tesco-careers.com/search-and-apply/
[Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].
Venclová, K., Salková, A. and Kolácková, G., 2013. Identification of employee performance
appraisal methods in agricultural organizations. Journal of Competitiveness, 5(2).