Research Report: Talent Management Strategies at Tesco, UK

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of talent management strategies implemented by Tesco, a major UK-based retailer. The research delves into the company's current approaches to attract and retain talented employees, exploring various aspects such as job descriptions, cultural fit assessments, training and development programs, and reward systems. The project utilizes a structured project management plan, including cost analysis, timelines, a Gantt chart, and a work breakdown structure, to ensure the research's successful completion. The methodology involves primary data collection through interviews and questionnaires, as well as secondary data analysis of Tesco's annual reports. The report identifies challenges faced in implementing talent management strategies and concludes with recommendations for Tesco to enhance its practices, aiming to improve employee retention, attract top talent, and gain a competitive advantage in the UK retail market. The reflection section highlights the value gained from conducting the project.

Managing Successful Business
Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title..................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Aims & Objectives..........................................................................................................................4
Research Questions......................................................................................................................5
Project Management Plan................................................................................................................5
Timeframes......................................................................................................................................8
Gantt chart.................................................................................................................................10
Work Breakdown Structure.......................................................................................................11
Research Methodology..................................................................................................................11
DATA ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................................13
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................20
Reflection.......................................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................24

Title
“What are the best talent management strategies which can be used by the retail firms in UK
for retaining and attracting the talented staff?” A study on Tesco Company in UK.
Introduction
For any organisation to survive in the emerging and competitive global market, it is must
to manage the talent of the employees who are the biggest assets of the organisations. Talent
Management is the continuous process which is used in the organisations whether small or large
that mainly aims to attract and retain the qualified, talented and high quality employees, develop
and enhance their skills along with continuously encouraging and motivating them so that they
can bring improvement in their performance (Krishnan and Scullion, 2017).
There are many strategies which are used by the retailer companies of UK which aims at creating
a motivated workforce who stays with the company in the long run instead of leaving the
company soon after taking the trainings (McDonnell and et.al., 2017). This will also help in
enhancing the talent and skills of the employee so that they become able to compete with the
competitors along with gaining larger competitive advantage in the emerging retail markets of
UK. This research will focus on the talent management strategies implemented by the Tesco
which is the British multinational retailer of groceries as well as general merchandise. It is
headquartered in England, UK. It became the third-largest retailer in the world in terms of gross
revenues and the ninth largest in the world in terms of revenues. It performs its operations in
many countries across the world which makes it the market leader of groceries in UK and many
other countries like Ireland etc. The company considers its 450,000 employees who are talented
as well as skilled as the biggest assets who are responsible for its growth and rapid progress.
There are many talent management strategies like understanding the power of job descriptions,
assessing the candidate to be cultural fit, providing training and development opportunities
continuously, giving the rewards and recognition to the employees and many more. Through this
research project, the various talent management strategies used by Tesco will be explored by
interviewing some managers and sending questionnaires to some employees of the company. As
the secondary collection, the annual reports of the company will be examined.
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Various project management techniques will be used for the completion of the project.
Timeframes will be produced through the Gantt chart and Work Breakdown Structure which will
help in dividing and organising the project in specific manageable sections.
A comprehensive project management plan including the risks, costs, resources and time will be
produced for successful achievement of the aims and objectives of the project. Significant
conclusions will be made by analysing the data collected from the primary and secondary
sources. Lastly, some recommendations will be given in terms of better talent management
strategies which can be implemented and used by retail firms like Tesco so that they become able
to retain and recruit the best talented and qualified employees which helps in gaining a greater
competitive advantage. The value gained by conducting the project will be reflected which will
also help in supporting the sustainable organisational performance.
Overview
The research project will aim at evaluating the talent management strategies implemented
at Tesco and exploring better strategies which can be used by Tesco for retaining and recruiting
the talented, skilled and qualified employees who can help in gaining competitive advantage
along with meeting the requirements of the company.
Aims & Objectives
Aim
To analyse the talent management strategies used by Tesco in UK and to recommend
better strategies for implementation in the future by the company.
Objectives
 To evaluate the concept of talent management in the retail firms of UK.
 To explore the talent management strategies used by Tesco in UK.
 To identify the challenges which can be faced by the company in implementing the talent
management strategies.
 To recommend and suggest various new talent management strategies which can be
implemented by Tesco for attracting and retaining the talented staff.
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Research Questions
 What is the concept of talent management in the context of retail firms in UK?
 Which talent management strategies are used by the Tesco in UK?
 What challenges can be raised in implementing the talent management strategies?
 What talent management strategies can be recommended and suggested to Tesco for
retaining and attracting the talented staff?
Project Management Plan
Project management Plan is basically a formal document which helps in defining how a
project will be carried out. It aims at outlining the scope, budget, goals, timelines and the
deliverables of the research project which helps in keeping the project on track. This is basically
developed at the time of the project planning stage of the life cycle of the project. This must also
be approved by the stakeholders of the project as they play an important part in every phase of
the project whether the initial planning stage or the execution one. By taking the approval only
the project can be moved to the execution stage (Wang, Ren and Liu, 2017). The project
management plan must be organised, engaging and thorough enough for gaining support of the
stakeholders. This also includes the baselines, subsidiary management plans along with some
other planning documents which help in defining the approach which is required by the project
team for delivering the project’s intended scope. The stakeholders get to know the appropriate
information regarding the understanding and the significance of the project and its impact on
them and the companies (Chen, Kang and Lee, 2017). This project management plan will give an
outline of the cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources regarding the
research project which helps in exploring the various talent management strategies used by
Tesco and in recommending better strategies for retaining and attracting the talented candidates
(Pandita and Ray, 2018). Various following aspects will be covered in the project management
plan:
Cost Cost is the most important and significant part of the project management
without which no phase of the project can be successfully executed. It is
must for the project to be completed within the decided budget otherwise
there can be many cost risks which can be developed due to the lack of
money for the project. Cost is required in every research activity whether it
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is data collection, sampling or any other activity. For successfully carrying
out all such activities for this project, the estimated cost is £200 excluding
the activities responsible for research and development activities. The total
cost which will be borne by Tesco company for the activities of research and
development will be £300.
Basis Cost
New computers £100
Online interviews £30
Internet connectivity £60
Transport cost £90
Food cost £20
Total cost £300
Scope The scope of the research project will be mainly the employees and the
managers of Tesco company which is headquartered in UK. This research
project will help the company to attract and retain the talented and qualified
candidates and employees which will help the company to gain the greater
competitive advantage among its competitors like Sainsbury, Morrison,
ASDA and many more. This research project will help the company to bring
improvement in its talent management strategies so that the talent and the
skills of the employees can be developed and enhanced and they can be the
biggest and the most productive assets of the company. The project also
provides various opportunities to the researcher for earning money as well as
increasing the knowledge regarding the talent management strategies
implemented in Tesco as well as the new strategies which can give better
results to the company. This will also suggest the company to organise
various training programs as well as provide rewards and recognitions to the
employees which can motivate the employees to develop, learn and enhance
their skills which not only enhances the performance of the employees but
also increases the productivity and profitability of the company.
Time Time is required in every stage of the research project whether it is sampling
or collecting the data or analysing the data etc. This research project for
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evaluating the talent management strategies in Tesco and recommending
better strategies will require almost two months from 4 January 2021 to 5
March 2021 in which specific days will be decided for the completion of
every activity. For example, in identifying the aim and objectives of the
project 3 days will be required which will start from 4 January and will end
on 6 January and all other activities will be in the similar order. The project
manager is responsible for ensuring that each activity of the research project
is updated and carried out according to the decided schedule and is
completed within the decided timeframe.
Quality The quality of the research project will be decided by the method and the
type of the research. Mainly the two methods can be used by the researcher
for conducting the research which are namely Qualitative and Quantitative
(McClory, Read and Labib, 2017). The qualitative methods are much easier
than the quantitative methods to analyse the data collected from the
interviews and the questionnaires and the other primary sources of data
collection. The quantitative method is used to analyse the numerical as well
as statistical data. In the quantitative method the main role is played by the
opinions, beliefs and the viewpoints of the human beings like employees,
managers etc. While in the quantitative methods, the main role is played by
the numbers or the statistical data. The qualitative data will be used by the
researcher for gaining deep insights regarding the views of the managers and
the employees of Tesco related to the talent management strategies
implemented in the company to achieve the objectives of the company.
Communication For the completion of the research project, it is must for the efficient and
effective interaction among the various aspects of the project and which
must be in specific timeframe and decided budget. The main communication
is required between the researcher as well as the employees and the
managers of the Tesco company which is done through e-mails and
telephone calls. In this time of pandemic of COVID-19, the interview and
the questionnaire are also taken online through the online platforms and the
online means of communication. This saves the time as no transportation is
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needed to travel from one place to another and also it helps in saving the
costs of transportation. The responses from the managers and the employees
are gained through the online sources like e-mails as the questionnaires and
the interview questions are send through the same which makes the
communication effective and efficient.
Risk There are many risks involved while doing the research project such as huge
costs are required in the completion of every activity which is involved in
the research project which can cause costs risks and sometimes there is no
money remaining for the later activities. Also, there is a limited amount of
time for the project completion which sometimes hinders the smooth
implementation of the research activities. There can also be risk of incorrect
sampling and the data misinterpretation. The risk of incorrect size of
sampling within the limited time is involved for the researcher (Thunnissen
and Buttiens, 2017).
Resources The various resources used in this research project are online factsheets and
reports of Tesco which helps in gaining in-depth insights regarding the talent
management strategies implemented at Tesco along with the online articles
such as the entrepreneur Europe magazines and the human resource today
which explores the concept of talent management and better talent
management strategies in the retail firms of UK. Online reports can be used
such as Winning with the talent management strategies, Global Talent trends
2019 and many more. The resources can be the webinar sessions related to
the talent management strategies in the GCC or the You tube videos related
to managing talent in the retail firms. The basic resources required for using
the above mentioned resources are time, better internet connection and
sufficient capital for carrying out the research successfully and smoothly.
Timeframes
Timeline is very significant part in the research project which basically shows the
chronological order of the research activities which are planned in the project. It not necessarily a
detailed plan but is a quick way to provide overview of the planned activities of the research
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project. The timeline of this research project which aims at exploring the talent management
strategies in Tesco and the better strategies is given below along with the activities as well as
decided timeframe for the same:
Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Scheduled
Identification of the aim and
objective of study 3 days Mon1/4/21 Wed1/6/2
1
Auto
Scheduled Project management plan 5 days Thu1/7/21 Wed1/13/
21 1
Auto
Scheduled
Selection of the different research
methods 6 days Thu1/14/2
1
Thu1/21/2
1 2
Auto
Scheduled Preparing the questionnaire 4 days Fri1/22/21 Wed1/27/
21 3
Auto
Scheduled
Distributing questionnaire to collect
primary data 3 days Thu1/28/2
1
Mon2/1/2
1 2,4
Auto
Scheduled Collecting the data 7 days Tue2/2/21 Wed2/10/
21 5
Auto
Scheduled
Analyzing and interpreting the
collected data 11 days Thu2/11/2
1
Thu2/25/2
1 6
Auto
Scheduled Concluding the finding 3 days Fri2/26/21 Tue3/2/21 7
Auto
Scheduled
Recommending on basis of
conclusions 2 days Wed3/3/21 Thu3/4/21 8
Auto
Scheduled Reflecting on the learning 4 days Fri3/5/21 Wed3/10/
21 9
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Gantt chart
Gantt chart is basically a kind of bar chart which is invented by Henry Gantt who
invented such a chart between the years 1910-1915. This helps in illustrating the project schedule
and its modern version also shows the dependency relationships between the activities and the
current status of the schedule (Sharon and Dori, 2017). This is the widely used chart in the
project management which also helps in depicting the exact dates of start and finish including the
tasks, resources etc. which helps in completing the research project in the decided time frame.
Network Diagram
This is the flowchart which helps in showing the sequential workflow of the project tasks
along with identifying the tasks which needs to be completed in the research project. This helps
in examining the important activities through the critical path which cannot be ignored or left for
the project completion.
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Work Breakdown Structure
It is basically a type of project management which offers a visual way for detailing the
deliverables within a project and also aims at dividing the complex projects into manageable and
simpler tasks. It can also be defined as the hierarchical decomposition of the activities involved
in the research which are executed by the researcher and the project team for accomplishing the
project objectives and developing the required deliverables (Rianty, Latief and Riantini, 2018).
The WBS for this research project is as given below:
Research Methodology
Research methodology describes the specific procedure or the techniques which are used in
identifying, selecting, processing and analysing the information regarding the specific aim or
objectives. This helps in critically evaluating the overall reliability and validity of the research.
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This is must for the researcher to conduct the research in effective and efficient manner for
completing the research project so that significant conclusions can be drawn and optimal
findings can be obtained (Ebiloma and Rimtip, 2019). There are basically two types of research
methods which can be used by the researcher to carry out the research for the business project
which are as follows:
Qualitative research: This type of research is expressed in words which help in understanding
the thoughts, concepts or the experiences. This also helps in enabling the researcher for gathering
deeper insights on the research topics which are not well understood or need to be analysed
deeply (Sloan and Quan-Haase, 2017). The main methods through which qualitative researches
are carried out are interviews, questionnaires, literature reviews etc. This is a form of explanatory
research which helps in gathering non-numerical data through the conversational or open-ended
conversations.
Quantitative research: This kind of research is expressed in the forms of numbers or graphs
which is used for testing or confirming the theories and assumptions along with establishing the
generalized facts regarding a particular topic (Glaister and et.al., 2018). The methods which can
be used for this type of research are surveys, experiments etc.
This research project will be based on the qualitative research methods like interviews and
questionnaires for exploring the talent management strategies used in Tesco for attracting and
retaining the most talented and qualified employees.
Data collection methods
This describes the sources through which data is collected for achieving the research
aim and objectives. These can be as follows:
Primary: These help in collecting the first hand and raw data which is collected by the
researcher itself (Parsons and et.al., 2018). But in this COVID time, the data will be collected
through the questionnaires and interviews from 30 employees of Tesco as respondents but
through the online modes like e-mails and telephonic calls instead of meeting in person.
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