HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Tesco PLC
Human
Resource
Manageme
nt
HND Business Assignment Report
The aim of this report is to discuss different aspects of human resource
management in the context of a multinational company from UK.

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Introduction
We have chosen Tesco PLC for the purpose. Tesco is a multinational chain of grocery
and general merchandise. We will discuss all the aspects of HRM in the perspective of a
deputy HR manager working with Tesco. This company was founded by Jack Cohen in
Hackney, London in year 1919 and is now a multinational company. It was founded as a
group of market stalls to help the customers with their needs under a roof. It was renamed as
Tesco in year 1924. Now company has spread across the world with its stores operating in
14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. It has 30% market share in the grocery
market of UK and is operating with more than 60000 stores worldwide. The main products of
company include cash & warehouse club, superstores, hypermarkets, department store,
supermarkets etc for the sale of different products related to grocery and general use. As we
know, human resource is the most important resource for any organization. The company
employs more than 500,000 employees across its all stores over the world generating revenue
of approx. 64 billion Euros. All the resources have been well managed by the company and
have spread with a good speed over the time to become the leader in its operating market.

Task 1
Personnel Management and Human Resource Management
Personnel management is the traditional term used for the management of the
workforce within organizations while human resource management shows the shift that
take place in the personnel management over the time which considers human resource
as the most important resource for an organization. Personnel management is basically a
traditional approach concerning the different activities related to the workforce of an
organization

and

included

staffing,

payroll,

contractual

obligations

and

other

administrative tasks. On the other side, human resource management combines all the
efforts to be put for the benefit of the

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organization and the employees by putting employees first since the organization are
evolving as human centric organizations these days.
Older days the main task of the personnel manager was to act as the mediator for
taking concern of the workforce to ensure fulfillment of the needs from the employees so that
they can work effectively and efficiently. These days this changed personnel management i.e.
human resource management has become most important department of any organization
since it handles all the activities concerning with the employees and ensures a good return on
investment from the employees so that profitability of the organization can be increased It
also ensures that employees do not have conflict in the organizational goals and their personal
goals.
A well established human resource department ensures the equality of all the
employees within Tesco. The main tasks of line manager include providing good working
environment to the employees and the implementation of policy which are employee friendly.
Line manager needs to ensure that employee are present at their counters on the time and
dont leave the stores before time while handling all the requests from customers in best
possible ways.

Functions of Human Resource Management

HR department of an organization is playing a key role these days as it helps in
the achievement of the organizational goals by becoming part of strategic decisions of
the organization. The organizations define their objectives which they need to achieve
within the specified duration to meet their goals. Various resources available within the
organization ensure that organization achieves the defined goals and human resource
pay an important role in the fulfillment of these goals being the key resource for the
organization. So it become important for the human resource department of the
company to manage all its employees in

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such a way that the organization achieves all defined goals within the time period and the
employees of the organization have no conflict with their personal goals. It ensures that all
the skills available with the employees are used in best manner while providing them an
environment to increase their skill base.
Tesco is the employee centric organization due to the direct contact of the customers
with its employees for the fulfillment of the customers needs. Being a merchandise
organization, the company is highly dependent on its employees for the achievement of its
goals and objectives. Tesco ensures that the employees are managed in such a way that they
work effectively and efficiently to meet the organizational goals while achieving their
personal goals.

Responsibilities and roles of Line Manager

The human resource department of Tesco has designed the designation of store line
managers to lead the employees working in their stores. Line managers ensure that they
correct decision which can support their colleagues in working in proper manner and are
helpful for customers in their visits to store. Line managers lead their colleagues working in
the stores and work as a supervisor to them. Line managers also take care of all the working
staff in their store and ensure that the customers are leaving from the stores after being served
in best possible manner.
Providing coaching to the team working under the line managers is another
responsibility handled by them including leading the team. They ensure that all the
required resources are available at time and according to the defined standards. They
make decisions that support the team in their daily work, ensure the processes, routines
and systems within the store are working properly and are being completed at the
defined time. They also plan all type of activities like trade driving, promotional and
seasonal in order to get maximum

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impact from these activities on the sale of the firm. So, line managers are the main resource
for Tesco as they contribute a lot towards the achievement of goals of the company.

Legal and regulatory framework in context of HRM

Organizations working in an economy have to follow different laws that are necessary
in that particular economy. These laws are applicable in different manner for different
department of the organizations. HR department of any organization cant be put aside from
these legal and regulatory frameworks. Different laws like labor law, safety and security law
etc have direct impact on the activities of HR department. These laws are related to the safety,
security, and leisure and job satisfaction of the employees working within the organization.
Most of the governments have defined different legal frameworks for the gender
discrimination, labor relations, unfair treatment, sexual harassment, safe and clean
environment, compensation policy, privacy of the employees actions etc and these laws are
considered as base for defining different policies related to the employees within the
company. These defined laws are helpful for both employees and the organizations to ensure
the correct working within the organization and the satisfaction of the employees working in
the organization. Tesco follows all the laws defined in context of the human resource by UK
legislation for its operating decisions and follows the legislation of the countries where it is
operating to ensure that domestic laws are taken care properly.

Task 2
Human Resource Planning
Ensuring the availability of correct resource at the correct time is important for all
organization to achieve the defined goals. Human resource planning performs this task
as its main objective. As we know that human resources are the key resource for any
organization,

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so the planning of human resource becomes strategically important for any organization.
Human resource department along with the strategic planners perform the task of human
resource planning to ensure the availability of the right workforce at the right place and the
right time. They strategically plan for the recruitment process of the employees and their
training so that organizational goals are met within the defined time period. Most of the
organization declares the strategic goals at the announcement of their financial results and it
become important for them to achieve those goals to ensure the good market position. These
goals are defined by considering the availability of the workforce within the organization
also. They also give outlook of the company for the recruitment drive in the future time to
make candidates ready for the process of the organization. Tesco has defined standards to
perform human resource planning. Basically with the introduction of new stores at the
different locations, exit of employees from the company, introduction of new department
within the organization results into the need of more employees for the organization. They do
the human resource planning in the above stated situations mainly.

Stages in Human Resource Planning

Human resource planning is the important activity within the organization since it
assesses the human resource requirement within the organization and ensures the availability
of the resources at time. The process follows following defined steps within Tesco:
Assess the human resources: All the available resources within the organization are
assessed to know about the skills, talent and competency level available within the
organization. This step tells the strength of the organization in terms of human assets.
Forecasting Demand: According to the defined goals of the organization, the need of the
employees is identified to meet those goals within the defined timeline.

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Forecasting Supply: As per the industry data available and the last years trend, the
forecasting for the employees that may join the company in the specified is done. The factors
related to economic and industry environment are also concerned in the forecasting.
Balancing Demand and Supply: Once the need and the expected entry in the organization
are assessed by human resource department, they try to balance both to come on an exact
number of human resource required at a defined time.
Action Plan: After getting the exact number of resources required by a specified time within
the organization, human resource department along with strategic planner plans for the
recruitment and selection of the workforce to meet the goals. This step also includes planning
for the training of employees as well if required.

Recruitment and Selection process

Recruiting new people is the recruitment process for any organization and
selecting the right people for the organization is the selection process in basic terms.
These processes may differ from organization to organization. However, these processes
may find similarity for the organization working in same industry. We will discuss the
recruitment and selection process of Tesco and Walmart in this section. Tesco performs
recruitment drive on continuous basis with the help of external, internal and some
different ways. These processes ensure that company receives the applications from all
matched candidates. They first check for the internal resources to fulfill any profile
available within the company and then look for external resources by short listing the
CVs of the candidates according to the profile. Referral process is also followed within the
organization. The recruitment and selection process of Walmart is different from Tesco
since it recruits most of the employee on the contract basis which is performed by
receiving application from candidates. These candidates undergo an assessment test and
interview and then selected candidates are provided with the orientation

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program. Overall, the recruitment and selection process of both the organization aim at
selecting the best available talent within the employee market.

Effectiveness of recruitment and selection process

The above discussed two processes for recruitment and selection are different in
nature and have their own importance within the organization. We will assess the
effectiveness of these processed in this section. However, there are some similarities in the
processes in some aspects. Tesco looks for all type of resources available at large to select the
best candidates with the help of internal, external and other possible ways while Walmart
follows the basic recruitment approach which is followed by most of the companies to assess
the skills of the candidates from different perspective. Tesco basically tries to pool the
internal resource from one department to another department to get best out from the
employees of the organization. Walmart recruits employees on contract basis so we can say
the approach followed is effective for such type of recruitment. The process of Tesco can be
considered as more effective in comparison to that of Walmart.

Task 3
Linking Motivational Theory and Reward
Various leaders have defined different motivational theories at time to motivate the
employees of their organizations according to their experience over the period of time. Main
theories that are applicable and famous in most of the industries are Maslows hierarchy of
needs theory, achievement motivation theory, self determination theory, cognitive theories,
attribution theories, and Herzbergs two factor theory. These theories help in increasing the
motivation level of employees working within the organization. These theories are
important for any organization to help in achieving the organizational goals and
objectives. These

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theories motivate the employee to work in best possible way and get best out of the
employees during their stay at work. Some theories have defined on the basis of the reward
that employee can receive after working in defined manner while some theories has defined
other benefits that an employee may receive by his particular behavior at workplace. So, the
reward system of organizations has direct link with the motivational theories. If the
application of a theory in the organization leaves all employees motivated in same manner,
then the link cant be observed since all employees have same level of intellectual but if only
some employees get motivated in positive manner then companies can link the reward system
with motivation theory directly.

Job Evaluation
Compensation can be considered as a main motivational factor for most of the
employees. Job evaluation task is mainly concerned with the evaluation of job in terms of its
nature, kind of efforts put by the employees, skill sets of the employees, competence level of
workforce, qualification earned by the employees etc in order to define the pay of the
employees that an organization should pay to the employee. Job evaluation becomes
important part of the human resource management due to the application of different
compensation related laws by the legislations. The other factors that play important role
in deciding the pay for employees of an organization can be external to the employees
and organization both as well. These factors are the industrial scenario at a particular
time, economic environment of the country, financial health of the organization, scenario
of the competition in the industry etc. All organizations decide upon the pay for its
employees by considering all these factors.

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10

Effectiveness of reward system

As we have already discussed that reward system play an important role in the
organization in achieving the goals and objectives in effective and efficient manner. An
effective reward system helps the employees to get motivated for working in an effective and
efficient way. Reward system of an organization defines the types of benefits and employee
may receive on performing his job in a defined manner. The reward that an organization may
provide its employees for his work behavior in the organization may differ from organization
to organization. These can be in the form of progression, promotion, compensation, business
trips, relocation according to the employees desire etc. Tesco has an effective reward system
that keeps employees motivated to work for the organization in best possible way. The
success of many organizations highly depends on the effectiveness of the reward system
applicable within the organization.

Employee Performance Monitoring

Employees perform within the organization according to their defined roles and
responsibilities. Organizations monitor performance of the employees over the period of time
to assess the strength of its workforce. Assessment of employee performance becomes critical
in organization where incentive based reward system is applicable. The monitoring of
employee performance is important for the organization in terms that the organization
performance as a whole highly depends on the performance of its employees. The employee
performance over a period of time tells the kind of ability, skills, capability the employees
possess. Tesco monitors the performance of its employees by the help of feedbacks from the
line managers for the store staffs and for the line mangers higher staffs give feedback about
their behavior at workplace. The main applicable method for assessing the performance of the
employees is the assessment of the employees effectiveness and efficiency over a period of
four months. The another methods that are applicable for the monitoring of employee

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performance are target based mechanism, continuous assessment, online portal mechanism,
direct monitoring of all activities etc.

Task 4
Reasons for Cessation
An employee can be terminated from an organization or can get terminated himself
due to following reasons:
1. Avoidance of organizational rules and regulations by the employees for their personal
benefits that may have adverse impact on the organization.
2. Unaligned organizational and personal goals creating conflict in the work for the
employees and reduced performance by the employees.
3. Non-performance of the employee according to standards that reduces the
effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.
4. Unfavorable business environment for the organization like recession or the reduced
sales from the organization.
5. Unacceptable behavior of the employee that may hamper the image of the
organization.
6. Legislative orders for termination of particular employee by the court of law.
7. Personal reasons of employees like job switch, location change, marriage etc.
This list of reasons is not exhaustive and can differ from employee to employee and
from organization to organization.
Employment Exit Procedures

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The exit procedures followed by the organizations behaviour differ from one
organization to another. The employees are shown the exit doors to its employees on the basis
of different factors and keep in mind the legislative procedures as well that can put the
organization in hot water. The exit procedure followed by Tesco and Walmart differ in nature
and processes. Tesco terminates the employees on the basis of their performance and
behavior according to the defined rules for notice period and as the rules defined at the time
of offer of employment to its employees. Walmart mostly follow the contract based
mechanism for its employees, so with the end of the contract the employment of employees
with the organization get terminated by itself. Employees have to follow the defined rules and
regulations discussed at the time of offer in order to avoid the unwanted termination from the
employees. Both the company provides the employees with the job security and do not easily
terminate their employees in the case of economic slowdown. The organizations follow
different procedures to show exit door to the employees.

Legal and regulatory framework in Cessation

We already talked about the legal and regulatory framework for the human
resource management of an organization, so these rules and regulations are also
applicable in the case of termination of employees from the organization. These laws
help the employees from avoiding the termination by the organization in undefined or
unacceptable manner. Labor relation laws, compensation policies, job safety and security
laws are some of the important laws that are applicable in the cessation of employment
of employees with the organization. These laws differ from country to country. Tesco
follows all the rules and regulations defined by UK legislation in this context for the
employees working at strategic level and working within the boundaries of the country.
However the local laws that are applicable in the operating countries are considered for
the termination of employees in those countries.

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