External and Internal Method of Recruitment at Tesco Plc - Essay Example

Human Resources Table of Contents Introduction 4 Question A 4 Recruitment and Selection 4 Pre-Recruitment Decision of Tesco Plc 4 Question B 4 Tesco Plc’s Approaches to Recruitment 4 Methods of Recruitment of Tesco Plc 5 Strengths and Weakness of External and Internal Method of Recruitment at Tesco Plc 6 Strengths of internal recruitment 6 Weaknesses of internal recruitment 6 Strengths of external recruitment 6 Weaknesses of external recruitment 6 Perspectives to determine Selection Criteria 6 Organisational fit 6 Functional fit 7 Job fit 7 Tesco Plc’s Selection Method and Decision Making 7 Question C 8 Retention strategies of Tesco Plc 8 Importance of Dismissal 8 Recommendations 8 Reference List 10 Introduction Tesco Plc is one of the British international general merchandise and grocery retailer having it’s headquarter in the United Kingdom, England, Hertfordshire, and Chestnut (Tescoplc, 2015). Management of human resources is defined as a method of supervising or managing the people in the company in a thorough and structured manner (Dessler, 2005). The human resource management (HRM) approach selected for Tesco Plc is recruitment/employment and selection. The essay will focus on the various methods of employment and selection as well as the retention and engagement strategies adopted by the company. Question A Recruitment and Selection Recruitment or employment is defined as a method of attracting individuals towards a vacant position in a company. When a post or job exists, employment is initiated (Billsberry, 2008). Selection is a method of engaging suitable person for a correct job or position at a correct time at an appropriate cost. The process of selection is followed by the recruitment process (Dale, 2003). Pre-Recruitment Decision of Tesco Plc There are various types of decision which are taken by the managers of Tesco Plc before the process of recruitment, which includes initially thinking about candidates from inside the division. Then they decide to consider the applicants from the University or college who shows their concern in the job. If the positions still remains unfilled then they consider selecting candidate from various sources beyond the University. Other decisions include job analysis, job depiction, and the selection criteria decided by the company (Yu and Cable, 2013). Question B Tesco Plc’s Approaches to Recruitment There are various recruitment approaches which are adopted by the companies as a part of their recruitment exercise. The two types of approaches are rational and processual approach of employment. Rational approaches are based on the grounds of selecting the most appropriate candidate in relation to their current and potential competencies. It identifies the abilities required to carry out a job in a proper way than just focusing on the personal characteristics (Leighton and Proctor, 2006). Processual approach involves several processes such as preparing job description, making advertisement of the vacancy, managing responses, arranging and conducting interviews, and making final decisions before selecting the candidate (O’Meara, 2013). According to Torrington et al. (2014), although rational approaches provides the organisations to customise their recruitment and selection processes in accordance with their individual requirements, processual approaches are more commonly used because of an all engulfing system that includes the basic framework and aims of the organisation for designing their recruitment and selection processes. Tesco Plc’s approaches to employment include in-house employment and advertising through their own website. The in-house process of recruitment comprise of employee referral and internal recruiter. The company advertises the position internally i.e. on its intranet (Rowley, 2005). Methods of Recruitment of Tesco Plc There are three types of recruitment methods which includes external, internal and alternative ways of recruiting. The internal methods of employment include employee referrals, job posting, internal recruiter, promoting and allowing transfer, and union by means of assigning (Carbery and Cross, 2013). The external recruitment comprise of advertising, e-recruitment, employment agencies, walk-ins, and college recruits. The alternative ways of employment incorporate leasing employees, outsourcing, part time staffs, working overtime, and temporally workers (Kleynhans, 2006). Tesco Plc’s internal recruitment method comprise of employee referrals and internal recruiter. Its external recruitment method includes E-recruitment, advertising vacancies on its own website and by way of vacancy/post boards in the stores. Applications are completed online for the managerial post. It initially looks for the internal recruiters to fill the post. It signifies employing the existing employee who desire a move at same rank or expecting a promotion. If the managers do not find any capable existing employee, they employ the method of E-recruitment to advertise the post in its own intranet (Businessteacher, 2014). Strengths and Weakness of External and Internal Method of Recruitment at Tesco Plc Strengths of internal recruitment The strengths of utilising internal methods of employment in Tesco Plc are that it helps in reducing the cost, and involves less training as well as orientation. The skills of the candidate are viewed accurately and they show strong commitment towards their work as they are the existing employees of the company. The performance of the employees gets high and they sustain culture within the company. Weaknesses of internal recruitment The weaknesses of internal method of employment at Tesco Plc are that there is restricted candidate pool as most of the recruitment involves in-house promotion so; there is less scope of new talent. Less job fitness is also one of the weaknesses of its internal employment method (Aswathappa, 2005). Strengths of external recruitment External employment method help to attract new talent and it also allows great number of applicant pool. The new recruits easily adapts to the company’s environment as most of them finds that the job is suitable for them. Weaknesses of external recruitment Attracting new talent by means of external employment method de-motivate the internal employees. Employing fresh recruits includes higher cost as compared to internal employment method. Some of them find it difficult to adjust to the company’s environment and it also includes high rate of turnover (Aswathappa, 2005). Perspectives to determine Selection Criteria Organisational fit The organisational fit are referred to those attributes which the companies considers valuable or precious in their staffs and that have an effect on the judgements about the applicant’s potential to become successful inside the organization (Pranit, 2009). Tesco Plc is engaged in retail innovation and therefore it requires workers who are chiefly adaptable and flexible. Moreover, in its stores, it requires stock handlers, checkout staff, supervisors, and specialists like bakers and pharmacists; and Tesco Plc also needs skilled personnel for logistics and stock management department for smooth running of the business (Businessteacher, 2014). Functional fit Functional fit means that the company must include personnel in the HR department who are having appropriate interpersonal talents or skills. It also explains that the new recruit needs to fit in the existing team. The new appointee at Tesco Plc finds it little difficult to adjust with the existing team (Rowley, 2005). Job fit Individual occupation criteria enclosed in the job description as well as person requirements are derived from job analysis process. Job fit explains that which individuals fit to the required job. Personal qualification and skills of individuals are taken into consideration to make decision of their fitness in the required job. Tesco Plc select candidate through their internal employment method for the upper post based on their skills and qualifications (Rowley, 2005). One of the most crucial aspects mentioned by Torrington et al. (2014) is the inclusion of cognitive ability tests as an advanced method for selection. The cognitive ability tests mainly comprises of attainment and aptitude tests. The attainment tests determines the efficacy of the existing skills of the candidates whereas the aptitude tests focus on the ability of the candidates to develop and grow new skills. Tesco Plc’s Selection Method and Decision Making The selection methods of Tesco Plc involve three main processes i.e. screening, assessment centre, and conducting interviews. Screening: In this process, the managers of Tesco Plc view carefully at each candidate’s curriculum vitae, which help them to analyse whether the applicant’s skill matches with the job specification or not. Assessment centre: The applicant who passes the screening get a chance to attend the assessment centre. At the assessment centre, they are given analytical exercises and activities related to team-working. Conducting interview: Candidates who are approved by the centres of internal assessment have to face the interview (Smith and Sparks, 1993). The process of selection assists to make decisions about whom to select for the job. Decisions are made by the managers of HR department by taking into consideration the skills and proficiency of the candidate to handle the job. Question C Retention strategies of Tesco Plc Offering promotions: Tesco Plc offers promotion to the capable employees by observing their excellent performance at work. It encourages the employees to put more effort in their work. Open communications: Tesco Plc involves open interactions between management and employees. It encourages employees to express their ideas about particular matter and give them confidence to put their view in front of the managers. Offering financial rewards: Tesco Plc offers incentives and bonuses to their workers based on their performance (Rowley, 2005). Importance of Dismissal Dismissal of an employee is not welcomed except when they are involved in un-disciplinary or wrongful acts. They can also be dismissed or terminated for poor performance and not meeting the company requirement. The importance of dismissal is that it saves the company from engaging in low productivity because poor performance of the workers results in low productivity (Hor and Keats, 2009). Torrington et al. (2014) stated that organisational policies, work culture, work environment, etc are some influential factors that can urge the employees to quit their job. Another factor that often is the reason behind employee turnover is failure to perform which also initiates the feelings of job dissatisfaction among the employees. The retention strategies will help Tesco Plc to achieve the desired result and gives motivation to their employees to work with more enthusiasm. The importance of dismissal is that it will protect the company from involving in legal issues if unethical works are practiced by the employees. Recommendations It is recommended to Tesco Plc to improve its recruitment as well as selection process to bring more enhancements in its business practices. It can adopt recruitment of retired staffs for contract or temporary positions. The benefit of this is that there will be no requirement of providing training to them and as they were the previous employees so, it will help to construct strong connections with the prevailing employees. They should invite more fresh talents because it will help to produce better results with the mix of skills and expertise from diverse groups. For selection process, it is recommended to Tesco Plc to adopt psychological tests for selecting the candidates. It will help in measuring the emotional stability, agreeableness towards adjusting in any situations and applicant’s openness towards experience. Reference List Aswathappa, K., 2005. Human resources and personnel management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Publication. Billsberry, J., 2008. Experiencing recruitment and selection. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons. Businessteacher, 2014. The Tesco Recruitment and Selection Process. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 February 2015]. Carbery, R. and Cross, C., 2013. Human Resource Management. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. Dale, M., 2003. A Manager’s Guide to Recruitment and Selection. United Kingdom: Kogan Page Publishers. Dessler, P., 2005. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education Publication. Hor, J. And Keats, L., 2009. Managing termination of employment: A fair work at guide. Australia: CCH Australia Ltd. Kleynhans, R., 2006. Fresh perspectives: Human resource management. South Africa: Pearson Education. Leighton, P. and Proctor, G., 2006. Effective Recruitment: A practical guide to staying within the law. London: Thorogood Publishing Ltd. O’Meara, B., 2013. The handbook of strategic recruitment and selection: A systems approach. United Kingdom: Emerland Group Publishing Limited. Pranit, K., 2009. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. Rowley, J., 2005. Building brand webs: Customer relationship management through the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 33(3), pp.194-206. Smith, D. L. and Sparks, L., 1993. The transformation of physical distribution in retailing: the example of Tesco plc. International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 3(1), pp.35-64. Tescoplc, 2015. Tesco Plc: About Us. [online] Available at: < http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=6> [Accessed 27 February 2015]. Torrington, D., Hall,L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C., 2014. Human Resource Management. 9th ed. London: Pearson. Yu, K.Y.T. and Cable, D.M., 2013. The Oxford Handbook of Recruitment. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More