Can HR Make a Strategic Contribution to the Organization Tesco - Case Study Example

CAN HR MAKE A STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORGANIZATION, TESCO? By Location Introduction Tesco came into limelight in 1919, and its existence was inspired by Jack Cohen’s decision to sell surplus groceries at East End of London (Clark & Chan, 2014, n.p). On his first day in the market, Mr. Cohen managed to make a mere profit of £1 after making £4 sales. In 1932, the company was privatized and later floated the stock exchange market in 1947 with a 25p share price (Clark & Chan, 2014, n.p). Later in the 60s, it also bought the Victor Value chain and 97 Charles Philips stores (Clark & Chan, 2014, n.p). According to statistics recorded in 2014, the company is working in 12 global countries and has close to 6,780 stores. Popular countries with well-established Tesco stores include Poland, India, China, and Malaysia among others. In the United Kingdom alone, Tesco has over 3,378 stores and employs over 300,000 people (Tesco, 2015, n.p). The objectives of the human resource department are to create the best working environment for all the stakeholders to enable them reach their maximum potential (Tesco, 2015, n.p). The report aims at analyzing and evaluating the three major HR issues considered to be critical for the success of the company. The three issues include training and development, employee engagement, and commitment, as well as work and balance life. The company keeps expanding each day and needs a reliable training and development, HR strategy to counter its efforts to acquire new stores, consumers, and retail services (Business, 2014, n.p). In 2012, the company reported a huge decline in its trading profits and levels of customer satisfaction due to the disruption caused by the online sales (Scullin, 2014, n.p). Lastly, Tesco has to employ a work and life balance strategy to allow its employees the opportunity to spend adequate time with their family members, and do whatever they fancy (Harrison, 2008, n.p). Training and development There are several challenges that are associated with the changing nature of the environment in the workplace. These challenges are as real affecting Tesco as they are elsewhere. Such rapid changes often require an organization to have skilled and knowledgeable employees who are capable of adapting and remaining focused on the objectives of the organization (Wilson, 2006, p. 10). According to the Philosophy of HRM at Berkeley HR, the manager is expected to encourage the development of employees in terms of growth and career. The manager can achieve these by coaching and training the employees to achieve their goals (Berkeley, 2015, n.p). Training and management techniques are representative of good management skills. Ideally, the training process should include several progressive steps including need analysis, instructional design, implementation, and evaluation (Martin, 2006, p. 7). Even though training and development are handled together in most organizations, it is difficult to determine where one ends, and the other begins. Furthermore, it is the duty of the human resource managers to determine the real needs of the organization and decide when to involve training and development initiatives in its programs. Even though Tesco is a source of employment for many people, a greater number of them are never skilled and familiar with the job requirements. Thus, the training and development is a mandatory plan that the human resource department ought to develop and explore (Krishnaveni, 2008, p. 31). Tesco often requires flexible employees who have the ability to adapt to any changes affecting the organization. Furthermore, the human resource manager ensures the right staff is employed by the organization to make it easier for the management team. Before the implementation of the training program, the HR manager has to identify the training needs of each Tesco store. Tesco is a huge company, and new stores are opened on a regular basis in different locations. Ideally, this means that Tesco ought to identify and adapt the needs of each marketplace before training their employees. Whenever Tesco introduces a new store in the market within a luxurious region, then the employees have to be trained effectively to deal with the high-level customers. The HR department has to make sure that the store is of high quality and that the goods provided to them are of high quality. So, in such cases, Tesco has to spend much resources and time training their employees to deal with such a luxurious group of people. Also, employees working at the back office would require different competencies and skills to handle their duties to the expectations of the organization. Training is, therefore, essential since employees with a wide range of skills have the ability to work in a flexible manner and become more productive towards the business. A proper training program should begin with the human resource manager establishing the learning objectives of the employees. He should then identify the components required for training before assembling the specific methods to use for training. Employee engagement and commitment Basically, employee engagement and commitment refers to the internal force within a company (Johnson, 2004, p. 9). If the employees are engaged effectively, they are often committed to building the internal power of the organization. The engagement process allows employees to work as a team and stimulates them to push towards the same direction with the objective of growing the company. Tesco among other large employers in the UK such as Vodafone, Marks and Spencer, and Royal Bank of Scotland are known to use the strategy of employee engagement and commitment. In 2003, Tesco acknowledged that it knew more about its customers than the employees who delivered the services. Concerning consumer research, the staff of the organization are categorized as either live to work, want it all, work-life balancers, pleasure-seekers, and work to live. The human resource department recognizes these categories of employees in order for them to be more receptive to the needs of the employees. The HR ascertains what the employees want from their career and provide reliable solutions on how they can handle their hours of employment. Tesco’s corporate website sums up their basic approach in the industry. According to Tesco, their success depends much on the input played by their employees and customers (Wilton, 2010, p. 41). If the customers like what Tesco offers, then they are likely to go back and shop one more time. If the employees at Tesco find the activities of the organization rewarding, then they are likely to spend their time going an extra mile with the aim of helping customers. The central value of the organization is to treat others in a similar manner the HR managers would like to be treated. These core values are brought into reality in various ways. Tesco have a number of mechanisms that allow the employees to share their views. Such mechanisms may include employee feedback surveys and sessions for employees to ask relevant questions (Eigenhuis & Dijk, 2008, p. 153). These measures are thought to promote a strong labor market. Most significant is the fact that the UK reports consider Tesco to have very good relations with its partners. The partners include the Allied Workers (Usdaw), the Union of Shop, and the Distributive. There are certain features that characterize an engaged workforce. These include the rational and cognitive understanding of organizational goals, emotional attachment to the organization, and the motivation to do more than the minimum effort required by the human resource manager (Holbeche & Matthews, 2012, p. 217). As it can be seen from Tesco’s human resource strategies, employee engagement is handled in a similar manner as desired by Gallup. That means that Tesco focuses on employee characteristics and customer satisfaction. With cognitive, affective, and behavioral characteristics, employees are likely to enhance the performance of the different units in the organization. Also, Tesco has also launched notable projects that encourage employees to participate in talent contests as part of an engagement practice. Additional engagement techniques to the customers and employees include the provision of in-store shopping vouchers and freebies. At present, Tesco seems to be receiving good results on their investment in the employee and customer engagement program. Work and life balance Work and life balance are a very predominant issue in most work environments, especially in a society that is full of commitments and responsibilities (Lockwood, 2003, p. 2). There are three major factors that contribute towards the interest in considering a work and life balance seriously (Clutterbuck, 2003, p. 47). These factors include global competition, an aging workforce, and a renewed interest in the family values and personal lives among the employees. According to previous research, work and life balance offers a win-win solution for human resource professionals seeking an opportunity to augment the competitive advantage of their organization in the marketplace. In Tesco, the HR department has been working with USDAW, a retail workers union to ensure that all the workers are provided with an equal opportunity to balance between their work and life initiatives (Phillips, 2008, n.p). Tesco’s project involves introducing flexible policies at work as well as a reliable communication strategy for the employees. Such strategies include the benefits boards located in all the staff areas as well as enclosing pay slips with leaflets. Tesco also started implementing focus groups that operated in stores. The focus groups are tasked with questioning the staff concerning their work and life balance (Phillips, 2009, p. 134). There is real substance to this strategy and the employees at Tesco are enjoying the real change in their work and life initiatives. Tesco and USDAW have developed a clear sense that the delivery of lower-paid workers can be determined with how they balance their work and life. Tesco gives workers this opportunity to allow them to utilize their skills effectively. Through this initiative, the number of women working at the senior levels of the Tesco stores has also gone up. Such developments have been made possible through the job share initiative to introduce team leaders with management skills who enjoy a higher amount of pay (Galinsky, et al., 2007). Since there is a clear sense that the lower paid workers have less access to a balanced life in their work and life. That is why Tesco ensures that all the employees have equal access to this benefit. Through these work and life balance initiatives, most of the men and women working at Tesco has managed to develop better family and friendly rights that before. Also, these strategies have been influential in spearheading Tesco stores towards the success they have achieved so far. The high rate of labor turnover in a few sections of the organization reflects the numerous job moves that affect the caring responsibilities of the employees (Aswathappa, 2005, p. 615). According to information from a national official, human resource issues concerning the balance between work and life have always been there. These issues were never just referred to as work balance before. Most employees consider these issues to revolve around child care, fitting effectively in your job when around family members and the provision of opportunity to care for one another. These are often the key issues, and if addressed the employees often feel motivated to work extensively towards the realization of organizational goals. Conclusion and recommendations From the issues discussed above, it can be observed that the HR manager is tasked with managing the different functions within the organization. In Tesco stores, the manager has to deal with human capital skills, employee commitment, work culture, productivity, and even teamwork to meet the organizational needs of the organization. These activities are likely to lead to a high level of competitive advantage for all the Tesco stores. There is always a good relationship between satisfied customers and employees. Therefore, it is the duty of the HR managers and supervisors to ensure that all their employees are productive, motivated, and even enthusiastic. Also, they should ensure that the customers are satisfied with the products and quality of service they offer to them. Tesco should also aim at reducing customer complaints to a greater extent by enhancing their satisfaction. Other initiatives should be reducing employee turnover, increasing the training budget, achieving a huge gross profit margin, opening more branches, developing a supportive environment, reducing the quantity of emissions, and striving towards becoming a zero-carbon organization. Major challenges facing the Tesco from a worldwide perspective such as globalization, the responsiveness to all categories of customers, change and transformation steps, human capital issues, implementing technology, and ensuring that the changes proposed are fundamental and long-lasting is important in ensuring the organization achieves its human resource strategies effectively. Tesco’s human resource managers should also strive at implementing the policies in the organization in a fair and consistent manner. However, the implementation duty can best be handled by the front line managers. The human resource managers could only help in the implementation policy by giving guidance, but it is the line managers who have the capability to implement the policies in the most accurate manner. The HR should play its role in communicating and interpreting the policies available concerning the issues that face their operation. The HR managers should also strive at convincing the line managers on the most important policies that can provide training and support to the employees as well as the customers. Purcell (2003) agrees that it is the duty of HR and line managers to liven the HR policies in an organization and deal with the issues facing employees and customers. Their corporation could be useful in developing a compensation plan for the employees and a good communication plan to the customers to keep them informed. If these recommendations are kept in mind, then Tesco will be better placed in dealing with the HR issues affecting its operations. 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