Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management in Tesco - Assignment Example

TESCO Co. Name Institution Introduction Tesco is the largest retail group in Britain and operates in numerous countries. Its global presence covers the United States, Asia and Europe. The company is also the world’s biggest e-retailer with a yearly turnover of I billion dollars. The company caters for food, but for the past years it has expanded its services to electronics, clothing, telecom services and broadband services. Due to changes in business environment and intense competition Tesco has recognized it requires new skills in order to survive. Thus the company has strategically incorporated human resources into its overall plan and managers are utilizing human resource aspects in their decision making. The company has shown a great commitment in extended and basic training of employees which to ensure every employee has an opportunity to understand their role in the organization. Task 1 Importance of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) in an organisation with special reference to Tesco using different theoretical perspectives Strategic human resource management is the linking of human resource with strategic objectives and goals so as to improve business performance and promote organizational culture that fosters competitive advantage, flexibility and innovation. In TESCO, SHRM implies accepting and involving the human resource function as a strategic partner in the implementation of the organization’s strategies via human resource activities like selection, recruitment, training and rewarding personnel. SHRM is important in TESCO because it is concerned with management of human resources in manners that will support the TESCO’s strategy and lead to the attainment of organizational goals (Millmore, 2007). SHRM also takes a long term perspective on the way human resources might be matched to the requirements of the organization and takes into consideration broader matters like the quality and commitment of employees to the organization. According to Boxall, ( 2007), the resource based perspective of SHRM represent strategy of the TESCO as being basically dependent on the firm’s resources. This perspective stresses that the resources of the organization whether tangible or intangible such as assets, brand name and customer loyalty are a significant and major aspect when pursuing or performing a distinctive strategic position for the organization. The behavioral perspective of human resource management considers employee behavior as the mediator between organizational performance and strategy. This hypothesis holds that the aim of human resource involvement is to regulate the behaviors and attitudes of employees to suit the numerous strategies adopted to achieve desired performance in TESCO. The systems perspective of HR management describes TESCO in terms of input, throughput and output with all the systems engaged in transaction within a surrounding environment. The role of SHRM in systems perspective competence management to make sure that the workforce possesses the needed competencies like ability and skills to offer the input required by the organization (Wright, 2010). Purpose of SHRM activities in the organisation on the need for the HRs to create real value Strategic human resource management is a value added core task that aligns the human resource system, practices and policies with business strategy in order to attain sustained competitive advantage for the organization. In performing the role of business and strategic partner, the human resource professional should think outside the conventional organizational box of human resource management and create a highly systemic and radically diverse approach to manage human element to efficiently support the formulation and implementation of the organization’s business strategy. For successful implementation of the role of business partner, the human resource manager is required to understand the organization’s direction along with its competitive position within the market place (Lawler & Mohrman, 2003). The long term strategy of Tesco is to continue placing value on training of employees and to incorporate this value into the organizational culture. The company is utilizing this approach to maintain a competitive edge and the value placed on human resource demonstrates commitment from top levels of the company to training. According to Mullins (2003), Successful companies keep the issues of their employees at front line of their thinking and their planning and decision making. Additionally organizations that issues of employees are likely to be around in future years. Being the biggest private employer in UK, Tesco seriously takes this responsibility, and this is demonstrated via their training and development policy (Mullins, 2003). The intention of Tesco is to maintain this increased emphasis on training of staff and integrate the learning into the company. When workers are trained, they demonstrate an increased level of commitment to the company and feel part of the overall organizational strategy. This in turn makes them to feel valued and thus leads to a more committed labor force. This higher level of service and commitment is in turn felt by the customer, which gives the company added value (Treen, 2000). Contributions of SHRM to the achievement of Tesco’s organisational objectives over the years Tesco deploys its strategy based on 5 elements which are international retailing, growing in food and non-food sector, growing its core United Kingdom business, developing retail services and regarding the society as the heart of the company’s operations. Over years, the company has seen consistency and growth in profits and sales. The consistency and growth is as a result of strategic human resource management, whose strategy is to invest in their staff as their catalyst in being a successful organization. The recognition of the significance of human resource in TESCO has increased in recent years which has made the organization to review its polices on training with introduction of continuous investment in their workers (Beardwell, et al, 2004). There has been increased training in TESCO and workers now get more training than before. This is as a consequence of the human resource department undertaking a strategic role . Human resource isn’t an administrative department within the company but they are proactive and are on strategic level of the company. This activity emphasizes that expanded growth can solely be achieved and maintained in long run through equipping the workforce with the knowledge and skills they require to complete their jobs (Mullins, 2005). In response to intense competition, TESCO has recognized that it needs new skills in order to survive in the competitive market and its new thinking is based complexity and emphasis on the people. TESCO, have strategically incorporated human resource into their overall plans with managers using features of human resource in their process of decision making. This has resulted to increased commitment of the organization to HR, trying to attain acceptance from all workers and providing extended and basic training to all employees. The human resource management of TESCO discusses the big picture of its strategic direction with its employees and this assists the individual employee to gain an understanding of their significance and role in the company. Therefore, the company has placed a high value on its human resources since there is need for great value to be placed on organizational employees in order attain the best performance from employees (Harrison, 2002). Task 2 Critical analyses of the various business factors that determine or shapes Human Resource planning of the firm. Human resource planning is influenced by several factors both outside and within the organization. Internal factors include organizational plans that determine the general level of activities and operations of the company, organizational structure and strategy and current workforce availability in the company. Organizational culture and human resource practices and polices of the company are other internal factors influencing TESCO’s human resource planning. External factors include general employment practices and policies followed in the economy and industry, government regulation governing employment conditions both in UK and outside UK. Other external factors that will influence human resource planning in TESCO rate of changes in diverse factors within the environment entailing changes in marketplace that determine the form of challenges faced by the company and general culture of the societies within which the company operates entailing every sub-culture that may be present for diverse groups of prospective workers( Wrigley, 2000). An assessment of human resource requirements of Tesco with reference to the present turbulent economic conditions under which business operates Tesco is operating under a competitive environment within the UK retail market and it is therefore forced to look at cost savings and means through which it may differentiate from competitors. Thus, the organization needs to achieve appropriate quality and quantity of skilled employees in specific positions at the period when they are needed. According to Whitelock, (2003), a major challenge in Tesco is to make sure that all its workers , wherever they do their jobs, are aware of the role they play in the organization and that they are able to clearly see the way their actions influence the big picture of the overall organization and business TESCO is seeking the competitive edge of the rivals by using training employees in order to equip them with the required skills that will make them capable of increasing the level of service they provide to customers. Training is the planned process to change knowledge, skills or attitudes and behavior via a variety of activities in order to attain effective performance. Training in workplace develops the employees to satisfy the future or current needs of the organization along with its customers. During the past decade, TESCO have introduced strategic human resource with increased training of staff. By doing proper training, selection and recruitment will enhance organizational competitiveness and renewal of preexisting capabilities that will serve as motivating factors of the entire company. The training develops a graphical journey via the history of the company, its core values, financial aims, purpose, marketing and operations strategy and management to its customers (Whitelock, 2003). An in-depth investigation on the management of human assets at Tesco, and an objective Human Resource Plan for the leading supermarket in the UK The company is operating within a highly competitive market and consumers have choice where to go shopping for their groceries. Tesco requires employees across a variety of both non store and store based jobs. It aims to make sure that all roles work jointly to drive its business objective. It needs to make sure that it has the appropriate number of employees in the right jobs at the right moment. In order to achieve this, it has structured procedures for selection and recruitment to attract applicants for both operational and managerial roles. TESCO utilizes a workforce planning table to ascertain the probability of demand for new staff and its considers both non-managerial and managerial positions. The workforce planning table permits TESCO flexibility and sufficient time to meet the demand for employees and also permits the organization to achieve its strategic objectives, for instance, to open new stores and sustain consumer service standards (Palmer, 2004). How Human Resources plan can contribute to the achievement of Tesco’s overall strategic objectives. A human resource plan analyses a company’s likely future requirements for people in terms of skills, locations and numbers. It permits the company to plan the way these needs can be achieved through training and recruitment. It is crucial for an organization like TESCO to plan ahead because, the company is growing and needs to recruit on regular basis for both non-food and food portions of the business. The purpose of TESCO is to serve its consumers and its organizational structure places customers at the top. Thus by having a proper human resource plan, the company will have people with the right skills to effectively serve customers (Harrison, 2002). Task 3 Roles of HRM policies play in an organization with particular reference to TESCO TESCO has introduced a high commitment model which provides training, selection, recruitment and development of employees. The company has developed their culture by extending their logo every little helps to attest their commitment to customers as well as employees. This has proved a global class model and very successful for TESCO. Whitelock (2003) argues that the organization has implemented strategic human resource as an agent of change, but not as a replacement of an out dated personnel department. TESCO has selected, via their introduction of human resource policies, which has resulted to an expansion in business. This has displayed they are a first class givers of training to their workers, and this has offered scope for the company to expand and penetrate into new markets The strategic human resource management policy at Tesco revolves around job simplification. The company makes sure that every worker has the chance to understand her or his individual role in contributing to the organizational core values and purpose. This needs an innovative programme that caters for diverse cultures, learning styles and varying commitment to work. The frontline employees are regarded the ultimate reflection of the company and its consumers, but all workers have a very significant role to undertake in turning core values and consumer commitment into a reality on daily basis (Whitelock, 2003). Critical analyses of the impact of various regulatory requirements on human resource policies at Tesco. According to Balchin, (2000), Tesco is operating within a globalized environment with stores around the world; the performance of TESCO is greatly influenced by legislative and political conditions of these nations, including the European Union. For employment legislation, the government endorses retailers to offer a mix of job opportunities from flexible, locally- based and lower-paid jobs to highly- skilled, centrally-located and higher-paid jobs. Also, the company is concerned with meeting demand from the populace categories like senior citizens, working parents and students. Tesco understands that retailing ahs a huge impact on the people and job factors, being a widespread local and labor intensive sector. Therefore TESCO employs higher number of workers and within an industry with huge staff turnover, these employees offer a great level of loyalty and thus represent desirable employees (Balchin, 2000). Task 4 The influence of organizational structure on Tesco’s management of human resources Tesco’s organizational structure has customers at the top. The company requires individuals with the appropriate skills at every level of this structure. There are six levels of work within the company and this offers a clear structure for managing and controlling the organization and its people. Each level needs specific behaviors and skills for each task in the company and this assists employees to understand whether they possess the right resources, skills and knowledge to execute their roles. The managers within each level give a broader span of regulation with their workforce. This implies that every manager have more workers to communicate with, but every worker has been trained to a set standard, which permits the manager to trust these employees to get on with the work with little guidance from the manager (Paauwe, & Boselie, 2003) A concise and analytical report on the effects of Tesco’s organizational structures and culture on the management of its human capital/resources The organizational structure of Tesco has the customer at top and the company have developed their culture via extending their logo every little helps to demonstrate their commitment to their customers and employees. The slogan every little helps is utilized to demonstrate their commitment to the consumers, to reduce prices and increase the degree of customer service. This slogan is currently utilized in training of the organization’s staff, an intervention that will increase the knowledge and skills of workforce (Paauwe, & Boselie, 2003) Critical examination on how the effectiveness of HRM is monitored in Tesco drawing from my knowledge of the module. The focus on human resource for developing the workers through continuous training is crucial to the success of Tesco, because lack of commitment would amount to wastage of resources. As the UK’s biggest retailer, with over 470, 000 employees across 14 nations, Tesco has been able to get and manage people with the right skills. The company is extensively reported in newspapers due to the success of business. The company is also rapidly expanding in UK with opening of their new metro stores and into foreign and new markets. This undertaken a great deal of the organization’s resources in the planning and implementation phase of expansion. The core human resource units remain focused to retain the reputation they have created. The reinforcement of the values and culture via training of employees highly focuses workers on their roles (Treen, 2000). Objective and justified recommendations on how Human Resource Management in the organization can be generally and effectively improved. Because the company requires people with the right skills to undertake current and future business operations, the company should highly concentrate on the recruitment of employees. This is because this will make sure that company selects the most competent and skilful persons. This function will involve evaluation of the competency and ability of potential employees in relation what the organization needs. If this function is undertaken well, then the company will increase value of and consequently take the right path to the accomplishment of its departmental and organizational objectives and goals (Hyde, 2004). The company can undertake effective recruitment via educational and psychological measurements. This activity will entail the evaluation of character, skills and abilities of individuals. Hyde 92004) notes that through psychometric assessment, the company can make sure that employees have the appropriate attitudes essential to fit into the company. In order to improve the commitment and motivation of employees, the company can improve their compensation packages. This can be done via rewards particularly for those individuals who have done their job well. Provision of rewards will make sure that employees are satisfied with the company and will thus give their best. It will also result to good retention of the staff which is vital in increasing stability and competitiveness of the organization. Conclusion Tesco has used strategic human resource management to link its human resources with strategic goals and objective, an activity that has enabled the company to achieve a competitive edge and improve business performance. The company has used the long term strategy of training employees in order to equip them with the appropriate skills needed in the current and future business environment. Training increased commitment of employees to the environment who in turn delivers quality services to customers, resulting to high organizational performance. Additional, training has helped individual workers to have an understanding of their role and importance in the company. References Boxall, P., (2007). The Strategic Hrm Debate and the Resource-Based View of the Firm Human Resource Management Journal, 6(3), 59–75. Wright, P., (2010). Theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource management. 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