Recruitment at Tesco

Question- Write a report on what and how human resources strategies can be implemented in the chosen organization in order to create a high performance work system?

Tesco is the chief food retailer of Britain (BBC News, 2013). The first store of Tesco was first opened in the year 1929 in London and by the beginning of 1960s the organization, Tesco was just an ordinary contrivance of most high roads of UK. By the beginning of 1990s the association started leading quite a few individuals (Clark, 2008). It made new store, for instance, Tesco Metro, a store helping close-by clients, and Tesco Express, the first UK petrol station (Tesco plc, 2014). The overall operation of Tesco, which started in 1994, has steadily developed and now speaks to half of Tesco’s overall retail area (Dotcom.tesco-careers.com, 2014). By 2000 there has similarly been a stretching focus on building non-food bargains both online and in-store with the happen that, case in point, Tesco is presently the greatest UK’s CD retailer.

This report discusses the Strategic HRM practices that add value to Tesco’s not only to its HR department but also employees of the entire departments which helps the top managers to increase the performance of the work system. 

Recruitment is the methodology of drawing the most qualified candidates to submit an application for the employment opportunity. To recruit the best candidates it is very much important to implement the plan for staffing and also forecast the number of employees required for the vacant post/ posts. Thus in short, recruitment can be termed as the process of choosing the right candidate at the right time and at the right place (Hancock, 2002).

Tesco advances businesses in assorted ways. The system movements depending upon the work open. Tesco first of all uses its Internal Talent Plan to fill an opening. This is a process that summaries ebb and flow laborers hunting down a move, either for the same level or for different position. If there is no appropriate people in this Talent planning process on the internal organization change program, alternatives, Tesco exposes the inside about the post for 2 week through their intranet.

Advantages of utilizing this system (Jackson, Werner and Schuler, 2011):

• Be able to diminish the cost of selecting agents from outside.
• More right viewpoint of aptitudes of the candidates.
• Stronger compulsion to the association.
• Growing delegate confirmation.
• Fewer planning and presentation required.
• sustain society and learning
• Increase in employee execution as they are aware of the transporter step

In external recruitment process, Tesco advances opportunities via their website www.tesco-careers.com, during opening sheets in stores. Online Applications are made for the post of managers. People captivated by store-based occupations with Tesco. They can approach stores with their CV or select however Jobcentre Plus. The store prepares a sheet of people applying consequently and calls them in for the job interview whenever there is a need. Tesco makes it basic for contender to get a few answers concerning available businesses and has a fundamental process of application. By getting into the website of Tesco, an applicant can get a few answers concerning their occupations, organization posts and head office positions. The website has an online application structure for people to put forward specifically.

Advantages of utilizing this strategy (Aswathappa, 2005):

• latest perspectives and perspective accumulated
• adoptable
• Various competitors to pick up from the pool
• shun outgoing influence

Advantages of Tesco’s Recruitment Process

Recruitment process adds value to Tesco. Through their recruitment process they make smart and effective decisions to be ahead of their competitors. Through their recruitment process they are able to attract the talented candidates and through effective recruitment process they are able to retain those people. Thus a flexible and well-structured recruitment practice can add value to Tesco by helping the organization to increase the retention and also reduce the attrition rate (K. M, A and M.K, 2014).  

The process of selection is the way of choosing the right talent with appropriate qualification in order to fill up the available designation or post in the firm. The managers and the supervisors are mainly accountable for hiring the best candidate. This process is one of the time-consuming and expensive methodologies as it includes scrutinizing the application that exactly fits the organization and also the vacant position, reviewing the curriculum and the resumes and also conducting tests and interview to for choosing the best candidates (Hsu and Leat, 2000).

The process of selection follows the following steps (Lussier and Hendon, 2013):

• Preliminary Interview Round: This is the initial round which is mainly emphasizes on reducing the unqualified applications by analyzing the selection criteria. This helps to reject the non-matching candidates and thus rejecting the misfits.
• Conducting Test: After the initial round or the preliminary round, the selected candidates or the qualified individuals are given a call for conducting tests like Aptitude Test, Personality Test or Ability Tests which mainly focuses on goals of the organization. These kinds of tests are conducted to analyze the ability, skill and knowledge of the candidate.
• Job Interview Round: In this round, in-depth conversation is conducted with the candidate. Here the technical knowledge of the candidate is judged and also it is analyzed whether the skills and ability actually fits with the organizational goals or not. Three different types of interview process can be conducted one is the one-to-one, or the panel type or the sequential type. Apart from this depending on the organization, there are other types of interviews like Structured or Unstructured Interview, Behavioral Interviews or Stress Interviews.
• Reference or Background Checking: Referencing Checking or the background checking is the mainly conducted to authenticate the candidate information and also the submitted documents. The background checking or reference checking is mainly conducted by sending formal letters or telephonic conversations.
• Selection Decisions: After collecting all the information about the candidate, the crucial stage is to decide about the selection of the candidate. Here after reviewing all the collected information about the candidate, the managers of the organization give their views about the performance of the candidate.
• Medical Test: In this the candidate is asked to undergo few physical tests to make sure that he/she is physically fit to undertake the organizational responsibilities.
• Offering Job: Then after completing all the rounds or tests, the best-fit talented candidate is offered with the appointment letter for the vacant post.
• Final Selection. This is the final stage of the selection process where the best-fit candidates selected in the previous stage are given the confirmation with the joining date.

Selection is the process of selecting the best and the most suitable candidates from those who all applied for the vacant post by maintaining the laws and regulation of the organization. Screening the best candidates is the crucial procedure of the selection process. This guarantees that the best chosen candidates actually best fit all the employment prerequisites. The resume or the curriculum vitae of the candidates helps the Tesco selectors to evaluate the determination of the candidate for the occupation. The organization also offers “job type match” tool on their career page which helps the candidates to see where they are applicable for the post or not. The candidates who pass the preliminary round have to undergo assessment center that is run by the managers of Tesco. They emphasizes on providing consistency to the total selection process. Here, the candidates are encouraged to take part in various team activities and also problem-solving activities to analyze their skills and attitudes. Then the selected candidates from this assessment center are called up for the interview. Then the qualified candidates are sent an e-mail with their offer letter and further details.

Selection is the critical process that helps the organization to form a psychological contract with the candidates to bring in positive results in terms of motivation and commitment of the organization (Anyim, Ekwoba and Ideh, 2012). The main reasons to assess the people are to boost the profitability of the hiring the best talent that is the candidates with the best skills, knowledge and ability (mercer.co.in, 2012).

This process adds value to Tesco by helping them to observe the candidates in a critical way and also anticipate their execution level for handling the job in Tesco. This process also helps to observe the qualities of the new comers and also their shortcomings, which helps to identify the traits, information and abilities of the candidates and also minimize the induction cost. This process helps Tesco to provide opportunities to the candidates to gather information about their suitableness and also provide the applicants an opportunity to make various inquiries about their employment and also clarify the issues related to work status, terms and conditions and also helps to have a personal experience. In this way the overall process helps to attract the best suitable and genuine candidate for the organization.

Selection Process at Tesco

Training and development are two inter-linked process. The training process refers to the acquisition of skills and knowledge and also a learning process which helps a person to identify their responsibilities in the organization and also helps how to perform a particular job or task according to needs and requirements (Laird, Naquin and Holton, 2003). Training is considered to be a short term process however development is a long term and continual process that helps the employee to grow their potential capabilities and personality. Training process is limited to a particular job where as development covers a huge area. Training includes improving service quality, health and safety, productivity and organizational climate where as development includes characteristics like improving personal growth, job performance, capabilities etc (Making teamwork work: The importance of training and development for team leaders, 2003).

The training and development process of Tesco is well structured and flexible which helps the individuals to meet the needs of the organization. Tesco provides two types of training to the employees’ one is off-the-job training and other is the on-the-job training. Off-the-job training is more appropriate for helping the employees to develop in the areas like communication, planning, organizing and also team-building. It generally involves participating in various courses that re undertaken by some qualified personnel of Tesco or training professionals.

On the other way, on-the-job training process helps the individual to know the people easily and also build up a team faster. Tesco generally involves four process of training (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2014):

• Job rotation where the trainee gets the opportunity to cover up their target and take the responsibility on temporary basis.
• Mentoring is the process where the experienced personnel acts as a guide or adviser
• Coaching is the process which helps the trainees to solve their problems through motivation
• Shadowing is the process where a person who is already in a job helps the employee to understand their responsibility in completing a particular task.

At Tesco there are three different types of training programs are held one is the Options program which helps in developing the latest recruits to provide detail induction training from the starting day itself. This gives the new employees an opportunity to meet the other trainees and learn about the business and the organizational culture.

Next is the development program which helps the person to grow and also increase their capabilities. This program offers long-term development which focuses on developing both the operating and the leadership behavioral skills. It also includes Personal development Plan of employees which helps the employees to Plan, Do, Check their plans and analyze their progress.

Lastly is the specialized program which focuses on Graduates or A-level people working in distribution or office or store.

Training and development process helps Tesco to make the existing or the new employees more valuable, productive and positive to the organization. Recruiting and selecting a new staff is an expensive method and training and development helps to increase the motivation level of the employees. Training and development adds value to both the employees and the organization. Training offers a planned series of learning experiences and helps the individuals to build up their competencies and technical skills. Further, Tesco helps to motivate the employees and also improve their efficiency. Through development process Tesco helps the individuals to meet their individual ambitions and needs (Truitt, 2011)

In conclusion, this report analyses the three strategic human resources practices of Tesco; recruitment, selection and training and development. This report highlights that all the three practices plays a crucial role in organization. Recruitment, Selection and training and development helps Tesco to improve their business continually and also helps to create planned strategies for better performance of the organization. These three processes are very much important to recruit the best candidate for the organization and also retain that candidate for long term and reduce the absenteeism and employee turnover rate.  This helps to increase the retention rate of the organization. The report also analyzed that training and development increase communication among the employees and regularly enhances the skills of the employees as per the market requirements. The major benefits of all these three SHRM practices are that they lead to enhancement of the products and services of Tesco. These three processes help to engage the employees and also increase the product innovation and increase the profit and efficiency of the organization.

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