Humanitarian and Communities

Executive Summary

The report is prepared to provide a proper view as well as a discussion of which there will be a clear understanding of the recruitment practices of the organization. In that context, the report selected the retail organization which has implemented the strategies of human resources in the recruitment processes. Based on those processes the report will engross the specific challenges that the organization faces in their day to day actions. The challenges that are mentioned in the report are such that they restrict the improvement processes of the organization. Thus the report in that context is such prepared that it would reflect the effective HR processes of an organization like Tesco.

Introduction

The human resources department of an organization like Tesco is the part that builds up the root of the organization. It, therefore, acts as the process that can be a change agent which works for the replacement of the role of the personnel department as well as the specific function rather than carrying out the replacement of an outdated personnel department. Tesco is a well-known brand in the retail market that has developed its culture through the extension of its logo which specifically helps in the fulfillment of its commitment to the employees as, well as the customers(Tesco, 2017). Thus this report reflects the key challenges that Tesco faces during the completion of its commitment. The knowledge regarding the key challenges will provide the proper path to finding requisite and effective solutions to increase their business in the competitive market.

Challenges in Recruiting the Workforce

As mentioned in the above section the report is supposed to reflect the requisite information regarding the key challenges that are faced by the human resources department and which are hindering the growth of the business in the international market. As per Alan & Chloe,  while considering the human resources rules and specifications then it can be seen that the company’s human resource strategies spin around work simplification, challenging unwritten rules along with the rolling out of the effective skills of the employees as well as their performance management (Alan & Chloe, 2013). But out of all the crucial parts is the recruitment part which poses a threat to all the ongoing processes. Thus the organization has some of the issues that are raised during the recruitment and keeping that into account the requisite solutions are found which will mitigate the problem(Aladwan, Bhanugopan& Fish, 2014).

As per Bansal, recruitment is the initial process that takes the organization toward the path of success. It is because the company owns a skilled, efficient, and experienced labor supply that makes the fulfillment of the goals and objectives of the organization (Bansal, 2014). Therefore the challenges that they selected by considering the particular characteristics are:

  • The ongoing process of Recruitment: The organization is facing issues due to the high amount of staff turnover just because the employees are getting better as well as attractive offers elsewhere. Thus the reasons for the ongoing recruitment can be of various types that disrupt the business processes (Budhwar&Varma, 2013). In that manner, it is seemed to that the customers will regularly receive bad services with the recruitment of the wrong people in the frontline roles. But out of all the reasons for high staff turnover, one reason is the job position being unattractive or the recruitment of the wrong person for the desired role (Cascio, 2013). This makes the organization continually recruiting. Thereafter the pressure increases and the hiring managers cannot control the quality of recruits.
  • Lack of Decision-Making: According to Chang-Richards, et al, the decision-making process is one of the big challenges which pose a threat during the fulfillment of responsibilities. For that reason, a quick decision must be made. The hiring managers or the higher management should take effective decisions to take the first position to hire efficient and skilled candidates quickly. Thus the lack of effective decision-making makes the management lose a good and skilled candidate to a competitor (Chang-Richards, et al., 2015, July).
  • Decentralization of Recruitment: The lack of expertise of the managers in the organization or its other outlets brings the condition of decentralization of recruitment. It is because recruitment, as well as the selection of effective people in the shop, is directly linked to the productivity as well as the profitability of the organization. This challenge in Tesco is faced in many of its outlets which decrease the percentage of sales of the organization (Edwards & Bach, 2013).
  • Lack of Effective Advertising: Most of the candidates carry out their recruitment process by attracting eligible candidates through marketing and effective advertising. And specifically in the retail sector like Tesco, the company should attract a diverse range of applicants from various age groups, qualifications, and ethnicity (Fechter, Oelberger&McWha-Hermann, 2017). This brings the organization to choose efficient candidates for their increase of productivity as well as profitability. But in the condition of lack of effective advertising, the hiring managers will not be able to find the requisite qualities that should be within the right person. Thus the lack of effective advertisement enables the organization to face challenges in finding the right candidate for their organization.
  • It can be said that at some point the candidates are also the definitive customers of the organizations which must be taken care of. Thus the organization needs to attract the right candidates like their customers. The reason behind it is the brand name of Tesco which is liked by the people. Thus by liking the brand as well as the values, the candidates get attracted to apply for jobs at Tesco. So the company also treats the applicants as customers (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin&Cardy, 2015).

Factors influencing the recruitment process at Tesco:

As far as the recruitment process of Tesco is concerned, it includes the selection of suitable candidates from various applicants by making the appropriate use of the specification and description of the job (McDonnell, Scullion & Lavelle, 2013). Various factors have both short-term and long-term effects on the recruitment process of Tesco which can be categorized as follows:

Labor supply:

There is a high turnover rate of turnover of employees in the retail industry which is very much experienced by Tesco. This means the employees come and go on a routine basis which leads to various challenges. Most of the time retailers like Tesco experience the highest rate of” no show” for recruitment interviews as the candidates get better offers from other companies. This is not basically because the job is unattractive or the candidates who come for the recruitment are not appropriate. As per Peter & Robert, there are probabilities that the applicants may only feel like working temporarily as in most cases the candidates are students who want to have a part-time experience and earn pocket money or they may want to simply make extra money as the stopgap (Peter & Robert, 2015). Thus, there is a demand for labor in Tesco which is majorly affected by the high rate of employee turnover. One of the reasons for the labor supply that is influencing the recruitment in Tesco is the early stage recruitment that is conducted one-to-one most of the time. Most of the candidate applies for a high street retailer like Tesco which is local for them which results in increasing the chances that the candidates will walk in directly to ask for a job. This provides a huge opportunity for the store managers to establish a positive association with them in the outlets. However, regular walk-ins disrupt the operation and functions of the management when the walk-ins happen regularly (Snell, Morris &Bohlander, 2015). If the manager finds it extremely required regarding the need of someone at the moment, an appointment can take place of whoever comes to the recruitment at the moment without even assessing properly the suitability of that person for the retailer. The conditions of employment in the community where the outlets of Tesco are located have been influencing the efforts regarding the recruitment of Tesco (Stone, 2013). Even the informal attempts during the recruitment time like the announcements in the meetings or the displays on the notice boards of the requisition will attract a lot of applicants provided there is huge manpower at the recruitment time.

Organizational image:

The image of Tesco acts as a potential constraint for the recruitment process. Tesco has a positive goodwill and image as an employer which makes it easy to retain and attract the candidates in comparison to any other retailer which has a negative image in the market. The image of Tesco is determined by the work it does and in what way it affects society.  The positive image of the retailers also paves the way for the customers to get interested in joining as employees (Varma&Budhwar, 2013). This happens in the companies like Tesco which belongs to the B2C industry. It both positively and negatively attracts the candidates which affects the recruitment process. The applicants who apply for the jobs at Tesco are attracted because they like the brand and the values of the company. This also denotes that Tesco has been rejecting by leveling up the criteria and suitability standards which hurt most of the rejected candidates who happen to be customers of Tesco most of the time (Varma &Budhwar, 2013).

Demographic issues:

A diversified workforce creates issues for Tesco during the recruitment process. The gender biases which happen during the process of recruitment are affecting the quality of the workforce that Tesco has. The preference for fairer sex is undermining the image of the company. The most pressing concern that Tesco is also facing is the implications f the people who are working longer concerning the age strategies of Tesco (Wirtz&Heracleous, 2013). The availability of manpower within and outside TESCO has been an important factor in the recruitment process of Tesco. Tesco has to rely upon internal sources when it does not find suitable candidates from outside recruitment which leads to many corruption and inappropriate strategies.

Recommendations:

Tesco should focus on the in-depth analysis of jobs and profiling of roles that would reveal the qualities and competencies that it needs in the recruits. Being aware of what is beneficial and what is not in the role would help the recruiters of the company in understanding what they would be assessing. They would also get an idea regarding the target of the training and the participation that they would need in the job role. Tesco should attempt mobile-enabled pre-assessment which would provide the company with a realistic job preview in an interactive, short evaluation which would be described in the career section of the website of the retailer. It would describe the realities of the job role and would assist the potential candidates in deciding the culture and job of Tesco. If the recruitment process would be mobile-enabled, the recruiters can ask the walk-in candidates to go through the applications and self-assess their suitability. Tesco can also initiate applications that are on-the-spot initials. Tesco can use the realistic job preview of the interested candidate for walk-in and can make quick psychometric assessments, and situational judgment tests along with short interviews.

All of this would be integrated and automated with the application tracking system.  This would prove to be a quick and efficient process that would enable Tesco to respond rapidly by effectively screening all candidates. This type of on-spot approach would help Tesco to handle the recruitment process along with gaining much control over the human touch. This structure is less disruptive for the managers of the stores in which their lack of experience in recruitment would not hinder the recruitment process during assessing the qualities of the candidates. For a forward-thinking retailer like Tesco, inviting candidates for key roles to the centers of assessment would reflect creativity. The candidates can be able to take part in interactive and practical activities, customer interaction, and along with situational judgment, that would be required during the jobs.  By making use of the tablets, the recruitment managers of Tesco can deploy the video clips along with conducting quizzes that can be instantly tracked for which the recruitment department would not have to take worry regarding the printing and making hard copies of the materials.

Conclusion:

The report deals with the in-depth analysis of the issues and challenges that arise during the process of recruitment in an organization like Tesco. The current process of recruitment along with the role of the management of the organization in making effective hiring or workforce is discussed in the report. The secret of being a successful recruiter in the retail industry is Tesco has to treat every candidate with respect and care along with making good use of technology to make the selection process very fast and convenient as far as possible. This way, the managers of the outlets would be able to hire a better quality of staff with the least disruption.

References

Aladwan, K., Bhanugopan, R., & Fish, A. (2014). Managing human resources in Jordanian organizations: challenges and prospects. International Journal of Islamic and middle eastern finance and Management, 7(1), 126-138.

Alan, C., & Chloe, M. (2013).Managing Human Resources.

Bansal, A. (2014). Computerized Human Resource Information System–An Emerging Trend for Managing Human Resources. J. Classification3.

Budhwar, P. S., &Varma, A. (2013). Managing human resources in Asia-Pacific: An introduction. Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific20, 1.

Cascio, W. F. (2013). Managing Human Resources. New York, NY: The McGraw Hills Companies.

Chang-Richards, Y., Wilkinson, S., Seville, E., &Brunsdon, D. (2015, July). A systems approach to managing human resources in disaster recovery projects.In 5th International Conference on Building Resilience (pp. 15-17).

Edwards, M. R., & Bach, S. (2013). Human Resource Management in Transition. Managing Human Resources: Human Resource Management in Transition, 1-17.

Fechter, A. M., Oelberger, C., &McWha-Hermann, I. (2017). Managing human resources in international NGOs.

Gomez-Mejia, L. R., Balkin, D., &Cardy, R. (2015). Managing Human Resources Plus 2014 MyManagementLab with Pearson eText–Access Card Package.

McDonnell, A., Scullion, H., & Lavelle, J. (2013). 2. Managing human resources in international organizations. How Can HR Drive Growth? 4.

Peter, A., & Robert, E. (2015). Managing Human Resources and Technology Innovation: The Impact of Process and Outcome uncertainties. International Journal of Innovation Science7(2), 91-106.

Snell, S. A., Morris, S. S., &Bohlander, G. W. (2015). Managing human resources.Nelson Education.

Stone, R. J. (2013). Managing human resources.John Wiley and Sons.

Tesco – Online Groceries, Homeware, Electricals & Clothing. (2017). Tesco.com. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from http://www.tesco.com/

Varma, A., &Budhwar, P. S. (2013). Managing human resources in Asia-Pacific (Vol. 20). Routledge.

Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2015). Managing Human Resources in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Entrepreneurship and the Employment Relationship. Routledge.

Wirtz, J., & Heracleous, L. (2013). Singapore Airlines: Managing Human Resources for Cost-effective Service Excellence.