Marks and Spencer’s and Tesco are two of the three main market leaders with many stores and staff worldwide it is crucial for both companies to keep on top of their Human Resource Planning to escape the negative effects such as over worked staff and low morale.
In recent years M&S HR department has transformed; the service and administrative department is now an in house role, bringing them closer to the action of the business at all times. This change ensures distribution of resources, training and skills needed to build up employees from all levels in the organisation. (Mullins, 2006; Burke & Cooper, 2008).
Tesco also ensures that every employee has the opportunity to understand their role in contributing to the Tesco values. To do this Tesco have created an induction programme that caters for all cultures. The on floor staff are considered the ultimate reflection of Tesco to its customers, but all employees have a very important role in providing excellent customer service to all consumers. (Whitelock, N. 2003). Tesco slogan “every little helps” is also built into their training programme and they do quarterly surveys to analyse the staff morale and also to decide whether staff need further training. It is important for Tesco to do this as career development is important to the individual employee. (Armstrong, M 2005)
For both Marks and Spencer’s and Tesco; HR planning is important as it is an effective way to save money as it is cheaper to provide training to existing employees than employee a new employee. Tesco’s aim to expand and diversify requires the business to have the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
M&S provide induction program for new recruits. This allows them to mould their employees from the very beginning. M&S could use the idea of surveying their employees as Tesco do to gage what motivates their employees to work hard, as staff that work harder mean less staff needed for a business to run effectively.
Human Resource Planning is the process of analysing the businesses wants and needs and deciding on which is greater and employing or removing staff if need be. M&S main objective is to move both in domestic and international market, they currently have stores in various European countries such as Malaga. They need a skilled workforce to achieve their aims and objectives as well as this now that the UK has left the EU they may face higher tax to ship products to EU countries and this could have an adverse effect on their aims. Tesco provides many services from mobile networks, to banking to insurance. Tesco wants to grow the service in which it provides in markets they already occupy. They need to review the staff they already have and determine the needs for more staff or more training for the existing staff if they are to move up the market ladder in other services.
Recruitment and Selection
During the Tesco selection process they choose the most suitable people for the roles, whilst keeping to employment laws and regulations, such as Employment Rights Act 1996. This process is called screening and it is a very important part of the selection process. This ensures that those selected for interview have the best fit with the job requirements, to help decide who passes the screening process, Tesco managers or HR staff will inspect each curriculum vitae and assess whether the applicants are eligible candidates.
(Business Case Studies, 2016)
A candidate who passes screening attends an assessment centre. The assessment centres take place in store and are run by managers. They help to provide consistency in the selection process. Applicants are given various exercises, including team-working activities or problem-solving exercises. These involve examples of problems they might have to deal with at work. Candidates approved by the internal assessment centres then have an interview. Line managers for the job on offer take part in the interview to make sure that the candidate fits the job requirements.
Below is the Recruitment and Selection Process:
Marks and spencer’s recruitment process is lengthy but fair, before the application itself they have an online interactive quiz that gives an example of the job in question, this then takes you to the application, then an online generator deciphers the applicants that make the cut and those applicants are then emailed to come for an interview, once the interview is over there is a waiting process and they work off the basis off if its good news they will ring the applicant and if not an email will be sent to inform the applicant that they were unsuccessful.
(See Appendix 2 that shows Marks and Spencer’s interactive quiz)
They was employees that strive to meet the 4 I’s of the company:
• “Inspiration – generating new ideas that excite our customers, enthuse our people and enhance our business.
• Innovation – focusing on continuous improvement, pushing boundaries and encouraging experimentation.
• Integrity – doing the right thing, not the easy thing; building trust and reinforcing our reputation.
• In Touch – understanding what’s important to our customers, the communities in which we work and our colleagues.”
(Careers.marksandspencer.com, 2016)
Marks and Spencer’s are committed to achieving the goal of equal opportunity for all, from the recruitment stage to retirement. They strive to create a peaceful environment free from negative aspects such as discrimination or sectarianism.
• Other aspects they hope to achieve are:
• Make a workforce which reflects the diverse community which we serve
• Provide excellent training for staffs in all aspects of the job and cultural awareness
• Comply with laws stated in Appendix 1
• Bring out maximum potential out of each and every employee.
(Careers.marksandspencer.com, 2016)
M&S has always given importance in recruiting the right person for the right place, and helping them to develop the skills and right attitudes and behaviours by proper training and guidance.
Each staff is well informed of the organization mission, which communicates the vision, objectives and aims of the organization and prompts them all to work as a team for achieving that common goal.
M&S put great emphasis on equal opportunity for every staff member. Promoting a working environment free from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. On the basis of:
• Religious beliefs
• Race
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Age
• Disability
M&S also raise staff awareness by creating training programmes that communicate the laws surrounding Equal Opportunities such as The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 and The Race Relations Act 1976.
Tesco welcomes employees from all demographics and psychographics, and they expect each employee to treat each other the same. Their inclusion policy covers factors such as:
• “Be open and value all differences
• Be ready to step in when you spot exclusion
• Be aware of your biases and how they may impact other colleagues and customers
• Be creative, flexible and look for new ways of doing things
• Be you and be the best that you can be”
(Tesco, 2016)
Conclusion
In conclusion, Tesco and Marks and Spencer’s are in the same business sector but their recruitment and selection is far from the same and this will have an effect on the type of environment they create for employees, as well as this without Human Resource Planning and using the guide lines of equality and diversity both companies would not be able to recruit and select efficiently and lawfully.
Appendices
Appendix 1
Advantages and Disadvantages of Human Resource Planning
Advantages Disadvantages
• Human resources is a crucial aspect of a business, this department contributes to achieving goals and objectives.
• By training HR staff correctly, it allows a business to deal with issues in the workforce when they arise.
• By having human resource planning it helps to prevent negative factors such as a surplus or deficit of staff. • Human resource planning can be costly and time consuming.
• One risk of HR planning, is that you overestimate staffing needs and end up hiring more employees than you need for production.
• External factors may affect HR planning as well such as, changes in technology, cultural or political ie, Brexit,HR can use the plan as a guide but to follow it for everything may not be beneficial.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Recruitment & Selection
Advantages Disadvantages
• Internal recruitment can save money and time on training as the applicant already has knowledge of the business.
• Tesco use internal recruitment as an incentive to staff to work towards the goal of being promoted.
• Marks and Spencer’s try to employ existing consumer may be useful for the managers as they will already know the person applying.
• Marks and spencer’s use their interactive quiz to brief an applicant on the job role before they apply for the full application.
• Tesco recruit quarterly, when then need to. This reduces costs for Tesco and they use all online applications, this means there is no paper costs.
• Internal recruitment has the downside as the business will have to fill the employees old role when the move up.
• By recruiting internally, it can have an adverse effect on other staff and can lower staff morale.
• As well as this recruiting externally can have an issues as some candidate’s interview well and do not work well.
• Tesco recruit more so seasonally, and the issue with this is you only have temporary staff and they may not be highly skilled.
Legal Requirements for Recruitment and Selection
• The Data Protection Act 1998 puts responsibilities on an employer to process personal data in a fair and proper way. The Act gives individuals certain rights in respect of the processing of their personal data and those carrying out selection processes must comply with the Act.
• The Equal Pay Act 1970 makes it unlawful to discriminate between women and men in their contracts of employment
• Employment Rights Act 1996
• Employment Act 2002
Advantages of Equality and Diversity
Advantages Disadvantages
• Equality allows employees the same chances and opportunities to enhance their skills and abilities.
• Equal opportunities raises staff morale and encourages staff to express their abilities.
• Protection by laws means discrimination may not take place without repercussions.
• By providing equal opportunities workplaces can boost their reputation. • If there is no inequality, employees from different cultural backgrounds can feel like they are losing their unique cultural traits.
• To ensure the workplace is keeping in line with their equality measures, it may be costly to provide cultural specific needs such as kosher food in the canteen.
• There can be bureaucracy issues as it is hard to come to one decision as to what equality and diversity is in a workplace and how to meet everyone’s needs. It can be costly to pay an expert to come in and teach how to strive for equality.
Legal Requirements for Equality and Diversity
• The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 make it unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees
The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of the followings:
• Colour
• Race
• Nationality
• Ethnic
• Language
• Education
The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of:
• Gender obligations in employment
• Vocational training
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
• Sex Discrimination (Indirect Discrimination and Burden of Proof) Regulations 2001
Legislation Specific to Northern Ireland
• Sex Discrimination Order 1976 (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2012
• Disability Discrimination (Transport Vehicles) Regulations (NI) 2009 this act would apply to Tesco food delivery employees and other employees that use vehicles as part of their jobs.
• Autism Act (NI) 2011
• Fair Employment (Monitoring) (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2002 this act is crucial in Northern Ireland due to the “troubles” causing a lot of tension across religious borders.
Appendix 2
Marks and Spencer’s provide an interactive quiz before the application form, this gives the candidate a real life experience of what the role will be like and if the applicant will be suited for the role.
Recommendations & Findings to Gain a Competitive Advantage
Human Resource Planning
• Ensure the business has a detailed business plan that addresses the short-term and long-term goals
• Identify talent gaps and surpluses
• Marks and Spencer’s and Tesco have not considered that the old generations may not know how to use a computer to access their online applications and as well as this some people do not have access to computers at all.
• To cut down segregation in applicants they should provide different forms of the application process.
Recruitment and Selection
An organisation may also wish to take up references and ask the candidate to have a medical assessment.
• It is best practice to formally communicate non-selection to unsuccessful candidates, as this is not only helpful for maintaining organisational reputation, it may have future practical benefit.
• Record keeping is a good option as the HR team can note what questions worked the best and what didn’t.
• It is beneficial to offer an induction period if candidates are successful, it gives room to remove applicants if they do not turn out as good as the HR team had hoped and also helps reduce labour turnover as new candidates can leave if they do not enjoy the job.
Equality and Diversity
• Both Marks and Spencer’s and Tesco remember that while company values remain same but in cross cultures procedures and values might differ.
• They must adapt their application forms and offer it in different languages and offer interviews any day of the week so not to disrespect religions that have their Sabbath on different days.
• It would be beneficial and also attract staff to give days off based around employees religious beliefs