The support of intelligent, inspiring and consistently helpful people made this work possible. Several specific individuals deserve immense thanks and appreciation, and are responsible for any value this work might have for a wider audience. They are the lecturers of Institute Of Personnel Management: I am also indebted to my beloved mother and my family members for giving me the moral encouragement to make this study a success. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of this assignment. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMERY
The company was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls, selling groceries from a small stall. Tesco is the largest British retailer and the world’s third largest grocery retailer with branches across Europe, USA and Asia. He ought surplus stocks tea from a company called T. E. Stockwell. Both these partners combined their names to brand the business –TESCO tea. The first Tesco store opened in north London in 1929. Tesco’s primary aim is to serve the customer. This has expanded since then by a combination of acquisition of new stores and has net profits of round ?3 billion.
Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer. Tesco has increasingly diversified geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services etc. In the UK Tesco now have approximately 280,000 employees and over 460,000 worldwide. It has employees work in a wide range of roles in both store and non-store functions. This case study looks at how Tesco provides training and development opportunities for its employees. Question 01 Explain the difference between training and development.
How have changes in customer expectations affected Tesco and its need to train staff? Training = Teaching New Skills Development = Perfecting Existing Skills Training is organized activity aimed at imparting information and /or instructions to improve the recipient’s performance or to help him or her attain acquired level of knowledge or skill. While, development refers to encouraging employees to acquire new or advanced skills, knowledge. and view points, by providing learning and training facilities and avenues where such new ideas can be applies. DIFFERTENCE: Training: * It’s a short term process Refers to instructions in technical and mechanical problems * Targeted in most cases for non managerial personnel * Specific job related purpose. * Training is very specific, formal, time bound, well designed, planned, activity for a clear goal. * Its focus is bringing change in the participant’s attitude, skills and knowledge so that in future he gets better or desired results. * Training involves investment in terms of cost and man-hour (time). * Training leads to development. * Training is part of development process. * Training methods are limited, if compared to development tools.
Development: * It is a long term educational process * Refers to philosophical and theoretical educational concepts. * Managerial personnel * General knowledge purpose * Development is a never ending process. * Development happens in both formal and informal way. * It can be voluntary or involuntary as every experience we undergo in life teaches us lessons whether we like it or not/ want it or no. * All learning is development. * It happens everywhere and every time * Training is one of the tools of development. * Development can be slow, unless we get focused and specific. Development need not be costly. * Development is general and holistic concept. * Sources of development are too many to be counted * The change in customer expectations has comprehensively affected the Tesco and its workforce planning. When opening of new stores in new locations Tesco must be able to hit the demands made by new customers. Whereas outlets in highly populated different areas may need to sell a higher amount of specialty goods to meet the requirements of its consumers. * Tesco employees work in wide range of stores in both in store and out store functions.
Therefore those in store and out store posts employees may require different technical skills and competencies to work with the changes of the consumers. * Employees with a higher range of skills who can work flexibly are more productive for the business and they will able to adapt to the changes very quickly and also productively. Question 02 List the methods of training carried out by Tesco . Describe how training needs are identified. Tesco has a flexible and structured approach to training and development. They offer employees both, * On –the- job training * Off- the- job training ON –THE- JOB TRAINING
Employee training at the place of work while he or she is doing the actual job. Usually a professional trainer(or sometimes an experienced employee) serves as the course instructor using hands-on training often supported by formal classroom training. On the job training methods at Tesco include: * Job shadowing This is actually one of the most common of all training techniques for new employees. Essentially, job shadowing involves spending a period of time with a seasoned expert, observing everything that he or she does that is related to the work that is expected to be accomplished as part of the daily outine of the job. Involving one new employee to act as the observer, and one person to function as the demonstrator, this allows the new hire a chance to get a handle of what is involved in performing the tasks associated with the work. * Coaching The trainee is placed under a particular supervisor who functions as a coach in training the individual. The supervisor provides feedback to the trainee on his performance and offers him some suggestions for improvement. Often the trainee shares some of the duties and responsibilities of the coach and relieves him of his burden.
A limitation of this method of training is that the trainee may not have the freedom or opportunity to express his own ideas. | * Mentoring This is an ongoing relationship that is developed between a senior and junior employee. Mentoring provides guidance and clear understanding of how the organization goes to achieve its vision and mission to the junior employee. Some key points on Mentoring * Mentoring focus on attitude development * Conducted for management-level employees * Mentoring is done by someone inside the company * It is one-to-one interaction It helps in identifying weaknesses and focus on the area that needs improvement. * Job Rotation This type of training involves the movement of the trainee from one job to another . the trainee receives job knowledge and gains experience from his supervisor or trainer in each of the different job assignments. Though this method of training is common in training managers for general management positions, trainees can also be rotated from job to job in workshop jobs. This method gives an opportunity to the trainee to understand the problems of employees on other jobs and respect them.
Advantages: * Low cost – does not require the development of potentially expensive training materials or classroom/computer-based instruction. * Task-based – Since OJT is performed at the work area, training tends to be focused on performing real job tasks. * Well suited for small groups – OJT is often the most practical training method when you only need to train one or two employees at a time. * Employees still work during training so is more productive. * The employee puts learning into practice Disadvantages: * Inconsistent * Incomplete. * Lack of founding principles Bad habits OFF- THE- JOB TRAINING Advantages| Disadvantages| * A wider range of skills or qualifications can be obtained * Can learn from outside specialists or experts * Employees can be more confident when starting job| * More expensive – e. g. transport and accommodation * Lost working time and potential output from employee * New employees may still need some induction training * Employees now have new skills/qualifications and may leave for better jobs| The employee is sent to another location outside the business to learn a skill or acquire important knowledge.
Off-the-job training may include lectures and demonstrations simulations, role-plays and games self-study attending external courses, for example, on day-release secondment, which means that the employee is temporary taken away from his/her routine job in order to gain further experience elsewhere Tesco regularly evaluates the performance of its employees to see whether the employees are with correct knowledge, skills, understanding and resource to carry out their job effectively. They do this training need analysis mostly through: * Annual reviews
An annual review evaluates: * their role * their achievements in their role * their objectives for the coming year * any training and development needs they may have * their career and role aspirations * Career discussions. These discussions help the managers or the employers to evaluate: * What is your personal mission statement with regard to your career? * What are your values? * What are your motivators? * What is your short-term career objective? * What is your long-term career objective? * What are your strengths? * What are your developmental areas? What are you willing to do in the next 12 months to reach your career objective(s)? For example shows in the case study, managers in stores, Distribution Centers and Head Office can spend a week in a store together, learning about each other’s work. Question 03 Analyze Tesco’s method of developing its employees. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of such programme. Tesco’s main method of developing its employees is assessing themselves by setting objectives in Personal Development Plan. And then secondly in activity plans and record outcomes in learning logs. * Personal Development Plan
PDP is defined as ‘a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development’. PDP embraces a range of approaches to learning that connect planning (an individual’s goals and intentions for learning or achievement), doing (aligning actions to intentions), recording (thoughts, ideas, experiences, in order to understand and evidence the process and results of learning) and reflection (reviewing and evaluating experiences and the results of learning). Tesco also uses a method known as 360-degree appraisal. 360 Degree Feedback is a system or process in which employees receive confidential, anonymous feedback from the people who work around them. This typically includes the employee’s manager, peers, and direct reports. A mixture of about eight to twelve people fill out an anonymous online feedback form that asks questions covering a broad range of workplace competencies. The feedback forms include questions that are measured on a rating scale and also ask raters to provide written comments.
The person receiving feedback also fills out a self-rating survey that includes the same survey questions that others receive in their forms. For example given in the case study, a store department manager may get feedback from their manager, their’buddy’, other department managers, the HR department and their team. This supports them to identify areas that may require further development. * They also uses a more informal methods to development by asking employees to write down three things they believe they are good at and three things they believe they could do better.
This helps them to identify the factors and actions they need to act to improve the areas they could do better. * Managers and trainees hold a weekly informal review session and as well more formal four weekly sessions to see the process against their personal Development Plan. The feedback is carefully recorded and scored. And then they give the Trainees a colour coded development rating. Red- where progress is not on schedule Amber- where some elements need more work Green- where activities are on target Blue- where the trainee is ahead of the programme and using skills to add value.
Strengths of Personnel Development Plan * It gives the employees a chance to reflect * It helps the employees to gain an idea as to where they want to go * They will make better judgments on prioritizing jobs * Having one will help them in the long term * Plan employees way to a more successful future * Provide positive, productive and valuable workforce. * Higher motivation for the existing employees. For example there are 85% of internal promotions which is vey cost effective. * Helps in long lasting competencies. * Retention of employees as well as customers. It supports to grow their workforces abilities. * Provide committed and qualified staff. * This also helps to identify areas that may require further development. * Sustainable development Weaknesses of Personnel Development Plan * It is very expensive to conduct such a programme * Highly time consuming * Lack of new ideas and techniques * Reduce competitive advantage. * Evaluation will be a problem if there is no clear target given to the employees. * An individual could begin to gossip confidential information and also as well as could take advantage of having power. Question 04
Evaluate the benefits for Tesco in providing a structured training programme. To what extent do you think the training has achieved a Return on Investment? A structured approach to training design and development typically results in more cohesive results across a company. Particularly when implementation occurs in more than one country and in more than one language, consistency becomes important. By establishing learning objectives that fix performance problems, training designers focus development efforts on content that can have the most business impact for the widest audience.
Objectives start with action verbs such as “improve,” “develop” and “complete. ” Aligning all content to these learning objectives and writing test questions that find out if employees have learned the material, demonstrates program success. Mangers typically nominate or endorse the participation of their employees in structured activities. Typically, off-site courses, such as conferences or retreats, provide experiences in developing leadership skills, team building and strategic planning. And also they use scheduled tasks, timetables, measures and checklists.
Where Tesco is able to monitor and evaluate training and development of their employees. Benefits of having a structured training programme * Increased efficiency of employees: A structured training programme can make the employees of the company work in an effective manner. With training people gain confidence and this confidence is seen in the output and results. * Reduced supervision: An employee needs to be supervised when he works. When the employee has got sufficient training the amount of supervision required is less as mistakes are less. This reduces the workload of the supervisor.
Less amount of wastage: The amount of wastage by an employee is reduced a lot due to training and therefore if we take an account of the amount of wastage we find that the company has saved a lot of money. * Reduced turnover: Proper training improves chances of obtaining promotions and employees are happy because they have better opportunities Due to this their chance of leaving their current job reduces greatly thereby reducing labour turnover in the company. * Helps new employees in the organization: Training always benefits employees whether old or new. In case of new employees, training helps them a lot.
This is because new employees may not be aware of the functioning of the organization and training helps them to gain knowledge and insight into the working of the company. * Better labour –management relations: Labour – management relations are very essential for any organization. When companies introduce training programmes and prepare employees for future jobs and promotions. * Increased motivation levels: Training brings positive attitude among employees and increases the motivation levels of the employees in the organization, thereby improving the results of the organization. * Improved quality(example, decreased reject rate) Improved equipment performance(i. e. reduced unplanned downtime) * Pre-defined ideas or targets are given * Cost-effective. * Easily understanding procedures * Easy to monitor * Consistent * Better corporate image * Positive climate within the organization and workforce itself The employee identifies actions to continue to do more of the good things and improve areas they could do better. Therefore when the productivity is high with quality products and when they are able to output products and also services matched with the requirements of its consumers in return the Return on Investment of Tesco will be increased.
