Business strategy
According to welcome to Tesco plc: our strategy (Anon., 2009), Tesco has adopted a comprehensive business strategy which entails attaining consistent growth and increasing the scale of operation into the international market. The business strategy also entails attaining a competitive edge in terms of human resources. This strategy has enabled the firm to strengthen its core business in its UK domestic market. The rationale behind the firm’s business strategy is to broaden its scope of operation thus attaining its long-term goal. The business strategy also entails establishing diverse customer-oriented businesses in the domestic and foreign market such as non-food, financial services, and telecom according to expanding nature of the market.
Mission statement
The management of Tesco is committed to ensuring that it develops sustainable customer loyalty. To attain this, the management of the firm ensures that all the operations of the firm are focused on satisfying the customer. This enables the firm to deliver value to its customers by understanding them in a better manner. The management is also committed to integrating the concept of innovation in its operation thus diversifying its activities more effectively. In addition, the firm is also committed to ensuring that it has a wide range of human resources and creating a good working environment for its employees to enable them to deliver value to the customers (‘Our values’, 2009, Para. 1).
Goals
According to our values (Anon., 2009), Tesco has a number of objectives which include the following;
- To cope with increasing competition in the market by developing effective competitive strategies based on market variables such as the price.
- To diversify the operation of the firm into other economic sectors other than sticking to the food products sector.
- To become the leading firm in the global market.
- The management of Tesco is committed to increasing the firm’s financial stability by integrating emerging electronic commerce technology in the operation. This will enable the firm to conduct online selling.
Tesco overall human resource strategy
The management of Tesco has formulated a comprehensive human resource strategy. The firm’s overall human resource strategy entails integrating employee training as a part of the organization’s culture. The objective is to attain a competitive edge in its operation. The firm’s human resource strategy revolves around challenging rules that are not in the firm’s human resource policy, work simplification, performance management, and ensuring that all the firm’s employees in all its head offices have the necessary core skills. In addition, the human resource training also considers employees in the lower level (‘Putting store in HR’, 2009, Para. 7).
Ways in which the firm’s human resource practices enable Tesco to attain vertical integration
Resourcing
Tesco undertakes comprehensive recruitment in the process of increasing the size of its human resource. Both internal and external sources of human resources are considered during recruitment to ensure that the firm becomes competitive in relation to human capital. Internal recruitment is aimed at ensuring that the employees are motivated to move up their careers. Internal recruitment is based on the performance of the employees. This ensures the employees become more focused on delivering quality service to the customers. Internal resourcing enables Tesco to incorporate the concept of reward management in its operation. To ensure that internal recruitment is effective, the management has formulated a Talent Plan. The talent plan lists the firm’s employees who are seeking to move for a promotion. According to the recruitment and selection strategy at Tesco (Anon., 2009), if the talent plan does not have the necessary candidate, the vacancy is posted internally for a period of two weeks on the firm’s intranet. Internal recruitment enables the firm’s employees to be loyal to the organization since there are high chances of career development.
The firm also sources its human resource from the external market by posting the vacancy on the internet. In addition, the management also advertises the vacancies through offline mediums, radio and television Comprehensive recruitment and selection enable the firm to deliver services effectively to the customers and also undertake product and service innovation (‘Recruitment and selection strategy at Tesco’, 2009, p.3).
Human resource development
The management of Tesco has formulated an effective employee training program for all its employees. According to the recruitment and selection strategy at Tesco (Anon., 2009), the training program has resulted in effective human resource development and a good working environment. This is due to the fact that the employees decide their training needs which enable them to be in control of their individual career paths. By giving them autonomy to control their career path, employees feel that they are a part of the firm’s overall human resource strategy. The result is that there is an increase in the employees’ level of satisfaction since they feel valued. According to career: our structure (Anon., Para. 4), this culminates into the employees being more committed to the organization thus serving the customers more effectively. Employee training enables the firm to attain its business strategy.
Employee relation, reward and performance
To ensure that the employees are satisfied and productive within the organization, the management of Tesco has developed a good relationship with them both in the domestic and foreign markets. According to Tesco (Anon., Para. 6), this is achieved by developing an employee relations team. The team is charged with the responsibility of developing policies that enable effective management of the firm’s employees. According to Armstrong and Tina (2005, p. 4), reward management should be fair. In addition, Tesco rewards its employees basing on the value that they create for the organization.
Reference list
Armstrong, M& Tina, S. 2005. A handbook of employee reward management and practice. Web.
Human resource leader. 2009. Putting store in HR. Web.
London Stock Exchange. 2009. Tesco Plc. Web.
The Times 100. 2009. Recruitment and selection strategy at Tesco. Web.
Tesco Plc. 2009. Our values. Web.
Tesco Plc. 2009. Tesco organization structure. Web.
Tesco Plc. 2009. Welcome to Tesco plc: our strategy. Web.
Tesco Plc. 2009. Careers: our structure. Web.
Appendices
Organization structure of Tesco
- Store Director
- Store Manager
- Personnel Manager
- Ambient Manager
- Fresh Manager
- Non Food Manager
- Admin/personnel
- Assistants
- Ambient Team
- Leader
- Training Manager
- Stock Controller
- Manager
- Security Manager
- Counters Manager
- (Deli, Curry Pot,
- Pizza)
- Bakery Team Leader
- Restaurant Team
- Leader
- Clothing Team
- Leader
- Electrical Team
- Leader
- Stock Control
- Assistants
- Security Assistants
- Team
- Assistants
- Customer Service
- Manager
- Customer Service
- Assistants
- CS Desk
- Fresh Assistants
- Non Food Assistants
- Support Office