HRM Reflective Case Study

Introduction Of HRM Reflective Case Study 

Human resource management (HRM) may be defined as a practice of managing, deploying, hiring and recruiting an organisation’s employees (Leatherbarrow and Fletcher 2018). An organisation or company’s HR department is accountable for overseeing, putting, creating policies for governing the workers. In other words, HR policies and frameworks play a vital role in building prominent relationship among the organisation and its workers. The term human resources have been used within the early 1900s, then widely within the year 1960s, to describe the people who work for the company. The purpose of HRM practices is to manage people at the workplace to gain the mission of organisation reinforce the corporate culture. HR professionals also play a crucial role in conducting training session, resolving employee’s issues etc. This in turn places direct and significant influence on employee motivation as well as performance.

Overcoming and resolving the human resource management challenge is highly required for ensuring the smooth running of the HR department. For this report, Tesco has been selected which is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer that headquartered in the United Kingdom. The organisation head offices have been located within the Welwyn Garden City, England (TESCO, 2025). The company was founded by the Jack cohen in Hackney, London within the 1919. The report will shed light on the reviewing the role and responsibilities of HR in the business. Moreover, it will assess the link among the employee relation policy, learning and development and structural aspects. Lastly, it will demonstrate the theoretical concept of reward and organisational culture and leadership, diversity management.

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HR Roles, Responsibilities and Challenges in Business Collective Approach

Human resource management plays a key role, ensuring about the success in the business by lining up the strategic objectives with the workforce capabilities, positive culture of work and talent management (Banfield et al, 2018). The functionalities of HR involve compliance with the labour laws, benefits and compensation, training and development, performance management, employee retention and talent acquisition. Within the large corporations such as TESCO, the Human resources play a major role for developing employee engagement, productivity and effectiveness. This directly affects the profitability and consumer satisfaction. On the other hand, the HR department particularly faces the major challenges within gaining the collective approaches which is related to the organisational objectives, often because of the operational cultural and structural complexities.

• Functionalities and role of HR in the business: HR in the different businesses such as TESCO operates in the different functions to offer support to the overall performance of the organisation.
• Workforce planning and talent acquisition: The HR team of Tesco makes sure about the recruitment of talented and skilled workers. These are aligning with the business objectives and values of the company. The workforce strategic planning is important to resolve the needs of workforce for long term and seasonal fluctuations.
• Employee engagement and relations: The HR boosts the work environment with the positivity via the programs of employee engagement, conflict resolution and open communication. The different initiatives likes as Tesco’s culture of the “Every little helps” focuses on teamwork and well being.
• Training and development: HR department of the firm tends to make focus on investing within the leadership development and ongoing learning to prepare leaders for future and boost the skills of workers. The programs such as leadership training and apprenticeship schemes of the Tesco help the workers to grow in company.
• Benefits and compensation: The HR plays a major role within developing reward systems, benefits and structure of the competitive salary to retain and attract the workers (Hamouche, 2023). Tesco provides the wellness programs, pensions and discounts for workers to boost the job satisfaction.
• Workplace policies and compliance: It is assuring the compliance with the inclusion policies, diversity, regulations of health and safety are the major HR function. The HR team of Tesco boosts the policies of ethical workforce to promote the equality and reduce the discrimination.

Current issues and challenges hindering the collective approach

• Adapting to the labour market changes and external economic:Developing labour shortages and inflation affect the capability of Tesco’s HR department in retaining and attracting the talent. The HR needs to review the worker’s incentives and compensation strategies to be in the competition.
• Communication barriers among the employee and management: The lack within the communication among the management and frontline workers put impact on the effective operations and creates the disengagement (Azizi et al, 2021). The HR needs to boost the communication in two ways via the platforms of digital communication and ongoing feedback sessions.
• Work life balance and employee well being:The retail jobs carry the demanding nature, like as irregular shifts that directly affect the well-being and morale of the workers. The HR needs to apply the support for mental health programs and flexible policies related to workforce which in turn boost the job satisfaction.
• High worker turnover:The retail sector, also TESCO mainly faces the issues related to the staff’s high turnover because of the low wages within the roles of entry level, lack of career growth lack and job dissatisfaction. By retaining the talented workers require developed working conditions and opportunities for the career development.

Establishing the link between organisation structure development, learning & development and employee retention policies

For the large organisation such as Tesco, the success of company relies on the policies of the robust employee retention, L&D programs and effective structure. These factors are influencing the strategic growth of Tesco.

• Organisation structure development within Tesco: The Tesco focuses on the hierarchical structure along with the approach of decentralised to the smooth decision making. The effective structure offer support to the store managers, corporate leaders and regional managers have the different functions of distinct. The decision making based on the decentralised permits for the regional stores to provide needs of the local market. The structure of Tesco encourages the expansion within the novel markets and also managing the oversights of corporate.
• Learning and development within Tesco: L&D significant a key part of the HR strategy of Tesco, offering help to workers grows in organisation. The Tesco academy offers the training of the career progression for the workers in store. The programs of the leadership development prepare workers for the roles related to the managerial level (Anwar and Abdullah, 2021). The modules related to the digital training boost the consumer service and technical skills of workers. The L&D session enhances the retention by providing the opportunities for the career growth.
• Employee retention policy within TESCO: The organisation invests within the different strategies of retention to manage the motivated team. The workers have the performance, healthcare and discount incentives. The organisation focuses on the internal promotions which motivate the workers to stay with the company for longer duration. The well being and flexible scheduling helps to decrease the burnout. The policies decrease the attrition rates, assures that the experiences workers work for the growth of business.

Strategic influence on the growth of Tesco (Minter berg’s and Mckinsey 7s model)

McKinsey model and impact on the organisation

• Systems: The HR systems effectively track out the retention metrics and performance, effectively guiding the development.
• Structure: The decentralised model of Tesco permits the responsiveness on the store level but needs the effective leadership training.
• Strategy: The organisation aims for the consumer centricity and global expansion. The L&D lines up the workers with the vision (McKinsey 7S Model, 2025).
• Skills: The programs of training boost the skills of workers and thereby improve the quality of service.
• Shared values: Engagement of workers is developed in the mission of Tesco of offering effectiveness to the consumers.
• Staff: The policies of retention make sure about the motivated and experienced workforce.
• Style: The Tesco boosts the collaborative and consumer first culture.
• Mintberg’s organisational framework: The model of Mintezberg classifies the companies within the key 5 structures. The organisation lines up with the form which is divisionalized, in this the every store functions workers as the unit independent within the strategy of central corporate (Mintzberg's theory on organizations, 2025). The managers of the middle line (regional and store managers) makes sure about the alignment with the strategic objectives of the Tesco. The finance, IT and HR boost the innovation and effectiveness. The organisation manages the flexibility and control, permitting decision making localised.

Critically assessing organisational culture, rewards, diversity management and leadership

Organisational culture, rewards, diversity management and leadership are the significant factors which drive the business success, productivity and employee engagement. The Tesco is one of the global retailers and has also adopted the approach that focused on consumer, competitive rewards, diversity strategies and structured approach of leadership. On the other hand, the different challenges like as leadership effectiveness, integration of workplace diversity and employee turnover.

Leadership at Tesco: The organisation effectively adopts the leadership based on the transactional approach for the effective operations. This emphasizes on the incentives based on the short term, performance monitoring and structured roles. The managers focuses on the leadership task oriented, assuring workers can meet the standards of consumer service and sales targets. On the other hand, the model can limit the overall motivation and innovation which sometimes adversely affects the overall organisational profitability.

The organisation should focus on the transformational leadership within the programs related to the leadership development, developing the leaders for future to boost the change (Chowdhury et al, 2023). This evident within the Tesco leadership academy initiatives, this boosts the innovation and strategic thinking.

Diversity management within Tesco: The organisation values the inclusion and diversity, focusing on the individuals from the different backgrounds. The organisation has applied the programs of culture inclusion for the workers from the various ethnicities. The organisation also emphasised on the policies of the equal opportunity to assure about the unbiased hiring. On the other hand, different challenges such as language barriers within the teams of multicultural and unconscious bias within the promotions are persist.

Reward system within Tesco: The organisation utilises the mix of non-financial and financial rewards to effectively retain the workers. The incentives based on the performance for the managers and store staff. The well being, pensions and discounts of workers are also used within the organisation. Tesco meets the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

• Self actualisation (leadership programs)
• Esteem needs (Awards for recognition)
• Belongingness (Culture of teamwork)
• Safety needs (healthcare benefits and job security)
• Psychological needs (rivalry wages)

On the other hand, the workers of the frontline mainly felt limitation within the opportunities of the growth.

Organisational culture in Tesco: The organisation develops the culture driven by performance and consumer centric. in this the workers are motivated to uphold the teamwork, effectiveness and service of the brand (Collin, 2022). On the contrary hand, the retail environment with the high pressure might lead to burnout among the workers.

Recommendations

• Tesco needs to boost the training of the transformational leadership within the various levels for encouraging the employee empowerment and creativity.
• The organisation is recommended to organize training on the unconscious bias and developing the programs of mentorship for the groups which are underrepresented to boost the inclusivity.
• Tesco should boost the pathways of the career progression for making sure about the motivation based on the long term and store workers.
• The company must promote the work culture with the flexibility and develops the programs of stress management to boost the work life balance.

Conslusion

Conclusively, it states that the success of Tesco as one of the global retailer particularly influenced via the organizational culture, reward system, diversity management, leadership approaches and HR strategies. The organization has enhanced the framework of the structured organizational which offers support effectiveness. This is mainly complemented via the employee retention policies and programs to makes sure about the stability of workers. On the other hand, challenges like as leadership adaptability, diversity integration and high turnover needs the ongoing development. The Mintzberg’s framework and Mckinsey 7S model showcases the how organizational staff, strategy and structure lines up with the growth of business. The transactional leadership offers support within the effective operations. However, transformational leadership needs to be developed for enhancing employee engagement and innovation. The Maslow’s hierarchy needs focuses on the non financial and financial rewards of the Tesco.

REFERENCES

Books and journals

• Anwar, G. and Abdullah, N.N., 2021. The impact of Human resource management practice on Organizational performance. International journal of Engineering, Business and Management (IJEBM), 5.
• Azizi, M.R., Atlasi, R., Ziapour, A., Abbas, J. and Naemi, R., 2021. Innovative human resource management strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic narrative review approach. Heliyon, 7(6).
•  Banfield, P., Kay, R., and Royles, D. 2018, Introduction to HRM, 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Chowdhury, S., Dey, P., Joel-Edgar, S., Bhattacharya, S., Rodriguez-Espindola, O., Abadie, A. and Truong, L., 2023. Unlocking the value of artificial intelligence in human resource management through AI capability framework. Human resource management review, 33(1), p.100899.
• Collins, C.J., 2022. Expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource management. In Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational Effectiveness (pp. 107-134). Routledge.
• Hamouche, S., 2023. Human resource management and the COVID-19 crisis: Implications, challenges, opportunities, and future organizational directions. Journal of Management & Organization, 29(5), pp.799-814.
• Leatherbarrow, C. and Fletcher J. 2018, Introduction to HRM: A Guide to HR in Practice, 4th edition. London: CIPD.

Online

• McKinsey 7S Model, 2025. Online. Available through https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/mckinsey-7s-model/
• Mintzberg's theory on organizations, 2025. Online. Available through <https://www.accaglobal.com/in/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f1/technical-articles/mintzberg-theory.html>
• TESCO, 2025. Online. Available through https://www.tesco.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopXKoTEet_BygU3eNESi1eszQUVyI_HSZj2ah5UDB-qtVQ3dnJq