Tesco Case Study
1.Explain the difference between training and development. How have changes in customer expectations affected Tesco and its need to train staff?
Training is the process of instructing an employee in their new job so that she/he understands their role and responsibilities and learns to perform the tasks assigned to them so they can perform with ease and efficiency. Training makes an employee more productive for the organization and is concerned with their immediate improvement. Development is an ongoing process that continues beyond training.
The focus of the development process is on the person themselves where the focus of training is on the organization. Development is concerned with the making the employee more productive for the future of the organization. Training is for short-term goals of the organization while Development is for the long-term goals of the organization.
Customer expectations have changed to ‘one-stop shopping’. Tesco’s original product range of grocery and general stores have diversified to include banking, insurance services, electrical goods, and telephone equipment and airtime.
Describe how training needs are identified.
Tesco offers on the job and off the job training:
On the Job:
•Shadowing – a person already on the job shows the employee how it’s done.
•Coaching – a manager or specific colleague will help trainee work through problems and encourage them to find solutions.
•Mentoring – a more experienced member of the staff is an advisor.
•Job Rotation or Secondment – the trainee has the opportunity of covering their target position by taking full responsibility on a temporary basis.
Off the Job:
•External courses run by professional training organizations or qualified Tesco training staff. Tesco has a flexible and structured approached to identifying training needs which is adapting to the each employee’s individual needs. This allows the employees having been identified as having potential and desire to do a larger or different role to take training to develop their skills and leadership capability.
3.Analyse Tesco’s method of developing its employees. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of such a programme.
Tesco handles the development of its employees as a shared responsibility although the employee is primarily responsible for her/his development. The employee is responsible for identifying and ageing their development; attending workshops and development days; collecting evidence of achievement; and using any feedback received to improve their performance and review their development plans. The manager helps assemble to the employee’s personal development plan, coach and guide the employee; review and monitor the employee’s performance regularly; and provide feedback.
The advantages of this development program is how closely the manager and the employee work together and how detailed the plan is. Tesco is helping their employees to acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform future job responsibilities and for long-term achievement of not only the employee’s individual career goals but also the organizational goals of Tesco. The likelihood of the application of this development plan is great. The disadvantages to this development plan is following through on the plan. The work environment is full of distractions that can interfere with the plan and general busyness can curtail the best made intentions.
4.Evaluate the benefits for Tesco in providing a structure training programme. To what extent do you think the training has achieved a Return on investment?
Due to Tesco’s comprehensive and structure training programme, they have achieved a great return on their investment. The organization has grown by leaps and bounds as it is the largest British retailer and the world’s third largest grocery retailer with outlets across Europe, USA and Asia. As Tesco requires employees who are committed and flexible in order to aid its continued expansion and relies on existing customers to return and acquiring new customers, its structure approach to training and developing its new and existing employees has provided a great return on its investment for now and for future growth.
