Tesco
Tesco was established by Jack Cohen in 1919, as a market stall. The name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen bought the shipment from T.E.Stockwell, he combined the initials with his surname to form tes-co. The first store was opened in 1929 in, Burnt Oak, Middlesex. The business expanded at a very fast rate and by 1939 Tesco had over 100 stores. The diversification of Tesco was seen geographically and also in areas like clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol, software, financial services, DVD, rental, books etc. In 1990,Tesco moved from a down-market retailer to the retailer which appeals to the wide social group, this attempt was very successful, it witnessed the growth from 500 to 2500 stores in mid 1990’s (the telegraph,2008).
Tesco’s mission statement is quoted as “to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty”, which is their core purpose. Their success is said to come from people, both shoppers and employees. They like going the extra mile to help their customers. Tesco is totally committed to providing services in a quick and efficient manner and at the customers best interests in mind. TESCO team of competent professionals is totally committed to providing efficient services to its customers.(Tesco “our values and promises”).
The direction of a business should always be clear. The vision of Tesco guides the decisions and directions of the organization. The organization (Tesco) focuses on customers and colleagues, prospects across the globe and high quality assets- this uniqueness is the basis for the vision of the business. Tesco want its customers, loyal colleagues, shareholders to assess them as highly valued business .To attain such distinction, the vision of the business is divided into five elements and each element describes the kind of company Tesco wants to be in the future. The five elements are (Tesco, vision and strategy) :- a) Wanted and needed around the world: - this is very important not only for people who are working with Tesco, but also for customers, shareholders and communities welcoming this business (Tesco, vision and strategy). b) A growing business full of opportunities: - Tesco believes that the business should be full of opportunities and should have something to offer new to customers and colleagues every time whether its food, merchandise, books, entertainment etc (Tesco, vision and strategy). c) Modern, innovative and full of ideas :- Tesco has always tried to make life’s of customers better by innovating new technologies, such as, online shopping and extended shopping, finest, everyday value, range from express to extra etc is, was and will be the central vision of Tesco (Tesco, vision and strategy). d) Winners locally whilst applying our skills globally: - the foundation of retailing learnt at one place could be applied to the other place (Tesco, vision and strategy). e) Inspiring, earning trust and loyalty from customers, our colleagues and customers: - Tesco wants that the company should receive respect and trust from the customers in whatever it does , like, price promise, shopping trip, food quality. They want a business full of trust from customers, colleagues and communities.(Tesco, vision and strategy) .

Human Resource Management practices

Core employees perform the essential tasks within the organization, and organizational human resource systems are designed to support and manage the human capital. Academic research conducted at the organizational level supports that, human resource practices have an effect on organizational outcome, which is achieved by shaping behaviors and attitude of employees (Talwar,2006).
Bailey (1993) argued that generally human resource are underutilized because employees mostly perform below their potential or the actual capability they have, but an organization continues their effort to extract those capabilities or potential of employees by providing them any relevant costs. He also argued that this hide potential or capability of employees can also be extracted through training and development, through employee motivation, or by prevail such organizational culture which is based on trust, openness and autonomy and also by defining every employee’s roles ( Armstrong,2006).
Human resource management practices like acquisition, retention and development of human resources practices influences employee skills. Recruitment is a process to search the prospective candidates and stimulated them for apply the job particularly to those who posses relevant skills related to particular job. After recruitment proper induction is necessary for the enhancement of employee’s skills. Training and development is an effective way to increase the employee’s skills (Talwar,2006)
But beside these practices the effectiveness of even highly skilled employees will be inadequate due to absence of motivation. Employee’s motivation can be affected by various HRM strategies as it encourages them to work with loyalty and dedication. A firm motivation practices includes the use of performance appraisal practices, feedback system, rewards and recognition programs on the basis of performance, employee engagement programs, use of indirect compensation system, succession planning for internal promotions, better working conditions, and by providing them other forms of incentives like Employee Stock option plan scheme and profit- and gain- sharing plans which linked them to the shareholders of an organization (Talwar,2006)
Tesco ensures that each and every employee has the opportunity to understand his or her individual role in contributing to the Tesco core purpose and values. Everyone who works at Tesco is encouraged to broaden their experience and work in different areas of the company. As a company want its people to progress and it encourage them to do so (Tesco Careers).
As part of Every Little Helps its commitment to its staff is "We will give them the opportunity to get on so that they are able to get the training and support they need to do their job and to develop their careers at Tesco. There are a number of ways our people can achieve this, through participating on an Options Development Program, training for an Apprenticeship or studying for a qualification whilst at work." (Tesco Careers).
HR policies and practices at Tesco are responsible for the ever increasing profits and success of Tesco over the years. Tesco also has a clearly focus on training and development of its Human resources, also it stands for their resources by helping them in their carrier growth leads to maintaining good relationships with them, Tesco develops their resources with distinctive capabilities and competencies, building employee commitment, employment security, training programs improvements in individual skills and team behaviors leads to more effort leading to better performance (Tesco, annual review,2013).
Tesco also has competitive advantage as they follow a strategic recruitment and selection process where the top management put on the thinking hat and tries to recruit people with the right skills the perfect like Tesco’s graduate scheme initiative, they hire graduates from the local market and give them training to deal with their local customers which lead to securing talent for future growth of the business (Tesco, annual review,2013).

Human Resource Management Responsibilities
The social system is the ‘fabric of ideas, attitudes and behaviour patterns that are involved in human relationships. In particular, businesses are influenced by consumer attitudes and behaviours that depend on such factors as the age structure of the population, and the nature of work and leisure’ (The Times,2009)
Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a concept stating that organizations, such as corporations have a commitment in considering the interests of their consumers, employees, stakeholders, communities and the environment in all facets of their operations, which extend beyond their constitutional commitment to conform to legislation (Sims,R.,R.,2003).
Being in retailing for over a hundred years, one of Tesco’s competitive advantages over their counterparts in the business is the reputation that they have established with their customers, employees and suppliers. Their customers have long associated the company with total dependability and value for money; the internal architecture of the company was cantered round permanent employment relationships, strong organizational routines, excellent programs pertaining to social responsibility and a shared sense that there was a Tesco way of doing things, which the employees benefit from. Aside from these, Tesco also have strong environmental and community responsibilities as part of their corporate responsibility programs (Tesco “tesco and society report”).
Tesco operates globally, the need to focus on international and strategic planning of HRM and CSR is necessary. With the existing resources of Tesco today, its operations will continue to flourish as it proves the assumption that effective HR strategies as well as CSR practices serve as a competitive edge among other businesses both domestic and worldwide in operations. The competitive advantage of Tesco is credited to the suitable strategic plans of its administration including its HR. Indeed, effective HR strategy and excellent CSR will result to a competitive advantage ( Tesco,“tesco and society report”).
Tesco also cares for the environment. Its focus on environment has saved the business £150 million per year and this has taken the organization into new businesses such as “home efficiency service, offering insulation and solar products to the UK home owners “(Tesco, corporate responsibility report,p-12) .Known as the green pioneer, has helped the company to expand into foreign markets and share its experiences. The organization is also working with its suppliers so that resources can be managed in an efficient way, such as, water usage or tackling deforestation (Tesco, corporate responsibility report 2011).
Total number of employees working in Tesco are 293,676 (UK), 492,714 worldwide. The company ensures that the employees feel good at work and they are treated with respect, have a manager to guide them and are interested in their job. The company invests seriously in training and development so that the employees may be trained for a more senior role. Tesco has also started apprenticeship program (18months) and is linked with number of universities to provide training for employees (Tesco, corporate responsibility report 2011).
Tesco welcomes everyone, despite of, sex, ethnicity, disability, belief or sexual orientation. In 2011/2 the organization is planning to launch ABC (African, black British and Caribbean) in the UK. The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) network in the Tesco is the fastest growing network in the UK. The organization believes that people should feel themselves at work, in this way they can perform better and an open environment will be created (Tesco, corporate responsibility report,2011)
In addition to their Corporate Social Responsibility practices, Tesco participates to Government programs in promoting health issues. At present, health issues around the world are increasing and have become more pressing, and Tesco should continue to join the government, hospitals and institutions in promoting awareness to the people. In 2001, the Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Scotland were Tesco Charities of the year. Cystic Fibrosis was the Tesco Charity of the year for 2002 (BITC 2003).
Further HRM strategy
The biggest part of HR strategy in Tesco is training and developing. The second one is communication and consolation. The third one is reward and benefit. HR strategy is an important issue of HRM in a large organization. There are about 492,714 employees around the world. In addition, although there are different strategies, they work for the overall HR goal (Tesco, strategy in action).
In Tesco, the overall goal is to develop the culture of the organization. The HR managers need to use the different HR strategies to support the same goals Tesco’s success is highly attributed to the role of HR department and its components. This has assisted the organization to be in its effective position in the market (Tesco, strategy in action).
Tesco should focus on the strategic and international human resource management planning to remain its worldwide presence. It should manage the changing workforce diversification so as to expand the company’s presence in the market. Tesco’s long-term strategies for growth have been flourishing, but still there is a need for future planning to anticipate and be organized for the changing environment.
Conclusion
Due to arising of challenges in front of human resource management it becomes necessary for Tesco to make some improvements in the HR policies and practices. Before making recommendations, modern challenges to human resource management should be known. Some challenges to human resource management are as follows:
• Globalization
• Changed Employee Expectations
• Outsourcing HR Activities
• Making HR activities ethical
• Organizational Restructuring
• Managing Diversity
As customer is the king of market. Tesco should make the provisions for employee so that they come to know about who makes the final decision to buy the services provided by the function. Tesco should give the attention on customer relationship management. Tesco should implement improvements and evaluate the progress against pre-determined standards. This is done by assessing the HR function’s performance indicators, comparison of results with the industry, competitors, with pre set targets, best practice firms and the past performance results.

Tesco long term strategy will be staff training and to utilize that training towards the productivity of the organization. Majority of employees working in Tesco have long term experience, so it has to get benefit of them by training new employees, so that the success may be achieved. In this way dependency on foreign expert is reduced and self sufficiency is achieved. It doesn’t mean that foreign expert isn’t needed, in narrow scope in some training level outer experiences are needed. It is also very important to train staff faster and with high efficiency so that future circumstances may be tackled.

Bibliography

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