IT Initiatives And Staffing For Tesco: International Journal Of Retail Distribution Management

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IT Initiatives for Tesco

The IT initiative which Tesco needs to adapt is to introduce phablet in the electronics market which will act as an upgrade to the tablet. The Hudl tablet series was very popular for Tesco and it attracted lot of popularity from customers but as the company has decided to stop the production of the tablet due to various issues, it is recommended to introduce an advanced version of the tablet, in the form of phablet which will be more sleek in design and more compatible in nature. According to Anitsal, Moon and Anitsal (2015) the phablet can also act as a new smartphone series as it resembles all the qualities of a smartphone but is greater in size than usual smartphones and hence it is termed as phablet. As stated by Taylor (2016) the phablet will have pre-installed application which will assist in online shopping and will also enable to know exact demands of customer through various AI tools so that staffs can serve them better.

The other IT initiative which could be implemented in Tesco is by installing interactive mirrors in multiple locations in stores which would help in suggesting various products to customers based on their physical features such as physical characteristics, skin tone, facial get up etc. According to Aloysius et al. (2016) the interactive mirrors will help in presenting virtual reality to customers regarding products which suit their physical features and accordingly encouraging them to buy.

The strategic goals and objectives of Tesco are based on the mission and vision statement which lays down foundation of future goals. The vision of Tesco is to be the most highly valued business by customer, whom they serve, by communities in which they operate, by their loyal and committed colleagues and also by their shareholders. The mission is to make what matters better and together. The main aim is to become leading retail supermarket by providing good quality products and services to customers at a much lower cost than their competitors. There are various objectives:

• To maximize sale and increase profit - Tesco will focus on maximizing their sales by reducing prices of their products, by offering more in-store deals to customers, expanding existing stores to offer more stocks and to attract more customers. If the company managed to maximize their sale, then it will automatically result in increasing profits.
• To decrease prices of products and services - Tesco aims to make shopping cheaper for average household by reducing prices of product and by offering various in-store deals that may be adopted through different approaches and policies to achieve objective.
• To introduce more healthy eating options in wide range of groceries - Tesco plans to introduce more healthy eating options for their customers which will help in addressing their concerns regarding health related issues. It will even help in attracting new customers. Tesco plans to introduce more of organic and natural product to its existing product lines.
• To develop popular online shopping site- Tesco offers large number of products such as clothing, grocery, electronic goods and stationery goods through Internet as a response to latest trend of online shopping. As opined by Thierer (2015) with each passing day as the trend of online shopping is gaining more popularity, so Tesco plans to offer high quality online customer shopping experience by developing and implementing various IT tools and by utilizing Internet for in-store activities which will help in increasing customer loyalty and experience.
• Providing assistance to local communities - Tesco values community in which they operate and consider them as an integral driver of growth and hence they focus on providing assistance to local communities by providing jobs.

The main aim of strategic goals of Tesco is to create long term values for their stakeholders. The company has identified various strategic drivers which will help in driving growth and attainment of strategic goals namely a differentiated brand, reducing operational costs by £1.62 billion, generating £9 billion cash from operations, maximizing mix to achieve 3.6-4% of margin and maximizing value from property and innovation.

Strategic Goals and Objectives of Tesco

The aim and objective of new IT initiatives of Tesco in overall strategic plan and objective are:

Increase customer loyalty and satisfaction in both online and offline shopping experience.

• To increase level of customer satisfaction by providing tailored shopping experiences
• Increase popularity and demand of slow moving products
• Increasing customer engagement through virtual reality
• Understanding exact demands and requirements of customers.

As opined by Lakshman, Lakshman and Estay (2017) the aim and objectives of new IT initiatives of Tesco are at par with overall strategic plan as sole aim of initiative is to increase customer loyalty and experiences which would help in maximization of sale and profits.

The process which will be used to create review of current IT staffing skills is conducting skill gap analysis which is termed as difference between skills that company requires from their employees and skills which are actually offered. The skill gap analysis will help Tesco to identify IT skills which would be required to meet its strategic goal and will help in determining hiring and employee development program and approach that could be taken.

As stated by Ashuri and Bahrami (2017) there are various steps which are involved in creating review of current IT skills of Tesco. The first step which can be followed by Tesco is planning in which they need to decide how to conduct analysis and individuals to be involved in process. The second step involves identifying IT skills which are required by Tesco in order to successfully implement new IT initiative and also identify other IT skills which are required to meet their long term objectives. The third step to follow in this process is measuring current IT skills of employees through various processes such as surveys and assessments, by conducting interview, by taking feedback from performance reviews or through skill management software. The fourth and final step which Tesco can follow in this analysis is acting on data received which would involve analysing differences between IT skill required in order to successfully implement its new IT project initiative or achieving strategic goals and current skills of the employees.

After analysing gaps in skills of employees, Tesco can adopt different approaches in order to fill the gap such as giving training to existing employees to help them acquire new skills or hiring new candidates who possesses skills of fulfilling new IT requirement. The ways through which Tesco can train existing employees consists of arranging for training from various professional training firms, subscription to online courses and materials, providing opportunities to attend workshops and seminars and providing opportunities to obtain various certifications. According to Greer, Carr and Hipp (2016) the various ways that Tesco can follow to hire new candidates involves modifying hiring process, selection and requirement policy which is at par with current IT requirement by using structured interviews to reduce risks of any types of biases in selection and recruitment process and by sourcing passive candidates by using various effective platforms.

1. The staffing policy plan for IT Department of Tesco which would meet IT initiative needs is as follows:

Objectives of the New IT Initiatives of Tesco

The staffing of IT department of Tesco so as to meet requirement of Initiative will be done through external recruitment and new candidates will not be recruited from internal sources. According to Guo, Rammal and Dowling (2016) the new candidates who will be recruited from various external sources should possess certifications regarding various IT skills and should have prior work experience. The selection and recruitments of candidates will take place through tough screening process which would consist of various stages such as logical reasoning, group discussions, analytical test and problem solving capabilities followed by personal interview. The staffing policy plan will also focus on recruiting young and energetic professionals who have ability to adapt to various situations and are quick learners by nature. The candidates who will be selected and recruited will follow a dynamic scheduling process which describes that there is no fixed working hour or shift for candidates and they should be available for work according to requirement. The staffing policy will also focus on recruiting candidates who have undertaken various professional IT courses which are deemed useful for new IT initiative.

1. There are various kinds of staffing approaches which Tesco can follow regarding recruitment and staffing:

Ethnocentric staffing approach- Ethnocentric staffing involves filling all managerial positions in international location with employees belonging to the country in which it is based. In case of Tesco it can be said that if they decide to follow ethnocentric approach then they would send employees from home location, i.e. UK to various international location in which they have operations to fill up all managerial positions in the new country. As stated by Greer, CarrandHipp (2016) ethnocentric approach towards staffing will help to unify corporate culture in all location.

Polycentric Staffing approach- In polycentric staffing approach it is observed that employees of home location do not hold all managerial positions but employees of host countries are also allowed to take up positions but headquarter is managed by employees of home location. As opined by Hurrell and Scholarios (2014) in case of Tesco it can be said that when it plans to set up a store in an international location, then they will be able to recruit candidates from that particular location to manage operations whereas headquarters will be managed by employees of home country. One of the main advantages which are associated with polycentric staffing is that it is not expensive in nature.

Geocentric staffing- As opined by Rozkwitalska, Chmielecki, Przytula, Sulkowski and Basinska (2017) in geocentric approach it is observed that company focuses on filling up all vacant positions with best qualified and available people and is not based on current position or where employees reside. In case of Tesco it can be said that if they plan to use geocentric staffing approach then it should focus on recruiting right people at right job regardless of their current position or country in which they reside. The main advantage of geocentric staffing is that a company can build an army of international managers who can operate in any location and in any cultural setting.

IT Initiative Staffing

Regiocentric staffing- As opined by Rozkwitalska, Chmielecki, Przytula, Sulkowski and Basinska (2017) regiocentric approach is quite similar to polycentric approach but main difference is that companies focuses on recruiting candidates in various international locations based on regional approach rather than being based on country approach. In case of Tesco it can be said that if they decide to follow regiocentric approach, then they would focus on recruiting candidates from the region, where the company has already been rather than selecting candidates from country in which it has opened.

In order to staff shortage of employees in the project, TESCO should develop an online advertising campaign regarding vacancy for filling the shortage. They can upload advertisement on various online job portals and can also advertise through e-newspaper, describing required qualification and experience of job. TESCO can also upload online job advertisement in professional social media platforms such as Linkedin so as to ensure that it reaches to large number of potential candidates. Further, TESCO can also upload recruitment advert in various leading newspaper so that it reaches potential candidates or can enter into partnership with recruitment agencies who would ensure that top quality candidates are screened and sent for recruitment purpose.

The most preferred choice of staffing which could be followed in Tesco is geocentric staffing approach in which right candidate is selected for right job not-withstanding to position and location of candidates. The reason for following geo-centric approach to staffing is that it helps to maintain pool of talented managers and employees who have capability to work and adapt to any kind of situation and possess capability of adapting to cultural differences in an effective manner. As stated by Hatton et al. (2017) another main reason for preferring geocentric approach to staffing is that it is less expensive in nature than other approaches to staffing. Another main reason for preferring geocentric approach is that geocentric managers are better informed about host country culture than parent country national. In order to staff shortage of employees, Tesco should develop an online advertisement regarding vacancy and other details related to it such as qualification required, estimated salary, required work experience etc. and upload it on leading global job searching portal so that candidates across the globe are informed about it which will help in increasing talent pool. They should also upload online advertisement regarding vacancies on official website so that it can be accessed by large number of potential candidates across the globe. TESCO should also upload online job advertisement on professional social media platforms such as Linkedin to ensure that advertisement reaches to large number of potential candidates.

Staffing Approaches

There is high ethical impact of geocentric approach adopted by Tesco as by adopting it will be able to exemplify an ethical picture by not discriminating between candidates of any country and recruiting right candidate for right job, which will help in promoting transparency and openness of corporate culture. Another ethical impact is that it will help in promoting diversity which will help in attracting and recruiting top talent to work which will help to maintain a pool of eligible candidates who will be successful in accomplishing goals and will match to required skill level. In order to ensure high ethical impact of geocentric approach the process of selection and recruitment will be conducted in fair and considerate manner where no discriminations will take place and candidates belonging to various diverse background and differences will be welcomed. As opined by Stoilkovska, Ilieva and Gjakovski (2015) Tescoshould follow a no-discrimination policy regarding selection and recruitment in context to regulations like Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 so that new candidates are hired without any form of discrimination which will help in increasing cultural diversity of the workforce. The top management of TESCO should ensure that entire recruitment process is fair and considerate in nature and it does not involve any sort of un-ethical or un-fair approaches which are against the code of conduct. TESCO should ensure that recruiters are well aware and trained regarding various anti-discrimination laws, regulations, code of conduct and ethical principles of the company.

The IT installation and implementation plan begins with analysis of current IT infrastructure and identifying opportunities for development. After identifying various opportunities for development IT department in consultation with top management should plan for development of IT infrastructure and should make a detailed analysis of newly proposed idea along with its pros and cons. The next step which should be followed in the process is consulting various IT experts and specialists in designing of project according to requirement and providing direction regarding installation and implementation and even analysing benefits and risks associated with initiative.The next step in this process involves analysing raw materials and resources which are required for initiatives and accordingly listing down additional requirements. The next step involves creating budget based on cost of initiative so that Tesco can proceed accordingly. The further step involves sourcing raw materials from suppliers after analysing which supplier provides best quality raw material at lowest possible price by meeting requirement needs. The next step involves hiring of IT specialists so as to implement IT initiative and create manual design to oversee manufacturing of phablet and test quality of products and implementation processes.The next step involves starting manufacturing of phablets on trial basis. For trial basis a total of 2000 units should be manufactured. The next step involves providing adequate training and development to existing employees and recruiting new candidates based on requirement so that employees remain well adapted to cope up with new requirements of IT initiative and does not hesitate to embrace change. The next step involves installing interactive mirrors in various selected stores in limited numbers after renovation. The other step involves test marketing initiatives for period of 3 months and analysing whether positive results are being achieved in test marketing phase of new initiative or positive results are achieved after continuing with production process. The further step in this process involves seeking feedbacks from various stakeholders regarding their views and perception on new IT initiative and analysing feedback received to check for areas of improvements and identify various issues which can be experienced so that prompt action can be taken in time which will contribute to effectiveness of IT initiative. The final step involves conducting frequent maintenance activities of IT initiatives and framework in order to ensure that they function effectively to meet objectives for which they were developed and also check if there are any issue that needs to be taken care of so that project delivers its intended outcome.

The scheduled plan of IT initiative implementation of Tesco in the form of Gantt chart is as follows:

1. The budget plan of the IT initiative is as follows:

Actions		Costs
Acquisition of raw materials		£ 3.5 million
Hiring of It experts		£ 500,000
Renovation of stores		£ 200,000
Development of the IT infrastructure of the company		£ 50,000
Training and development of existing employees		£ 50,000
Selection of new candidates		£ 75,000
Cost of production of phablets		£ 1.5 million
Cost of development of the IT initiative software		£ 350,000
Cost of test marketing the initiatives		£ 1.5 million
Total Costs		£ 7.725 million
Actions	Costs
Acquisition of raw materials	£ 3.5 million
Hiring of It experts	£ 500,000
Renovation of stores	£ 200,000
Training and development of existing employees	£ 50,000
Selection of new candidates	£ 75,000
Cost of production of phablets	£ 1.5 million
Cost of test marketing the initiatives	£ 1.5 million
Total Costs	£ 7.325 million

 

There are various positive impacts of new technology on Tesco which has helped to achieve goals and objectives. One of the main is that implementation of new technology will help in attracting more customers towards stores of Tesco as technology adopted would be quite unique in nature and it will generate lot of attraction in customers as it would deliver better experience of virtual reality and in turn will result in increased sales and profits. As stated by Ratten (2015) another impact on Tesco is that new technology will help in driving customer expectations by increasing level of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty which will again in turn contribute to profitability. Other impact is that implementation of new technology will help in better understanding of customer demands and requirements which will help in providing better services to customers from the staffs that will help in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty which in turn will increase competitiveness. The implementation of new IT initiative will help in fulfilling strategic objective of Tesco of increasing amount of user in digital platform as new IT initiative will help in attracting new users owing to variety of benefits it would offer. The implementation of IT initiative will also help in achieving strategic objective of increasing sustainability.

1. The risk assessment of the IT initiative of Tesco is as follows:

Risk	Probability	Risk Level	Effect	Action Type	Individual responsible for managing the risk
Increased financial risks owing to significant amount of investment for the initiatives	Unlikely	Medium	Financial losses for Tesco	According to Eastin et al. (2016) Tesco can implement IT initiative on trial basis over customers so as to test its effectiveness and if the initiative receives success and popularity then they should make further investments regarding the initiatives. While in case of failed responses it should discontinue the project as it will involve less risks and involvements	Marketing Manager in consultation with Operations Manager
Theft of customer data and insights by incidents such as cyber-breach	Unlikely	High	Exposure of confidential data of Tesco to un-authorized identity	According to Inman and Nikolova (2017) Tesco can implement effective cyber-security measures in online and mobile application	Chief Information Security Officer
Resistance among the customers to embrace the technology	Likely	High	Failure in providing better customer satisfaction to the customers.	Providing safety in case of online transactions to customers through multiple step verification and authentication process.	Human Resource Manager

There is very limited negative environmental impact of new IT initiative of Tesco as it involves use of machines and sources of energy. In order to ensure that limited negative impacts of project do not harm environment in a major way, sustainable manufacturing and production process will be applied and recycling will be encouraged. In order to implement new IT initiative, the machines and equipment which will be used will be green in nature which would use minimum possible energy and would generates the lowest possible waste. Tesco will also focus on using various renewable sources of energy during production and manufacturing process in order to promote sustainability of environment.According to Evanschitzky et al. (2015) the new IT initiative is focused on utilizing least possible natural resources to promote sustainability. The IT impact of the company will also help in conserving and preserving environment as it will help in reducing wastage of various items such as plastics and papers which are used in packaging and delivering and as the new IT initiative would mainly focus on online shopping therefore wastage of papers and plastics would be avoided. The popularity of online shopping platform will also help in reducing visits to brick and mortar stores which will result in savings of fuel and will help in protecting environment.

According to Fan et al. (2014) the recommendation to Tesco is to focus both on online stores and brick and mortar stores as they require less marketing and helps in saving company costs whereas online shopping platforms require high marketing budget to function and therefore Tesco must also focus on the development of physical stores.

Based on analysis of new IT initiatives which can be adopted by Tesco it can be stated that initiative which is recommended in the report is capable of meeting overall strategic goals and objectives. From the analysis of proposed IT initiative it can be stated that it will act as a major boost for the company and will assist them in slowly getting back to their original track after losses that were suffered previously in their business operations globally. The new IT initiative is at par with strategic goals and objectives and will help in accelerating growth by assisting strategic drivers. The New IT initiative will even help in increasing sales of the company which would meet with their strategic objective. It will also help in increasing customer satisfaction and interaction which will help in meeting strategic objective and will help in increasing popularity of online platform. The new IT initiative possesses limited risks which can be mitigated easily and therefore proposed initiative can be termed as feasible in nature. The only recommendation is to focus on physical stores in addition to focusing on developing online store.

After completing current task regarding suggesting new IT initiatives it is observed that current IT infrastructure of Tesco though adequate at current time would be  needed to be upgraded to its IT infrastructure considering demands and expectations of customers. While completing task I got a detailed idea regarding how to proceed towards proposing and implementing task which would benefit me in future regarding improvement of tasks. I also realized that involvement of stakeholders is very necessary in implementing a new project otherwise the project is destined to fail. I gained sufficient knowledge regarding various factors which needs to be taken into account while determining effectiveness of project and their approach which is needed to be applied while proposing new project to the company after consideration of various factors that are associated with it. While carrying out the project the only challenged which I faced was collecting necessary information regarding Tesco as it was scattered in nature and different sources had to be consulted in order to obtain specific and valid information. If I had to do the project again in future the only different thing which I will do is analyse future prospect of the initiative which I would propose so that it increases the chances of acceptance.

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