Harrods HR Management: Recruiting and Retaining Employees Essay

Training and Development

Training entails gaining the skills and competencies needed to do a job, while development is much more personalized as it focuses on the individual employee with the view to making him or her more efficient at a job or capable of dealing with diverse responsibilities and challenges (“Harrods” 1).

Importance of Developing Employees

The development of employees is important as it not only improves their performance by making them more efficient, but also enables the company to meet its business objectives and targets (“Harrods” 1). Additionally, developing employees ensures that they internalize the broader skills that are applicable to a wider variety of situations and enables them to make informed decisions, think creatively, improve their skills, and make a positive impact on others (Goodman 62; Pino and Cox 146).

Recruiting and Retaining Employees at Harrods

Available literature demonstrates that the effective recruitment and retention of employees are core business strategies since they drive competitiveness by having the right people with the right skill mix, keep recruitment costs down through low employee turnover, and ensure a skilled and experienced workforce (Mohamed et al. 2055).The methods used by Harrods to recruit and retain the best talent include (1) identifying key competencies required in retail and incorporating them in the recruitment process, (2) exposing employees to different workshops aimed at improving their competencies and skills, (3) supporting the business competencies learned through self-help guides, (4) exposing employees to cultural awareness training programs to arm them with the skills needed to respond to shifting customer needs, and (5) providing a wide variety of development opportunities for all employees including managers (“Harrods” 1-2).Other methods used by Harrods to retain the best talent include undertaking appraisals aimed at ensuring that employees identify their personal development targets, providing a multiplicity of sales and service programs (e.g., Your Theatre Program, Harrods Fashion Program, and Communication Program) to provide essential training for new employees, and ensuring that employees are exposed to opportunities for career progression and personal growth (“Harrods” 1-2).Employee retention at Harrods is also achieved through putting in place a responsive management structure, improving employee pay packages and other benefits, and ensuring favorable work environments with improved work schedules to give employees a superior work-life balance (“Harrods” 3).

Training, Development, and Career Progression

The training and development initiatives at Harrods lead to career progression as employees feel more comfortable in their work roles due to the internalization of the right mix of skills and abilities. Available literature demonstrates that only a few employees may be willing to leave their jobs if they are facilitated by management to do them more productively and comfortably through continuous training and development (Hunt 39).Additionally, the training and development initiatives undertaken by Harrods provide employees with the opportunities to move up the career ladder and assume senior management positions. It is documented that employees are likely to stay on their jobs and progress their careers further if they are given the opportunity to climb the career ladder (Dewhurst et al. 93).The training and development initiatives undertaken by Harrods have serve an important role in opening employees’ career paths as they make the workers to believe in their skills and competencies. This leads to career progression as employees are well aware of the fact that more training and development will translate to well-paid, respectable positions at the company.What’s more, the company is able to support its retention strategies by providing opportunities for its employees to gain new skills, expertise and qualifications through training and development. Such a retention strategy is able to support employees’ career progression and increase their motivation to work more for the company.The Harrod’s management program and other related high-potential programs offered by the company aim to train and develop ambitious and career-focused employees into management role, hence ensuring the availability of a strong pipeline of potential senior managers. Lastly, the training and development programs at Harrods enhance employee loyalty and increase their transferrable skills, leading to entrenched employee commitment and involvement.

Works Cited

Dewhurst, Martin, Mathew Pettigrew, Ramesh Srinivasan and Vimal Choudhary. “How Multinationals can attract the Talent they need.” McKinsey Quarterly. 56.3 (2012): 92-99. Business Source Premier. Web.

Goodman, Neal. “The Role of the Future in Training and Development Today.” Training. 52.3 (2015): 62-63. Business Source Premier. Web.

Harrods: Developing a Career Path in Retail, n.d., Web.