TESCO PLC

Changing Role of Technology in Training and Development

Changing Role of Technology in Training and Development

Introduction

The purpose of formulating the report is highlighting the changing role of technology in training and development. Thus, to provide readers a proper understanding of the changing role of technology, the company selected in this regard is Tesco PLC. Secondly, the report also consist of recommendations for potential strategies that can Tesco may adopt in order to take full advantage of modern technology to enhance their training and development process.

Company Overview

Tesco is known as one of the largest British retail outlet and also the world's third largest grocery retailer with huge number of outlets all across Europe, United States and Asia. Tesco came into business market in 1919 with one man named Jack Cohen, who started selling groceries on a small stall in the East End of London (Tesco PLC, 2004, pp. 5). At that time, Jack bought a surplus tea stock from a company named T.E. Stockwell, and from their both Stockwell and Cohen combined their name to brand the tea by the name of Tesco and in 1929, first Tesco store was opened in north London.

As the company grows with the passage of time, so its workforce also increased. Tesco has approximately 280,000 employees in UK and almost double of this number, 460,000 employees worldwide (Jones, et. al., 2012, pp. 243-57). Therefore, to serve its widening market, the management needs to be flexible and must have well trained staff that can recognize the ever changing demands of customers.

Employees Nature of Work

Looking briefly at employees working structure, Tesco employees normally work in a wide range of roles that they performed in both store and non-store functions, for instance;

Department managers also performing the role of team leader of Customer Assistants team.

Office based staff normally performing numerous duties at Head Office, including Marketing, Purchasing, Finance, and Personnel.

Customer assistants who appointed at the shop floor either directly involved in assisting customers or involved in preparing orders for delivery to customers who place orders online.

Warehouse employees provide assistance in catalogue and store clothing, brown or food items in Tesco Distribution Centers or in different stores (Sherr & Thomson, 2013, pp. 595-610).

Therefore, one can easily understand that with increasing knowledge, job satisfaction of employees and improving skills are all integral part behind the organizational growth.

Role of Technology in Training and Development

Identifying Training Needs

As it is very much evident from the above mentioned evidence that Tesco is aiming to expand and diversify its business and to achieve this goal, the management need to focus on training and development of employees and with the evident of technology in this aspect, the situation changes drastically because the changing the role of technology affected the training and development.

The technology has its affect on the workforce planning, like;

The opening of new stores in different and new locations means that Tesco need to adapt different and changing demands of ...