I will be focusing on three main Supermarkets, these being; Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. While looking at these main players and their place in the market, I will also be looking at their graduate schemes, and what they have to offer potentia
Report on Retail Industry Focusing on Supermarkets
Introduction
In England, 'The retail sector employs one in five of us'. Retail is an important part of the economy, with many people joining and leaving retail companies every day. Retail is about selling products to the public from a cup of coffee, to a house. There are many different sectors in retail, but for this report I will be focusing on Supermarkets and their place in retail.
I will be focusing on three main Supermarkets, these being; Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.
While looking at these main players and their place in the market, I will also be looking at their graduate schemes, and what they have to offer potential graduate employees. To gain more knowledge of what sort of qualities these companies look for when they are selecting graduates to work for them, I will be obtaining application forms to see whether I can assess what kind of qualities they necessitate from the questions they ask.
Methodology
I will be doing this by looking on company websites, looking at research done on these companies and also by looking at application forms for graduates to see what employers look for when they have graduated from University and are seeking employment.
I will also be looking at different sources from books articles and journals. By looking at application forms it will give some indication of what kind of qualities employers look for.
To give me some background on the size of the market, I will be looking in the Media to see who are the biggest players in the market and who are the up and coming companies.
From doing all of this I will then have a wide knowledge of what employers want when they are employing graduates, and what qualities a graduate really needs to have to be able to apply for a job well.
Findings
The retail industry is one of the largest industries in Britain. Supermarkets take over a large proportion of this, with new establishments opening up regularly.
The industry accounts for almost 20% of all employment in the UK. Every year, more than a million retail establishment's account for nearly £3 million each year in the economy. Project growth of retail employment is 300% greater than manufacturing. In 2005 more than 15% of all jobs that were created were in retailing. Statistics show that one in five people work within the retail industry.
Many people are employed within supermarkets, and staff turnover is high with many people leaving and joining every day. Supermarkets are always in the media, just recently Tesco's had the limelight as a new store opened and the residents of the town it was opening up in, did not want the supermarket to be built.
Tesco's is the third largest player in the market, with over 1500 stores open in nearly every town and now, even some stores are opening up in America.
Tesco employs over 326,000 staff all over the world, with stores in many different countries.
Looking at the main players in the market in order, the research shows that Tesco owns the biggest share of the market, with Asda coming second, Sainsbury's coming third, Marks & Spencer coming fourth and Waitrose coming fifth.
Company
Relative size
Ranking
M&S
£7.3 billion
4
Waitrose
£5 billion
5
Tesco
£35 billion
Sainsbury's
£18 billion
3
Asda
£19 billion
2
Total
£84.3 billion
There are many other establishments up and coming within the industry. Stores such as Liddles, which is a cheaper German store is now coming up within the market, as it is cheaper to buy bulk there and many people are buying there as it can be cheaper than other leading supermarkets.
There are other smaller supermarkets up and coming, which consist of more convenience stores such as Costcutter and Londis. Because these are smaller they charge more for products, but are becoming very popular with littler towns.
Tesco's prices are low and very competitive with other cheaper stores, such as Liddles, which is a German owned hard discounter. It has a wide range of food and always has the shelves stocked, and food ready to buy.
Although Tesco is a superstore it still has everything that M&S offers. Tesco offer food, clothing, home ware and insurance. Due to this it carries over 20% of the market share. Tesco last year had a massive turnover of about £35 billion. It has been in papers recently that Tesco are now the cheapest superstore, overtaking Asda. There are 1,879 stores open in the UK. Tesco have many other outlets such as Tesco Extra, Express and Metro. These all ensure that customers have a good shopping experience. Recently the self -serve tills have come in. These are very ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Although Tesco is a superstore it still has everything that M&S offers. Tesco offer food, clothing, home ware and insurance. Due to this it carries over 20% of the market share. Tesco last year had a massive turnover of about £35 billion. It has been in papers recently that Tesco are now the cheapest superstore, overtaking Asda. There are 1,879 stores open in the UK. Tesco have many other outlets such as Tesco Extra, Express and Metro. These all ensure that customers have a good shopping experience. Recently the self -serve tills have come in. These are very easy and quick to use, which frees up a lot of the queues, which would happen at peak time. Over 40% of Tesco's customers buy the food, which is priced cheaply.
Sainsbury's again is a superstore, which accounts for about 17% of the market share. It has about 580 stores throughout the UK, and last year had a turnover of about £18 billion. (HRM International Digest)
Marks & Spencer have a food section in their shop, which sells a range of high quality foods. Marks & Spencer aren't in the biggest players in the whole of the market, but they pretty much own the sector when it comes to high quality foods. Michael Marks and Tom Spencer founded Marks & Spencer in 1884. The first trademark was registered in 1908. Since then the company had expanded largely. Marks & Spencer now has over 400 stores located throughout the UK; this includes their largest store at Marble Arch, London. In addition, the company had 150 stores worldwide including over 130 franchise businesses operating in 30 countries.
Last year Marks & Spencer had a turnover of about £7.3 billion, which wasn't as good as normal. This has been reflected in press recently. Marks & Spencer claim the turnover was due to not offering the right products. The market share of Marks & Spencer is now placed at about 10.2%.
The food section, which is 43.4% of the business held a 3.2% share when the market grew by 4.9%, which helped the total sales increase by 5.7%.
The last company I will look at is Waitrose, which has over 165 branches throughout England and Wales and has a turnover of over £5 billion. Waitrose has everything that M&S has to offer. Although they do not offer clothing within their Waitrose stores, clothing is still sold under the John Lewis partnership. Last year Waitrose outdid M&S in terms of profits - M&S had a drop in profits of almost one fifth to £618.5m.
M&S stock high quality food products, which accounts for just over 60% of the Waitrose business. In relation to the John Lewis partnership the Waitrose section only accounts for 24% of the business. (HRM International Digest)
Asda is the other large Supermarket in the market. As Tesco just over took Asda in the sales market, it now makes it the second largest food retailer in the UK. Like M&S it also offers food, clothing, insurance and home ware. Again Asda is a large superstore, which accounts for about 11% of the market share. The turnover for Asda last year was about £19 billion. Since they became part of the WAL-MART family they have increased their stores around the UK to over 265 stores. (HRM International Digest.)
In conclusion I have found that there are four main players in the market at this present moment in time, which Tesco is number three and number four is Wal-Mart. There is always competition to who can become the biggest player of the market, and Tesco has just overtaken Asda as the cheapest Supermarket. A large percentage of the market is taken over by supermarkets, which generates a huge amount of profit.
This sector of retail is very important for the countries economy.
Qualities
Tesco has many graduate opportunities, with it taking on over 130 graduates each month.
It has 15 graduate programmes, mainly focusing on four programmes. These include 'Store Programmes', which offer opportunities both in-store and in the support office. This makes the graduate directly involved in the core business. Secondly the 'Office Programme', which offers a wider choice of opportunities. Thirdly, the 'Distribution Programme' which is where the graduate can be at the forefront of logistics management, and here the employee has to make sure that they get what the customers want to where they want it at the right time. Lastly, the 'Pharmacy Programme' is a structured pre-registration programme for pharmacy graduates. It's, regulated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
Tesco has set qualities that they look for when a graduate applies for a graduate job. Tesco's says they want people "who can work in a team and are determined to find the best solutions. People who enjoy working under pressure, and who enjoy letting their hair down when the pressure's off."
Tesco have a competency framework which describes nine behaviours which Tesco believe are the key to success. Tesco also says that the application form, interview and assessment centre will incorporate some of these key behaviours. These are
* Customer Focus - which maximises personal contribution to the business to deliver 'Every little helps'
* Analysis and Decision Making - analyses problems thoroughly and makes good and timely decisions.
* Managing Charge - Champions, supports and delivers changes to improve things. Helps others by overcoming barriers.
* Developing Self/Others - Creates or contributes to an environment in which self and others are motivated to learn and develop.
* Team working - Builds and maintains positive relationships within and across teams.
* Managing performance - Supports and challenges individuals to achieve their full potential. Sets stretching objectives and measures progress against them. Manages resources effectively.
* Gaining Commitment - Energises and influences others to get the job done and uses relationships to deliver great results.
* Drive - strives to achieve results through determination and commitment. Keeps going when things are difficult.
* Personal Integrity - Matches words with actions to build trust and respect.
These are the things that Tesco clearly look for when a graduate is applying for a job. The fact that they hold assessment centres shows that they are clearly looking for someone who shows that they have all the qualities.
Tesco's show quite clearly what kind of qualities they are looking for in graduates when applying for a job.
Looking at the job description of a graduate joining the programme, they will be looking at 12-week placements in a number of business areas, where the graduate will get a high degree of responsibility and autonomy. They will also be working in different parts of the business, which includes marketing, IT, Finance, Commercial and media. Again in the job description it makes reference to the type of qualities that the employer wants from the graduate. The job description deduces that the graduate needs to be flexible, and adaptable. It also states that they will need to be able to live with the fast pace.
The application forms support the qualities that the employer wants. Although it is not a full application form, the first step supports the fact that they want their employees to be customer focused, and to be able to work as part of a team as they ask is the applicant prepared to work overtime to support the customers and the rest of the team.
To see the basic application form, please see appendix 1.
For Marks & Spencer they have two main areas, which they employ graduates for. These are Selling and HR. Selling is where most of their graduates join and Marks & Spencer offers the chance to be fast-tracked into senior level retail management. If everything goes as planned, within a year the graduate could be running their own small store or managing a department of a larger one. Alternatively, as a HR graduate, they will learn about everything from managing recruitment at peak times (such as Christmas) to carrying out disciplinary procedures.
Within the head office, they have opportunities in IT and Food Technology. If a graduate was to choose to enter this sector then they will get the chance to influence strategies and drive growth across the rest of the business.
Marks & Spencer have a list of questions that they put up on their website, where potential employees can answer them to see whether they are appropriate for the company or not. (To see these questions please see appendix 2)
Marks & Spencer have these list of questions as a kind of starter application form so that the applicant can see from their answers whether they would be appropriate for the job or not, which would also deter people who are not appropriate from applying.
This company does not actually state the kind of qualities that they are looking for, but looking at the eight questions that they have put on the website, we can see that the company are looking for people who are very assertive and are capable of solving problems by themselves.
This is very much the same as the type of qualities that Tesco look for as well. It seems so far that both companies want the same qualities as each other. Both companies as well hold assessment days so that the employers can really see whether the person has the qualities.
Waitrose also has a graduate programme, but comes under the name of John Lewis, which is Waitrose's father name.
The graduate programme looks to recruit up to 40 graduates in the months of April and September. They say that they can offer a wealth of career opportunities and total commitment to investing in the graduate's personal development. Waitrose state that they are looking for well-rounded individuals with strong analytical and communication skills, along with the drive to become truly exceptional leaders. In addition they also are looking for decisiveness, a natural ability to lead a team and bring out the best in others, plus a passion for good food and the desire to achieve results in a food retail environment.
The programme places the graduate in several food shops to give them broad experience.
The recruitment process for the programme will start with pre-screen questions, on-line personality questionnaire, on-line application form, a selection centre, an interview and lastly an offer.
From what can be seen from this so far, the qualities wanted are very similar to the other two companies. Although the only difference is that Waitrose want the quality 'passion for good food', where the other two companies do not mention anything similar.
Although no actual application forms were available, as all the application dates had already passed but an application form from another retailer, Woolworth's, which I found asks roughly the same questions as the supermarkets. These questions include ones, which try to assess if the candidate can work as part of a team, and if they can assess a problem and see the best solution for it. (To see the application form, please see appendix 3)
Even though no application form was available however a basic application form was obtained, which can be seen in appendix 4. This application form supports the fact that organisations look for past experience and qualifications.
The companies seem to look for the same qualities as each other, with some common ones. These are
* Honesty
* Reliability
* A standard of qualifications
* The applicant to be assertive
* Being able to work as part of a team
* To be flexible
* To have good customer service
* Some past job experience or good references.
Assessing a candidate
For an employer to be able to know whether an applicant has the qualities, experience and qualification, which are necessary for the job, they will need a range of selection techniques.
Firstly an employer will need the applicant to fill in an application form so that they can see the basic details of them, such as their qualifications and past experience.
Secondly an assessment day can be held so that the employer can see how the applicant works within a team to solve problems.
For the employer to be able to assess whether the applicant fits in with the company culture then an open day can be held to see how the applicant gets on with the rest of the team.
An interview process would then come next being held in front of a panel as to minimise discrimination. Here the employer can ask questions to assess the type of qualities that the applicant has. These kinds of questions can also be seen in appendix 2 as the type of questions that an employer might ask to reveal the qualities. There is a problem with this however is that the applicant may realise what qualities the employer is looking for and change their answers to suit what they believe the employer wants to hear.
Personality Questionnaires are also a good way to determine whether the applicant is suitable for the company culture or not, by seeing whether their personality matches those of the rest of the workers or not. The only problem with these are that they can't always assess the applicants proper personality, and again the applicant may realise what the employer is looking for and lie on their answers.
Conclusion
In conclusion I can see that there are eight main qualities that an employer looks for when recruiting. These are;
* Honesty
* Reliability
* Loyalty
* A standard of qualifications
* The applicant to be assertive
* Being able to work as part of a team
* To be flexible
* To have good customer service
These are all things which the employer wants to see in the applicant, and it seems that it is pretty much equal throughout the retail industry. This can be seen from appendix 3, which shows that Woolworth's are practically looking for the same things in graduate applicants as the food retailers.
Much of the qualities looked for are all listed pretty much in the psychological contract. This is the 'perceived qualities' that an employer looks for in their employee such as loyalty and honesty.
References
. About Retail (2003) Research Statistics [online] http://retailindustry.about.com [October 15th 2006]
2. British Retail Consortium (2004) The Retail Industry [online] http://retailindustry.about.com. [October 15th 2006]
3. Comparing Supermarkets/Tesco/Asda [online] www.ciao.co.uk
4. 'Entrepreneur Likes What He Sees At Agent Provocateur', Richard Fletcher. The Daily Telegraph. [10/11/2996]
5. How Tesco has increased profit margins [online] www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets
6. HRM International Digest. Volume 12 Number 6, page 23. 'When Asda Employees Joined The Wal-Mart Family'. (2005) [Emerald Publishing Limited]
7. HRM International Digest. Volume 13 Number 4, page 5. 'Building Global Leadership at the Body Shop'. (2005) [Emerald Group Publishing Limited]
8. HRM International Digest. Volume 9 Number 4 page 14. 'Dell Takes A Walk In The Park'. (2001) [Emerald Group Publishing Limited]
9. Marks & Spencer jobs [online] www.marksandspencer.com
0. Mullins, Laurie J, 7th edition (2005) Management and Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall.
1. Proquest Research Collections & Research Library [online] www.proquest.co.uk
2. Retail Statistics [online] www.statistics.gov.uk
3. Retail Week Online (2002) Breaking News [online] http://retail-week.com [October 18th 2006]
4. Tesco and its graduate careers [online] www.tesco.com 'Tightening The Belt', Stephen Seawright. The Daily Telegraph. [10/11/2006]
5. Tesco and profit margins [online] www.telegraph.co.uk [Feburary 3rd 2007]
6. Waitrose and graduate careers [online] www.waitrose.co.uk
7. Waitrose and graduate programmes [online]www.waitrose.com
8. What you need to have on your CV [online] www.graduatecareers.co.uk
9. Worthington, I & Britton C (2003) The Business Environment. Page 98
20505866
