Assignment One -
LAA
BOOTS UK LIMITED
,NAME
BTEC Business Level 3
Unit 8 – Recruitment and Selection – Assignment 1
Contents:
Introduction
1. Synopsis of Business
2. Workforce Planning
3. Reasons to recruit staff
4. How can staff shortage affect a business?
A. P1 Explain how Boots recruits and selects giving reasons for their processes
Recruitment Process
1. Job advertisement, analysis and description
2. Person Specification
3. CV + Application form
4. Letter of application
5. Online recruitment
Selection Process
1. Assessment Centre
2. Psychometric test
3. Group/team activity interviews
4. Individual face to face interview
5. Telephone interview
6. Panel interviews
7. Presentations at interview
8. Tests at interview
9. Use of technology in the process
10. Communication with prospective employees
Conclusion
A. P2 Explain how and why Boots adheres to recruitment processes which are ethical and
comply with current employment law
1. Ethical Considerations
2. Equal Opportunities Legislation
3. Legal Considerations
A. M1 Analyse the different recruitment methods used in Boots
1. External agencies
2. Internal and external advertisements
3. Online recruitment and traditional methods
A. D1 Evaluate the recruitment processes used and how they contribute to the success of
Boots
,NAME
BTEC Business Level 3
Unit 8 – Recruitment and Selection – Assignment 1
Introduction:
1.Synopsis of Business
In this assignment, I will be looking at the Recruitment and Selection of Boots.
Boots UK Limited is one of the leading health and beauty retailers and pharmacy chains in the United
Kingdom, as well as other countries and territories such as Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands,
Thailand, and Indonesia, in terms of sales and number of stores. From its beginnings as an herbalist
shop in Nottingham in the mid-nineteenth century to its current status as a global brand, Boots has
come a long way. There were 3,063 Boots stores throughout their countries of operation as of
August 31, 2019, with the majority of them placed on high streets and in shopping malls. Boots sell a
variety of health and beauty items, as well as this, they have optician and hearing care services in
their stores and as separate practises. They additionally have a retail website and a loyalty card
programme known as the Boots Advantage Card, which is seen to be highly popular. Over 51,000
Boots UK team members are currently employed, with over 20,000 of them being healthcare
professionals, including 5,370 registered pharmacists and 1,000 Boots Beauty Specialists in their
stores.
Recruitment and selection are crucial processes in the human resources department, aiming to make
the most use of employee strength in order to accomplish the employers' and the organisation's
strategic goals and objectives. It is a procedure for identifying, locating, shortlisting, and choosing
qualified candidates for open positions. Recruiting new employees is an expensive process that, if
done incorrectly, can lead to many issues like lost productivity, lower staff morale and unnecessary
monetary costs. For instance, lost productivity occurs when a corporation hires the incorrect
individual for the position and that person is unable to perform the job as well as the person they
replaced. Even though the organisation may be investing the same amount of money in the
employee, the production is likely to be far lower. This can eventually have a significant impact on
outcomes and the team's overall performance. When faced with a struggling co-worker, other staff
members may begin to take on responsibilities that aren't necessarily part of their job description.
This affects their capacity to meet deadlines, reach goals, and uphold standards, as well as their
personal performance and productivity at work. However, having an effective recruitment process
and a good selection strategy reduces the chances of these concerns developing and is critical for
the success of any business for lowering employee turnover and ensuring that the best people for
the job have been chosen.
,NAME
BTEC Business Level 3
Unit 8 – Recruitment and Selection – Assignment 1
2.Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is a critical business process that helps organisations connect their people
strategy with their changing needs. To determine their needs, businesses must examine the number
and skills of employees they already have, as well as what they expect to happen in the future and
the number of employees they will require in the future. It can be the most effective activity a
company can undertake, and it can provide market and industry knowledge to assist companies in
focusing on a variety of concerns and issues, as well as planning activities to support longer-term
corporate objectives.
Workforce planning aids Boots' achievement of its goals and objectives by providing every
leadership and management team with a strategic foundation for making human resource choices. It
enables these teams to anticipate change rather than being surprised by it. Not only this but, when
used appropriately, workforce planning can assist Boots in identifying and foreseeing problems early
on, assisting in avoiding disruptions and unforeseen expenses. It can help their business identify key
positions as well as any talent gaps for those positions. For instance, if Boots were considering to
expand their business further, workforce planning can assist them in identifying the kinds of
personnel needed to make that expansion viable. To ensure that the expansion happens as planned,
the organisation can start hiring for these positions at the appropriate moment. It can also help a
company retain key personnel in addition to attracting new talent. Boots can identify jobs that may
be challenging to fill in case of an employee leaving and affecting the company's profitability by
conducting a comprehensive analysis of educational and market trends. Workforce planning can
help in pinpointing the underlying causes of high turnover rates in specific areas and devising
retention plans for employees. By scrutinising these factors and defining roles, Boots can prioritise
employee retention and minimise disruptions to the business strategy.
Looking at recruiting and recruitment activities, workforce planning benefits the Human Resources
department in these areas as well. Human Resources can improve the quality of hiring by using
workforce planning to streamline their recruitment process, reduce costs associated with it, and
generally optimise costs. For example, in 2021 Boots researched the health and beauty retail
industry and benchmarked the job roles and skills their rivals were looking for in order to discover
talent market trends and refocus their hiring efforts. Through the insights they gained about future
talent needs, they were able to enhance their own employment positions and skill sets with highly
desirable skills. By upgrading recruitment processes and techniques, Boots opened the door to
attracting top candidates and demonstrated their forward-thinking potential. Diversity is another
area where workforce planning is becoming more and more relevant. Diversity in the workplace can
take many different forms, including differences in age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and
abilities. Given that efforts to promote diversity and inclusion go beyond the workplace, there are
many application cases in this context. It is crucial to reduce prejudice throughout all HR processes,
from hiring to promoting, and this is where workforce planning comes in and assists HRs in making a
difference. Here, Boots is a notable example of how they promote diversity within the workplace. In
particular, Boots sought to forecast how the proportion of women in the workforce, particularly in IT
roles, will change over the coming years using historical talent management behaviour and levers,
such as promotions, hires, and acknowledgement. They created ‘The Women in IT network’ to
highlight the skills of women working in Boots IT, to offer opportunities for networking and
mentoring. This network seeks to address the gender imbalance issue as well as to help more
, NAME
BTEC Business Level 3
Unit 8 – Recruitment and Selection – Assignment 1
women into the field of IT, better the lives of those who are already employed there, and retain their
skills. Most significantly, it aims to offer assistance, encouragement, and motivation that women
may use at work and outside of it.
The reason why workforce planning is important to Boots is because it is crucial to ensuring that
they achieve their long-term objectives and supports the organisation's overall performance. Boots
can have a better chance of accomplishing its goals within the time frame that it originally set if the
experience, talents, and other qualifications of personnel are in line with the expectations of the
business and both the needs and demands of the operations. It is effective at offering a plan for
assessing the current workforce, especially for figuring out whether the current personnel have the
right skills to meet the needs of the company. This makes it easier for Boots to spot possible gaps,
which helps with hiring procedures that are effective. The management and leadership teams at
Boots can also use workforce planning to make future operational plans. The management may
effectively plan the qualities they need to search for in applicants through the proper identification
of the competences needed by the organisation. This can improve the Boots’ current situation while
making sure that measurements and call to actions are ready for the timely development of the firm.
Without this procedure, they might not be aware of the personnel constraints they currently have,
which could lead to possible problems and hinder an organisation's efforts to implement a business
strategy. However, having a thorough grasp of the workforce and its capacity to meet organisational
goals may enhance the hiring process because hiring managers will have a clearer idea of which
areas need improvement.
3.Reasons to recruit staff
The process that organisations use to attract potential employees and then choose the best person
for the job is referred to as recruitment and selection. It is critical for a company to do this right in
order to hire people who will be satisfied and work hard. Boots may decide to hire employees for a
variety of reasons like:
1. Business Expansion
If the quantity of clients or sales grows, the company will need to hire more people. Employees may
be required on a local or national level. This appears to be the case for Boots, as they reported a
great performance for the second quarter ending February 28, 2022, with ongoing retail and
pharmacy sales growth and significant market share gains in all categories, demonstrating the
current development they are achieving. Since Boots have continued to grow annually for the past
few years, they will require more workers to do both existing and new positions which leads to
higher demand for staff members. Furthermore, because of this company growth there are
constantly new vacancy spaces which need to be filled.
2. Reacquisition and Restructure within the business.
The way jobs are done is influenced by technological advancements. When the covid-19 outbreak
occurred, Boots increased the number of self-service tills as a hygienic measure to keep their
employees and customers safe. However, as society has adapted to these changes’ Boots have kept
these self-service tills in order to aid the business. Instead of having a big number of personnel on
