ICON COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Pearson BTEC HND in Business (RQF)

Unit Level 4 Managing a Successful Business Project

Assignment Brief
Session: September 2020

Programme title BMKT6 Pearson BTEC HND in Business

Unit number and title Unit 6 Managing a Successful Business Project

Unit Type Core

Unit Level and Credit

Level 4 15 Credit
Value

Assignment number & tile 1 of 1 Talent strategies to attract and retain people

Assessor (s) Dr Fidelis Akanga, Dr Soroosh, Prof Zakir Hossain

Issue Date 3 October 2020

Final assignment
04-09 January 2021
submission deadline

11-16 January 2021

Late submission deadline The learners are required to follow the strict deadline set by the College
for submissions of assignments in accordance with the BTEC level 4–7
submission guidelines and College policy on submissions.

Resubmission deadline TBA

In-class feedback will be available from draft submissions on a task-by-

task basis as a formative assessment as well as summative feedback in
Feedback the form of initial submission.
Final feedback will be available within 2 weeks of the assignment
submission date.

• The work you submit must be in your own words. If you use a quote or an
General illustration from somewhere, you must give the source.
Guidelines • Include a list of references at the end of your document. You must give all
your sources of information.
• Make sure your work is clearly presented and that you use correct grammar.

Internal verifier Prof Nurun Nabi

Signature (IV of the

[email protected] Date 26/9/20
brief) *
Assignment Brief – continued

ICON College of Technology and Management

Pearson BTEC HND in Business (RQF)
Unit 6: Managing a Successful Business Project (L4)
Session: September 2020
Coursework
Recommended Word limit: 3,500–4,400

This Unit will be assessed by assignment.

You are strongly advised to read “Preparation guidelines of the Coursework Document”
before answering your assignment.

Assignment Theme: Talent Management

Assignment Topic: What talent strategies do the best companies use to attract and retain
people?

Introduction to theme
Talent management is the process by which businesses and organisations recognise and develop
talented people who can have a positive impact on their organisations and their productivity. It not
only has become a key component of human resource management but also the responsibility of
leaders and managers at all levels to manage talent within the business, with talent management
strategies being developed in line with the particular needs and structure of the business and
industry. Staff retention, training and morale is key in any industry where talented motivated
employees can help differentiate one organisation from another and influence business success. An
increasing number of businesses are rethinking ways to get the most from their staff. Rising costs,
recruitment difficulties and changing employee attitudes mean that, for many employers, the
traditional approaches to recruiting, training and retaining staff are being revisited to harness and
develop talent and ultimately drive competitive advantage.
You have been employed as a Business Researcher by an organisation of your choice to run a
project regarding the existing talent management strategies and suggest new talent strategies that
need to be formulated and implemented to attract and retain talented staff to support the competitive
advantage of the organisation.
You are required to conduct a small-scale research project on the current talent strategies that
are used by your organisation and make some recommendations for the future strategic direction of
the talent management strategies of the business. You should use the project management
techniques in running your project. You may shape a project team to help you in doing this project.
You need to use both primary data and secondary data. You may collect your primary data from
your chosen company by A) interviewing 2-3 of the firm’s managers and B) distributing a
questionnaire (it can be an online questionnaire) among 20-30 employees of the company. The best
sources for secondary data regarding your chosen company and its talent strategies are the firm’s
annual reports, the organisation’s news release, and some industry databases such as Statista.
Emphasis should be placed on the final sections of the report, where you draw on your analysis
of the organisation and its surround labour market to make an argument to justify recommendations
on the future strategic direction of the talent management strategy of the business. In supporting
your recommendations, you should make full use of the frameworks discussed in class and from
any publicly available resources you can access, for example information provided by the
organisation website, media reports and relevant academic sources.

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Assignment Brief – continued

Milestones and interim feedback

The purposes of milestones are to monitor the progress of the project and to maintain
momentum, making it more likely that the project will succeed. Each milestone should be a clear,
achievable activity that the student aims to achieve by a particular time. Students should agree
at least two milestones with their tutor.
Examples of milestones include:
• Preparing the initial project plan
• Completing primary research
• Production of first draft of findings
• Suggestion of recommendations
At each milestone, the tutor will liaise with the student to check whether it has been achieved and
provide advice to the student on their individual project progress.

What you must do

The following tasks are required to be carried out:

LO1: Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes based on the chosen theme.
Before commencing your project, you are required to devise project aims and objectives for a
chosen scenario.
As part of planning the project, produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost,
scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources. Similarly, as part of organising the project
into manageable sections, you are required to produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt
chart to provide timeframes and stages for completion. Finally, to convince the management team,
you are recommended to produce a comprehensive project management plan, milestone schedule
and project schedule for monitoring and completing the aims and objectives of the project.

LO2: Conduct small-scale research, information gathering and data collection to generate
knowledge to support the project.

Now that the project aims and objectives have been established, you are required to carry out a
small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods appropriate for
meeting project aims and objectives. You may evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the different
research methods applied. It is recommended to critically evaluate the project management
process and appropriate the research methodologies you used in the research.

LO3: Present the project and communicate appropriate recommendations based on

meaningful conclusions drawn from evidence findings and /or analysis.

Having demonstrated your ability to collect data, you are required to analyse the data using
appropriate tools and techniques. You should then communicate appropriate recommendations as
a result of data analysis to draw valid and meaningful conclusions.
Your senior management would benefit from the recommendations, so you may evaluate the
selection of appropriate tools and techniques you used to analyse the data.

LO4: Reflect on the value gained from conducting the project and its usefulness to support
sustainable organisational performance.

Having successfully completing the project, you should now reflect on the value of undertaking the
research to meet both the organisation’s objectives and your own learning and performance. You
may also evaluate the value of the project management process to meet the organisation’s stated
objectives and to support your own learning and performance.
To support the justifications of the recommendations you suggested and to demonstrate your
learning during the project, your senior managers would like you to critically evaluate and reflect
on the results of the project, the decision-making process or any changes you would make to the
initial project management plan if you were to undertake a similar project in future.
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Assignment Brief – continued

Useful resources for talent management

Type of Resource Titles Links
Resource
Online Talent Management https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/resourcing/talent-
factsheets, factsheet
reports
Online Entrepreneur Europe https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/talent-management
articles Magazine
Online https://www.mckinsey.com/business-
Winning with your
report talent – management
functions/organization/our-insights/winning-with-your-talent-
strategy management-strategy#
Online Human Resources https://www.humanresourcestoday.com/2020/talent-
articles Today – Talent management/
Management
Webinar Talent Management https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiY2hwoAXsg
Strategies in the GCC
You Tube Talent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snl7eC8LDLk
Video Management/Linkedin
learning – What is a
talent management
strategy
Online Global Talent Trends https://www.mercer.com/content/dam/mercer/attachments/priv
Report 2019 ate/gl-2019-global-talent-trends-study.pdf

Relevant Information
To gain a Pass in a BTEC HND Unit, you must meet ALL the Pass criteria; to gain a Merit, you must
meet ALL the Merit and Pass criteria; and to gain a Distinction, you must meet ALL the Distinction,
Merit and Pass criteria.

Assessment Criteria
Pass Merit Distinction
LO1 Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes based on
the chosen theme

P1 Devise project aims and M1 Produce a comprehensive LO1 & 2

objectives for a chosen scenario. project management plan, D1 Critically evaluate the project
milestone schedule and project management process and
P2 Produce a project schedule for monitoring and appropriate research
management plan that covers completing the aims and methodologies applied.
aspects of cost, scope, time, objectives of the project.
quality, communication, risk and
resources.

P3 Produce a work breakdown

structure and a Gantt chart to
provide timeframes and stages for
completion.

LO2 Conduct small-scale research, information gathering and

data collection, generating knowledge to support the project.

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Assignment Brief – continued

P4 Carry out small-scale research M2 Evaluate the accuracy and

by applying qualitative and reliability of different research
quantitative research methods methods applied.
appropriate for meeting project
aims and objectives.

LO3 Present the project and communicate appropriate

recommendations based on meaningful conclusions drawn from
the evidence findings and/or analysis.

P5 Analyse research and data M3 Evaluate the selection of LO3 & 4

using appropriate tools and appropriate tools and techniques D2 Critically evaluate and reflect
techniques. for accuracy and authenticity to on the project outcomes, the
support and justify decision- making process and
P6 Communicate appropriate recommendations. changes or developments of the
recommendations as a result of initial project management plan to
research and data analysis to support justification of
draw valid and meaningful recommendations and learning
conclusions during the project.

LO4 Reflect on the value gained from conducting the project and
its usefulness to support sustainable organisational
performance.

P7 Reflect on the value of M4 Evaluate the value of the

undertaking the research to meet project management process and
stated objectives and own use of quality research to meet
learning and performance. stated objectives and support own
learning and performance.

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Assignment Brief – continued

Guide to student

1. Preparation guidelines of the Coursework Document

a. The assignment should not be written in a text box.
b. Document margins must not be more than 2.54 cm (1 inch) or less than 1.9cm (3/4 inch).
c. The assignment should be in a formal business style using single spacing and font size 12.
d. Standard and commonly used type face such as Arial should be used.
e. All figures, graphs and tables must be numbered.
f. Material taken from external sources must be properly referenced using the Harvard
referencing system.
g. You should provide references using the Harvard referencing system.
h. Do not use Wikipedia as a reference.
i. Read the Submission Instructions in the Submission Point in the VLE (Item No 6).

2. Plagiarism and Collusion

Any act of plagiarism or collusion will be seriously dealt with according to the College regulations.
In this context the definitions and scope of plagiarism and collusion are presented below:

Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. It includes copying information
directly from the Web or books without referencing the material; submitting joint coursework as
an individual effort.
Collusion is copying another student’s coursework; stealing coursework from another student and
submitting it as your own work.
Suspected plagiarism or collusion will be investigated and if found to have occurred will be dealt
with according to the College procedure (For details on Plagiarism & Collusion please see the
Student Handbook).

3. Submission
a. Initial submission of coursework to the tutors is compulsory in each unit of the course.
b. The student must check their assignments on ICON VLE with plagiarism software Turnitin to
make sure the similarity index for their assignment stays within the College approved level. A
student can check the similarity index of their assignment up to five times in the Draft
Assignment submission point located in the home page of the ICON VLE.
c. All Final coursework must be submitted to the Final submission point into the Unit (not to
the Tutor). The student would be allowed to submit only once and that is the final
submission.
d. Any computer files generated such as program code (software), graphic files that form part of
the coursework must be submitted as an attachment to the assignment with all documentation.
e. Any portfolio for a Unit must be submitted as an attachment in the assignment

4. Good practice
a. Make backup of your work in different media (hard disk, memory stick, etc.) to avoid distress
due to loss or damage of your original copy.
5. Extension and Late Submission
a. If you need an extension for a valid reason, you must request one using an Exceptional
Extenuating Circumstances (EEC) form available from the Examination Office and ICON
VLE. Please note that the tutors do not have the authority to extend the coursework
deadlines and therefore do not ask them to award a coursework extension. The completed
form must be accompanied by evidence such as a medical certificate in the event of you
being sick, and should be submitted to the Examination Office.
b. Late submission will be accepted and marked according to the College procedure. It should
be noted that late submission may not be graded for Merit and Distinction.
c. All late coursework must be submitted to the Late submission point into the unit (not to
the Tutor) in the ICON VLE. A student is allowed to submit only once and that is also
treated as the final submission.
d. If you fail in the Final or Late submission, you can resubmit in the Resubmission
window.
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Assignment Brief – continued

6. Submission deadlines Online to the ICON College VLE

Final Submission date: 04-09 January 2021
Late Submission date: 11-16 January 2021

Glossary:
Analyse: Break an issue or topic into smaller parts by looking in depth at each part. Support each
part with arguments and evidence for and against (Pros and cons). Break something down into its
components; examine factors methodically and in detail to recognise patterns by applying concepts
and making connections to predict consequences.

Apply: Use a particular method/technique to solve a problem

Critically Evaluate/Analyse: When you critically evaluate you look at the arguments for and
against an issue. You look at the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments.

Conduct: To do or carry out, to organise and perform a particular activity

Determine: Find a solution by argument, making clear your reasoning (e.g., determine the type of
event that has occurred, based on the data provided”) (application) or “Determine the most
appropriate course of action for the company, within the given constraints” (higher order skills).

Demonstrate: Show that you can do a particular activity or skill. Provide several relevant examples
or related evidence, which clearly support the arguments you are making.

Explain: When you explain you must say why it is important or not important.
Clarify a topic by giving a detailed account as to how and why it occurs, or what is meant by the use
of this term in a particular context.

Identify: When you identify you look at the most important points. Establish or indicate the origin,
nature or definitive character of something