Search Assignment Sample For Ireland Students

For information and reference only – not to be submitted as your own work. This is a partial model answer written to show structure, depth and referencing for the H9MDTA brief. NCI requires the assignment to be your own individual work, restricts AI use to what the brief allows and checks submissions through Turnitin. Use this extract to understand the task, then write your own answer.

The full task is on our H9MDTA Managing and Developing Talent question page. For a section-by-section explanation, read the H9MDTA assignment guide.

1. Introduction (extract)

Baby Steps, a US sustainable clothing retailer, plans to open ten Irish stores. This report advises senior management on the talent problems the company is likely to face, why talent management (TM) deserves strategic attention, and the strategy, policies and practices that should guide the Irish operation. Talent management is understood here as the systematic identification of key positions and the development of a talent pool to fill them (Collings and Mellahi, 2009), applied within the resourcing context described by Taylor (2024).

2. Data collection table

The recommendations depend on evidence that Baby Steps does not yet hold for Ireland. The table sets out what will be collected and how it will be analysed.

3. Talent management challenges in Ireland

The first problem is supply. Irish unemployment stood at 5.0% in August 2026, with youth unemployment at 12.3% (CSO, 2026). Retail depends heavily on younger workers, so Baby Steps will compete with established chains for the same people. Employer evidence points the same way: 91% of Irish organisations report continuing skills shortages and 80% find it difficult to retain talent (CIPD, 2026).

Housing is the second problem. CIPD (2026) reports that the housing crisis continues to affect recruitment negatively, with 73% of organisations reporting increased recruitment difficulty, up from 67% in 2025. Store staff on retail wages feel this most, and it limits where Baby Steps can realistically recruit.

Third, the sustainability brand raises the bar. A retailer selling on values needs staff who can explain and believe in them. That is a question of fit and engagement, not only headcount.

Finally, ten simultaneous openings create a managerial gap. Each store needs a manager and supervisors from day one, but a new entrant has no internal Irish pipeline to promote from.

4. Why Baby Steps should pay attention to TM (justification)

The resource-based view argues that sustained advantage comes from resources that are valuable, rare and hard to imitate (Barney, 1991). Competitors can copy a sustainable product range quickly. A workforce that lives the brand is much harder to copy. This makes TM a strategic issue rather than an administrative one.

Lewis and Heckman (2006) warned that TM is often a relabelling of ordinary HR activity. The justification here is narrower: Baby Steps needs TM because a small number of positions (store managers and visual merchandisers who carry the brand) disproportionately shape store performance, which is the logic of pivotal positions in Collings and Mellahi (2009).

5. Consequences of neglect

• Turnover costs. Replacement, induction and lost productivity accumulate quickly in retail, and voluntary turnover is rising in Ireland: 33% of organisations report an increase (CIPD, 2026). Hom, Allen and Griffeth (2020) discuss the drivers of turnover and what employers can do about them, so it should be managed, not accepted.
• Weak openings. Under-staffed or poorly led stores in their first months risk a poor reputation in a small market.
• Brand damage. Staff who cannot speak credibly about sustainability undermine the proposition the company is selling.
• No pipeline. Without succession planning, every managerial vacancy becomes an external hire at premium cost.

6. TM strategy, policies and vision framework

Strategy statement: Baby Steps Ireland will attract, develop and retain people who share its sustainability values, building an Irish pipeline of store leaders within two years of opening.

Vision framework – “Conscious Clothing”: the company’s product promise becomes a talent promise. Conscious products are sold by conscious employers: fair pay transparency, development for every employee, and leaders recruited for values as well as experience.

7. Core talent management practices

Check the wording of your own brief and lecture notes for how many core practices are required and where practical examples must come from. If two documents disagree, ask your lecturer. This extract lists ten candidate practices and develops two to show the depth expected.

7.1 Selection (developed example)

What: structured, competency-based interviews with a values component, plus a short work sample on the shop floor.

How: store managers are trained to use a common scoring guide, and one question set focuses on sustainability in everyday work.

Why (theory): Taylor (2024) covers selection methods in detail, and the argument here is that structured methods give a consistent standard across stores. Tansley (2011) adds that “talent” must be defined in the organisation’s own terms; for Baby Steps, values are part of that definition.

Why (practice): with ten stores recruiting at once, a common process keeps standards consistent and defensible under Irish equality legislation. In your own answer, add a practical example drawn from the sources your brief allows.

7.2 Succession planning (developed example)

What: a talent pool of assistant managers and supervisors prepared for store-manager roles.

How: twice-yearly talent reviews, development plans, and temporary cover assignments in other stores.

Why (theory): Collings and Mellahi (2009) argue for building talent pools for pivotal positions rather than replacing individuals one by one. This suits a chain where every store manager role is pivotal.

Why (practice): the coverage ratio in the data collection table lets the leadership team see, store by store, whether a ready successor exists.

The full answer would develop the remaining core practices in the same what-how-why format.

8. Recommended TM approach

Meyers and van Woerkom (2014) distinguish talent philosophies that see talent as rare or as present in everyone, and as fixed or developable. Gallardo-Gallardo, Dries and González-Cruz (2013) make a similar split between talent as people and talent as characteristics. For Baby Steps, a hybrid approach is recommended: inclusive development for all store staff, consistent with a values-led brand, combined with an exclusive pool for the pivotal store-manager roles. Pure exclusivity would sit badly with the “Conscious Clothing” vision and could damage engagement among staff outside the pool. A purely inclusive approach would not build the managerial pipeline fast enough for ten openings.

9. The Gen AI table: format guide

The brief requires a table for the relevant sections showing key readings’ perspectives, Gen AI prompts and outputs, and a critical evaluation of both. This guide describes what each column should contain. You must enter your own prompt and the actual output you received; nothing in these columns should be invented or edited to look better.

For help with consultancy-style report structure more widely, see our report writing services and management assignment help pages.

About the expert

Aisling Ryan holds a master’s in Human Resource Management from University of Limerick and spent eight years as an HR manager at various Irish companies. Her profile lists HR management, organisational behaviour and leadership among her specialisms.

References

• Barney, J. (1991) ‘Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage’, Journal of Management, 17(1), pp. 99-120.
• Central Statistics Office (CSO) (2026) Monthly Unemployment August 2026. Cork: CSO. Available at: https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-mue/monthlyunemploymentaugust2026/ (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
• CIPD (2026) HR Practices in Ireland 2026. Dublin: CIPD Ireland.
• Collings, D.G. and Mellahi, K. (2009) ‘Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda’, Human Resource Management Review, 19(4), pp. 304-313.
• Gallardo-Gallardo, E., Dries, N. and González-Cruz, T.F. (2013) ‘What is the meaning of “talent” in the world of work?’, Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), pp. 290-300.
• Hom, P.W., Allen, D.G. and Griffeth, R.W. (2020) Employee Retention and Turnover: Why Employees Stay or Leave. New York: Routledge.
• Lewis, R.E. and Heckman, R.J. (2006) ‘Talent management: A critical review’, Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), pp. 139-154.
• Meyers, M.C. and van Woerkom, M. (2014) ‘The influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: Theory, implications for practice, and research agenda’, Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp. 192-203.
• Tansley, C. (2011) ‘What do we mean by the term “talent” in talent management?’, Industrial and Commercial Training, 43(5), pp. 266-274.
• Taylor, S. (2024) Resourcing and Talent Management. 9th edn. London: Kogan Page.