7CO04 Business Research in People Practice: Complete Study Guide with Worked Examples

OFFICIAL ASSESSMENT BRIEF

7CO04 — Business Research in People Practice

Assessment ID: CIPD_7CO04_26_01  |  Level 7 Advanced Diploma in Strategic People Management  |  Internal deadline: 3rd November 2026

Introduction

As you develop your career as a people professional you will be involved in solving complex organisational problems. The challenge is to find reliable trustworthy solutions and not be distracted by unreliable facts, outdated and biased opinions or superficial quick fixes.

The CIPD promotes an evidence-based approach to people management to enable people professionals to increase their level of influence, making better, more effective decisions, to help organisations achieve their goals.

The purpose of this unit is for you to apply evidence-based practice to a people focused business issue, developing your research skills and ability to write a persuasive business report.

The assessment will address all assessment criteria of this unit, with a mark awarded for each of the four Learning Outcomes (LOs).

Assessment Task

Identify a people-focused business issue that has strategic relevance to your organisation or one you are familiar with. Plan and complete an original business research project that develops a set of business-focused recommendations to address the identified people issue. Your research report should be approximately 4,000 words and include the sections listed below. You are advised to use the section headings to help structure your report.

An introduction

The introduction should clearly and concisely explain the issue that needs investigation and explain why the issue needs to be investigated in this organisation, at this point in time.

Terms of Reference

This sets the parameters of your research and should include the research aim, some explanation of where in the organisation the research will take place, along with the resources and timeframes necessary for its completion. It is a good idea to attach a GANTT chart as an appendix to set out the timeline for each stage of the project.

Literature Review

This is a critical analysis and thematic review of existing published material and reputable online sources that directly relate to the research aim and objectives. As knowledge does not exist in a vacuum, your work will only have value in relation to other people’s research evidence. The literature review should then help to develop the research questions and inform the recommendations you later make as a result of your research.

Research Questions

Drawing upon the review of the published literature, develop meaningful research questions/objectives to help guide your own primary research. It is important that these align to the research aim.

Research methodology

This section of the report should explain and justify the research strategy and design for your primary research, the research population and sample, and how this was selected. In addition, it should critically discuss the potential limitations of the data collection methods and any ethical issues, along with how your research will adhere to the main ethical principles of such research. It is essential that research texts are referenced in this Learning Outcome to further support and justify your methodology.

An analysis and presentation of the data collected from the primary research

Having completed your primary research, you need to analyse the raw data collected, both quantitative and/or qualitative using appropriate methods to present this.

A discussion of the research findings

The purpose of this section is to discuss and make sense of the project’s findings. You should compare and contrast your research findings with those identified from the published literature, identifying the key themes and their significance to the research aim and strategic implications for the organisation.

Conclusion

Justify the conclusions derived from the analysis of the findings. These should summarise the main threads of the research findings, both primary and secondary and be aligned to the research aim and questions/objectives and terms of reference.

Recommendations

A business-focused and evidence-based set of recommendations should be developed to address the research aim and initial business issue. The recommendations should be practical strategic actions, supported by an operational implementation plan and a strategic cost-benefit analysis aimed at the decision makers. To create a persuasive business report, it is important to highlight the potential business impact, so for example, any cost savings and/or an increase in revenue that could be associated with the recommendations.

Both the action plan and cost-benefit analysis can be included within an appendix and are excluded from the word count.

Personal Reflections

Critically review your research skills and evaluate the learning that has taken place. Include what went well or not so well, what subject knowledge and research skills you have gained, and how you could improve any future research design. You should also identify any learning objectives to include as a part of your CPD.

This final section is excluded from the word count.

Marking Grid

Learners receive a Pass, Merit, Distinction or Refer/Fail result at unit level. A mark from 1 to 4 is given for each Learning Outcome.

To pass, learners must achieve a 2 (Pass) or above for each Learning Outcome.

Note: this unit assesses your own organisational research and does not provide a fixed case study — you select a real, relevant people issue from your own organisation (or one you know well) as the basis of your report.

• LO1 — Can you frame a research problem properly? (Introduction, Terms of Reference, Literature Review, Research Questions)
• LO2 — Do you understand and can you justify your research method and its ethics? (Methodology)
• LO3 — Can you collect, analyse, and explain data? (Data analysis, Discussion of findings)
• LO4 — Can you turn findings into credible, business-focused action? (Conclusion, Recommendations, Personal Reflections)

Tip

• Because each LO is marked separately and you must score at least a 2 on every LO to pass, don’t let one section become a weak spot while you pour effort into the recommendations. Aim for solid, evidenced writing across all four LOs.

Worked scenario used for every example in this guide

• Organisation: Meridian Retail Group — a UK mid-size retailer with 34 stores and c.1,800 employees.
• Issue: voluntary turnover among first-line Customer Service Assistants has risen from 19% to 29% over the last 18 months, concentrated in stores that moved to a new scheduling system in early 2025.
• These examples are illustrative only — they show the style, structure and level of detail expected, not text to copy into a real submission. Your own report must use your own organisation’s real, original evidence.

• Real and current — something genuinely happening in your organisation now, not a hypothetical.
• People-focused — about how people are managed, developed, engaged, retained or led — not a pure finance, IT or operations problem.
• Strategically relevant — connected to a wider organisational goal (growth, cost control, risk, reputation, productivity).
• Researchable in the time you have — you can realistically access data, colleagues or documents to investigate it within your submission window.
• Specific enough — “improving engagement” is too broad; “why engagement scores have fallen among hybrid-working middle managers since 2024” is researchable.

Examples of well-scoped issues

• Rising voluntary turnover in a specific department
• A stalled DE&I initiative
• Low uptake of a new L&D programme
• The people risks of an upcoming restructure
• The impact of hybrid working on team cohesion
• Manager capability gaps following rapid growth

Common pitfall

• Writing a generic HR essay introduction (“engagement is important in all organisations…”) instead of grounding it in your specific organisation, with a specific trigger event or data point (e.g. “exit interview data over the last two quarters shows…”).

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Introduction

Meridian Retail Group has experienced a sustained rise in voluntary turnover among Customer Service Assistants (CSAs), increasing from 19% to 29% over the past 18 months (HR Analytics Dashboard, 2026). This trend is concentrated in the 14 stores that transitioned to a new automated scheduling system in early 2025, suggesting a possible link between the change and employee attrition.

This issue requires urgent investigation because CSAs represent 62% of the frontline workforce and are central to customer experience; continued turnover at this rate is estimated to be costing the business in excess of £480,000 annually in recruitment, onboarding and lost productivity (Finance Business Partner report, 2026). With the organisation’s three-year strategy prioritising customer experience as a key differentiator, unresolved frontline attrition poses a direct risk to that strategic objective.

This research therefore investigates the underlying causes of rising CSA turnover, with a particular focus on whether the 2025 scheduling change is a contributing factor, in order to generate evidence-based, practical recommendations for the Retail Operations Director.

• Research aim — one clear sentence: “To investigate why X is happening within Y, in order to Z.”
• Scope — which part(s) of the organisation, which population, what is excluded.
• Resources — people, data, systems, tools (e.g. survey platform, HR analytics access) you’ll draw on.
• Timeframe — realistic stages mapped to your actual deadline.
• A GANTT chart — add this as an appendix (excluded from word count), showing stages such as literature review, ethics/access approval, data collection, analysis, writing, and review.

Tip

• Write the ToR as if a senior stakeholder will read only this section to decide whether to approve your project — it should stand alone and make the project sound credible and proportionate.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Terms of Reference

Research aim: To investigate the causes of rising voluntary turnover among Customer Service Assistants at Meridian Retail Group, in order to develop practical, evidence-based recommendations to improve retention.

Scope: The research will focus on the 14 stores that adopted the new scheduling system in early 2025, drawing on CSA exit data, engagement survey results, and primary data collected from current CSAs and store managers in this population. Warehouse and head-office roles are excluded from scope.

Resources: Access to anonymised HR turnover and exit interview data (via the People Analytics team), an online survey platform (Microsoft Forms), and approximately six hours of manager and employee time for interviews, agreed in principle with the Retail Operations Director.

Timeframe: The project will run over 10 weeks, from literature review through to final report submission, as set out in the GANTT chart at Appendix A.

A strong literature review

• Uses academic and reputable industry sources (peer-reviewed journals, CIPD research, ACAS, government/ONS data, credible consultancy reports) — not blogs or opinion pieces as primary evidence
• Groups sources by theme, not by author — synthesise, don’t list
• Compares and contrasts perspectives, noting where the evidence is contested or context-dependent
• Evaluates the quality/limitations of the evidence, not just what it says
• Ends by identifying the gap or tension that your research questions will address

Common pitfall

• A “list review” — “Smith (2021) says X. Jones (2022) says Y.” — with no critical voice or synthesis. Markers are specifically looking for critical analysis, not description.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Literature Review (one theme, shortened)

Theme: Scheduling autonomy and employee retention.

A growing body of evidence links reduced control over working hours to lower retention in frontline retail roles. [Author, Year] found that algorithmically-generated schedules, while operationally efficient, were associated with higher perceived unpredictability and lower job satisfaction among hourly retail staff, particularly where shift patterns changed with little notice. This is supported by [Author, Year], whose longitudinal study of UK retailers found a measurable rise in voluntary turnover following the introduction of automated scheduling tools, though the effect was moderated by the degree of employee input retained in the system.

However, this relationship is not universally supported: [Author, Year] found no significant turnover effect in organisations that paired automated scheduling with a structured shift-swap mechanism, suggesting that the design and implementation of scheduling technology — rather than automation itself — may be the more significant variable. This tension between efficiency-driven scheduling and employee autonomy directly informs the research questions developed below, and highlights a gap in the literature regarding how CSAs experience scheduling change during the transition period specifically, which this research aims to address.

Weak vs. stronger

• Weak: “What do employees think about engagement?”
• Stronger: “What factors are contributing to declining engagement among hybrid-working line managers?”

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Research Questions

RQ1: To what extent do Customer Service Assistants perceive the 2025 scheduling system as contributing to their intention to leave?

RQ2: What specific aspects of the scheduling change (e.g. notice period, shift-swap flexibility, predictability) are most associated with dissatisfaction?

RQ3: What retention factors, beyond scheduling, do CSAs and store managers identify as most significant in this population?

• Research philosophy/strategy — e.g. interpretivist vs positivist, inductive vs deductive — briefly, and only as far as it justifies your design.
• Research design — qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, and why this fits your questions.
• Population and sample — who, how many, and your sampling method (e.g. purposive, random, convenience) with a rationale.
• Data collection method(s) — survey, interviews, focus groups, secondary data — and why chosen over alternatives.
• Limitations — be honest about bias, sample size, access constraints, generalisability.
• Ethics — informed consent, anonymity/confidentiality, data protection (UK GDPR), right to withdraw, minimising harm, organisational approval/gatekeeper access.

Remember

• The brief explicitly requires research-methods texts to be referenced in this section (e.g. Saunders, Bryman, Easterby-Smith) — a methodology written from opinion alone, without methodological literature, will struggle to pass this LO.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Research Methodology (extract)

This research adopts a mixed-methods design, combining a quantitative survey with qualitative semi-structured interviews, in order to both measure the scale of scheduling-related dissatisfaction and understand its underlying causes in depth (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). An interpretivist philosophy underpins the qualitative strand, reflecting the aim of understanding CSAs’ individual experiences of the scheduling change, rather than testing a predetermined hypothesis.

A purposive sample of 40 CSAs across the 14 affected stores was invited to complete an online survey (a 55% response rate, n=22), supplemented by six semi-structured interviews with a further purposive sample of CSAs and two store managers, selected to represent a range of tenure and store locations. This sampling approach was chosen over random sampling because it ensured representation from the specific population directly affected by the scheduling change (Bryman and Bell, 2015).

Ethical approval was granted informally by the Retail Operations Director as gatekeeper. All participants received an information sheet and gave informed consent; participation was voluntary, responses were anonymised, and data was stored in line with UK GDPR requirements (ICO, 2018). A key limitation of this design is that the sample, while representative of the affected stores, is not generalisable to the wider organisation or sector.

• Quantitative data: use appropriate descriptive statistics and clear charts/tables (bar charts, cross-tabulations) — always interpret what a chart shows in the text, don’t just insert it.
• Qualitative data: use thematic analysis — code your interview/open-text data into themes, and present illustrative (anonymised) quotes to evidence each theme.
• Present, don’t yet fully discuss — save deeper interpretation and comparison with the literature for the Discussion section.
• Keep raw transcripts/full data sets in an appendix; the main body shows summarised, analysed data.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Data Analysis (extract)

Of the 22 survey respondents, 68% (n=15) agreed or strongly agreed that shift notice periods had worsened since the scheduling system was introduced (see Figure 1, Appendix B). When asked to rank retention factors, “predictability of hours” was rated the most important factor by 59% of respondents, ahead of pay (23%) and career development (18%).

Thematic analysis of the six interviews identified three recurring themes: reduced schedule predictability, limited ability to swap shifts, and a perceived lack of consultation before the system was introduced. On the latter, one CSA noted: “We were just told it was happening — nobody asked how it would affect us outside work.” This sentiment was echoed by four of the six interviewees.

Useful structure per theme

• “My research found… This supports/contrasts with [author, year] who found… This matters strategically because…”

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Discussion of Findings (extract)

The finding that predictability of hours was rated the most important retention factor, ahead of pay, supports [Author, Year], who similarly found that schedule control outweighed financial incentives in frontline retail retention. This contrasts with the organisation’s current retention strategy, which is centred primarily on pay benchmarking, suggesting a potential misalignment between current interventions and what actually drives CSA retention.

The theme of limited consultation prior to implementation aligns with [Author, Year]’s argument that change is more likely to be resisted, and to increase turnover intention, where employees perceive a lack of voice in decisions that affect their working conditions. Strategically, this indicates that the turnover increase may reflect not the scheduling system itself, but how the change was managed and communicated — a distinction with significant implications for the recommendations that follow.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Conclusion (extract)

This research set out to investigate the causes of rising CSA turnover at Meridian Retail Group, with a particular focus on the 2025 scheduling system change. The findings indicate that reduced schedule predictability and limited shift-swap flexibility are significant contributors to turnover intention, and that the manner in which the change was implemented — with limited employee consultation — compounded its impact. These findings are consistent with the wider literature on schedule control and change management, while also highlighting an organisation-specific gap between Meridian’s pay-focused retention strategy and what CSAs report actually values. The research aim has therefore been met, and provides a clear evidence base for the recommendations below.

Strong recommendations are

• Practical and specific — who does what, by when
• Evidence-based — each recommendation should trace back to a finding or literature point
• Supported by an implementation/action plan (appendix — excluded from word count)
• Supported by a cost-benefit analysis (appendix — excluded from word count) — quantify potential savings, productivity gains, or revenue/retention impact where possible
• Written persuasively for a senior, non-HR audience — lead with business impact, not HR jargon

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Recommendations (extract)

Recommendation 1: Introduce a structured shift-swap function within the scheduling system, allowing CSAs to request and approve swaps directly, within manager-set guardrails. This directly addresses the flexibility gap identified in the research and is supported by [Author, Year]’s finding that shift-swap mechanisms mitigate the turnover impact of automated scheduling.

Recommendation 2: Extend the minimum shift-notice period from 3 to 10 days across the 14 affected stores, with exceptions managed by store managers. Based on current recruitment and onboarding costs of approximately £2,400 per CSA leaver, even a 5-percentage-point reduction in turnover is estimated to save the organisation approximately £84,000 annually (see Appendix C, cost-benefit analysis).

Recommendation 3: Establish a brief consultation step for future operational changes affecting frontline schedules, such as a two-week feedback window before rollout, to address the consultation gap identified in the discussion.

A full implementation timeline and cost-benefit analysis are provided at Appendix C and D respectively.

• What worked well and what you’d do differently in your research design.
• Specific research skills gained (e.g. survey design, thematic coding, stakeholder engagement).
• Honest limitations of your approach.
• Concrete learning objectives to carry into your CPD record.

✎ EXAMPLE ANSWER — Personal Reflections (extract)

This project developed my confidence in designing and administering a primary survey, and in particular in writing neutrally-worded questions after an early draft was reviewed by a colleague as leading. The thematic coding of interview data was more time-consuming than anticipated; with hindsight, I would allow a longer window for this stage and consider using coding software for a larger sample.

A limitation I would address in future research is the relatively small interview sample (n=6); a larger sample, or a follow-up survey open-text question, would have strengthened the qualitative findings. As a learning objective for my CPD record, I intend to complete a short course on qualitative data analysis to build on the skills developed in this project.

Before you submit

• Report is approximately 4,000 words (excluding action plan, cost-benefit analysis, GANTT chart, and personal reflections)
• All CIPD section headings used, in order, as structure
• Literature review is thematic and critical, not a list of summaries
• Research questions clearly trace back to the literature review and align to the research aim
• Methodology references research-methods literature and addresses ethics explicitly
• Data is analysed (not just described) and linked back to the literature in the discussion
• Recommendations are specific, evidenced, and supported by an appendix action plan and cost-benefit analysis
• Personal reflections are critical, not just descriptive
• Referencing is consistent (Harvard) throughout, including in the methodology section
• Declaration of Authentication page completed and signed

• Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. — Research Methods for Business Students
• Bryman, A. and Bell, E. — Business Research Methods
• Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. — Management and Business Research