7CO04 Assignment Example

7CO04 Business Research in People Practice is the fourth and most demanding core unit of the CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma. Unlike the other core units, which are assessed through short essay-style answers, 7CO04 requires you to plan and conduct an original business research project on a people-focused issue and deliver an integrated 4,000-word research report. The unit assesses your ability to define terms of reference, review the literature, choose appropriate research methods, handle data ethically, analyse findings and propose evidence-based recommendations to a business audience. This 7CO04 assignment example walks through a complete worked research report — from terms of reference through to costed recommendations — written to Distinction standard so you can see how each Learning Outcome is addressed in a single coherent project.

Title and Abstract

Working title: The Impact of Hybrid Working on Employee Engagement and Voluntary Turnover at Meridian Professional Services Ltd: An Evidence-Based Review with Recommendations for the Executive Committee.

Abstract: This research project investigates the relationship between hybrid working arrangements and two outcomes of strategic concern at Meridian Professional Services Ltd, a 320-employee UK management consultancy: employee engagement and voluntary turnover. A mixed-methods design combined analysis of three years of HR data (2023–2025) with a stratified employee survey (n=187, 58 per cent response rate) and ten semi-structured interviews. Findings show that hybrid working is positively associated with engagement scores in roles with high autonomy, but the relationship reverses for early-career employees (under 30, less than three years’ tenure) for whom voluntary turnover has risen by 38 per cent. Recommendations focus on differentiated hybrid policy by career stage, structured in-office collaboration days, and targeted onboarding investment, with an estimated net annual benefit of £312,000 against implementation costs of £74,000.

Section 1: Terms of Reference (Learning Outcome 1)

1.1 Background and rationale

Meridian Professional Services Ltd (hereafter Meridian) is a 320-employee UK management consultancy operating from offices in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, with annual revenues of £48 million and a sixteen-year operating history. Following the pandemic, Meridian adopted a uniform hybrid policy in September 2022 requiring all employees to attend their assigned office for a minimum of two days per week, with the remaining time worked from home or client sites at the employee’s discretion. Three years into the policy, the Executive Committee is concerned about two trends visible in the people analytics dashboard. Engagement scores in the most recent survey (March 2025) showed an overall decline of 7 percentage points compared with the pre-pandemic baseline, with particularly sharp falls among consultants under 30. Voluntary turnover rose from 14 per cent in 2022 to 21 per cent in 2025, against an industry benchmark of 17 per cent (CIPD, 2025a). Replacement costs and slowed project delivery during ramp-up periods have been estimated by the Finance Director at approximately £640,000 in additional cost over the financial year. The Chief People Officer has commissioned this research to determine whether the hybrid policy is contributing to these outcomes and what evidence-based changes would improve them.

1.2 Research aim and objectives

The aim of this research is to evaluate the relationship between Meridian’s current hybrid working policy and two outcomes — employee engagement and voluntary turnover — and to develop costed, evidence-based recommendations to the Executive Committee.

The research objectives are:

1. To establish what the contemporary academic and practitioner literature shows about the relationship between hybrid working arrangements and employee engagement, retention and productivity.
2. To analyse three years of internal HR data on engagement, turnover, tenure and demographic variables to identify patterns associated with the hybrid policy.
3. To gather employee perspectives on the lived experience of hybrid working, identifying differences across career stages, role types and locations.
4. To synthesise findings into a set of practical, costed recommendations that the Executive Committee can implement within the 2026 financial year.

1.3 Research questions

From these objectives, three research questions guide the project:

• RQ1: What relationship, if any, exists between the current uniform hybrid policy and employee engagement scores at Meridian, and does this relationship vary by career stage, role and location?
• RQ2: What relationship, if any, exists between the hybrid policy and voluntary turnover, controlling for relevant individual and team variables?
• RQ3: What changes to the policy would, on the available evidence, be likely to improve engagement and retention without compromising client service or operational efficiency?

1.4 Scope and limitations

The research is limited to permanent employees of Meridian based in the UK and excludes contractors, interns and the small number of fully office-based support roles for whom the hybrid policy does not apply. The fieldwork window was January–April 2025. The project does not assess the financial performance of Meridian as a whole or the policy’s impact on client outcomes, which lie outside the people-management scope of the research. Findings should not be generalised beyond similar UK professional-services firms without further investigation.