Workforce Planning, Online Technology, Internal Recruitment, and Employee Retention at Asda

1. Identify and discuss the reasons for Asda to conduct workforce planning. (20 marks) 2. In a competitive market, critically evaluate the effectiveness and discuss the benefits of Asda of using online technology when recruiting new employees. (20 marks)  3. Analyse the pros and cons to Asda of aiming to recruit 70% of its leaders internally. What competencies does Asda look for when recruiting in order to maintain its high level of customer service. (30 marks) 4. Evaluate the extent to which a commitment to training and development is effective in helping Asda’s employee retention.

The reasons for Asda to conduct workforce planning

Workforce planning should be clear about its purpose. It includes several activities for the individual, organizational, national and international levels. Expected benefits and risk should be clear in the workforce planning process. It is important for organizations to make long term planning to manage risk and to consider demographic factors when planning the work force as gender and age. Forecasting the required skills should be built on real quality data concerning the future job requirements. Researchers suggest to begin with the demand for goods and services, then the selection of appropriate human resources skills comes next in order to meet the customer demand (Curson et al., 2010).

Capacity analysis and demand forecasting assist in identifying the needs, problems, workload and defining the skills gaps. Economic modelling tools are needed to project the future required skills and their availability in relation to demand changes and consumers' needs. The threat may occur due to lack of certain skills required to meet certain needs of consumers. Product and service modernization requires early planning for the long term needs which are possible to occur in the future. Training could be a suitable solution to develop employees' skills to meet the current and possible future needs (Macfarlane et al., 2011).

 Effective workforce strategic planning:

Organizations need to make an effective workforce planning, which could be achieved through workforce demand, utilization and performance measurement to optimize the workforce planning process through labor cost reduction, improve customer service