Essay: HRM Processes In Woolworths Supermarket - A Study

How well integrated are HRM processes with the organisation's strategic business directions? Specify the areas where the linkages do/do not occur, how one link might support or constrain another, and the implications of these relationships. How does HRM contribute to achieving competitive advantage for the organisation?

i. How does the organisation identify significant issues within the external and internal environment, which have implications for the management of its human resources? Describe to what extent the HRM function undertakes environmental scanning to provide early indicators regarding vital issues such as changing demographic patterns, new government policy, etc. How effective is this approach?

ii. To what degree is the organisation able to articulate or describe the characteristics of its workforce? Where possible, collect quantitative data on numbers, categories of employment, qualifications, diversity and skills required, and so forth. Comment on the degree of difficulty with regards to obtaining such information from the organisation. Does the organisation have an effective HR Information System? Is it accessible to those who need it? In what ways is the HR Information System used? What impact does this system have on the organisation's ability to plan?

iii. How easy or difficult is it for the organisation to obtain the necessary skills in its employees, both now and in the future? This requires an examination and analysis of various HR processes within the organisation, such as HR Planning, Recruitment and Selection including its EVP, Human Resource Development and Performance Management. 
iv. Describe and analyse the current HR climate within the organisation. This involves an assessment and analysis of a number of aspects of the human resource environment including attitudes of management, attitudes to staff development, industrial climate, issues of motivation, morale, interpersonal and organisational communication. Identify the stakeholders involved and the organisation's commitment to various stakeholders. Is this organisation considered to be a preferred and respected employer?
v. To what extent does the HRM function promote ethical standards of behaviour and practice within the organisation? Are these standards clearly articulated in the organisation's policies; eg. is there a code of ethical practice, which reflects the organisation's commitment? Is training provided in this area? To what extent does the organisation comply with various laws associated with employment, such as EEO, WHS or Industrial Relations? 

Human Resource Management (HRM) is one of the most important elements of a business organization. Human resources of business organisations consist of employees including employees that belong to different departments of the firm. The employees are the driving forces in both decision making as well as execution of the decisions, thus forming a very important group of internal stakeholders (Boselie, 2016). The employees channelize their talents, knowledge and experience into the business operations which ultimately lead to competitive success of the latter in the market. Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser (2015) define the term human resources as the employees along with their talent, experience and knowledge which contribute towards high level of organisational performances. The following report would aim to explore the concept of Human Resource Management with an example of a real life organization in Australia. The selection of a real life organization and analyzing the ways by which it organizes its Human Resource Management would provide a clear and transparent picture of Human Resource Management.

Woolworths Supermarket is the leading supermarket chain based in its Australia and has its presence in several other countries like South Africa. The supermarket chain is owned by Woolworths Group, which is a listed company on the ASX based in Australia. The product umbrella of Woolworths consists of fruit and vegetables, animal based food products, bakery, beverages both hard as well as soft, products for pets, baby products as well beauty products. The supermarket chain also sells financial products like credit cards and insurance. (woolworths.com 2018). The wide range and variety of products that the company offers is really unique in nature and thus attracts a large number of customers. The company has gradually expanded itself across Australia and has presently the large size of 1000 different stores including 976 large to small and medium scale markets along with 19 other convenience stores. The management of the company has recently shifted their concentration on the online marketing and has reacted by introduction of “Home-Shop” where the company provides all the available products in the stores to the customers who order them online. With revenue of more than Australian Dollar 40 billion (A$40 billion) the company surpasses all its nearest rivals like that of Coles in terms of business investment and earnings (woolworths.com 2018). The company has the unique reputation of selling different kinds of organic foods which have made it the first choice supermarket for most of the Australian people.

Apart from the above mentioned uses, the company provides its customers with different rewards and benefits in the form of discounts as well as loyalty cards (woolworths.com 2018). The loyalty cards are an important component of the business as they provide the customers with the option of saving points from each and every purchase and then ultimately redeeming it in return of a gift or a large discount on their purchases.

Methodology provides a systematic approach to the description of exploration of the research topic by the use of the different types of appropriate methods. The methodology chapter in this report has provided the theories of Human Resource Management and has also selected and justified the use of a particular phenomenon accordingly. The methodology starts with the description and the application of the different HRM theories.

Woolworths Supermarket Organizational Structure

Human Resource Management is a varied and universal term and thus there are different theories that are used to describe the Human Resource Management of a company. The time when the organization traces the definitive origin of the Human Resource Management and its theory, it becomes an elusive exercise since the literature of the management is published in different areas of the globe and poses their own stances and some of the inclinations points to their own different countries of origins (Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser 2015). “The Harvard Analytical Framework” was developed by the Harvard Business School and saw a rapid increase during the beginning of the 1980’s. Most of the new theories of Human Resource Management were propagated using the basic elements of this particular theory and thus the following theory can be described as the father of all the different theories that is in use in the present time.

According to the following theory top managers of a company have high responsibility in the development of different policies and practices of Human Resource Management in their organization. The human component in the organization is generally believed to be as one of the main strategic resources of the organization. The Human Resource in an organization must have a mission for the fulfillment of the objectives of the organization in a coherent manner (Olins 2017). The following model is thus constituted of different kind of elements like that of mutual respect, mutual commitment, mutual responsibility and it relies on the team approach and some different elements in the soft view of that of Human Resource Management. Another crucial model used in Human Resource Management in the different companies of the globe is “The Matching Model”.

The Matching Model provides different kinds of ways and processes that help in the achievement of the objectives set out by the management of the organization. This can be achieved by means of the application of five major functions of Human Resource Management Effectively. The application of the following method is chosen by most of the organizations because it has the provision for providing rewards to the employees by means of the judgment of their performance (Olins 2017). The HRM process is a cyclical process in which each and every function is generally interdependent on the on the different kinds of HRD procedures and the different programs of the organization. Apart from the two mentioned theories contingency theory is also another important theory that has a wide scale use in the Human Resource department of many companies in the world. According to, Kramar (2014) the contingency theory relates to the relationship between the independent and the dependent variable. This will further vary according to the size of the company, age of the company, technology applied by the company as well as the industry sector that the company is currently working in.

The management of Woolworth’s supermarket implements the policies and strategies of the Human Resource department that are based on the Matching theory (Kramar 2014). The matching theory that is selected by the management is quite justified in the following case as because it helps the management to select the exact individuals who are fit for the organization, analyze their performance in the business and consider them for appraisal on a timely basis. Therefore the following process is necessary for the supermarket as the providence of rewards to the employees of the organization is helpful to ensure success of the organization. The selection of the matching theory is thus totally justified in the following case.

Theories of the HRM

Primary Data Collection and Secondary Data Collection are said to be two of the most important data collecting techniques of the organization. The collection of data from books, journals, internet sources, online articles and newspaper articles in order to complete a research on a particular topic is said to be the collection of data from the secondary sources. The use of secondary resources is important for the development of a much deeper understanding of the research topic and also to create a stronger concept of the research topic. The use of the previously used researches is also important as because it helps to assure the reliability and validity of the information that will be used. The primary data collection methods on the other hand refer to the collection of information from live participants. Both qualitative as well as quantitative data are used as the source of the collection of data. Qualitative data collection methods include the likes of the interview whereas the quantitative data collection method includes the likes of conducting a survey to gather data related to the research. The opinions and the thoughts of the different research participants are gathered in this particular form and then analyzed to find out the main results of the research. As mentioned earlier, the data of the following research is generally collected in the form of different types of surveys and interviews.

The report has been constructed by the use of both the primary and the secondary data collection methods. The primary data collection methods has been appropriate in this particular case as because the primary data collection methods allow the report to use the practical and valid source of information from the live participants selected from the company and the management of Woolworths. The data has been mainly collected from the journals and the website of the company along with different kind of other online sources. The employees and some managers were mainly selected to be the participants of the following research. The most important details were obtained from interviewing the HR manager of Woolworths. Apart from this secondary data were collected from the different documents of Woolworths and the website of Woolworths (woolworthsgroup.com.au 2018).

The documents that are collected and assembled for the purpose of use in the report are mainly collected from the annual reports and the website of the company, the HRM report of the organization, employee policies, employee retention policies etc. The selection of the different sources of information for the conduction of the following research had been done by the use of the valid secondary resources. The validity of the different types of the research methods must be measured and tested according to the different basic standards. The gentility of the information can be accessed by the measurement of the basic standards of the research.

The information regarding the different types of the Human Resource Management practices along with its implementation in Woolworths have been collected from the journals and documents related to the organization. There were many sources of information that were gathered because of its previous use and the reliability that it generally offers to the research. However, the research could have been more appropriate and compact if information regarding the HRM practice in the organization could have been taken from the other general online sources. These sources could have provided a lot much information regarding the different types of other common Human Resource practices along with more specifications on process of retaining the employees.

The strategic Human Resource Management is considered to be the key roles that are undertaken by the management of the organization. To be more specific, strategic human resource management refers to the key roles that are generally undertaken by the Human Resource department of the organization (Jackson Schuler and Jiang 2014). The cyclical process of the Human Resource strategy is generally a long term process of the organization that provides enough flexibility to the company for permitting the directional changes in Human Resource in the management of the company (Bratton and Gold 2017). The company does not undertake this role and in place of it the management usually outsources different types of functions of the human resources. The following organization generally follows the business process Human Resource outsourcing with the help of an external supplier. This makes Woolworths capable of managing the discrete activities of the Human Resource such as the recruitment of the administration who controls the Payroll or the financial system of the organization. Being one of the most famous as well as the most renowned supermarket of the country, the company has a dedicated human resource department that organizes and performs all the different Human Resource management roles with ease. According to, Hollenbeck and Jamieson (2015) the company has a dedicated and well designed human resource department which engages itself in significant approaches of the Human Resource. The tasks of the company include the likes of the development and the recruitment of talent, matching the staff with the different requirements of the business organization, retaining and the training of the employees, downsizing and many other similar tasks. The managers and the supervisors of the company who are engaged in the Human Resource Department are generally trained to employ the strategic Human Resource Management (Jackson Schuler and Jiang 2014).

There are three different levels in Woolworths company at which the line managers as well as the practitioners of the company operates either by their own or together with the help of support from the others. They function at different levels like strategic, functional and operation. The supervisors generally develop different types of action plans for meeting with the present needs of the labor. In the case of the particular retailer, the managers generally carry out different primary activities at the functional level that helps to ensure the presence of the employees at the right time and for the right cost (Jackson Schuler and Jiang 2014). The following steps also ensure the presence of the employee at the perfect place where they are needed the most. Woolworths has the tendency to operate their business functions at the strategic as well as the functional level. The following is done by the management mainly because of the operational and strategic efficiency of the Human Resource Department in Woolworths. Recruitment and selection is one of the main tasks of the Human Resource Department as because it involves the selection of the most able employees in the business. The area of recruitment and selection in the company has now been pushed forward by technological developments, social developments and strategic issues with the passage of time (Bratton and Gold 2017). The employee is selected in the organization by means of a thorough scrutiny where the manager focuses on the single quality or a special talent like customer friendly and customer attractiveness. This kind of special personality or character of the employees followed by Woolworths makes it the largest retailer of the country. Part from the recruitment process, the company is also renowned for its exclusive and unique retention and development capabilities. The employees are provided with a friendly and tension free environment and the management always tries to empower the employees by providing them with different types of necessary training that are useful for the business. Apart from this the posting of the right employees at the right place and focusing on continuous improvement process makes the company attractive to the employees of the company.

As known from the previous sections, Woolworths is one of the largest and well-known supermarkets in Australia. Over the years, the supermarket has established itself in the market and one of the reasons is continuously developing and flexible human resource management systems. As known from the previous sections, the the first scenario selected for this report is the level of easiness and difficulty for the organization to obtain necessary skills in the employees in the present and the future by conducting required examination and analysis of different HR policies. In addition to, the second scenario taken is the extent HRM function promotes ethical standards of behaviour and practice within the organization by verifying whether these standards and codes are articulated clearly within the policy of the Woolworths. 

In this section, the strengths and weakness of Woolworths is discussed by taking into account both the aforementioned scenarios.

HR planning: In the case of Woolworths, the stage of evaluating the present employees of HR planning is the company’s strength. This is because due to this stage Woolworths is able to identify the problematic employees as well as recognizes the hard working employees. As a result, HR can plan required training sessions from the struggling employees as well as use strengths of the hard working employees wisely. Considering the hugeness of the supermarket, this strength of Woolworths is useful for them to sustain in the competitive market. However, this step is also a weakness as identifying the problematic employees continuously and working behind them is costing both human and financial resources for Woolworths.

Recruitment: Recruitment is another significant step of the human resource management because this deals with hiring the right individuals for Woolworths that represent the company to the market population. Woolworths use internal and external recruitment process thereby, giving equal opportunities to both the fresher’s and the experienced. Ability to make a quick decision is one of the strengths of internal recruitment used by Woolworths, as the company is able to appoint directly or promote instantly. In addition to, other advantages of internal recruitment are cost-effective and familiar people that act as strength for Woolworths. On the other hand, issues such as limited applicants, lack of innovative ideas, resentment and creating vacancies internally serves as major weakness for Woolworths within their HR policy. Woolworths use external recruitment as a part of their HR policy and the strength achieved due to this is bringing in fresh talent for Woolworths. External recruitment also provides the option of equal opportunity, as they are new and results in lack of biasness. However, factors such as cost, time-consuming and screening make the process of external recruitment a weakness for Woolworths.

Selection: The selection process follows the recruitment process, as Woolworths need to confirm the candidates they have interviewed. Woolworths generally use face-to-face interview along with testing for selecting the candidates by using their top expert and giving the new candidates practical opportunities to test them. This is strength for Woolworths, as they are able to test the candidates on the spot. However, the disadvantage of the selection process used by Woolworths that highlights its weakness is time consuming and that the candidates are rejected without given them the opportunity of showing their ability and learn.  

Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Employee value proposition for Woolworths is crucial because this is best way to fulfil the financial requirements of the employees by Woolworths. It is majorly divided into three parts namely salary, benefits and compensation. The strength of EVP for Woolworths is the fact that the company offers both hourly and monthly pay to the employees along with giving certain benefits to the employees of both basic and higher level. However, the weakness Woolworths highlights in terms of EVP is that the employees fail to share their experiences and views openly with the aim of making the work culture better. As a result, lack of great culture and inappropriate employee behavior is noticed that hampers the overall performance of Woolworths.

Human resource development and performance management: This is another crucial part of the human resource management of Woolworths, as this provides an opportunity for Woolworths to improve the existing human resource system as well as managing the performance of the company. The strength of the human resource development and performance management of Woolworths is the use of experts in modifying the existing strategies followed by managing the performance of the employees alongside the indicators developed by them. However, on the other hand, the weakness of the system for Woolworths is time consuming and expensive. As a result, Woolworths loses both financial and human resources in maintaining it.

According to this scenario, it can be said that the HRM plays a great role in promoting ethical standards of behavior and practice within Woolworths. This is considered as one of the core responsibilities of the HRM functions, as the entire employee from the basic level to the higher level have to follow them and cannot ensure non-compliance. In the case of Woolworths, the ethical standards in terms of behaviour are articulated in the policy of the organization in terms of code of ethical practice. In Woolworths, the HR department pays attention towards developing the ethical standards of behaviour as well as ensures that all the employees are conveyed the code of ethical practice during their selection and training period. However, the weakness in the case of this scenario is due to the continuous monitoring that the employees are abiding by the code of ethical practice. Lack of regular monitoring results in behavioral issues among the employees thereby, leading to poor organizational performance. On the other hand, strength for Woolworths is that the HRM department of the company ensures that they are following by the legal requirements in terms of EEO, WHS and Industrial Relation. Abiding by the legal policies is a strength that the company highlights, as all the employees are compensated or given equal opportunities. However, concern has been noticed in circulating the legal policies followed by Woolworths to the employees. As a result, the employees at certain instances fail to abide by the legal aspects that the company follows.

Thus, it can be suggested that the HRM planning stage and HRM promoting ethical standards are both crucial for Woolworths for continuing business in Australia thereby, providing impeccable service to the customers.

This section analyses and evaluates the factors discussed in the above section by referring it to relevant literatures. From the above scenarios, it can be said that human resource management of any organization is crucial in defining and maintaining the standards and work culture and promote a healthy working environment and equality towards the employees. As mentioned by Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser (2015), HR planning of an organization determines the overall success of the organization. This is because it is the HRM functions that help in developing a positive work culture, hiring the right employees, taking care of their needs and expectations. As a result, the organization is able to build highly committed, dedicated and engaged employees that give their best in ensuring organizational success.

As known, Woolworths is a supermarket that deals with customer service. Thus, it is important for the HRM of Woolworths to take care of the employees along with recruit the right employees for providing impeccable service to the customers. However, as criticized by Olins (2017), other than creating positive working environment and taking care of the employees, it is essential for HRM to keep the employees motivated continuously. Motivated employees give their best towards their job roles and responsibilities and ensures fulfillment. Appropriate HR planning also results in growth and expansion of the company by the use of appropriate technologies. Growth and expansion is possible because the HR planning includes searching, recruiting, hiring, training and preparing the candidates in accordance with the work culture of the company. This is also supported by Kramar (2014) that considers as the backbone of any organizations those give their best for both personal and professional growth. Recruiting and selecting the right individuals is an integral function of the HRM functions because it determines the excellent customer service.

Also, giving suitable salary, benefits and compensation to the employees is a crucial part of the HRM planning and function. The HR needs to decide the salary and benefits for the employees based on the level they are being appointed to but ensuring that inequality is not highlighted. However, as criticized by Bratton and Gold (2017), ensuring positivity and no grudge among the employees is difficult, as the employees tend to think they deserve the best by seeing others. Thus, in Woolworths, it is advisable to the employees not to disclose any information related to their salary, benefits and compensation to fellow employees under any circumstances. This can help in ensuring no conflicts and negativity among the employees thereby, keeping the employees motivated and ensuring success for the company.

As mentioned by Hollenbeck and Jamieson (2015), appropriate behavior while working within a company is important because it shows mutual respect and establishes a positive working environment. Abiding by the legal policies such as Workplace Health and Safety and Equal Employment Opportunity is important for any small, medium and large sized business organizations. This provides an opportunity for the respective business organization to prevent inequality and ensure safety for the employees at workplace. It is important for the human resource management to put in greater effort in developing the EEO and WHS policies in relation to the respective business sector, so that the employees are treated well. Thus, in Woolworths, the HRM department emphasizes on developing the WHS and EEO policy, so that the employees are treated fairly and given equal opportunities.

The following are the recommendations which can be made to the management of Woolworths in the view of the above discussion:

Woolworths must train its employees on regular basis to increase their skills and competences in serving customers. The Australian retail chain should train the employees on new selling techniques and encourage them to interact with customers proactively. This means that the employees should communicate with customers to gain information their needs and future expectations from the retail chain. This would enable the employees gain information about changing customer preferences. They should communicate this crucial information to the managers to form future business strategies. Thus, training would enable the employees to contribute to the business growth of Woolworths.

The management of Woolworths should emphasise on creating a more positive and work friendly organisational culture. The staff members should be provided with counselling to deal with their aggressive and hostile nature. This would enable the retail chain curb hostile conduct among employees which would in turn allow the retail chain comply with OHS laws to a greater extent. Thus, aligning of human resources would enable the retail chain to strengthen its business compliance and reduce legal expenditure incurred.

Conclusion

The above discussion discretely points out that alignment of human resource with business needs is the basis of competitive advantage. Human resource management holds fgar greater importance to multinational retail chain like Woolworths. The Australian retail chain has been known to boast teams of highly talented staff members capable of delivering superior performance. However, lack of regular training and hostile nature of some of the employees have tainted the HRM strategies of Woolworths. Thus, it can be concluded from the recommendations that training of employees and development of a more positive organisational culture would contribute towards alignment of the retail to its business requirements to a greater extent.  The reference sources have been used extensively to gather information regarding Human Resource management and its use in Woolworths.

References

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