Human Resource Management Essay: Woolworths Limited Issues

Brief Description about Job Analysis and Design

Discuss about the Human Resource Management Issue Affecting Woolworths Limited.

Woolworths Limited is part of the retail industry that owns a chain of supermarkets, based in Australia. They specialize in dealing with grocery-based sales including vegetables, fruit, meat, packaged foods along with stationary products. The organization is responsible in operating 980 stores, in Australia alone (Woolworths Group 2016). It was founded in the year 1924 and was originally known as ‘Woolworths Bazaar Ltd’. The supermarket giant started off based on the policy that the goods that they sold were of the cheapest price and they had even facilitated money back guarantees in order to attract the customers and establish itself in the retail sector (Woolworths Group, 2016). It had started off exclusively as a grocery but today it has extended its influence in several other sectors too. It also brags of four private label based brands, namely, Woolworths Homebrand, Woolworths Select, Woolworths Gold, Woolworths Fresh and Macro Wholefoods Market (Arli et al. 2013). It comprises of 3000 stores and houses more than 205,000 employees, devoted to the services of more than 29 million customers across the globe.

The retail giant aims at building a customer and store led culture at the retail stores. It believes in prioritizing the needs of the customers, paying heed to their opinions and also believes in developing newer and attractive means dedicated to shopping (Dos Santos, Svensson and Padin 2013). They are dedicated in creating loyalty programs for their customers and continuously keeps updating their product and extending their range of options for the customers to choose from.

Job analysis and design comprises of several criteria, namely,

description of job, selection of employee, training, performance based appraisal, classification of job, evaluation of job.

Job analysis can be defined as the process which is responsible for appraising a job internally and initiating a functional benchmark in contrast to the job which has already been structured or advertised (Morgeson and Campion 2012). It is a very important step which is necessary for the recruitment process, where the human resources based department works towards employing staff in an organization in a particular department which is mostly understaffed, or lacks skilled staff. Job analysis is responsible for determining the details of the job based particular duties as well as requirements along with the assessment of the duties related to the job (Cates, Randall and Cooke 2015). The details of a particular job such as the related duties, responsibilities, required skills, expected outcomes and the work related environment. Its main objective is identifying the list of duties that is responsible in defining a job.

Analysis of HRM issue

The necessary information in relation to a job can be gathered from several sources, such as, observation, individual interview, group based interview, technical conference, preparing questionnaire, maintaining a diary, critically acclaimed incidents, equipment design information, record keeping of job activities (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Job design on the other hand is responsible for informing the employer the aspects of a job that is the way a job is to be performed. A job design allows an employee to have a legal stance on the situation of what his domain of work would be like (Delahaye 2015). This prevents the employer from forcing the employee to carry out a job which is illegal. To avoid such a situation, most of the times, the human resources department makes effort in putting everything into writing to facilitate clarification for both the parties associated with the job (Bratton and Gold 2012).

In general, an organization like Woolworths is bound to face several challenges from the human resources management point of view. Both the employers as well as the employees face difficulties and these issues must be solved at the earliest in order to establish a healthy work environment so that productivity is not hampered (Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam 2014). In a retail industry, the employees are in direct contact with the customers. Therefore, the human resource requires building a workforce which is motivated and efficient in shouldering the responsibilities pertaining to the job.

The human resources department does not need to spend time in describing the job to an employee (Buller and McEvoy 2012). In a retail sector, the biggest workforce involves people who deal with the customer directly and adhere to their needs. So, most of the times they employees are aware of their position and they do not require briefing. However, the biggest issue remains on whether the human interface will exist or not in the wake of online revolution (Kehoe and Wright 2013). These days, most of the retail sector, sells their products online. In a way this is killing jobs and reducing the customer-client interaction to a large extent. This prevents a large number of people from not opting for jobs in the retail sector.

The employee selection is a major headache for the human resource department due to the high retail turnover (Hendry 2012). Most of the times, the employees regularly quit the job on getting a better opportunity in some other organization. The organization faces losses as it spends time as well as money in training them how to carry out the task. It is a disadvantageous situation for the organization because clients are more comfortable in conversing with familiar faces (Booth and Coveney 2015). When the employees keep quitting and ones join, the customers feel apprehensive to approach them while facing an issue and in this way the organization lands up losing their valuable customers.

Improvement Necessary for the Organization

Customers in general belongs different backgrounds and ethnicity and in the era of globalization, it is quite common for such a situation to arise (Biddle 2016). Most of the times, such customers face problems in understanding the signs and read the instructions on the goods. This further makes the organization is losing customers. The organization at times go hard on their employees by levying longer working hours, low pay, no holidays, no growth based opportunities. Such situations discourage the employees from giving their best to their jobs (Mahmood 2015). During festive seasons, a huge dearth of employees are created as they avail the holidays. The customer footfalls receive a drag as the regular employees are not around to help them. It is equally difficult to persuade the employees to work longer in order to attend the customers that arrive in a surge mostly during the festive season (Subramaniam, Selvanayagam and Yogarajah 2016).

Along with these issues, the employees also remain in constant fear whether they will be ousted from their job or not. This enforces additional pressure on the human resource department as they have to work harder in motivating the employees that the rumors of off laying them is not necessarily true and as long as they work, they should give their best to it (Foster 2013). Such a situation is the biggest example why the organization loses large number of employees who join other competitor organizations.

• In order to deal with the human resource management issue related to job analysis and job design, it is necessary to develop capability among the workforce.
• Career pathways needs to be modified for the employees so that they remain in the organization and not seek options on the outside.
• A rewarding attitude from the employer motivates the employees to work harder and improve their performances. Under appreciated and un-acknowledged employees will be less interested in giving their best to their job.
• A culture needs to be established which recognized the employees’ hard work and it results into rewarding them for it.
• Most of the times, it has been seen that due to lack of motivation, growth and incentives, employees leave the organization as they are dissatisfied. To avoid such a distasteful situation, the idea of commitment to values needs to be established among the employees.

Wesfarmers was founded earlier than Woolworths; however, it has the same status as that of the retail giant, Woolworths. Wesfarmers started operating from the Western part of Australia, as Western Australian Farmer’s Cooperative. Its business expands over priorities such as supermarkets, liquor, hotels, convenience stores, office supplies, department stores, safety products, coal, fertilizers, and chemicals (Wesfarmers 2016).

In the light of contrast against Woolworths, it houses over 220,000 employees, working towards satisfying the needs of the precious customers by providing quality services. Wesfarmers aims at providing a work friendly environment for its employees by providing several opportunities to them so that they can flourish in their chosen field of expertise (Wesfarmers 2016). They are even generous in rewarding their employees for their good performance. It utilizes every opportunity to be in par with the expansion and growth the country is making. They understand that with expansion and growth comes the part where more needs are created and that has to be satisfied by meeting them with their services (Booth and Coveney 2015). Wesfarmers also works hard towards safeguarding the interests of the environment. They pay attention towards the community and checks their actions if at all they have an impact on the environment or not. They believe in maintaining honesty and integrity in their dealings both with the employees as well as the customers (Biddle 2016).  

Brief Background of Wesfarmers

This clearly states that most of the human resource management issues are well met and addressed to at the Wesfarmers in contrast to Woolworths Limited.

In order to enable change, as the very first move, the idea needs to be established that Woolworths is a highly inspirational organization to work for. So, to avoid people for making a run for other organization, the human resource department needs to be prudish while appointing the employees. They should recruit such employees who are there to stay and who are equipped with good conversation skills. It is necessary for the employees to build a rapport with the customers as the entire retail sector is based on customer-client interface (Bardoel et al. 2014).

• In order to avoid the problem of hiring people who quit soon enough post the training period, the human resource department should make efforts in order to define the job requirements in such a way that it has an extreme level of clarity. For example, in respect to the job of an employer at the retail sector who will be responsible in interacting with a customer on a regular basis, the job description should highlight the following traits (Patel and Desai 2013):
• good conversationalist – Must have this quality as it is necessary for building rapport with the customers and customers are the top priority for the organization.
• responsible – Should be responsible towards the job and not slacken off during working hours.
• hard working – Should be hard working and every bit of effort will be appreciated and acknowledged as well as rewarded.
• sincere – Sincerity will be equally acknowledged.
• diligent – Having a consciousness towards one’s position and work will be appreciated.
• disciplined – Must be disciplined, should maintain the decorum of the place, arrive to work on time.
• The interview should only be carried out of those employees whose personal detail strictly appears to be in accordance with the job requirements. At the times, with the help of a group discussion, it gets reflected how far the employees can possible meet with the requirement of the job. Hence, these means can be availed during the interview to determine whether a person is suitable for the job or not.
• To avoid losing customers belonging to different cultural backgrounds, a diverse group of employees should be hired so that they can help such customers in their need. However, there are times, conflicts has been observed to have arose due to lack of tolerance among the employees. The organization should work towards promoting a culturally sensitive environment for the employees so that everyone, irrespective of their background can work with a spirit of teamwork.
• The employees should be provided with healthy working hours and a fixed list of holidays that they can avail without any negotiation. Another human resource management issue is that of not allowing the employees to strike a work-home-family balance. In a situation where the balance is getting disrupted, most of the times the employees tend to quit the job because they would not want to compromise the needs of their families. Hence, a good human resource department takes into account such issues by assuring not only job security but also providing health benefits and promoting stability by assuring the employees that their jobs will be safe during any unfavorable economic situation.
• “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy” – An English proverb. However, it is applicable to this situation where the employees should be made to participate in activities that will provide a distraction from their mundane life of attending customers. Fun activities will allow the employees to relax for a while and let their hair down. Engaging in such activities by all the employees of the organization, promotes a sense of unity and belonging among them. The employees do not get the feeling that all they have to do is work. Organizing such activities will help the employees to get motivated and work better.

Conclusion

Both Woolworths and Wesfarmers are the biggest names in the retail sector in Australia and it has received global distinction too. They both brag to have thousands of employees, dedicated in serving millions of customers across the planet. However, the organizations will have to comprehend that it is a two way street. Yes, customers top the priority list but without the employees, the organizations do not exist. A sophisticated work environment is the call of the moment for all organizations. The basic needs of the grass root people have to be taken care of in order for the customers to remain loyal and come back to them over and over again. The good will of an organization in all possible sense depends on the well being of the employees. When the discord shows, even the customers can sense it and they shift their loyalty somewhere else. The organizations requires to reframe they handle their employees and also the nature in which the work is performed. Regular surveys should be carried out to earn a feedback from the employees in order to establish an employee friendly work environment. This would only help in increasing the performance level of the employees and further the betterment of the organization. From the aspect of job analysis and job design, the organizations need to be very thorough so that the requirements for the job are clearly mentioned. Hence, it is only sensible on the part of the organization to make sure that the needs of the employees are satisfied.

References

Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R. and Soldo, E., 2013. Woolworths Australia and Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration. Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy| Ventura, 16(1), pp.27-46.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bamberger, P.A., Biron, M. and Meshoulam, I., 2014. Human resource strategy: Formulation, implementation, and impact. Routledge.

Bardoel, E.A., Pettit, T.M., De Cieri, H. and McMillan, L., 2014. Employee resilience: an emerging challenge for HRM. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 52(3), pp.279-297.

Biddle, I., 2016. The Wesfarmers/Woolworths duopoly war: The Bunnings vs. Masters battle. Busidate, 24(3), p.3.

Booth, S. and Coveney, J., 2015. ‘Big Food’—The Industrial Food System. In Food Democracy (pp. 3-11). Springer Singapore.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Buller, P.F. and McEvoy, G.M., 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), pp.43-56.

Cates, T.A., Randall, E.J. and Cooke, E.F., 2015. Job Analysis: The First Step in Selecting and Training Salespeople. In Proceedings of the 1983 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 192-196). Springer International Publishing.

Delahaye, B., 2015. Human resource development. Tilde Publishing.

Dos Santos, M.A., Svensson, G. and Padin, C., 2013. Indicators of sustainable business practices: Woolworths in South Africa. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 18(1), pp.104-108.

Foster, S., 2013. HR Ready: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Human Resource Management. Lulu. com.

Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.

Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391.

Mahmood, M., 2015. Strategy, structure, and HRM policy orientation: Employee recruitment and selection practices in multinational subsidiaries. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 53(3), pp.331-350.

Morgeson, F.P. and Campion, M.A., 2012. A framework of sources of inaccuracy in job analysis. The handbook of work analysis: The methods, systems, applications, and science of work measurement in organizations. New York, NY: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis.

Patel, B. and Desai, T., 2013. Effect of Workplace Fun on Employee Morale and Performance. International Journal of Scientific Research, 2(5), pp.323-326.

Subramaniam, B., Selvanayagam, J. and Yogarajah, V., 2016. Impact of Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Performance Evaluation, and Compensation (HRM Practices) on Employees’ Trust.

Wesfarmers. Retrieved on 7^th November 2016. https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/

Woolworths. Retrieved on 7^th November 2016. https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/