Aldi: Limited Line Discount Retailer In The UK

The CEO has asked you to prepare a report addressing the strategic Human Resource Development implications of this plan. Task Write a report for the CEO of Aldi UK in which you address the following issues:

1. Analyse and evaluate how a systematic approach to Human Resource Development might ensure Aldi are able to maintain high standards of productivity and service across their UK operation despite their extremely rapid expansion plans over the next 5 years.

2. Given how large the Aldi operation in the UK is likely to become by 2022, Compare and contrast three different designs for the companys Human Resource Development function, and evaluate which of these options, or combination of options, would be most effective.

3. Provide a concise and precise set of final recommendations and a conclusion, in which you summarise and justify your main findings.

Aldi is a limited line offering discount retailer which has its origins in UK where the first store of the company was established in the year 1990, nine years after the company started its Irish operations. The organization is currently operating 620 stores in Ireland and UK. The number of items listed in the product line of the organization are around 1300. The items that are listed seasonal products are added to the permanent list of the items every year. The structure of the organization is based on low prices and this allows the company to place orders in consistent qualities. The organization has always been trying to offer the products so that high values can be provided to the customers (Aldi.co.uk. 2018). The main goal of the company has been to provide the customers with products that they use on a regular basis. The company provides the customers with a smart way to shop. The organization is seeking new suppliers to source the best of products from them to offer to consumers. The businesses of Aldi are growing on a continuous basis and the company is further introducing more items to its already existing product line (Brewster 2017).

The report is further based on the formation of human resource design for the organization based on its expansion plans in the next five years. The policies that will be implemented by Aldi to maintain its sustainable growth in the market will also be analysed in the report.

The factors of operational efficiency have been the most important of human resource development related activities of the organization. The human resource strategies that have been implemented by Aldi have allowed the organization to operate in an efficient format. The human resource related functions of the company are further aligned with the competitive strategy of Aldi. The management of human resources of an organization further contribute to the competitive advantage that has been achieved by it in the market. The efficiency of human resource practices is not only implemented in the organization, the synergy with the competitive strategy is also quite important (Vahlne and Johanson 2017). The management of strategic human resource function acts as a major source of the competitive advantage of the company. The employees are a major asset of the organization in the highly competitive and changing business environment. The employees have also become highly competitive in the modern business environment. The organizations thereby need to make sure that the employees are highly skilled and receive the right amount of training related to the various processes of the company (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow 2016). The employees who deal with the consumers in the service sectors further need to provide them with the optimum levels of satisfaction so that their loyalty can be ensured. The various companies in the different sectors have thereby focussed on the human resource based assets or the employees. They have developed huge number of techniques and tools so that the gaps in the capabilities of the employees can be identified and the company can take appropriate steps to increase their profitability (Marchington et al. 2016).

Human Resource Design for Expansion

Aldi had become the fifth biggest retailer in the grocery sector of UK after organizations like, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons. The organization is planning for a huge expansion in the next 5 years. Aldi is thereby planning to open 600 new stores all over UK. The goal of the company in the next five years is to increase the number of stores to 1000. However, according to the plans that have been by the management of Aldi it is evident that the company will be able to overachieve its target. The opening new stores will thereby require the recruitment of more number of employees in different positions.

The recruitment of and training of the new employees in the organization will be based on the analysis of the existing human resource functions and identify the gaps. The gaps in the capabilities of the employees have been a huge concern for the organizations operating in the modern business environment. The abilities of the employees are effective in creating the shared goals of the organization based on the needs of the consumers. The gaps related to capability can be measured as the skills that are possessed by the employees to execute a specific task. The gaps in the capabilities can also be relate to the lack of knowledge of the employees, the lack of proper leadership and the changes that have taken place in the technologies (Albrecht et al. 2015). The organizations have been focussed on offering the employees with many training and development related opportunities so they can ensure that the inabilities of the employees can be easily converted to skills which are used to improve the work processes in the organization. The identification of gaps in the performance of employees have become increasingly important to the changing needs of the business organizations. The identification of gaps has been related to the various proposed methods which can be useful to provide the employees with optimum levels of training (Bamberger, Meshoulam and Biron 2014).

The company is able to identify the shortage related to skills with the use of feedback. The businesses can use the 360-Degree review process where the managers, colleagues and the peers of the employees can analyse the performance of employees. The tool is also related to the process of gathering the feedback related to the performance of the employees. The management needs to gather the feedback from different so that the behaviour of the employees and the shortage of skills can be identified. In this case Aldi needs to recruit around 600 managers in its new stores. The 360-degree feedback will thereby play a major role in this case (Purce 2014). The management needs to focus on the reviews and the feedbacks so that their skills and competencies can be developed which can help them in providing the best services. The profits Aldi have been reducing in a huge manner from the last three years and this feedback method can be used by the organization to organise its aggressive expansion plans. The company can further hire the external consultants who will help in the collection and analysing of the feedback in an effective manner and helping the employees to improve their overall performance as well. The tool will also be helpful for the organization to provide opportunities related to development and training to the newly recruited employees (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014).

Factors of Operational Efficiency

This is also a prominent tool that is used for the identification of the gaps in the skills of the employees that already exist in the organization. Using this process, the organizations compare the performance of the best employees with the others. This helps the company in setting a reference point for all the employees in the organization in relation to the skills that are required for the overall success of the employees in the workplace. The most common method that is used in this tool is the observation related powers of the organization related to the top performers (Kramar 2014).

Aldi has not been quite successful in satisfying its stakeholders due to the continuously decreasing revenues and profitability of the organization. The company can thereby use this tool to decide the best practice that can help in the demonstration of the ideal competencies of the employees at work. The gaps in the performance of the employees will also be detected in an effective manner and the company can decide on the development and training related programs that are to be offered to the employees. The benchmarking process will be helpful for the employees to improve the capability based gaps and make advancements towards the aggressive expansion plans (Saks and Gruman 2014).

The gaps of the capabilities of employees can also be identified with the help of another method known as the training needs analysis. This method also focusses extensively on the needs and the demands of the employees. The companies are thereby recommended to consider and take care of the needs of the employees and departments in an individual manner to improve their overall performance. The individual needs of the organizations need to be considered based on their development and training related sessions. The analysis of the tasks on the other hand can be helpful in developing the skills that are required to perform the various jobs in an efficient and effective manner (Noe et al. 2014). The employees are thereby required to be provided with the best training opportunities to ensure that the gaps in their capabilities can be fulfilled in an easy manner. TNA further helps the organizations to identify the gaps between the current skills and the required skills as well. Aldi can implement the method of TNA or training needs analysis to change the behaviour and the attitudes of the employees through the various development and training based opportunities which will be offered to them for the reduction of gaps in their performance (Lin and Wu 2014). Aldi can also take care of the reduction of the capability related gaps with the use of mentoring as it will prove to have a huge impact on the knowledge, attitude of employees. This will further offer various employees the relationships that can be created with the exceptional managers. The use of this method will also be helpful in increasing the competitive advantage of Aldi in the market and the retail industry of grocery (Anitha 2014).

Importance of Skilled Employees

The three different human resource development designs or functions that can be suitable for Aldi are, coaching, mentoring and management training programme.

The process of mentoring and coaching has gained huge importance in the development of human resources of modern organizations. The mentoring and coaching related processes have gained high levels of importance in the development of human resources of organizations. The coaching and mentoring related have many similarities which include, both help in facilitating the process of exploring needs of the employees and motivation that help the individuals to make lasting changes. Both the processes help in setting the goals of the organization following which the progress of these goals can be assessed. The methods help in the encouragement related to the commitment to action and further helping the individuals to develop personal growth (Nyberg et al. 2014). The methods related coaching and mentoring are similar to each other. Coaching can be thereby defined as the formal and structured manner of focussing on the improvement in the performance and behaviour of the employees and taking care that the work issues can be resolved quickly. Mentoring on the other hand is defined as the informal association which focusses on the two-way communications which can be effective for the employees related to the development of their career on a long-term basis. The concepts related coaching and mentoring are different from each other even though they are used in an interchangeable manner (Ployhart et al. 2014). Mentoring is more focussed on the relationships in the organizations rather than the tasks and coaching deals with the tasks. The focus of coaching is related to the achievement of short-term goals and mentoring deals with the short-term goals of the company. The expansion of Aldi will however require the implementation of both mentoring and coaching related process which can ensure that the businesses remain competitive in the market. The coaching approach will be the most appropriate in the initial stages of the expansion process. The newly recruited employees can develop the skills that are required for the successful completion of jobs (Bolden 2016). The resource based view of Aldi has depicted that the employees need to complete their tasks in the most efficient manner. The approach of coaching is driven hugely by the performance of employees and this help Aldi to achieve the highest levels of success. The concept of on-the-job training is also related to the process of coaching. The coaching method will be thereby followed by the process of mentoring the employees. This will be helpful for the business in the development of the leaders from the existing pool of talent (Muir 2014).

Identification of Capability Gaps

The management trainee programme of the organizations can be argued as the process which is related to the selection and recruitment of the applicants and making leaders for the future. The management trainee is further offered opportunities related to development and training for the supervisory or the managerial position. The employees are provided with a huge variety of programmes that are related to their training and development. The newly recruited employees will be thereby focus more on the skills and judgements that are required for the purpose of becoming an effective leader. The trainee program will be focussed on the meaningful opportunities and the accelerated growth by the alignment of the personal development needs of the employees with the needs of the business (Wang et al. 2014). This method will play a significant role in success of the business according to the aggressive expansion plans of Aldi. The process will also offer Aldi with a wide range of employees who will be able to play an important role in the success of the business and also be considered for future managerial positions in the stores. Aldi will hire around 600 new managers for the stores which have been planned for opening in the next five years. This program will offer the business organizations opportunities to test the competencies and the skills of the newly recruited employees and trying to develop them accordingly. The ability of decision-making of the management will also increase with the application of this process (Van Der Aalst et al. 2016). The departments will have the required amount of time to focus on selection and recruitment of around 18000 employees. Aldi will thereby be able to focus on the plans that they have made regarding the expansion of the operations of the company.

The focus related to the process of coaching is based on the structured support that is provided to the employees so that appropriate and relevant solutions can be formulated. Mentoring on the other hand focusses on the communication levels between the employees. The employees are able to understand the appropriate solutions to the problems with the help of mentoring process. The management training programme can help in focussing on the process of offering instructions to the trainees and they do not provide any direct help to the employees (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014). The major goal related to the process of mentoring is based on the growth of employees that will help in their current jobs and creating future prospects for them. The goal of the coaching process is mainly task-oriented and focus is on the overall development of the organization. The management trainee programme is based on the personal development of the employees to increase their efficiency in performing various tasks (McCleskey 2014).

Tools to Identify Capability Gaps

The benefits and the challenges related to the three different approaches imply that most suitable approach for the growth of Aldi is the management training programmes. This will help the organization to ensure that the employees can gain the appropriate levels of skills that are required for the future growth of the company in their future expansion related plans. The trainees will also be offered with a various opportunities of learning which can help in creating leaders for Aldi. The pool of trainees provided to Aldi with the help of this programme will be high and the managers will provide long-term benefits to the company in terms of revenues and profitability (Breevaart et al. 2014). The training programme will offer a variety of learning opportunities which will be helpful in the future expansion related plans of Aldi. The 600 store managers of Aldi will improve the communication process with the consumers and will help the company in setting aggressive goals. The delegation of tasks to the newly recruited employees will become easier and the company will concentrate on the ambitions and goals of expansion that have been set by them (Huffman et al. 2014).

The analysis in the report based on the identification of gaps related to capability and selection of best methods have depicted the aggressive growth related strategy that has been followed by Aldi. The company has plans for opening 600 new stores in various locations for which they store managers. The recommendations that can be made to Aldi based on the analysis of the human resource based practices are as follows,

• The expansion related plans and opening up of new stores of the organization requires analysis of the gaps that are present in their capabilities. The gaps can be fulfilled by applying the reflector and activist style of learning for the new employees. The approach of activist learning will help in the generation of new ideas and the reflector learning approach will be able to develop the newly recruited employees.
• The methods of mentoring, coaching and management training programs will provide benefits to the organizations. The processes of mentoring and coaching will help in the development of employees who are required for the new stores. The management training programme will help in developing the new managers of Aldi. The company can thereby be recommended to apply both the approaches for its new stores.
• The approaches that are taken by Aldi need to be prioritised so that the management training programmes are undertaken first and the managers of the stores can be selected. The mentoring and the coaching related approaches will be developed after the implementation of the management training programmes.

Conclusion

The report can be concluded by stating that the main responsibility of an organization like Aldi planning for aggressive expansion is based on the identification of gaps in the skills of the employees. The organization further needs to take an effective approach which will be helpful in the fulfilment of gap that exists in the capabilities of the employees. This process will be followed by the implementation of appropriate approaches for the purpose of training the newly recruited employees for the new stores of the company in different areas of UK.

References

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Aldi.co.uk. (2018). ALDI UK | Homepage. [online] Available at: https://www.aldi.co.uk/ [Accessed 26 Apr. 2018].

Three Human Resource Development Designs for Aldi

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