Recruitment Challenges in Woolworths Supermarket
In the modern era, employees are considered as the most important and crucial asset for any organization. Furthermore, efficient management of human resources helps companies to gain a competitive advantage over other market players operating in the industry. However, it can be critically argued that management of human resources or staff members is not an easy task for organizations as different types of issues and challenges during the same (Welch & Björkman, 2015). For example, high demand of skilled and experienced personnel’s and low supply can be considered as the common challenge which HR manager faces during the process of recruitment and selection. Lack of skilled and talented employees directly results in creating several obstacles in long-term growth and success of companies.
The primary purpose of present study is to identify the key recruitment challenges faced by Woolworths supermarket. The selected business enterprise is considered as the leading supermarket retail chain in Australia, and it is offering a diversified range of products and services to people in the marketplace. The key factors which resulted in the development of different recruitment challenges for the company have been outlined in this report. Apart from this, theory linked with the process of recruitment and selection is also mentioned in the present study.
Woolworths supermarket was founded in the year 1924 and at present, the supermarket chain has captured significant market share in the retail supermarket industry of Australia. The business is operating through online and offline platforms, and this has resulted in making more convenient for customers to buy the product of Woolworths. It can be stated that instead of operating with limited products and services, the brand has adopted the strategy of carrying out business operations with a diversified range of goods (Woolworths, 2017). The product range of Woolworths includes products such as meat, seafood, bakery, fruits, vegetables, health and beauty, liquors, etc. At present, the selected business enterprise is facing intense competition from brands such as Coles and Aldi.
For a brand like Woolworths grocery, maintaining the position of market leader in the supermarket industry of Australia is not an easy. The brand needs to ensure that competent and talented staff members are available in the stores to understand the customer needs and deliver products/services according to the same (Varma, 2013). The company is required to maintain a low rate of employee turnover, and at the same time, it needs to carry out recruitment of highly skilled and effective individuals.
Strategies to Address Recruitment Challenges
One of the major issues which have been faced by Woolworths during the process of recruitment is linked with lack of skilled and talented personnel’s within the country. At present, the demand for talented, professional and skilled store workers and managers has increased to a great extent (Cristiani & Peiró, 2015). On the contrary of this, it can be argued that the supply of human resources within supermarket industry is not so high to meet the demand (Stone, 2013).
The youngster and professionals in the country are more inclined towards industries such as manufacturing, operations, outsourcing, banking, and tourism. Thus, the HR manager working in Woolworths finds it very challenging to recruit the young and skilled professionals to deliver satisfactory services to customers.
Another key challenge which has been faced by Woolworth’s HR manager during recruitment is associated with the changing demographics in Australia. It can be expressed that the entire country is facing issues linked with the ageing population. It is also expected that by the end of the year 2022, people aged between 65–84 years will be approximately 4 million (Parliament of Australia , 2010). This can be termed as a grave threat to the entire nation as well as for the business which is operating in Australia. Limited availability of young and dynamic workforce is now creating different types of issues and challenges for Woolworths regarding carrying out the process of recruitment and selection. Younger professional with knowledge about modern tools and techniques can deliver more accurate and satisfactory services to all customers.
Factor such as workplace diversity has also resulted in developing challenges within the process of recruitment and selection in Woolworths. In the modern era, managing and operating with a diversified workforce is not an easy task for companies (Ketchen Jr, Crook, Todd, Combs, & Woehr, 2017). Furthermore, issues linked with discrimination, conflicts, and disputes are prevalent in the diversified workforce.
Now, it has become very challenging for the selected business enterprise to its workforce in an appropriate manner. It can be expressed that limited availability of skilled and talented workers in the country has forced the supermarket retailer to operate with a diversified workforce (Meyer & Xin, 2017). However, it can be critically argued that along with the increase in diversity issues such as conflicts and bullying at the workplace have also increased to a great extent.
Human resource is considered as one of the most vital areas of business and issues in this area directly affect other departments to a great extent. The selected company is required to come up with some effective and result oriented strategies to deal with the issues linked with recruitment and selection.
Recommended Strategies for Woolworths Supermarket
The recruitment strategy of Woolworths emphasizes on two major areas which are an advertisement and employee branding. Further, the company places advertisement linked with its human resource requirement in different types of magazines and newspapers. The use of advertisement technique is carried out by the supermarket retailer with an objective to create more and more awareness among people in the market with regards to the employment opportunities it is offering (Sparrow, Brewster, & Chung, 2016).
On the other side of this, strategies such as employer branding are also used by Woolworths. Here, young, skilled individual and students are mainly targeted by the company for the process of recruitment and selection. Instead of focusing on the overall population, the company is focusing more on a particular group of an individual through its employee branding strategy (Liu, Gong, Zhou, & Huang, 2017). The result of this is that limited pool of candidate is available for the business at the time of carrying out process of recruitment and selection.
It can be expressed that the mentioned above two strategies are not able to provide adequate or desired results to Woolworths. For example, the business is facing issues regarding the shortage of staff members in many of its stores. It can be expressed that the company sales have been limited and at the same time, it is not able to generate the high degree of satisfaction among all its customers (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly, & Kynighou, 2016). To sustain in the long run and attract more customers, it is required by the company to emphasize on its existing process of recruitment and selection. Furthermore, corrective measures should be taken to overcome loopholes and make the existing process more efficient
The Human Capital theory can be taken into consideration to gain insight into the management of employees within the organization. The mentioned above theory emphasize on the fact that capable and competent employees directly contribute to the long-term growth and success of a business enterprise. The theory also reflects that effective management of human resources provides a competitive advantage to a company to other firms operating in the marketplace (Mahajan, 2015). The Human Capital theory also explains that businesses should emphasize on recruiting, developing and retaining skilled and competent employees.
Apart from this, the selected theory also outlines that to acquire large market share and sustainability; the organization should invest more and more in their human resources (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The rationale behind this is that investment in employee development will provide the company with an opportunity to enhance the degree of customers and employee satisfaction. Skilled workers will be able to understand the need of customers and will be able to deliver services and products according to the same (Klikauer, 2014). On the other side of this, the employee will remain satisfied as they will start perceiving that the organization cares about their professional growth and development. Investment in human resources will help in developing strong coordination between management and all staff members.
Human Capital theory and Recruitment Strategies
Conclusion And Recommendation
From the above carried out report, it can be concluded that Woolworths is facing different types of issues linked with recruitment and selection of employees. For example increase, demand and low supply of skilled workers within supermarket retail industry are one of the biggest challenges which Woolworths is facing. On the other hand, increasing old age population within the country is another issue which has affected Woolworths recruitment and selection process to a great extent.
It is suggested that instead of relying heavily on advertisement and employer branding, Woolworths should also focus on strategies such as employee referrals for carrying out recruitment of employee. The rationale behind this suggestion is that employee referrals are considered as one of the most convenient and potential ways of sourcing talent within the company.
It has been observed that Woolworths is also facing issues linked with management workforce diversity, the company should emphasize more on its complaint and grievance management system. It is suggested that the retailer should take complaints linked with bullying and discrimination very seriously. In addition to this, the supermarket chain should take corrective measures to eliminate all sort of bullying practices and discrimination in the workplace. This will result in developing a strong sense of satisfaction among workers and will also support the brand to retain its employees in the long run.
It is also recommended that the present employee pay and incentives should be increased by Woolworths. The rationale behind this is that high pay and attractive incentives will help in attracting desired and skilled candidates for the vacant position of the organization. The company will be available with a pool of candidate to carry out the process of recruitment and selection. Furthermore, it is also suggested that the company should invest more resources in the development of its employees. This can be done with the help of conducting training sessions and seminars for workers. The benefit of such sessions is that it will help Woolworths to enhance the overall skill set and knowledge base of its staff members. Apart from this, it will also help the company to maintain its operations of market leader in long run.
References
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Woolworths. (2017, September 20). About Us. Retrieved Septmeber 23, 2017, from Woolworths: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/about-us