Woolworths Limited
Discuss about the Strategic Human Resource Development.
Training and development of employees are considered to be an important segment of human resource practices. With the intense competition within the market, it is imperative for companies to heavily invest in this field to reap substantial benefits in future. In the current report, discussion shall be made on managing different attitudes of employees to ensure that the company can obtain a more productive and efficient workforce. According to Delahaye (2015), Strategic Human Resource Development is the used to develop strategies ensuring that the training and development program is effective in performing the job and enhancing the overall productivity for the firm. For the purpose of conducting this report with efficacy Woolworths a leading name in the retail sector of Australia is chosen.
Woolworths Limited was established in the year 1924. Woolworths Supermarket is retail store chain owned wholly by Australia. Woolworths specialises in retailing groceries but moreover sells DVD’s, stationery and magazines also. It currently is operating across 980 stores in Australia and has 16 convenience stores (Wang, 2015). It currently employees 205000 employees including employees forms its subsidiaries. Furthermore, it serves 21,000,000 customers each week, i.e., 3 million an average per day.
Woolworths limited is also the largest hotel and gaming poker operator in Australia. In the list of biggest retailers worldwide, Woolworths limited was ranked 19th in 2008. Since its establishment, it has acquired many stores including 126 Safeway stores in 1985 in eastern Australia and many companies as well. This has helped Woolworths limited to cement its place as one of the biggest and one of the most flexible companies around the globe.
The company wasn’t just expanding its operations in Australia, but in New Zealand as well. Starting in 1929, Woolworths limited was slowly expanding and finally, in 1956 they opened their first fast food store in Auckland, and by 1971, supermarkets were opened across New Zealand (Keith, 2012). The expansion worldwide wasn’t possible without the help of proper management, administration and training. Woolworths limited made sure they knew when and where to allocate its resources and how to make use of those resources to grow as much as possible in order to grow quickly. Every now and then, as previously mentioned, Woolworths limited kept acquiring other companies in order to reduce competition, and this helped them gain as much market share as possible, after all, it’s not an easy task to be 2nd largest retailer across Australia and New Zealand.
Importance of developing SHRD through Training and Development
Although there were some hurdles, one of such was during the period of World War II, when the growth of Woolworths was very badly affected as the military of Australia and the United States used the warehouses for storage (Herington, and et.al. 2012). But since then, the growth has been rapid, and in 1955, Woolworths limited opened its 200th store. As diversity is very important for a company as big as Woolworths limited so that it doesn’t depend too much on just one department, they entered the petrol market in 1996. This wasn’t just it, in 2004, they wanted to attract more customers, and so they started offering discounts on petrol prices but only if the customers are willing to shop at their supermarkets.
To meet the competition, it was important to adopt various smart strategies from time to time in order to make sure customers are attracted towards Woolworths limited instead of choosing another supermarket. Another important aspect of Woolworth’s limited growth was its location and range of products it offered, and this was important because when a customer entered the supermarket, he/she must be able to find everything that they needed (Mello, 2014). This wasn’t just profitable for the company, but also for the customers as well as it helped them to cut down the burden of travelling from one place to another and save their time. One of these strategies is to provide efficient training and development to its core employees. The training and development will help in circulating the requisite information aesthetically, and the technical changes can be updated within them to progress towards achievements (Werner and DeSimone, 2011).
The organisation can install top quality programs that will help in the detailed understanding of the customer-supplier relationship. This will help in meeting the level of quality and shortage of supply.
Furthermore, it has been observed that training and development through strategic human resource development will help in resisting changes that occur under regulatory context like taxation issues, deregulation, privatisation, etc.
The retail sector has been playing a crucial role in the world economy. Over the past three decades, the significance of retail has grown drastically in varied economies of the world. With the change, there has been an increase in both size and resources managed by retail (Cekada, 2010). This has made it imperious to recognise the impact of dynamic features of retail on its respective performances and strategies. Woolworths has been showcasing its best efforts to be recognised as a leading retail store in Australia. It just not aspires to gain best in class position in retail industry but also to exceed the demands of its customers.
Need for training program
Training can be referred to as an endeavour one aims to enhance or develop additional skills or competencies within an employee to increase its performance and productivity.
The aim of this task is to assess the key Training and Development need due to the following issues that were predominantly seen in Woolworths are:
- Imbibing the competitive challenges spread across the retail sector,
- Lacking employees in delivering efficient customer services,
- Shortage of supply of stock (Herington, and et.al., 2012),
- Price hike, and
- Popular brands weren’t able to see the likely demand of customers.
The training and development shall help in gaining the possible solution and best resort to solve these issues. Training and development are proposed to recognise the reliability of employees and to motivate them to perform with an efficiency which enhances their business overall productivity (Niazi, 2011). The training industry in Australia is strong and currently, stands at an estimated $1.7 billion of which 1/3rd indicated behavioural and soft skills training. The growth in the industry signifies the importance of training within the workplace to endure more proficient workforce within the workplace.
The training strategy focuses on narrowing the gap between organisational needs and employee needs. The target is towards sustaining the quality of labour that possesses varied education, analytical and technical skills
Training, vocational and education programs can help in meeting out the productivity, enhanced performances, motivation, job satisfaction and uniformity at work. It has been evident that the presence of these variables within the training program can help in enhancing the overall productivity rate of the organisation. The presence of such factor ensures the increasing employee commitment through such training program can lead towards company enduring growth and success. The training strategies shall be developed in the light of motivating and retaining employees for a substantial period of time (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Such strategies will help in developing an emotional and psychological relationship between the employee and its organisation.
The training is done to tie up employees for a longer duration of time within the organisation, which will reduce company costs in hiring new talents. This form of commitment strategy introduced within the training program shall help Human resource managers in gaining requisite loyalties and sheer commitment from its employees.
Thus, it can be seen that training and development are advantageous not for the organisation only but also equally holds relevance for individual workers as well. From one perspective the training prompts towards profitability as well as gaining optimistic attitude towards profit augmentations, enhance the base of its current workforce and help employee relate to organisational objectives (Kadir and et.al., 2011). Similarly, on the other hand, individuals can reap better choices, gain critical thinking, help them in empowering self-advancement, gaining esteem level of satisfaction and ultimately enhancing its interactive skills.
The analysis to evaluate the need for training is to identify the training gap between the current performance and desired performance. The training and development plan shall help Woolworths in recognising what skills, behaviour and knowledge is needed to persuade employees to work effectively and embrace the changes in an enhanced manner to fulfil the aim of the company. Successful evaluation of training needs can help in identifying who is required to be training and what means of training it should seek. The Sources that are necessary for determining the type of need analysis is:
Organizational Analysis: Woolworths needs to assure that the strategic wants of the company are taken into consideration. The training and development program must be arranged in a manner that it ensures company to reap benefits from employee’s effective performances (Needs Analysis: How to determine training needs, 2015).
Personal Analysis: this component specifically targets towards worker distinctively. It is vital to research about what necessary KSA’s (skills and abilities) have been already gained by the potential trainees this helps in sustaining the valuable time by not repetitively imparting something that has already been obtained.
Operational Component: in evaluating the need for training it is important to have an outlook over the company objective whether it’s short or long term (Niazi, 2011). Woolworths needs to be sure that company potency is able to make enhancement in functional productivity.
It is requisite to provide a different level of training for different functional employees. Every employee showcases its performance differently based on the skill and efficiency acquired by him. Thus, below training needs are shown differently at supervisory and operational level:
|
Training Method |
Level of Management |
Goals |
|
Workshop, Role playing, Performance Appraisal |
Supervisory Level |
Enhance the overall decision-making aptitude. Recognise the areas of improvement, performing team leadership and development of effective career path (Pineda, 2010). |
|
Supervision, Workshop |
Operational Level |
Gaining practical knowledge, development of skill, improvement in production and adaptability towards change |
In order to gain faster adaptability towards change, the employees require more determined and adequate training to be initiated. For this Problem Solving technique of training program can be initiated, as this will help employees in facing the current issues within Woolworths. Herein the employees will be placed within a real-time problematic situation and will be asked to undertake adequate analysis and serve its possible solutions (Corsica, 2011). Then final assessment will be undertaken by the expert team, which shall come up with best solutions relevant to the situation. This is a continuous process where employees are motivated to develop their analytical skills whenever a new problem occurs in context to customer service enhancement, efficient production, changing dynamics of the competitive market, etc. This training program will boost employees to participate in decision-making to provide more convincing solutions to a specified problematic situation.
The experts before conveying their solution will undergo a prolonged session with the management team. This will bring forth with the managers the gaps that are persisting in the performance of employees. The Q&A session for staffs will also give employees a chance to understand the scenario (Frensch and Funke, 2014). The requisite discussion and findings will be disseminated by the managers and will let manager acknowledge about the areas it needs to enhance. Thus with the expert’s team of management and discussion made through Q&A session will be evaluated and most appropriate solution shall be selected.
Evaluation is the last step of the entire training process it helps the trainer in evaluating the key efficiency of the overall training program (Saks and Burke, 2012). The Evaluation helps in evaluating the outcomes, actions of employees and the relevant gap between the perceived and desired outcome. This evaluation process thus instigates upon reforming the process of action, which has unlikely results on the performance of employees.
In order to measure the effectiveness Kirkpatrick’s Four Level training evaluation model is employed. The evaluation segment holds significance, as it is important to measure the benefits gained after all the time and money invested in training (Praslova, 2010).
The Kirkpatrick’s Four-level training evaluation model will help in analysing the efficiency of training system adopted and its relevant impact so that one could make improvements accordingly as per the future needs.
Level 1: Reaction- this level seeks to how the trainees,e., people who are given training, have reacted to the overall process of training. The reaction shall be framed on the basis of what members perceived of the training system like its feature, technique, material, content and rest (Steensma and Groeneveld, 2010). Since the aim of the trainer is to ensure trainee feel good and gain a valuable experience, it is important to measure their reaction to understand how well training purpose was achieved by its trainees. It also helps in enhancing the training segments for which effective reactions were not given to improve the training for future respondents, embracing key areas or topics that are not present in the current training program.
Level 2: Learning: this level measure upon what trainees have acknowledged from the training program. Training begins with setting up of some learning objectives, which are the start point for measuring the level of abilities; techniques, information and concepts are gained (Lin, Chen and Chuang, 2011). It is essential to know about what trainees are learning and the difficulties they face in others, this will help in enhancing the future training program.
Level 3: Behaviour- at this level the change in the behaviour of the trainee is assessed, and it is done on the basis of training received by them. This aim is of identifying how trainees can apply the specified information. It is essential to identify that behaviour can be changed only if conditions are favourable (Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model, 2016). The behavioural change helps in determining the level till which the requisite knowledge and skill have been acquired which can be converted into improvised behaviour as per the job needs.
Level 4: Results- this is the last level at which the last results of training is analysed. This incorporates the relevant outcomes that the trainer has determined to be fruitful for the organisation and its employees.
For effective and more accurate evaluation following documents can be used to assess the training program:
- Trainee feedback on every training event shall be taken. The feedback and individual opinion are necessary to evaluate the reactions of employees towards the training program. To take feedback requisite questions can be asked to know the exact participant response to the overall training program (Hogan, 2010).
- Customer comments is also an important aspect in ascertaining how the effective employee has been applying its learning in the different context of the business Customer comment shall help in stating the positive or negative change that has occurred due to the training program.
Conclusion
Woolworths is a leading retail supermarket that has been possibly driven by the competitive market dynamics. The management is responsible for bringing requisite facilities to promote faster performance change of employees. The training and development are sought as an alternative to help employees fight in the stiff competitive market and gain a substantial level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The problem-solving training method is chosen to develop decision-making and analytical skills of employees to fight the competitive market effectively. The lastly evaluation method of Kirkpatrick’s is chosen to ascertain the efficiency of training system adopted and its relevant impact on the organization.
Reference
Cekada, T.L., 2010. Training needs assessment: Understanding what employees need to know. Professional Safety. 55(03). pp.28-33.
Corsica, J.A., 2011. Problem-Solving Training. In Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology (pp. 2032-2033). Springer New York.
Delahaye, B., 2015. Human resource development. Tilde Publishing.
Frensch, P.A. and Funke, J., 2014. Complex problem solving: The European perspective. Psychology Press.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organisational excellence. Pearson.
Herington, C. and et.al., 2012. Brand, value and relationship equities and loyalty-intentions in the Australian supermarket industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 19(5). pp.526-536.
Hogan, R.L., 2010. The Historical Development of Program Evaluation: Exploring Past and Present. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development. 2(4). p.5.
Kadir, S.A. and et.al., 2011. Entrepreneur training needs analysis: implications on the entrepreneurial skills needed for successful entrepreneurs. The International Business & Economics Research Journal. 10(1). p.143.
Keith, S., 2012. Coles, Woolworths and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal of Regional Food Studies. 2. pp.47-81.
Lin, Y.T., Chen, S.C. and Chuang, H.T., 2011. The effect of organizational commitment on employee reactions to educational training: An evaluation using the Kirkpatrick four-level model. International Journal of Management. 28(3). p.926.
Mello, J.A., 2014. Strategic human resource management. Nelson Education.
Niazi, B.R.A.S., 2011. Training and development strategy and its role in organizational performance. Journal of public Administration and Governance. 1(2). pp.42-57.
Pineda, P., 2010. Evaluation of training in organisations: a proposal for an integrated model. Journal of European Industrial Training. 34(7). pp.673-693.
Praslova, L., 2010. Adaptation of Kirkpatrick’s four level model of training criteria to assessment of learning outcomes and program evaluation in higher education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 22(3), pp.215-225.
Saks, A.M. and Burke, L.A., 2012. An investigation into the relationship between training evaluation and the transfer of training. International Journal of Training and Development. 16(2). pp.118-127.
Steensma, H. and Groeneveld, K., 2010. Evaluating a training using the “four levels model”. Journal of Workplace Learning. 22(5). pp.319-331.
Wang, Z., 2015. Supermarkets and gasoline: An empirical study of bundled discounts. Resources for the Future Discussion Paper, pp.15-44.
Werner, J.M. and DeSimone, R.L., 2011. Human resource development. Cengage Learning.
Online
Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model, 2016. [Online]. Available from <https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm>. [Accessed on 3 December 2016].
Needs Analysis: How to determine training needs, 2015. [Online]. Available from < https://www.hr-guide.com/data/G510.htm >. [Accessed on 3 December 2016].
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