HRMT20024 Managing Human Resources | Employee Relation Strategy

ization also uses external recruitment agencies for suitably seeking the candidates as per its recruitment needs. On other hand, Kramar (2014) opined that Woolworths also uses internal promotion strategies for promoting the talented and existing employees towards meeting required human resource needs.

Talent Management Strategy

Talent Management strategies are defined as effective practices for creating high performing workforce in an organization. Collings (2014) opined that effective talent management strategy facilitates in retaining the top talents in an organization. Woolworths uses talent hunt strategy for hiring the best talents as per their business needs. In this strategy, the organization uses difficult screening process for selecting top talents from the labor market. The organization also uses talent cultivation strategy for attracting and retaining the top talents. In this strategy, the organization provides enough freedom and control of work to the employees, so that they can cultivate their own talents in fulfilling their job roles.  Furthermore, Festing and Schäfer (2014) pointed out that Woolworths utilizes the strategy of leveraging talents as the changing needs of the business. Moreover, the organization uses training and development programs for developing the skills and talent levels of the employees aligning with the business needs.

Motivation Strategy

High level of employee motivation is mostly generated from effective management practices. According to Sheehan (2014), motivation strategies are directed towards meeting the individual needs of the employees for keeping up their work motivation. In case of Woolworths, the organization use reward and recognition technique for valuing the contribution level of the hard working employees in organizational success. Al Ariss et al. (2014) pointed out that Woolworths uses employee empowerment strategy for valuing responsible employees by delegating them some authority for performing their jobs in their own way. Furthermore, the organization provides adequate promotional opportunities for the skills and hardworking employees for keeping up their motivation.

Employee Relation Strategy

Employee relation strategies are inclined towards developing long term employee relation between the employers and employees. Woolworths has adopted transparent workplace culture for promoting workplace transparency. Such culture facilitates the employees in sharing their issues clearly with the managers for resolving the issues on immediate basis. In this way, the organization maintains long term relationship with the employees. On the other hand, the organization also arranges regular team meeting the employees for identifying their issues and resolving those issues (Collings, 2014). In this way, the organization maintains warm relationship with the employees in long term basis.

HR Planning Challenges

Labour Supply and Demand

Labour supply and demand defines the balance between the demand and supply of labours as per the labour needs of an organization. Increasing demand of commodities in Woolworths has ultimately increased the numbers of customers. Therefore, the organization has huge demand for labours in perfectly operating the retail business. On the other hand, Nikolaou (2014) opined that increasing cost of technology in the organization has increased the demand of its employees. However, Humancapitalreview.org (2017) opined that shrinkage in the Australian labour market prevents Woolworths in getting adequate supply of labours as per its actual labour demand. On the other hand, less willingness of women in Australia towards joining workforce also limits the supply of labours in the organization.

Ageing Workforces

Woodrow and Guest (2014) pointed out that the numbers of ageing workforces have been increased at a huge rate in Australia. 1 out of 4 people in Australia is having an age of 55. Therefore, maximum of workforces in Australia is getting older in the labour market of Australia. Such ageing workforces are creating huge challenges in the human resource planning of Woolworths. Increasing numbers of ageing workforces are pressurizing the human resources managers of the organization for making several pension policies. Furthermore, Kulik et al. (2014) opined that ageing workforces are having lack of adequate skills and talents in the technically advanced business environment. Such old employees are also unwilling to learn new things even it is positive for business success. In this way, the organization is facing issues in developing the talent and skills level of the old employees, which ultimately can have negative impact on business.

Diversity

Australia has boosted a unique history, which has shaped itself by its diversity in its inhabitants, culture and lifestyles. Such multicultural population is also reflected in the workforces of Australian labour forces. As per Cappelli and Keller (2014), 60% growth of Australia’s population has caused due to overseas migrants. Therefore, Woolworth has to include diverse employees in their workforces for meeting their recruitment needs. However, diverse workforces impose several challenges on the organization. Moreover, the human resource managers face difficulties in framing holiday lists as per different occasions and festivals of different culturally diversified employees. On the other hand, Phillips and Gully (2015) opined that the HR managers of Woolworths also face difficulties in planning the motivational strategies for different culturally diversified people, as the motivational factors varies from one employee to other based on their culture.

Uncertainties in Human Resource Behaviour

Uncertainties in the human resource behaviour also impose challenges on the human resource planning of an organization. Moreover, high rate of absenteeism and turnover rate can impose challenge on the human resource managers of Woolworths. The managers can also face challenges in deciding upon the productivity level of the employees with such frequent absenteeism rate.

Recruitment Strategies and Challenges

Internal Sourcing and Challenges

Meyers and van Woerkom (2014) internal sourcing is related to hiring best employees suitable for the vacant position of an organization through internal promotion. Woolworth faces some challenges in relation to its internal sources, which hampers the overall effectiveness of its recruitment strategies. Sheehan (2014) opined that internal sourcing can bring no new ideas into the organization for organizational innovation. In this way, such sourcing process limits organizational innovation of Woolworths, which hamper its overall effectiveness of the recruitment strategy. Furthermore, such sourcing strategy may cause resentment among other employees, who do not get such promotional opportunities. Hence, such sourcing strategy actually leads to employee conflicts in the organization.

External Sourcing and Challenges

Woolworth adopts several external sources for recruiting the best talents from the labor market. According to Kramar (2014), recruitment agencies often do not understand the culture and inherent requirements of the vacant post. Therefore, they often fail to provide the best candidate, who would be most suitable for Woolworths. On the other hand, Stone and Deadrick (2015) opined that employees hired from external labor market must need proper training for understanding the cultural and work process of new organization. Therefore, such sourcing strategy enhances the organizational cost of Woolworths in terms of training cost.

Challenges in Employer Branding

Employer branding is the process of promoting the organization for attracting and retaining the talented employees. Collings (2014) pointed out that lack of consistency in employer branding seems to be a biggest challenge in the recruitment process of an organization. Moreover, the talented candidates want an organization to be stood for both as a consumer as well as employer. Therefore, Woolworth can face challenges in maintaining the consistency in the advertising message for attracting the new talents.

Challenges in Cost Benefit Analysis of Recruitment Strategy

Organizations should always assess the cost benefits of the recruitment process. Moreover, organization should set the cost of recruitment process based on the significance of the vacant post. The more significant the vacant position is for the organization, the more costly can be the cost of the recruitment process (Sheehan, 2014). However, organization must not spend higher cost for a less significant vacant position. Hence, cost benefit analysis of the recruitment strategy is extremely significant for its effectiveness. However, Woolworths often faces challenges in accurately analyzing the cost benefit of the recruitment process.

Creating Relationship with Outreach and Applicants

Every applicant is a potential employee or referral source for an organization. Therefore, organization must establish good relationship with the applicants for attracting them for the vacant position (Nikolaou, 2014). However, Woolworth often faces challenges in building mutual trust, mutual respect and direct communication with the applicants. Hence, they may fail in establishing good relationship with the applicant.

Recommendation

Table 1: Recommendation of Recruitment

(Source: Created by Author)

Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said that Woolworths uses both internal and external labour market for hiring the best talents. The organization mostly uses talent hunt strategy and talent cultivation strategy for enhancing and developing the skills and talent level of the recruited employees. The shrinkage in the Australian labour market creates challenges for Woolworths in getting proper supply of talented labours as per the labour demands. On the other hand, increasing numbers of ageing workforces also impose challenges in the human resource planning of the organization. Increasing ageing workforces require additional planning for pension and other schemes. On the other hand, such old employees are unwilling to learn new technology, which can prevent the innovation level of the organization. The external recruitment agencies are not much aware of organizational culture and core talent needs for vacant position of Woolworths. Hence, they may fail to provide the best talent, which can be suitable enough for the vacant position of the organization. Therefore, the organization should regularly communicate with the recruiting agencies for making them aware of the actual skills and talent needs for the vacant position.

References

Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F., & Paauwe, J. (2014). Talent management: Current theories and future research directions. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 173-179.

Cappelli, P., & Keller, J. R. (2014). Talent management: Conceptual approaches and practical challenges. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1(1), 305-331.

Collings, D. G. (2014). Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the challenges and strategic opportunities. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 253-261.

Festing, M., & Schäfer, L. (2014). Generational challenges to talent management: A framework for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 262-271.

Humancapitalreview.org. 2017. Humancapitalreview.org. Retrieved 15 December 2017, from https://www.humancapitalreview.org/content/default.asp?Article_ID=930

Kramar, R. (2014). Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.

Kulik, C. T., Ryan, S., Harper, S., & George, G. (2014). Aging populations and management. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 929-935.

Meyers, M. C., & van Woerkom, M. (2014). The influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: Theory, implications for practice, and research agenda. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 192-203.

Nikolaou, I. (2014). Social networking web sites in job search and employee recruitment. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 22(2), 179-189.

Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2015). Multilevel and strategic recruiting: where have we been, where can we go from here?. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1416-1445.

Pit, S. W., Pyakurel, S., & Vo, T. (2014). The effectiveness of recruitment strategies on general practitioner’s survey response rates–a systematic review. BMC medical research methodology, 14(1), 76.

Sheehan, M. (2014). Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms. International Small Business Journal, 32(5), 545-570.

Stone, D. L., & Deadrick, D. L. (2015). Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 139-145.

Woodrow, C., & Guest, D. E. (2014). When good HR gets bad results: Exploring the challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(1), 38-56.