Challenges and Issues in Recruitment for Woolworths Limited

Question:

Discuss about the Recruitment and Selection Strategy.

With revenue of a$ 59 billion that is of the financial year 2016, Woolworths Limited is the second largest business organisation in Australia and is also one of the largest retail units in Australia and New Zealand. With a workforce of 202,000 the company is also one of the largest recruiter in all over New Zealand and Australia (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). The vast and rapidly developing network of employees has been one of the major causes of growth of the company over the past many years. The company has also been able to provide effective customer service, which has helped to raise their brand value among the Australian consumers. For talented job seekers, Woolworths limited has always been one of the top preferred choices, due to the Bright Career prospect and flexible working opportunity.

Nevertheless, in the recent times the retail sector of Australia has encountered issues related to recruitment and retaining working staffs, which has highly compromised upon the workplace performance of companies like Woolworths Limited. The workplace reputation of the company is also at stake due to various factors related to poor process of selection. In this context it is essential for the company to identify the challenge that exist in the current recruitment policy and thereby bring about changes within the Human resource policies, which can help them to bring about changes and improve upon the existing selection procedures. This will help the company in retaining workforce and thereby help to maintain high level of performance within the workplace.

According to Cludius et al., (2014), there is a wide acceptance about the fact that the Retail Industry within the Australian consumer market is changing rapidly, due to the emergence of several new factors. The Woolworths Limited being one of the biggest recruiter in the respective industry has to face with relevant issues related to crisis of labour and supply chain network. Fleming and Measham (2015), have mentioned about the unsustainable labour challenges, which has hugely affected the supply chain network of the Retail Industry in Australia. As Woolworths limited has expanded their chain of retail network, it is essential for them to recruit sufficient labours to meet up with the demand of the customers. Nevertheless, due to shortage of labours in Australia that is cause due to economic crisis, it is not possible for the company to meet up with the demand of the customers. The company also has to face the issue related to high wage demand of the employees. This is mainly due to the fact that new organisations, which are entering into the domain of Retail Industry of Australia, are offering better pay packages. It is also responsible for high rate of turnover for Woolworths Limited. The company has also faced issues related to unwillingness of the employees to work on full time basis, as most of them are looking forward to having multiple career options that can help them to improve upon their range of working capability. Hence, the average working hours for each worker have also decreased.

Demographic Changes and Challenges Faced by Woolworths Limited

McPhail et al., (2015), have mentioned about the demographic issues, which has also been one of the major area of concern for recruitment process in the Australian retail sector. It is important to mention that large scale retail organisations like Woolworths Limited have been dependent upon younger group of population, which can help them to deliver effective customer service. With the aging workforce within the organisation, it is not possible for the employees to deal with the challenge of multitasking ability and inheriting flexible nature that is needed in the existing workforce. It is relevant to mention that the projections about the emerging profile of the Australian workforce have highlighted up on certain demographic issues, which will have direct impact on the recruitment and selection process. It is expected that by the year 2050, the total number of people within the age group of 60 to 80 years is likely to be doubled (Bailey et al., 2015). This will cause a crisis in the younger category of workers, thereby compromising upon the workplace performance. With the increase level of competition within the retail sector it is essential for Woolworths to initiate face to face sales option. This type of process requires high level of physical support, which is only possible for the young employees to execute the process properly.

One of the other major demographic issues that are faced by Woolworths is due to the increased in cultural diversity among the Australian population. This issue is well it is due to the increase in total number of immigrants from Asian and African regions. As the population from those developing countries are settling in Australia in search of Bright Career prospect, there is an increase trend of racial discrimination that is a major social issue. Hence, it is not possible for the company to easily recruit the immigrant candidates, which can increase the risk of lack of coordination among the employees within the workplace.

According to Brown et al., (2014), employee branding process is one of the essential part of all organisation, which help them to attract talented candidates. The workplace reputation of an organisation is a primary tool that is used in this context to attract the employees. Due to the currently existing issues in the workplace of Woolworths, it is not possible for the company to project effective employee branding technique within the process of selection and recruitment. Without effective employer branding technique it is not possible for the company to properly recruit the qualified candidates that is also believed to be one of the major issues of the globalised retail market.

Employee Branding, Advertisement, and Retention Strategies

This issue in the employer branding has also directly affected upon the advertisement process, which is used by the company to spread the news related to recruitment process. The company has not been able to properly use the public forum for publishing news of recruitment. It is also not possible for the company to verify up on the background of the candidates through the existing selection procedures, which is entirely dependent upon traditional process.

The higher rate of turnover number with in the recent past Woolworths Limited, has compromised upon the organisational image. Hence, it is not possible for the company to make use effective techniques in the advertisement of recruitment.

As the demographic composition of the Australian population is changing rapidly, it is essential for large scale recruitment organisations like Woolworths Limited to restructure up on the human resource policies along with the selection procedures. With the increase in the average age of the Australian population, it is essential for the HR managers of Woolworths Limited to select candidates from other foreign nations. The company can also introduced special strategy to recruit older people. However it is also essential to ensure that the company provide special training programs for them. The older workers also need to be recruited in special policy as it is not possible for the company to assign all kinds of jobs for them.

It is relevant to mention in this context that maintaining demographic diversity within the workforce is essential. This can help to manage the reputation within the workplace of large scale business organisations and thereby able to improve upon the range working capability among the employees (Kurtz & William, 2017). One of the essential parts of recruiting older employees within the workplace is the ability to make use of their high level of experience. Maintaining gender diversity is also one of the important strategies that can be incorporated in the selection procedure. This is also one of the essential parts of corporate social responsibility for all large scale business organisations.

Pashayan et al., (2015), have mentioned about the importance of employee retention strategies, which can be achieved through establishing effective relationship with the employees. The strategy should focus upon fulfilling the need of individual employees based upon their strengths and weaknesses. Introduction of mentorship program, with recruitment of older candidates can be effective in this process of making proper use of the human resource. As the new employees are able to get accustomed with the protocol of the company’s work environment they are able to get motivation and thereby plan for longer period within workplace (Oaya et al., 2017).

Recommendations for Effective Recruitment Practices

In order to deal with the crisis of labour supply and demand, it is essential for the HR department to recruit employees from foreign Nations. However, it is essential to improve upon the workforce cultural diversity within the organisation, which can also help to improve upon the employer’s brand image (Guedes, 2015).

Conclusion

Due to the crisis and shortages of labour along with the demographic issues, Woolworths Limited has encountered challenges in the recruitment and selection procedures. The fast changing demand of the Retail Industry of Australia has also been one of the major challenges in the recruitment process. It is also not possible for the company to attract the talented candidates due to the poor reputation of workplace and high turnover rate of the employees.

Nevertheless, it is highly recommended for the company, which is one of the biggest recruiter in Australia to bring about necessary changes in the form of effective recruitment strategies. The primary changes that is recommended for the company is to introduce new techniques in the advertisement of the recruitment process. With the advancement of digital technology, it is recommended for all major recruiters to use digital form of advertisement through the platform of social media website and other recruitment platforms.

It is also recommended to provide detailed description of the job profile along with offering attractive pay packages, which should be provided not only depending upon the experience level but also on individual working capability. The HR department of the company should take proper time in order to verify the background of every candidate before they are finally recruited as a part of the organisation. This can also ensure that only genuine candidates are being selected that is an important part of maintaining employer’s reputation.

References

Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: contrasting cases in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 40(1), 1.

Brown, A., Susomrith, P., Sitlington, H., & Scott, G. (2014). Determinants of employee-turnover intentions in atypical employment: The FIFO mining industry in Western Australia. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 40(2), 116.

Cludius, J., Forrest, S., & MacGill, I. (2014). Distributional effects of the Australian Renewable Energy Target (RET) through wholesale and retail electricity price impacts. Energy Policy, 71, 40-51.

Fleming, D. A., & Measham, T. G. (2015). Local economic impacts of an unconventional energy boom: the coal seam gas industry in Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 59(1), 78-94.

Guedes, S. (2015). The Use of Social Media within the Recruitment and Selection Process.

Kurtz, J., & William, A. (2017). INFLUENTIAL ROLE OF EMPLOYEE PERCEPTION OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION ON PERFORMANCE. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES, 7(5).

McPhail, R., Patiar, A., Herington, C., Creed, P., & Davidson, M. (2015). Development and initial validation of a hospitality employees’ job satisfaction index: Evidence from Australia. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(8), 1814-1838.

Oaya, Z. C. T., Ogbu, J., & Remilekun, G. (2017). Impact of Recruitment and Selection Strategy on Employees’ Performance: A Study of Three Selected Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria. International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 3(3), 32-42.

Pashayan, N., Gray, S., Duff, C., Parkes, J., Williams, D., Patterson, F., … & Mason, B. W. (2015). Evaluation of recruitment and selection for specialty training in public health: interim results of a prospective cohort study to measure the predictive validity of the selection process. Journal of Public Health, 38(2), e194-e200.

Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). About Us – Woolworths Group. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2017].