Findings and Analysis

Learning and development of Soft Skills in an organisation result in the increase of its profits and sales percentages. The study talks about development and learning of Soft Skills within the premises of Woolworths so that it can develop benefits of the organisation. The internal key factors have been analysed with the help of SWOT model and the external factors have been analysed with help of PESTLE model along with gap identification. The logistics of training procedures have been discussed and the competitive advantage that might be gained by Woolworths due to soft skill training has also been elaborated. The problem statement of the study is to identify necessity of Woolworths to invest in soft training skills to develop proper learning and its application within the company.

Reason for using Soft skills in Woolworths that adds up to its benefits 

As per an article in Australian Financial review, it was seen that the sales of foods at retails stores of Woolworths had dropped due to absence of proper coordination among customers and company staffs. The issue was identified by Woolworths board and they found necessity to incorporate soft skills training in their organisation (afr.com, 2016). The reasons of using soft skills for company’s beneficial purpose are followed by:

Communication Skills:

With the incorporation of Soft skill training the employees of Woolworths can develop proper communication skills. As per the view of Kolb (2014), this shall develop proper behaviour training of the employees with the customers which shall help in the increase of sales of the retail store.

Social Intelligence:

Soft skills can help employees develop a better taste of items displayed in stores as per the demands of people of the region in which stores are present. According to Renninger et al. (2014), employees of the stores can develop an intelligence based on tastes and demands of customers and decorate the stores accordingly.

Service providers can be trained to have a polite and appealing attitude with the help of soft skill training. The employees can be trained how to deal with different types of customers and know their demands and supply them with their required products so that it adds up to the goodwill and competitive advantage of Woolworths.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Table 1: SWOT analysis of Internal Factors

(Source: created by Learner)

With incorporation of soft skills, Woolworths needs to know of demands of customers of a particular region. Accordingly, stores of the region can be decorated and product supply can be channelized. This can help in cost effectiveness of organisation and add up to profits of Woolworths. Major weakness is faced when members of executive boards fail to understand the demands of people of a particular region. There is supply the same products to all the stores even after ask for supply is different. According to Pollock et al. (2015), this reduces sales of stores and results in decrease in the profit earned and shutting down of stores in the region. With development of Soft Skills among people of Woolworths, the company can have great opportunities to achieve increased number of positive feedback from end of customers. However, Fernie and Sparks (2014) comments that, positive feedbacks shall enable Woolworths to spend less on promotions. The threats that are faced by the stores of Woolworths due to absence of Soft Skills learning result in the decrease in the revenue generation in the stores. The customers are unable to get their requirements and the store service providers are unable to provide proper service to the customers and behave properly with the senior customers.

SWOT Analysis of Key Internal Factors

Table 2: PESTLE analysis of external factors

(Source: created by Learner)

The staffs of Woolworths need to know about recently included government policies. This shall enable the policy being used in the business strategies of the company and result in the increase of competitive advantage. However, it is seen that the sales of Woolworths in Australia has increased by 20%. To hold the market of Australia and increase generation of all over revenue earned soft skill training needs to be inhibited in the policies of Woolworths. As per the view of Truman et al. (2017), Woolworths has a great impact on the society of Australia as they comprise of large number of retail products sold there. Moreover, employees of Woolworths are able to communicate properly with the consumers which results in the environmental change of stores with increase in sales and store beautification. On the contrary Lvina et al. (2018) stated that, new technologies that are being included in stores of Woolworths are also addressed properly by staffs after they receive proper training and thus this has helped in the adoption of low risk tax strategy. It is seen that, Woolworths paid just 30% risk tax in the year 2017 (woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017).

The employees at the stores of Woolworths remain very casual even during the store open hours. It is mostly seen that the staffs do not approach the customers and ask for their needs. Further, they are not able or willing to suffice the needs or demands of the customers. According to Davidson (2016), the training that is provided to the employees, fails to address these major behavioural issues.

Getting to know the demands of the customers:

It should be explained to the staffs that there is a need to understand the demands of the consumers at the stores and supply them with the products. The trainings fail to inform employees the ways by which staffs of Woolworths can come to know demands of customers and decorate stores accordingly.

The employees of the stores have to gain training on soft skills that are necessary for improvement of the company and also development of proper learning skills like social skills, communication skills, character traits, social intelligence and attitude towards the people. Cordingley (2015) opined that, with these trainings of Soft skill the employees of the company have to deal with the problems that are faced by the company regarding learning and development of corporate strategies of Woolworths.

Analysis along with impact

Training needs to be provided to all the members of the company from the lower positions to the higher positions. The upper hierarchical executive members have to train themselves about the important social intelligence factors that are needed to identify the demands of customers. The staffs of Woolworths have to be trained about character developments, communication techniques and social skills so that they are able to have better communication and understanding with the customers at the stores (Bernhardt, 2015).

Logistics of training of Woolworths depends on two factors: location and time-frame. The trainings that are provided to all the members of the company are directly dependant on these two factors of training. In order to inhibit proper training among members of the company, Woolworths has to set up locations for training classes. As per the view of Newton et al. (2014), these locations needs to be easily accessible by company staffs of the particular region so that all employees can attend those training classes. Further, locations that is set up for training needs to be well supplied with all materials that are required by the trainers and employees. Further, arrangements of food must also be made by Woolworths at the training Locations for the employees and trainers.

Time-frame of the training should be adjusted in such a way so that it does not clash with the regular working hours of retail-stores. According to Methner et al. (2015), employees need to be made aware of training timings so that they can make necessary arrangements about the extra hours that they have to spend for training. Moreover, employees should be paid during the training hours as they are training themselves for the competitive advantage of Woolworths and staying extra hours beyond their regular working hours (woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018).

Due to soft training skills, Woolworths can increase competitive advantage of company strategies. The profit margins can also raise as the consumers can be addressed properly which might make them satisfied. This can result in the increased number of sales of products in the retail stores throughout the country. Inclusion of Soft Skills can also result in the all over increase of country revenue generation as Woolworths hold a major portion of shares of the country economy (Schmidt-Wilk, J. and Lovelace, 2017).

At Woolworths, employees must be trained about proper behaviours and communication skills that will add up to the profit of the company. The employees must be able to find out demands of customers by talking to them and satisfy them with their helps and appealing approach.

PESTLE Analysis of Key External Factors

Moreover, demands of customers need to be analysed properly. The customers should be given the opportunity of explaining their demands to employees of Woolworths and staffs should use that information to supply the consumer with the best quality of products.

The trainings should be provided at regular intervals so that employees are able to stay in practice of the procedures soft skill and remain updated regarding its inclusion in the retail stores.

Conclusion

With development of proper soft skills within organisation, owners can develop competitive advantage and ensure proper revenue generation from it. The study has focused on learning and development of Woolworths through proper soft skill learning. The benefits of Soft skills have been elaborated and key external factors and internal factors have been thoroughly analysed with help of SWOT and PESTLE models. The gaps of training have been identified in study and specific areas where training needs to be done have been mentioned and discussed. Necessity of training for concerned people have been analysed with information about who should be trained. The logistics of training procedure has also been provided. The competitive advantage of Woolworths after inclusion of soft skill has also increased in comparison to other companies. Recommendations have been provided to solve training gaps that are present inside company strategies.

Reference list

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Bernhardt, P.E., 2015. 21st century learning: Professional development in practice. The Qualitative Report, 20(1), pp.1-19.

Cordingley, P., 2015. The contribution of research to teachers’ professional learning and development. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), pp.234-252.

Davidson, K., 2016. Employers find ‘soft skills’ like critical thinking in short supply. Wall Street Journal.

Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. London: Kogan page publishers.

Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: FT press.

Lvina, E., Johns, G. and Vandenberghe, C., 2018. Team political skill composition as a determinant of team cohesiveness and performance. Journal of Management, 44(3), pp.1001-1028.

Methner, N., Hamann, R. and Nilsson, W., 2015. The Evolution of a Sustainability Leader: The Development of Strategic and Boundary Spanning Organizational Innovation Capabilities in Woolworths. In The Business of Social and Environmental Innovation. 22(5), pp. 87-104.

Newton, C., Becker, K. and Bell, S., 2014. Learning and development opportunities as a tool for the retention of volunteers: A motivational perspective. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(4), pp.514-530.

Pollock, R.V., Jefferson, A. and Wick, C.W., 2015. The six disciplines of breakthrough learning: How to turn training and development into business results. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Renninger, K.A., Hidi, S., Krapp, A. and Renninger, A., 2014. The role of interest in learning and development. Abingdon: Psychology Press.

Schmidt-Wilk, J. and Lovelace, K., 2017. Helping Students Succeed through Engagement and Soft Skills Development. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2379298116687684 [Accessed on 10 August, 2018]

Truman, K., Mason, R.B. and Venter, P., 2017. A Model to Operate an On-Campus Retail Store for Workplace Experiential Learning. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 18(1), pp.43-57.

woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017. Tax Transparency Report. Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/189493_2017-tax-transparency-report.pdf [Accessed on 10 August, 2018]

woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Strategies and Objectives. Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-approach/strategy-and-objectives [Accessed on 10 August, 2018]