Key challenges for recruiting the workforce for Woolworth’s organization

Discuss about the Labor supply Or Demand Issue In Woolworth.

In the current business scenario, recruitment is the key challenging factor that is faced by companies in the Australia. Further, supervisors, managers, and human resources managers within an organization always look towards resolving the challenges of recruitment of their workforces. In Addition, high vacancy rate, turnover, and poor staff training are expensive for the organization, as well as this condition may generate detrimental outcome within the organization. Therefore, it is essential for organization to assess and execute the effective strategies to overcome these workforce recruitment challenges (Lai, et. al., 2016). This report presents the certain challenges for recruiting the workforce within Woolworth’s organization. It also recommends different strategies to address these challenges. 

Labor supply/demand

Labor supply and demand is the key issue for recruiting the workforce within Woolworths, Australia. The availability of labor in both outside and inside the corporation is an essential factor in the recruitment procedure. It is analyzed that Woolworths has a demand for more qualified person but there is an inadequate supply in the market with respect to a qualified workforce. Therefore, the company has to depend on the internal resources by facilitating them development initiatives and special training (Curtis, and Reid, 2013). 

Moreover, supply and demand of specific skills are required by Woolworths in the labor market. In the Australian labor market, demand for skills is high relative to the supply as extraordinary recruiting efforts may be required. For example, the demand for financial analyst and marketing manager is likely to be higher as compared to their supply. Along with this, supply and demand relationships for non-technical employees are opposite to technical employees in Australia (Mabaya, et. al., 2016).

Image of the organization can act as prospect constraint for recruitment. It is analyzed that Woolworths has positive image and goodwill as an employer hence it could be easier for this firm to attract and retain their workforce as compared to an organization with a negative image. Image of a company relies on its performance in the retail industry. For instance, products are highly purchased by people when supermarkets were coming up in the Australia (Holbeche, 2015). 

Demographic change is the key challenge for the organization in recruiting the workforce. It can be evaluated that Woolworths faced demographic issue for recruiting the employees hence it needs to adapt the effective recruitment practices for responding towards increasing diversity within the labor markets. Diversity can change the pool of expected workforces and the requirement of workforces. Together with, it influences the extensive business objectives such as provisions related to service. Furthermore, the continual modification in the demographic profile and extensive population indicates that organizations need to build strategies that will attain the requirements and wishes of the Australian people (Hairon, and Tan, 2017).

Organizational image

There is certain demographic and social alteration is outlined below:

Ageing population

• Force regarding welfare and health facilities
• Voluntary compassionate act by the people
• Favorable aging and ongoing withdrawal

Labor force diversity

• Participation of women
• Diversity-related to ethnic and religious

Besides this, differences in a generation are a big issue for recruiting the workforce within the Woolworths hence this company should develop the learning aptitude and receptiveness to adopt the new facts and knowledge (Bailey, et. al., 2015).

Competitors

The recruitment policies of competitors have also affected the recruitment function of Woolworths. Furthermore, the organization has to make modification in their recruitment policies due to facing rivalry. In this way, the company makes policies by analysis the strategies that are followed by its key market participants (Ibrahim, and Sidani, 2014).

There is different government regulation which is prohibiting bias in recruiting hence employment has a direct impact on the recruitment activities. For instance, Government of Australia has made regulation regarding high tax rate in retail sector hence it will impact on the recruitment process due to declining salary within the organization. Along with this, trade union plays a significant role in recruiting process of Woolworths (Pourshaban, et. al., 2015).

Therefore, it can be stated that restrictive administration freedom of choosing the individuals can have a negative impact on selecting best candidates. When candidate is unable to meet the predetermined criteria which are set by the union then union regulation can create difficulties to select the candidate. As a result, it can be stated that union regulation is a big challenge for Woolworth while recruiting the workforce within an organization (Curtis, and Reid, 2013). 

Unemployment factor is an essential factor that affects the existence of candidates and growth of the Australian economy. It is analyzed that while company creating new jobs and there is an oversupply of proficient labor then it leads to increase unemployment (Sellers, et. al., 2015).

Employment circumstances can be created where the company is situated as it will affect the recruiting efforts of the company. It is analyzed that a surplus of manpower exists in the Australia as it could affect the recruitment process. As well as, informal attempts such as notice boards and announcement in the meeting will also affect the applicants in recruiting process (Hunter, 2015).

Employer branding

Employer branding is used as a procedure in which Woolworths build an internal and external appearance of an organization. In this way, the company concentrated on the targeted audience rather than potential recruitment (Güldner, et. al., 2015). Following are a different strategy that should be used by Woolworths to create branding in the market:  

Demographic issues

Digitalizing strategy

The digital technologies are focusing on talent engagement, attraction, and retention of the employees. It is not a new strategy hence Woolworths should emphasize on new effects. Moreover, high amount of data can be accessed through social media which is never before seen. Hence, social media should be used by Woolworth to create a positive image in the market by promoting their brands through online. As a result, it would be beneficial to enhance the business process (Bennett, et. al., 2014).

Creating network

The key to improving the branding in the market is to constantly organically produce the network. The company should also make strategies to reach the global level network as it would be diverse enough to make sure that company is connecting with people who have a range of skills and diverse backgrounds (Curtis, and Reid, 2013). 

Increase lifelong learning and experience

Woolworths should create self-learning by taking feedback from employees and train them on how to deliver the information to customers. There is a number of open sources and free company websites available for people with internet connection as they can share their experience regarding job (Pourshaban, et. al., 2015).

CSR engagement

CSR can be an effective strategy to build employer branding of Woolworths as it affects how people observe a brand positioning in the market as compared to key market participants.

Effective flow of communication

The company should use a certain tool like Woolworths should use customer service to aid the communication flow outside and inside of an organization. These techniques can provide support to Woolworths to become smarter for all sizes work and become more responsive and make rapid innovation in the retail industry (Bennett, et. al., 2014).

Equal Employment opportunity

It is analyzed that when people connect with any company then they can be either too excited or nervous. Hence, Woolworths should provide the equal opportunity to their employees and should deal with them as an experience people (Güldner, et. al., 2015).

Woolworths should also use different kinds of advertising to recruit the workforce within the organization. It is discussed as below:

Local Newspaper

The local paper has a classified part in which local job-seeker look to search their next career step. It can be an effective medium to match the requirement of people with the company’s’ requirement. It can be more beneficial to recruit the local candidates as they have more idea about local language and culture. The main disadvantage of using advertisement in a newspaper is that it takes lots of space to fit the description of the job and also it could be more expensive (Pourshaban, et. al., 2015).

Competitors

Online Job Board

There are certain online job boards in the Australia such as Career One, MyCareer and SEEK which enable the company to recruit best candidates. However, there are certain retail industry-specific boards which can help the company to target the right candidates. The company should use the internet to find for retail industry-specific jobs as it would be beneficial to obtain the idea about selecting candidates. However, it can be more time-consuming (Hunter, 2015).

Company Website and Newsletter

The company should also use its websites to advertise the job. This can be beneficial for that individual who looks at the Woolworth’s website and understands the retail industry. As a result, it could be a good source of recruiting candidates. It can also provide the good opportunity for the internal candidates to apply in case external candidates are unaware regarding the vacancy (Sellers, et. al., 2015).

Social Media

Social media is another type of advertisement tool which is used to recruit the potential applicants. For example, Woolworths can use the facebook page, and twitter feed to post the advertisement and link related to recruitment. It can also encourage the followers to share the post with their network. Along with this, professional network like LinkedIn can be used by Woolworths to create the awareness about the vacancy and can also lead their colleagues and workforce to share the advertisement with their networks (Güldner, et. al., 2015).

It can be stated that if the company will use recruitment agency then they will support the organization to write an advertisement and also appeal to select the right candidates. However, online advertising is generally takes high fees because they use their proficiency to screen the resumes and choose relevant applicants to move the company to approve the next phase of the recruitment process (Curtis, and Reid, 2013).  

Conclusion and recommendation

From the above interpretation, it can be concluded that there are different challenges faced by Woolworths at the time of recruiting the workforces within the organization. These challenges are labor supply and demand, organizational image, demographic issues, labor market, competitors and Political, Social and Legal Environment. It can be summarized that there are different strategy is used to overcome the recruitment process issues like employer branding and different type of advertisement strategy. From the above findings, it can be recommended that company can use different sourcing techniques to reach the appropriate applicants. In this way, it can use job sites, company’s websites, referrals, alumni association, social media, job fairs and different channels to find applicants (Güldner, et. al., 2015). Along with this, Woolworths should keep the record of the candidates rather than focusing on which method was used.

References

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