HRM in Wesfarmers: An Analysis of HR Strategies, Employee Development, and Employment Relations

This report provides a critical analysis of the HR policies and practices, along with employee development activities undertaken within Wesfarmers. It discusses the impact of HR practices on employee performance and the firm’s overall productivity. The report also provides recommendations for future HR strategies.

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MGMT: HRM in Wesfarmers

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the Company: Wesfarmers........................................................................................4
1.2 Company Objectives (Mission/Vision)..............................................................................................4
1.3 Current Business Performance...........................................................................................................5
2.0 Body of Discussion................................................................................................................................6
2.1 HR Strategies in Wesfarmers.............................................................................................................6
2.2 Employee Development.....................................................................................................................7
2.3 Employment Relations & Grievance Handling..................................................................................9
2.4 Training...........................................................................................................................................11
3.0 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................13
3.1 Conclusive thoughts on case study..................................................................................................13
3.2 Critical Analysis in comparison to another case: Woolworth..........................................................14
3.3 Recommendations for future applications/strategies........................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................18

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1.0 Introduction
The following report is designed with an aim to gain a useful insight into the Human Resource
Strategies of a well-renowned company of Australia. The chosen organization is Wesfarmers
Limited which is a giant retail multinational company located in Western Australia. The report
carries out a critical analysis of the HR policies and practices, along with employee development
activities undertaken within the organization. In addition to this, the report contains the
discussions regarding the impact of HR practices on the employee performance as well as firm’s
overall productivity. Based on the discussions, finally the report provides some valuable
recommendations that Wesfarmers can incorporate to improve or enhance the HR scenario in
order to accomplish organization’s goals and objectives.

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1.1 Background of the Company: Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers Limited was initially introduced as farmers’ co-operative in 1914 in Western
Australia, with an aim to support farmers (Wesfarmers, 2018b). Today, the company has
developed into one of the biggest listed companies in Australia, with its branches in other
countries as well. Rob Scott is the Managing Director of the company. Wesfarmers Limited was
then restructured to a public corporation from a co-operative, and became listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange in 1984. Wesfarmers mainly deals in business operations like
liquor, supermarket, home appliances, convenience stores, hotels, office equipments, and
businesses in energy, fertilizers, chemicals, coal and safety goods (Coole et al., 2018). The
segment of the company includes Coles, Target, WesCEF, and Kmart, and so on. In addition to
this, Wesfarmers has a stake of fifty percent in investment house Gresham Partners and Gresham
Private Equity Funds. It has fifty percent interest in Wespine as well.
1.2 Company Objectives (Mission/Vision)
The mission of Wesfarmers Limited is to satisfy the needs of customers by offering goods and
services on competitive prices. The vision is to become the world’s largest multinational all over
the world (Bloomberg, 2018). In order to achieve this vision, the company works to fulfill
following objectives:
 Giving a safe and rewarding working culture to employees,
 Contributing to the growth of other nations in which it operates by creating opportunities,
 Valuing the diverse expectations of the communities,
 Strongly focusing on the environment conservation, and

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 Dealing effectively and ethically with other traders.
1.3 Current Business Performance
The current performance of Wesfarmers’ business is quite satisfactory. In 2018, the company has
reported a net income of AUS$1197 million after tax for the entire year ending on June, 2018.
This income includes a loss from discounted activities of $1406 million, signifying the business
results divested during the year. This net profit of the company has risen to $29043 million (5%)
from the last year (Reuters, 2018). Many significant changes were made by the company in this
year with respect to repositioning the portfolio in delivering the consistent growth in the earnings
of shareholders.
In 2018, the management focused mainly on underperforming units of the organization in order
to create better opportunities for development for all stakeholders including employees (Rowe et
al., 2014). The Wesfarmers Way is the structure for the organization’s business which
encompasses growth enablers, core values, and value-creating approaches aimed at attaining the
organization’s key objective of maximizing the shareholders’ value at large (Keith, 2012).

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2.0 Body of Discussion
2.1 HR Strategies in Wesfarmers
The Human Resource team in Wesfarmers is strongly dedicated towards provision of people
related outcomes by managing them effectively. The HR strategies adopted by the HR
department aim at attaining the sound and sustainable performance, and high growth of the
organization (Mobley, Wang and Li, 2012). The goal of successful human resource management
within the company is achieved by recruiting and developing innovative personnel aligned to
business strategy at every step of the employee lifecycle in the areas of training, rewarding,
performance, and Development and Succession (Campbell, 2017).
Employee Benefits by Wesfarmers:
Wesfarmers Limited offers following benefits to its employees as a part of its HR policies:
 Distribution of shares to employees and their participation in their yearly incentive plan
 A number of employee discounts such as private medical insurance
 Offering support and resources to employees to attain a right balance between their job
and family responsibilities
 Education allowance
 Employee wellness programs such as infection vaccinations
 Subsidized professional association membership
 Social clubs, and Employee referral program (Moore, McDonald, and Bartlett, 2018)
 Paid leaves, sick leaves, and maternal leaves

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 Timely promotions and salary hikes
 Offering discounts for tickets to Wesfarmers Arts sponsored events
 Service awards and Involvement in community event
2.2 Employee Development
Wesfarmers Limited attempts to attract top talents in the organization by offering various
employee developments. The company believes in improving and enhancing the quality and
performance of its people to achieve genuine sustainable advantage (Kenny, 2011). Each
department of Wesfarmers functions as a separate business and thus builds a unique work
environment. Moreover, the employee attributes are equal to all such as openness, integrity,
boldness, delivering results, involving people, being commercial, boldness, and accountability.
Wesfarmers hire more than 220000 people from all over the world, along with around 200000
people within the Australia only (Wesfarmers, 2018c). It has made the organization the biggest
employer in the Australia’s private sector. Among this workforce, approx. 67 % are hired by the
company on a permanent basis while 33 % are recruited on casual basis. The businesses of
Wesfarmers are always devoted to cooperate with its employees on the matters relevant to them.
In this view, many departments implement a number of initiatives for regular employees,
including regular online surveys, always-open surveys, and externally designed 'employee pulse'
surveys. In addition to this, Wesfarmers has also recently introduced an employee share program
during which 96 % of employees from eligible businesses took up the award of shares. On the
other hand, 9 per cent of employees applied to take part in the ‘salary forgo’ share plan, from
eligible businesses. In 2017, the organization had allocated $8.6 billion to the staff in wages, pay,
and benefits.

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Diversity
It has been observed from Wesfarmers’ HR policies that it attempts to create a friendly work
environment with special focus on balancing male-female employees, and the inclusion of
aboriginal people. The commitments of Wesfarmers to all individuals having different
perspectives are same. For example, Coles has recently initiated its ‘Gender Affirmation and
Transition’ principles in order to create an encouraging working culture for its transgender and
gender diverse team members. Wesfarmers also supports the rights of all employees as well as
customers to enjoy and live free of any favoritism and biasness (Rae, Sands, and Gadenne,
2015). While Wesfarmers’ workforce is composed of 54 % females and 46 % male, a key
opportunity for the organization is to amplify the number of leadership positions held by
females. Furthermore, In Wesfarmers, female employees hold 47 % of salaried roles and 56 % of
award and enterprise bargaining agreement roles as shown in underneath figure:

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(Source: Wesfarmers, 2018a)
2.3 Employment Relations & Grievance Handling
Grievance Handling is a daily occurrence at workplace, which can destroy the momentum for a
leader, a team or the entire company. The workplace within an organization can become a lethal
environment when leaders let the conflicts fester rather than handling it face-to-face (Forth et al.,
2013). Handling employees’ grievances is one of the tricky things for HR managers specifically
when they are not familiar with the bigger network in which the particular employee or division

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creating the conflict functions, and how efforts to resolve conflict will resound all through that
network. A workplace is fueled with a number of concurrent agendas that the HR managers
never know which ones may be exaggerated when they resolve grievances solely to help and
advance their own (Walker and Hamilton, 2011).
In this context, the diversified feature of the company activities throughout a number of
countries. In Australia, divisions have built their own codes of conduct with significance to their
fields of processes. This Code applies to the extent there is any discrepancy with divisional or
business unit codes of conduct. Adherence to this Code has the complete cooperation of the
Board of Directors of Wesfarmers and its Leadership Team (Lashley, 2012). Wesfarmers acts in
a proficient way by:
 Carrying out the duties with care and attentiveness, and seeking to get the quality in roles;
 not indulging in any unlawful or immoral activity;
 being liable for the decisions and actions; and
 dealing candidly with all the customers, business associates, suppliers, and competitors.
For the purpose of maintaining good relations with the employees and manage their complaints
effectively, Wesfarmers managers try to identify the nature of the grievance and problems
promptly. Then, the line manager seeks to resolve the issue informally in the first instance. When
it is not possible, the HR manager organize a formal meeting as soon as possible, and carries out
any required investigations for confirming the facts of the case. Employees are also accompanied
at any formal meeting and they have the right to request against any formal decision taken
(Terry-Armstrong, 2015). The HR manager has to provide grievance procedure in writing and
take care that all the staff members are aware of any such policy or procedure.

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2.4 Training
Wesfarmers is deeply committed to delivering sound training and leadership development skills
to all its staff members at all levels. Along with the on-the-job training, the company also
provides training programs and more opportunities particularly in the areas like customer
service, technical skills, team work, and leadership (Kraimer et al., 2011). These programs are
available to all employees whether they are working full-time, or part-time. The Leadership
Model followed by Wesfarmers is presented below:
(Source: Wesfarmers, 2018a)

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The Wesfarmers Leadership Model and development approach adopted by HR managers intends
to follow a theory of leadership ‘perfection’ where the leaders become strong on every level.
Furthermore, the organization supports the leaders to be familiar with their strengths and weak
areas and not to stop learning. The approaches of the firm aims to evolve leaders by development
investments in individuals, using the methods like development planning, 360 assessments,
external coaching and mentoring. Moreover, the organization provides collective learning
experiences to the employees through exceptional executive educators and business schools
(Morgan, 2016). The company seeks to continue to renovate the collection of opportunities
including physical seminars, virtual coaching and online learning. In addition to develop the
most effective leaders, Wesfarmers makes sure that the employees are strongly connected to the
organization and each other. This is assured via different events such as Wesfarmers Way
breakfasts and lunches for new comers with the directors and managers, and Chief Human
Resources Officer. The company also holds casual 'WES talks' events regularly in a year, where
senior leaders bring the company’s principles to life through their individual storytelling.

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3.0 Conclusion
On the basis of the above discussions, it can be concluded that Wesfarmers is the leading retail
company in the world. The HR policies of the company seem to be satisfactory. The company
takes care of its human resources and keep researching for innovate ways to motivate them at
each level so as to develop them. The gender balance established in the company is its key
feature which helps the company to welcome diversities and great talents without discrimination.
At broad level the aim of Wesfarmers is on developing leadership talent to monitor leaders’
performance succession plans for their critical jobs. Although the company gives its best to
satisfy its employees, there is a need for bringing more effective and innovative HR policies so
as to attract retain and maintain the top people in the organization.
3.1 Conclusive thoughts on case study
Today, Wesfarmers has become one of the leading employers wherein a large number of
workforces are situated in New Zealand and Australia. Due to this, the diversity, application,
quality and skills of the personnel become the major advantage for the company. Also, the HR
management aims to create a stimulating, secure, and ethical work culture in order to promote
high level of professional and personal development. The customers and stakeholders of the
company are also increasingly diverse. In order to obtain the best insight into their changing
needs demands, the effective use of diverse and inclusive teams is made by the firm. Also, the
diversity of views and cultural backgrounds strengthens the innovation and creativity in teams
(Hanson, 2013). Moreover, the HR manager seeks to build an atmosphere that attracts, and
encourages top calibers with a number of qualities and skills so as to ensure that Wesfarmers is
fully prepared for future growth. With respect to the workplace relations, the organization

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recognizes, protects and respects the rights of all of its employees in order to make them feel
their individuality. Around 82% of the total employees are covered by collective legal
agreements which generally include provisions for consultation and negotiation, and provisions
for notice periods. The Human Resource management of the firm attempts to enhance the
flexibility of workplace arrangements in the most possible way (McLean, 2016).
In addition to this, the team members in Wesfarmers are highly focused on developing passion
and improving the interpersonal skills in the employees so that they can produce desired results
efficiently. The HR strategies in the organization thus, result in more talented, productive,
engaged, and committed workforce. In addition to this, Wesfarmers provide opportunities for
employee development to boost their careers growth as well. In this context, the organization
has introduced a bonus scheme for its employees and recently, they are issued around
AUS$18milion as bonus. The firm pays specific attention to achieve a balance of gender in
senior management positions throughout all the divisions of the Wesfarmers for the purpose of
boosting jobs of aboriginal people (McLean, 2016). In this regard, Wesfarmers designed and
executed a ‘Diversity Policy’ that intends to cultivate diversities at all the levels within the
organization. As a consequence, some of its units have gone beyond the requirements embarked
by company’s inclusive ‘Gender Policy’ to check appropriateness for the workplace.
3.2 Critical Analysis in comparison to another case: Woolworth
Woolworth is one of the major retail supermarket organizations in Australia, and one of the
competitors of Wesfarmers with a huge share in the retail sector throughout the Australia. In
context of annual turnover, Woolworth is the 2nd biggest corporation in Australia. This retail
organization manages its Human Resource functions at the strategic as well as at the functional
level. This is mainly because the managers are engaged in the corporate and Human Resource

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planning at the strategic level (Awang, and Ahmad, 2018). In contrast, the line managers perform
largely a number of activities at the functional level to ensure that the employees are at the exact
time, for the appropriate cost and at the right place. The strategies planned for the HR
management team of Woolworth has the most effective philosophies regarding employees of the
organization. In order to make the organization grow, the HR manager incorporates massive
along with the dynamic changes in the human resource practices. The obedience with the defined
Code is also taken very seriously by the employees and managers (Hickman, and Silva, 2018). In
order to evaluate the proper compliance with the Code of Conduct, each divisional or business
unit codes are controlled by internal audit function of Wesfarmers on behalf of the Wesfarmers
Board. In case there is any violation of this Code, the employee may face penalizing action, even
termination of his or her employment.
Although, the organization has some of the successful HR practices however the number of
employee conflict has been increasing in the recent years at a rapid scale. It has been also found
that the HR teams of Woolworth emphasize mainly on the working culture of the employees.
Their most effective philosophy with respect to the HR management firmly concentrates on
improvement and creation at the workplace. In addition to this, Woolworth also conducts
training courses within the organization on regular basis in order to equip supervisors, managers,
and HR professionals with the essential grievance handling skills to deal with employment
relations problems and to create more friendly and positive workplace environment for all. The
aim of the organization is always to establish long term relations with the employees as the
company believes in the philosophy ‘happy employees means happy customers and happy
business’.

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Therefore, it can be concluded that the strategic implementation of HR practices and policies in
the organization are successful from the organizational aspect. The excellence of its workforce is
the utmost advantage for the company as it provides them with opportunities to get their
performance better.
3.3 Recommendations for future applications/strategies
On the basis of the above report, it is recommended to Wesfarmers that the HR management
needs to build an effective decision-making unit for observing the operations of the employees
and the workplace environment in order to achieve the mission and of the firm. The supervisory
unit should take the duty for assessing the level of activities of the employees (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014). Based on the evaluation of the report provided by this report, proper actions need
to be adopted by the HR management of Wesfarmers. In case of good performance of the
employees, they need to be appreciated by the managers from time to time.
In addition to this, flexible working style and team development is highly required in
Wesfarmers for attaining the goals of the firm (Klettner, Clarke, and Boersma, 2014). Relevant
information also should be communicated with the team members and employees for keeping
them aware about the work progress and other vital information affecting them. In this way, the
employees of the organizations should be motivated to share the corporate goal for creating
peaceful working environment in the organization. In order to bring positive impact on all the
employees of firm, the HR manager also needs to understand the personal needs of the
employees and take steps to fulfill them so as to make the employees feel a sense of belonging in
the organization. The formal as well as informal communication plays an important role in
managing the human resources more effectively.

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Also, the leadership style is very essential in Wesfarmers for the purpose of building valuable
handling of the human resource of the company. The leaders in the organization are the
responsible persons for making the decisions for the business success. The leadership style also
needs to be employee concerned (Collings, Mellahi, and Cascio, 2017). The leaders should be
trained to deal properly with the employees and should give them main concern in the decision
making process of the Wesfarmers.

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