Impact of Changing Demography on HR Planning and Job Design at Woolworths

This report analyzes the potential impact of changing demography on the HR planning and job design practices of Woolworths, Australia's largest supermarket chain. It discusses the challenges faced by the company due to demographic changes and provides recommendations to address these issues.

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Human Resource Management

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................2
Analysis of the potential impact of changing demography on the HR planning and job design
of Woolworths...........................................................................................................................3
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Major demographic changes resulted in affecting the future HR planning and job
design policies in a company. Organisations are facing challenges due to these changes
which require them to take corrective measures in order to ensure that they effectively
manage their human capital which is important for them to sustain their profitability (Stone,
2017). Woolworths Supermarkets is an Australia-based corporation that operates in the
retailing sector; the company was founded in 1924, and it is Australia’s largest supermarket
chain with operations in more than 995. The company has hired over 115,000 employees in
order to manage its stores, distribution centres and support officers (Woolworths Group,
2019). The company is also known for its superior customer service and control over supply
chain which enable it to offer fresh and high-quality products to its customers. The objective
of this report is to evaluate the case of Woolworths in order to analyse the potential impact
of changing demography on the HR planning and job design practices of the company. This
report will also provide recommendations for Woolworths that can assist the company in
addressing these issues.

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Analysis of the potential impact of changing demography on
the HR planning and job design of Woolworths
In today’s highly competitive business world, corporations are struggling to make
sure that they generate and sustain a competitive advantage in the industry.
Implementation of effective human resource management (HRM) assists companies in
ensuring that they generate competitive advantage by building a talented and skilled
workforce that is highly productive (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). Being agile
enables the management in ensuring that they quickly respond to the emerging challenges
in the market to stay relevant in adverse market conditions. There are many external and
internal environmental factors that affect the operations of companies. External
environmental factors include political, legal, cultural, business, social, economic, industrial
relations, demographic, environmental and technological factors. Internal environmental
factors include people, strategy, structure, system and culture (Stone, 2017).
All these factors are necessary to be considered by companies during the HR planning
process to make sure that they tackle the key HR issues and remain agile for the ever-
changing market conditions. Jon design is referred as a core function of the human resource
management that is related to the specification of methods, relationship and contents of
jobs in order to make sure that the companies are able to satisfy their technological and
organisational requirements as well as the personal and social requirement of the employee
(Stone, 2017). Organisations such as Woolworths are facing many demographic related
challenges that affect their human resource policies and make it difficult for them to deliver
high-quality services to their customers (Gupta, Banerjee & Gaur, 2012). Examples of
demographic factors include immigration, the number of women in the workforce, an aging
population and others. Following are various impacts which are faced by Woolworths while
operating in the retailing sector that affects the HR planning and job design strategies of the
company.
 Aging Workforce
In the majority of developed countries, the population is aging, and Australia is no
exception. This age-based demographic shift has resulted in increasing the importance of

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effective job design practices to make sure that companies such as Woolworths are
prepared for these demographic changes. In 2017, 1 in every 7 individuals living in Australia
was aged 65 and above; it is expected that older men who are aged 65 are expected to live
another 20 years and women are expected to live another 22 years (AIWH, 2018). It is
estimated that by 20157, there will be over 8.8 million people in Australia who will be over
65 years (22 percent of Australia’s population) and this number is to be raised to 12.8
million people (25 percent of population) by 2097 (Human Rights, 2018). This shift in the age
demographic of people resulted in making it difficult for the HR department to hire young
workforce in the company.
Due to these factors, the importance of HR planning and job design policies has
increased in companies such as Woolworths that operates across the country. The company
hires a large number of employees in Australia to handle its stores, offices and distribution
chain due to which its HR department has to take the shift in demographic into
consideration to be prepared (Verworn, Hipp & Weber, 2013). Due to these changes the
importance of hiring of older people in the company has increased. However, in the case of
distribution chain, Woolworths has to hire employees who are talented and highly skilled
because it requires lifting heavy products and operating complex machinery. However, in
the case of managing stores and offices, the company can hire older people to handle the
operations. The job is easy, and the company can use machines to help its older employees
that assist them in efficiency perform their duties.
 Diversity in the workplace
Australia is a diverse, multicultural country since over seven million people have
migrated to the country since 1945 (Human Rights, 2018). In order to protect these cultural
diversities, the government has imposed various laws that are targeted towards protecting
the interest of individuals. For example, Australia’s anti-discrimination laws include the Age
Discrimination Act 2004, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Disability Discrimination Act
1992 and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. These laws apply on Woolworths as well which
are necessary to be taken into consideration by the HR department of the company to
makes sure that they did not discriminate between employees. For example, in the
judgement of Daghlian v Australian Postal Corporation [2003] FCA 759, it was held by the

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Federal Court of Australia that a company cannot discriminate against a middle-aged
woman who was treated unfairly in the workplace. It was held that her rights are protected
under the Disability Discrimination Act. In the case of demographic of Australia, the number
of women is higher than compared to men (Stone, 2017).
There are 193,900 more women than male residing in Australia since there are 12.2
million males and 12.4 million females (ABS, 2018). Moreover, people in Australia have
diverse religious beliefs as well because 22 percent of them are Catholic, 30 percent have no
religion and others are Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. These diversity factors are necessary
to be taken into consideration by the HR department at Woolworths to make sure that they
are able to avoid discrimination in the workplace. Woolworths also hires a large number of
women in the workplace along with people of different race, religion, caste and colour to
promote diversity which is crucial to promote creativity and innovation in the workplace
(Davis, Frolova & Callahan, 2016). The HR department of the company has to take these
factors into consideration during the job design process to make sure that employees are
not discrimination. They have to create equal job opportunities for women as well as
diverse employees to ensure that their rights are not breached in the company.
 Generation Gap
While some of the population is aging; however, others are moving in the opposite
direction. The generation gap has increased substantially due to the popularity of the
technology and the internet. The number of millennial or Generation Y people is increasing
Australia as the potential future workforce and companies are facing many challenges while
hiring and retaining them in the organisation (Ng, Lyons & Schweitzer, 2012). In the case of
Woolworths, the issue of the generation gap is substantial because it resulted in increasing
the employee attrition rate in the country. Most of these employees did not prefer for work
in a supermarket since they did not receive any career development opportunities. It
becomes difficult for the company to hire these workers and retain them for a longer period
of time that increases employee turnover rate in the company (Kultalahti & Liisa Viitala,
2014). Woolworths has to provide opportunities for training and progression facilities for
these employees which resulted in increasing the overall operating costs of the company.

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Recommendations
The demographic related issues resulted in creating obstacles for the HR department of
Woolworths and make it challenging for the company to make sure that it hires talented
and skilled employees to discharge its duties. Following recommendations can assist
Woolworths in addressing these issues and be prepared for major demographic changes in
Australia that affect the operations of the company in the future.
 Creating opportunities for aged employee
It is important that Woolworths focuses on hiring aged workers in the company to keep
up with the changing demographics of Australia. Through HR planning and job design
policies, Woolworths should focus on hiring experienced older employees in the company to
make sure that it hires qualified employees to perform its different operations (Clarke,
2015). The company should design jobs while considering the interest of older people in
mind to make sure that it is able to hire them and train them to do the job in an efficient
manner. Effective training facilities are crucial for older people to make sure that they
understand how to operate machines and computers in the stores and officers of the
company. The company should also implement adequate health and safety policies in the
company to protect the interest of older as well as young employee (Stone, 2017). This
strategy will also result in creating a positive brand reputation in the company which will
result in increasing the profitability of the organisation. When it comes to check-out,
customers did not prefer to stay in long lines and hiring an older employee might result in
increasing the lines of customers in the checkout counter. In order to address this issue, the
company can either install auto checkout machines in its stores or it can increase the
number of checkout counters to make sure that customers did not have to wait in long lines.
This will assist the company in hiring more aged employees in the company (Charlesworth &
Heron, 2012).
 Extended Careers
In order to retain employees in the company for a longer period of time, Woolworths
should focus on providing extended career opportunities to its customers. The organisation
will receive many opportunities in diversifying their workforce which it can receive by

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increasing the retirement age in the company (Price, 2016). The company should rely on HR
planning policies to provide better growth opportunities to its employees. The employees
who are passionate and talented should also receive training facilities from the company
that allow them to remain in the company. This is an appropriate strategy to hire and retain
Generation Y or millennial employees in the workplace. This will assist the company in
addressing the issue of the gender gap.
 Women in leadership positions
Woolworths should embrace female workforce by implementing specific policies that
provide better growth opportunities to female employees in managerial positions. The
management of the company should focus on hiring more female directors and managers in
the company to make sure that they implement policies that create a safe working
environment for female employees and provide them equal growth opportunities (Marco,
2012). Currently, Woolworths has achieved a major milestone since fifty percent of the
board of directors in the company are female (Garder, 2016). This will assist the company in
embracing diversity in the workplace by creating a safe working environment for female
employees. This will enable the company to address major demographic challenges and
create a safe working environment for female employees to make sure that create a
talented and diverse workforce that fulfils its HR requirements.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, demographic changes have resulted in creating challenges for
organisations which affect their business in a negative manner. Woolworths also faces these
challenges while operating its business in Australia because the population of Australia is
aging and the number of diverse individuals is increasing. The number of female employees
is increasing as well along with the expansion of the gender gap that resulted in making it
difficult for the company to fulfil its basic HR needs. In order to address these issues,
Woolworths can focus on implementing HR planning and job design policies to make sure
that they address these challenges. The company can increase the number of aged
employees in the company by making a comfortable environment for them. It can also offer
extended careers opportunities to retain employees in the company and growth in the
number of women employees in a leadership position will benefit the company in
embracing diversity in the workplace.

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References
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Woolworths