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

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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