Changing Recruitment at Mercado Supermarkets: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the evolving recruitment strategies at Mercado Supermarkets, examining the changing roles of Human Resource Management (HRM) and factors influencing these changes through a literature review. It explores the significance of HR planning in talent management, discussing challenges faced in this process. The report analyzes Mercado's recruitment approach, including the adoption of e-recruitment and the use of social networking sites. The analysis highlights the recruitment issues faced by the supermarket, such as inefficiencies in the application process, and evaluates the effectiveness of their new e-recruitment strategy. The report concludes with a summary of the role of HR in the current business environment and the trends in recruitment.

Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets
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Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets 1
Introduction
The aim of the report is to explore the different task which includes the changing roles of human
resource management influencing the business environment with the help of a literature review.
In addition, the paper includes the importance of human resources planning within the
organisation while managing the talent. It also includes the different challenges which are faced
by firms in planning human resources. All these elements are discussed with the help of the
literature review which includes the different opinions of authors towards the changing role of
HRM. Further, the report includes the analyses of the recruitment approach that is adopted by the
Mercado supermarket. In today's trends the recruitment trends are elaborate which helps in
understanding the recruitment done by the companies. Further, the report also includes analyses
which show the recruitment through the different social networking sites in the process of
Mercado’s recruitment. In the end, the summary of the role of HR in the present business, human
resources planning with the trends of recruitment are discussed.

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Literature review
Changing roles of HRM and factors that influence change
According to the author, in the present world, this HR is performing the administrative activity
within the organisation. This activity of the HR remains complex, interpersonal and consultative
work that need a wide range of skills from counselling and communication to the planning and
strategy of the business. Agreeing to same, the author said that the HR manager remains at the
centre of the organisation's web of employees and the department. There is a discussion of some
of the roles of HR that has been changed with the change in the environment where business is
operating activities.
Supporting the business
According to Harris, 2008, the HR function is changing with the modern needs of the business as
there is the highly dynamic management of the employees and planning team which contribute in
reacting and adapting the rapidly changing requirements of the business. In addition, the
management of the current, incoming and outgoing of the employees depends on the functions of
the HRM within the company. HR of the company ensures that the company always hire the
right people for the job vacancy. Agreeing to this, Mayhew, 2018 said that HR position is
considered as strategic and integrated that creates the impact on the success of the business as
HR works closely with its human capital. The human capital is considered as the true
competitive advantage and central value offering for the company which is effectively
maintained by the HRM in the changing world.

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Employee engagement
Considering the view of Lemmergaard, 2009, the role of HRM has changed as they need to
ensure the effective employee engagement. This engagement is essential to understand the issues
which are faced by the employees that can be related to the salary, job design, workplace and
many others. This active engagement includes the engagement for building an effective
partnership with the managers, employees and others. This engagement contributes effectively in
managing the success of the business.
In addition, agreeing to this, Tracey and Nathan, 2002 reflects that competitive environment
brings the change in the role of human resource management. This makes them manage the
expectations, communication, being flexible and offering adequate training as important factors.
This changing roles also include the human centred performance appraisal schemes, driving the
career development and up-skilling with the effective management reward system that is offered
to the employees according to the needs of the business. This active engagement contributes in
retaining the talent within the organisation.
Factors that influence change
According to the Mayhew, 2018, there are numerous factors that contribute in an effective
change in the roles of HRM within the organisation. These factors include the rise in the
competition in the market. The market is very competitive due to which HRM need to bring the
changes in the role so that they can retain the talented employees with the company. Agreeing to
same, different author stated that generally, the employees shift from one company to another as
soon as they get the opportunity. Contrast this, Tracey and Nathan, 2002, exhibit that the major
reason behind the change is globalisation. The globalisation has forced the company to grow at a
faster pace, growing business and enhancing the mergers and acquisitions of the company. This

Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets 4
directly affects the resources which are available with the company which majorly include the
management of the human resources. The mergers and acquisitions need the management of the
human and failure of which leads to the issues in the working of the company. Disagreeing to
this, the Julia and Rog, 2008 reflected that technology contributes effectively in the changing the
role of HR. There is the development of the e-HR which majorly includes the development of
software and systems that help in automate of some of the HR processes. Technology has
brought efficiency, connectivity, customization and speed that supports in managing the
operations.
Role of HR planning in managing talents
Considering the view of Buyens and De Vos, 2001, the HR planning contributes effectively in
managing the talents within the organisation. Planning of the HR includes the managing the
employees that fit the needs of the company in the competitive environment. Talent management
within the organisation is only possible because of the effective planning of the HR within the
organisation. Agreeing to this, Alziari, 2017 state that the foundation of talent management
involves the recruitment of the right people for which there is a need for effective planning. This
planning includes the defining the job description effectively, inviting the job seekers through
different ways, making use of the tracking system that helps in managing the interview.
On the other, Julia and Rog, 2008 stated, that the role of HR planning in managing the talent is
not only limited to the hiring of the employees but it also includes the further process which
includes the management of performance, career, and many others. Once the HR hire the skilled
and talented people then it became essential to have the right processes in the place for the
success of planning. These right processes are related to the performance management of the
employees which can be done by tracking the productivity performance. The review of the

Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets 5
performance is essential for the managing the talent as every employee except for the growth and
success at the workplace. Agreeing to this, Bradley, 2018 said that HR planning is essential for
forecasting the demand, being proactive towards the processes and for finding the balance. All
these elements are possible with the help of the effective HR planning within the organisation.
Challenges of Human resource planning
In the current era, it is difficult for the HR to perform their responsibility related to the planning
of the HR role. According to Teo and Rodell 2007, HR planning includes numerous challenges
which are faced by them. This includes lack of accuracy; HR planning includes planning related
to the demand and supply of the Human resources which remains inaccurate in the longer time
period and planning is done for a long time. In an organisation, before the hiring HR needs to
identify the need of the company. Though, the identification of a number of employees remains
inaccurate which affects the planning of HR.
Apart from this, Mayhew, 2018 stated that accuracy in planning is not the only issue as there are
different types of uncertainty which include absenteeism, turnover, market fluctuations and many
others. This uncertainty leads to the effect on planning as turnover and market fluctuation are
considered as the critical element (Tafti, Mahmoudsalehi and Amiri, 2017). The turnover can
lead to an increase in planning for recruitment in different ways and market fluctuations include
the rise in labour prices. This makes the company pay the high amount to the employees.
Recruitment approach
In the current era, there are different types of recruitment approach that can be used by the
organisation. According to the Ulrich and Beatty, 2001, the recruitment can be done through
direct, indirect and through the third party. In the direct method, the hiring can be done through

Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets 6
campus placement, walk-in interviews and many others. In addition to this, the indirect method
can be used by the company which include hiring through social media and social networking
sites. Along with this, the recruitment can be done through employment agencies, management
consultants, employee recommendation, labour contracts and others who maintain contact with
the job-seekers. Another Mayhew, 2018, shared their opinion in which they reflected that the use
of social media and social networks is increasing for the recruiting the talented candidates. This
has been found that more than 32% of companies engage with the candidates through social
media. The social media strategies contribute to recruitment marketing which brings a large
number of candidates for the company. Most of the candidates are turning towards the social
media as 79% of them are using for job search activity on social media.
Analysis of case
The analysis of the case includes the recruitment issue and the process which is used by the
company to recruit the employees in the retail industry.
Main drivers for the company to develop its e-recruitment strategy
The main drivers of the company to develop the new e-recruitment strategy are the issues which
affect the HR and working of the company. In the case of Mercado supermarket, the HR deals
with the numerous issues which increase the issues in-store recruitment process because the staff
is dealing with the wide number of CVs and application forms which is expensive and time-
consuming. Along with this, the old system of the company makes it difficult to track the old
system.
In addition to this, the managers of the company were supposed to interview the candidates who
were not really suitable for the company which leads to a waste of time. The supermarket started

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increasing the application through the online mode. In addition to this, the major problem of the
supermarket was to keep up with the applicant’s references. This reflects the major recruitment
issue in the process of recruitment was waste of time. This has been found that the recruitment
starts with the identifying the need to recruit which needs the authority (Koch, Gerber and De
Klerk, 2018). After the need identification, they load the details which can be browsed by the
applicants. All these processes take a lot of time which affects the working of the company
because recruitment of employees is not easy.
Considering the issue, Mercado supermarket makes use of the HR Shared Services who
contribute effectively in hiring the talent and right people. According to the vacancy they plan
for the requirements and then they make the interview on time. They select the skilled and
identify the candidates that are willing to work (Tom Redman and Adrian Wilkinson, 2013). This
makes the company save time while recruiting. The entire process was conducted through the
online mode which shows that it remains effective for the company to recruit the candidates
through the HR Shared services who offer online services. This is an effective way through
which they can make the e-recruitment of the candidates for their store.
E-recruitment appropriate for all types of vacancies in a retail store
In the current era, this has been found that e-recruitment is appropriate for all the types of retail
store vacancies. The major vacancies that take places on a frequent basis in the retail store
include store duty, manager, executives and many others (Wozniak, 2015). In addition to this, if
an organisation is looking to hire the CEO, general manager and numerous other high positions
then they can select the e-recruitment strategy. Though, the company need to take some
additional processes to select the right candidate. This has been found that e-recruitment strategy
contributes effectively to front-end sales and service staff.

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Advantages and disadvantages of this approach
Advantages
 Less wastage of time which was a major issue of the manager while recruiting the
employees (Bradley, 2018).
 Selection of the talent and skilled candidates that meet the needs of the Supermarket.
 Improve the applicant’s experience as they can directly browse the sites for determining
the suitable opportunities.
Disadvantages
 In online mode, the candidates can share their fake details which make them get selected
in the retail industry.
 The job-specific screening test takes place through online mode which reduces the
reliability that it is filled by the concerned person only.
Mercado new strategy effectiveness
The new e-recruitment strategy of the company offers the maximum benefit to the company
which helps them to enhance the capability for becoming the best retail HR function and an
effective place to work. The manager got the benefit of managing the talent people which makes
the workplace and culture positive for work (Chand, 2018). In addition, Mercado supermarket
manager saved their time in the recruitment which helps them to spend their time in other
activities that can contribute to the success of the business. The skilled and talented employees
raised the company to become the best retail HR function and a place where employees like to
work.

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Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that the Role of the HR is changing with the reference of the case
study of Mercado supermarket. The report includes a literature review on the three major topics
that are linked with the Human resource planning in the present world. These topics are linked
with the role of HR planning with the challenges associated with the HR planning. In addition,
the recruitment approach is explained with the analysis of the case. The case reflects the issues
faced by Mercado supermarket and their solution which is clear with the new recruitment
strategy of the retail company. It includes the analysis of the new approach, their benefits and
drawbacks with their effectiveness in the company.

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References
Alziari, L. (2017) A chief HR officer’s perspective on talent management. Journal of
Organizational Effectiveness, 4(4), pp. 379-383.
Bradley, J. (2018) The Role of Human Resources Planning in Organizational Success [Online]
Available from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-human-resources-planning-organizational-
success-57672.html [Accessed on 14th November 2018]
Buyens, D. and De Vos, A. (2001) Perception of the value of the HR function. Human Resource
Management Journal, 11(3), pp. 70-89.
Chand, S. (2018) Methods of Recruitment: Direct, Indirect and Third Party Method [Online]
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indirect-and-third-party-method/35255 [Accessed on 14th November 2018]
Harris, L. (2008) The changing nature of the HR function in UK local government and its role as
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Lemmergaard, J. (2009) From administrative expert to strategic partner. Employee Relations,
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Changing Recruitment At Mercado Supermarkets 11
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