Analysis and Evaluation of Coles' Human Resource Management Practices

This report provides an overview of Coles' Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, covering areas such as recruitment and onboarding, identification and advancement of high-performing staff, managing staff performance, staff engagement and retention, organizational health and safety, diversity management, and resolving workplace disputes and industrial relations. The report highlights Coles' recruitment processes, performance evaluation methods, commitment to health and safety, and diversity initiatives. Furthermore, it offers recommendations for improvement, including creating a pleasant workplace, offering rewards and growth opportunities, providing positive feedback, ensuring transparency, offering flexible scheduling, providing non-monetary benefits, motivating individuals, prioritizing work-life balance, and maintaining an open-door policy to enhance employee performance and organizational outcomes. The analysis emphasizes the importance of these practices in fostering a positive work environment and improving overall employee satisfaction and productivity.

Human Resource Management Practices of Coles 0
Human Resource Management Practices of Coles
System04121
6/3/2019

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Contents
About Coles................................................................................................................................2
Recruitment and on boarding.................................................................................................2
Identification and Advancement of High Performing Staff...................................................3
Managing Staff Performance.................................................................................................4
Staff Engagement and Retention............................................................................................4
Organisational Health and Safety...........................................................................................4
Diversity Management...........................................................................................................5
Resolving Workplace Disputes and Industrial Relations.......................................................5
Evaluation and Recommendations.............................................................................................5
 Make a business pleasant place to be:.............................................................................5
 Offer employees rewards:...............................................................................................6
 Give employees room to grow:.......................................................................................6
 Share positive feedback with employees:.......................................................................6
 Be transparent:................................................................................................................7
 Offer flexible scheduling:...............................................................................................7
 Non- Monetary benefits:.................................................................................................7
 Motivate individuals:......................................................................................................8
 Prioritise work life balance:............................................................................................8
 Have open door policy:...................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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About Coles
In this report HRM policies of Coles are discussed. Coles is a company that has sustained to
provide good quality of products for 100 years now, it delivers exceptional customer service
and a pronounced value to a million of Australians. Coles is a supermarket, retail and
customer service chain which als0 has its headquarters in Melbourne. It was founded in 1914
by George Coles. Coles has 1, 00,000 employees now and is also a rival of Woolworths. The
human resource policies which act as the continues guidelines which helps to manage the
people. the policies are presented to the HR manger in a lot of matters which concerns the
employees and also state the organization resolved of the organization to the different aspects
of the human resource management like the recruitment, promotion, compensation, training,
selections etc. apart from this the report also discusses various recommendations for the
motivation and growth of the employees (Chanlat, and Özbligin, 2017)
Recruitment and on boarding
Coles receive around 3000 to 5000 paper based applications per week for 9 divergent types of
recruitment process. It recruits around 60,000 people annually. Coles does not have any
consistent process of selection and it does not track or communicate. It takes 30,000 tests that
are marked manually. They also use online application process and Coles also take interviews
on calls and the selected candidates are intimated through emails and SMS. The whole of
Cole’s selection process is as follow.
STEP 1:
 Line Manager succumbs online
requisition.
 Automated Acknowledgement &
STEP 2:
 Candidate finishes an application
form.

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visibility of activity.  Automated Application Broadcast.
 Candidate Completes assessment.
 Electronic transfer to Store
 Applicant accepts ASR/SMS/Email
updates.
Step 3:
 Line Manager Conduct’s face to face
interview and ref check.
 Phone call to Recruitment with
interview outcomes.
Step 4:
 Automated electronic contract sent
to applicant
 Candidate Completes online
induction.
Identification and Advancement of High Performing Staff
Most of the employees nowadays are very open to feedback. The managers at Coles review
the presentation of the employees and keep the track record of the employee’s performance
so that they can review the performance and see the growth of an employee. Coles also have
performance valuation activities which help in identifying the major objectives of the
employees. The first is on the base of roles and responsibilities, on the basis of individual
goals, on the basis of the behaviour of the employees, the overall evaluation and one on one
meeting. All of these things benefit the company to identify the performance of the
employees and also helps them to know the advance high performance staff (Desman,
Moodie, Roebuck, and Siha, 2011)

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Managing Staff Performance
To know the performance of the task Coles have 2 types of purposes which includes
developmental and evaluative functions in order to evaluate the training effectiveness and
programs of rewards on the employee’s performance. The company has a very good policy of
resounding the performance appraisal, which helps in developing an evidence based
collection process. the process of evaluation of the company Coles concerning a job
accomplished by the staffs contains the systematic review of the actions of the jobs that are
performed by the workers and the actions along with preserving the performance standard
with documentation and employee performance plan. The performance valuation activity
also includes the feedback strategies (Nenycz-Thiel and Romaniuk, 2012)
Staff Engagement and Retention
Coles approximately have 217000 employees. The business gives employment to almost 60
working Australians. One of the biggest competitive advantages of Coles is that it provides
employees with opportunities to improve the performance and the careers (Dwivedi,
Merrilees, Miller, and Herington, 2012) the terms and conditions of employment for more
than 89.9 precent of Cole’s team members are set through the shared agreements. Coles
encourage workplace relations.
Organisational Health and Safety
Coles is very committed towards safety and health. It provides its team with full support of
health and safety and also a wellbeing policy. Coles has a safety management system as well
which is called “safety care”. This system helps and promotes a safe and a healthy
environment and also very effective management assistance for injury for he members that
get injured at work. This system is used to manage the hazards and risks at work that can
come at the store unannounced anytime.

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Diversity Management
Coles recognises that the members of the team are important to the company and are also
very committed to the maintain and promote the diversity. The vision of Coles is to uphold a
safe, comprehensive and a different workplace that helps in being reflective to all the
community and the customers of Coles. Coles understands that diversity is an important part
of the organization and it helps to improve the capacity to attract, motivate, recall and
develop the best talent in order to create and engaged workforce. The diversity of Coles
focuses on the five main areas gender balance, flexible, working accessibility, indigenous and
pride. (Buller, and McEvoy, 2012).
Resolving Workplace Disputes and Industrial Relations
Coles is highly committed to the very high level of reliability and the ethical standards of all
the business performs. Team members at Coles are asked to comportment themselves in a
consistent method with the values of Coles. Coles always tries to promote positive
environment for the employees and they have a policy for conflict management that is
conflicts of interest policy, this means that the employees can report to the higher authorities
for any kind issues or disputes in the office. Coles has a lot of rules and regulations which the
employees need to follow (Kusluvan, Kusluvan, Ilhan, and Buyruk, 2010).
Evaluation and Recommendations
 Make a business pleasant place to be: Employees want to be stay in a
pleasant place and in a positive workplace environment. The most important thing is
to keep the workplace well-kept and updated with the equipment’s of work. This also
includes keeping the things good and nice looking in a workplace. if the surroundings
are good then the there is always a happy and a positive work environment. A

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positive work environment helps the employees to get motivated and helps them to
work hard. Making a business pleasant place does not mean that it has to be
expensive, little or small touches can also make the office an enjoyable place to be
(Jiang, Lepak, Han, Hong, Kim, and Winkler, 2012).
 Offer employees rewards: Employees stay in a particular business or a company
if they see a room of growth or they see a reason. It is very important for the company
to reward the good employees in order to motivate them and in order to keep them in
the company (Alfes, Shantz, Truss, and Soane, 2013). There are a lot of ways by
which a company can motivate their employees or reward their employees. The first
way is the company can keep a recognition program; secondly the company can start
with an incentive program or something like quarterly bonus. All these things makes
the employees feel happy and motivated and it also gives them a feeling that they can
grow in the company.
 Give employees room to grow: If a company or a business is expanding
rapidly, it is very important for the company to give chance to the employees to grow
in the company as this thing motivates the employees the most. This is a
psychological factor that gives the employees a feeling of trust and respect in the
workplace. Good growth opportunities are actually big motivation to the employees.
for example: if a company is expanding at a different location, that company can
think of good employee that can manage the operations of that location and can then
consider grooming that person for the job. These kinds of things help the employees
to grow in the workplace.
 Share positive feedback with employees: One of the biggest job satisfaction
factors are when the work gets fulfilled. Work satisfaction can come from various

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places. It is important to share positive feedbacks if the employees do something
good. Some companies have a thing called square feedback. Various square sellers
make it a point to share all the positive feedbacks given by the customers with the
employees during their weekly meetings. These kinds of things helps the employees
feel good and helps them to connect to the business more. This also helps the
employees to build positive and strong relationship with the customers which can later
on bring various benefits to the company (Adriaanse, 2016)
 Be transparent: A company or a business should let the employees know
everything about the business and should give insights about the business as these
things makes the employees feel more invested. Companies can make this easy by
sharing the weekly or the monthly sales report to the employees. Companies can also
send the information about the number of customers that are new versus the
customers that are returning. Having access to this entire data make the employees
feel important part of the company and also give them knowledge about where they
can improve and progress (Keith, 2012)
 Offer flexible scheduling: This thing motivates the employees the most.
Technology is changing and it is also changing the way people work nowadays.
Employees nowadays want flexible scheduling. According to a study done by Forbes
46% of the employees said that flexibility is the most important thing when it comes
to a job (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, and Lengnick-Hall, 2011). Companies nowadays
should provide flexible working hours or work from home opportunity in order to
attract employees and top talent to the companies as employees nowadays are looking
for the jobs that have flexible scheduling.

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 Non- Monetary benefits: This is another thing that motivates employees the
most. Non- monetary benefits are something that every employee nowadays looks for
before joining a job. Non-monetary benefits keep the employees happy and
motivated. It also helps in attracting top talent. it includes things like psychological
benefits(mental health cover, mental health education), lifestyle benefits(gym passes,
childcare support, life insurance, domestic helper coverage and medical
benefits( vision insurance, family coverage, dental insurance).
 Motivate individuals: It is very important for the company to motivate the
individuals rather than motivating the team as each and every employee should have a
clear knowledge of the goals of the organization. Motivating the individual person
will help the company know the performance of each and every employ and this way
the company will be able to give personal attention t0 the employees. Motivation to
the employees can be given through various ways, managers can send blogs to
motivate employees, and company can have a lot activity session to open up the
employees and to keep them motivated in the company (Guest, 2011)
 Prioritise work life balance: Every company should prioritize the work life
balance. This is thing is fun and a little motivator in the company. It is important for
the team or the employees to take a vacation time or off from work. A company
should itself encourage the employees to take off and motivate the employees to take
vacations as this culture helps in maintaining the work life balance and also increases
the productivity, happiness in the workplace (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and Wright,
2017).
 Have open door policy: The open door policy basically refers to the open
communication in the company and the leader or the manger should focus on this as

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open communication is something which an organization should focus on. The
employees should be allowed to keep their point of view in the company. Open door
policy basically means being open to the suggestions and ideas of the employees.
When in a company the employee’s feels that their voice matters they feel confident
and motivated about their positions in the organization and the company and then they
do not concentrate on pay check only they concentrate more on their stake in the
company (Ibrahim, and Zulkafli, 2016)

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References
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intensive care unit?: a qualitative case study into the HRM implementation
process (Bachelor's thesis, University of Twente).
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human
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351.
Buller, P.F. and McEvoy, G.M., 2012. Strategy, human resource management and
performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), pp.43-
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Chanlat, J.F. and Özbligin, M.F. eds., 2017. Management and diversity: Thematic
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need to know. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 7(1), pp.49-66.
Dwivedi, A., Merrilees, B., Miller, D. and Herington, C., 2012. Brand, value and relationship
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Ibrahim, H.I. and Zulkafli, A.H., 2016. Corporate governance, HRM practices and
organizational performance. Соціально-економічні проблеми і держава, 14(1), pp.30-40.

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Jiang, K., Lepak, D.P., Han, K., Hong, Y., Kim, A. and Winkler, A.L., 2012. Clarifying the
construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee
performance. Human Resource Management Review, 22(2), pp.73-85.
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