Employee Motivation and Relations at Woolworths: A Detailed Report

This report provides an analysis of Woolworths' employment culture and its impact on employee motivation. It examines the company's history, growth, and its position in the retail industry. The report delves into Woolworths' performance, highlighting factors such as brand identity, supportive culture, and corporate governance, which contribute to employee motivation and satisfaction. It discusses the company's training and development programs, employee benefits, and its focus on corporate social responsibility. The report also addresses areas for improvement, such as employee retention, especially at the junior level, and suggests recommendations for enhancing employee satisfaction through better work-life balance, development programs, and engaging work content. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing Woolworths' commitment to its employees and the significance of employee well-being for overall company success.

Running head: MOTIVATION AND EMPLOYEE RELATION
Motivation and Employee relation
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Objective.........................................................................................................................................3
Purpose...........................................................................................................................................3
Scope..............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company..............................................................................................................3
Performance..................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations.........................................................................................................................4
Conclusions...................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Objective - The following report contains the analysis of the super market Woolworth’s
employment culture and how motivation contributes to this factor.
Purpose - The purpose of this report is to analyse the company’s employment culture as well as
to get an idea of what makes it employee friendly and details that are essential to get a proper
background of the organisation.
Scope - Woolworths has grown rapidly during the last 90 years. Though the competition was
high in the retail sector they have shown proper employee culture and became Australia’s most
noted organisation in terms of sales and company value too (Parker 2014). The
recommendation is the new scope for further research.
Overview of the company
Woolworths is an Australian company, which is in retail industry and in the industry for
about more than 90 years. Since 1924 it has grown rapidly and thus became an international
supermarket. First it started sourcing different grocery products, has more than 3000 stores and
serves millions of customers per day (Woolworths.com.au 2018). It also offers everyday low
pricing to their customers. The fresh produce of the majority of Australia is sourced by them.
They also go through the Quality assurance programs in the company. They also have good
training and development programs in the company for their employers. The management
consists of a large scale of employees. It also takes care of their customers throughout the
shopping process. It also uses a self-service checkout in their retail stores.
Performance
Woolworths have average to good review to work for in the online portals. The company
is also known as to provide benefits to the people in the company and proper incentives and
rewards. Woolworths is listed in the LinkedIn’s top most companies with respect to the working
environmental factors. The main factors that contributes to motivate the people to work for
Woolworths also lies in the company’s reputation and brand identity, which can be labelled as a
hygiene motivation factor of the company. The company has grown through the last 80 years
and expanded while they were growing. The company has performed well in the industry. The
sales department of the company also achieved notable success. The growth rate was 25.6 %

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as a percentage of sales. Woolworths also has a strong supportive culture and great corporate
governance. This works as positive reinforcements (van et al. 2014). They have 205,000
employees and they are looking for expansion in the company. Moreover, they have 3000
stores and work fronts in Australia. The main criterion to attract the work force are to change the
culture and go with the trend. Woolworths also tries to engage themselves with the corporate
social responsibility to alleviate the culture of the company. Their focus of the CSR activities is
mostly on the people, culture, community planet, suppliers and customers (Cravens et al. 2015).
Therefore, it can be said that the company develops trust among their company personnel and
remains faithful about the prices with their customers (van et al. 2014). Efficient wastage plans
and lowering the prices of the company is known as the most important factor that they have
also adapted over the years. This relationship contributes as positive reinforcements in the
company. Praising the job properly and rewarding on an annual basis for the people also
contributes to the transformation of the company culture. Other activities like inner challenges
and creative thinking also must be the part of the process. They understand well that the people
have different kinds of need, therefore, motivating them by this different needs are adopted in
the company (Lourenço 2015). The company also participates in the inter company
competitions of “Best place to work in”. Therefore, there are certain standards that they abide by
to win those awards. Another factor that contributes to the company’s performance is the
chances of growth. The media relations of the company are also fair as they maintain a proper
public relation through different sponsor and promotional programs. This contributes to the need
of hygiene factor of motivation. Safety and job security is high in the company as well as the
working conditions, wage rates and company policies. As from the employees review, the wage
rates are adequate and working hours are flexible. Liking the people in the workplace is also
necessary for the workforce to be attracted and retain the same.
Recommendations
The most ineffective program in Woolworths is the attrition factor of the junior level
employees. Woolworths is unable to retain the junior level employees. The attrition rate is high
in the supermarket chain. Therefore, it can be suggested that the company must develop new
policies and benefits to retain the old employees. They can also provide opportunities to current
employees for growth plans and communicate that to the employees. On the job employee
happiness can also be achieved through constant improvement in the salary structure. An
attractive fixed salary is one of the main motivational factor that contributes to job satisfaction. A
good work life balance can also contribute to the job satisfaction of the employees. Woolworths

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can also be recommended to help the employees to create a good work life balance. Employee
development programs can also be suggested for Woolworths. This factor would contribute to
the retention of the employees. Good relationship with the superiors and company value will
also contribute to the attraction of the work force. As it has been seen that some of the work
content in the supermarkets can get boring for the employees, it can be suggested that the
people in the organisations can be given more exciting work content or activities that may
contribute to the employee’s job satisfaction.
Conclusions
Therefore, from the above analysis and evaluation of Woolworth’s employee programs
and current scenario of the job satisfaction, it can be said that Woolworths does takes care of its
employees. The growth in the number of employees of the company and company value is very
important factor that the management of the company focuses on.

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References
Cravens, K.S., Oliver, E.G., Oishi, S. and Stewart, J.S., 2015. Workplace culture mediates
performance appraisal effectiveness and employee outcomes: A study in a retail setting. Journal
of Management Accounting Research, 27(2), pp.1-34.
Lourenço, S.M., 2015. Monetary Incentives, Feedback, and Recognition—Complements or
Substitutes? Evidence from a Field Experiment in a Retail Services Company. The Accounting
Review, 91(1), pp.279-297.
Parker, S.K., 2014. Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health,
ambidexterity, and more. Annual review of psychology, 65, pp.661-691.
Van Scheers, L. and Botha, J., 2014. Analysing relationship between employee job satisfaction
and motivation. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 9(1).
Woolworths.com.au. (2018). {{metaController.metaData.title}}. [online] Available at:
https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2018].