BUSN20019: HR Good Practices Impact on Employee Retention in Australia

This report investigates the impact of Human Resource (HR) good practices on employee retention, with a specific focus on retail organizations in Australia. The background highlights the importance of HR practices in motivating the workforce and reducing staff turnover, a critical issue for businesses. The research utilizes qualitative methods, analyzing sustainability reports from major Australian retail chains like Woolworths, Coles, and Wesfarmers. The study aims to identify different types of HR best practices, how they enhance employee loyalty and commitment, and how they contribute to minimizing staff turnover rates. The literature review supports the importance of HR practices such as security, selective hiring, fair performance appraisals, and training. A Gantt chart outlines the project's timeline, including literature review, methodology, data collection, analysis, and the final submission of the research paper. The research is designed to provide insights into the relationship between HR practices and employee retention, offering potential strategies for organizations to improve employee satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Running head: HR GOOD PRACTICES
HR GOOD PRACTICES
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1HR GOOD PRACTICES
Topic: Impact of HR good practices in retaining employees: Exploring the case of retail organizations in
Australia
Background and problem statement
The HR best practices of an organization focuses towards empowering the motivation of the
workforce while ensuring their absolute commitment towards the processes structure or design. It has been
observed from past literatures and different case studies that the absence of HR best practices has affected the
capability of the organizations in reducing the rate of staff turnovers. According to Azeez (2017), the HR
best practices are devised with the purpose of improving the rates of job satisfaction among the employees.
However, it has been observed from the study of Uzair et al., (2017) that the retail organizations have lower
limits of implementing HR best practices, resulting to high staff turnovers. The research will be undertaken
with the purpose of evaluating the relationship between the HR best practices and retention capability of the
organizations. The topic area requires adequate research with the purpose of identifying the true nature of the
best practices and whether they are related to staff retention, so that employers might consider upon devising
strategies for incorporating the best practices in their organizations.
Data sources and research methodology
The data will be collected through the utilization of qualitative methods from different available and
reliable sources. Data on HR sustainability measures of retail companies in Australia would be derived
through the sustainability reports that were published within a span of five years. The research would be
conducted through reviewing the sustainability reports of Woolworths
(https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/community-and-responsibility/corporate-responsibility-
reports/corporate-responsibility-report-2019/), Coles (https://www.colesgroup.com.au/sustainability/?
page=sustainability-report) and Wesfarmers (http://2018.sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-report/), as
they are the largest retail chains in Australia. The HR best practice trends would be compared in the study
and their employee strengths would be compared within the span of 5 years.
Research questions
What are the different types of HR best practices?
How do the HR best practices motivate and empower loyalty and commitment of the employees?
How do the HR best practices of an organization support in minimizing the rate of staff turnovers?
Short literature review
The HR best practices relating to security to employees, selective hiring, fair performance appraisals
or training on improving different skills specifically enables an organization in empowering the trust and
commitment of the employees. According to Khandelwal and Shekhawat (2018), the HR best practices not
only empowers the operations of the workforce but also induces a relationship of trust and commitment
among the organization and its workforce. On the other hand, Huo and Boxall (2018) opined that the HR
best practices are more like adhering to the employee centric needs rather than meeting the profit oriented
goals. However, Kodithuwakku, Jusoh and Chinna (2018) argued that the retention of loyalty and
commitment of the employees towards an organization would support in improving its performance.
Therefore, from the review of existing researches it might be stated that the application of the HR best
practices would allow an organization in improving the job experience of the employees.
Gantt chart

2HR GOOD PRACTICES
Activities
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Selection of Topic
Initiating study on existing
literature
Submission of project
proposal
Assessing Feedback
Proceeding with literature
review
Methodology
Data collection
Data analysis
Comparison with literature
Revisiting the overall process
Findings and discussions
Conclusion and
recommendations
Submission of paper

3HR GOOD PRACTICES
References
Azeez, S. A. (2017). Human resource management practices and employee retention: A review of
literature. Journal of Economics, Management and Trade, 1-10.
Colesgroup.com.au. (2019). Sustainability Report | Coles Group. Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
https://www.colesgroup.com.au/sustainability/?page=sustainability-report
Huo, M.L. and Boxall, P., 2018. Instrumental work values and responses to HR practices. Personnel Review.
Khandelwal, A. and Shekhawat, N., 2018. Role of talent retention in reducing employee turnover. Available
at SSRN 3186397.
Kodithuwakku, M., Jusoh, M., & Chinna, K. (2018). Impact of Human Resource Practices on Intention to
Leave among Generation Z The Future Workforce. International Journal of Human Resource
Studies, 8(4), 267.
Uzair, M., Razzaq, W., Sarfraz, M., & Nisar, Q. A. (2017). Impact of HR practices on employee loyalty and
commitment: Mediating role of job satisfaction. IJME, 9(2), 1067-1073.
Wesfarmers.com.au. (2019). Our Report. Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
http://2018.sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-report/
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2019). Sustainability Report 2019 - Woolworths Group. Retrieved 30 March
2020, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/community-and-responsibility/corporate-
responsibility-reports/corporate-responsibility-report-2019/