Report: Human Resource Practices and Strategies at Wesfarmers

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the human resource practices implemented by Wesfarmers, a large Australian company, to foster employee satisfaction and retain top talent. The executive summary highlights Wesfarmers' initiatives to enhance employee performance, including training programs focused on technical and leadership skill development, and fair work agreements. The report also delves into culture-related initiatives, such as promoting ethical behavior, diversity, and inclusion, and engagement strategies, including stakeholder surveys and employee communication channels. Furthermore, the report offers recommendations to improve human resource practices and enhance the working culture at Wesfarmers, emphasizing the importance of feedback, non-monetary incentives, open communication, and a people-focused culture. The report concludes by emphasizing Wesfarmers' commitment to employee development, engagement, and creating a safe and inclusive work environment.

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Human resource practices
Student’s Name
4/21/2019

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Executive Summary
The report highlights the human resource practices adopted by Wesfarmers to provide
maximum satisfaction to its customers and retain the best talents. It covers the initiatives
taken by Wesfarmers to enhance the performance of employees and retain long term relation
with them. Furthermore, it states the culture and engagement initiatives taken by the company
to provide maximum advantage to the employees of the organization. It will also include
recommendations to improve the human resource practices and enhancement of working
culture of Wesfarmers.

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Performance related initiatives...................................................................................................3
Culture-related initiative............................................................................................................4
Engagement related initiative.....................................................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9
Introduction
The success of the company lies in the hands of its workforce. Wesfarmers is one of the
largest listed companies in Australia and has a large number of employees in the workplace.
The company fosters to deliver maximum value to its shareholders by providing a safe

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working environment to its members. Wesfarmers focuses on providing the opportunity to
the employees and creates a safe working environment. The company supports non-
discriminatory culture and retain the best people in the company. It invests in its people by
providing training and strives for implementing creativity to the organization. The report
highlights the initiatives taken by Wesfarmers to retain the best people (Wesfarmers, 2019).
Performance related initiatives
Wesfarmers provides numerous job-specific and career development training opportunities to
the employees to upgrade their technical skills and develop the leadership skills in
employees. It focuses on providing training related to customer service and developing
teamwork. It aims to increase the potential and the capability of the members to protect the
future of the employees. The leadership model of Wesfarmers focuses on engaging the people
and inspiring them to work in a collaborate manner and harness diverse capabilities
(Aucouturier, 2017).
To motivate the employees it has designed a fair work commission agreement in which the
team members will be paid more than the awards. It provides certainty about future pay
increases and provides additional benefits like two days of domestic violence leave and paid
compassionate leave of up to five days. In Wesfarmers, 64% of people are employed on a
permanent basis and 36% are on a casual basis. It develops the entrepreneurial spirit and
develops the self-capability for higher performance of the employees (Rae et al, 2015).
The company has developed its talent development policy under which consists of four
streams: know, grow, connect and include. In the first stream, the company knows the talent
they have and the talent they needed through talent mapping and analytics. In the second
stream, the company grows the talent through 360 feedback, coaching, mentoring and
psychometrics. In the third stream, it connects the talent with the Wesfarmers way and

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engages them. In the last stream, it includes diverse talent and starts unlocking the benefits to
them. The company analyses the diverse needs of the team members and provides a career
path, flexibility, and support required for being productive. The company focuses on
providing equal pay for equal work to ensure fair practices (Pulker et al, 2018).
Wesfarmers focuses on improving the performance of its members by providing all the rights
and development of a code of conduct. The company motivates the staff by providing
recognition and protecting the rights of the staff. It develops safe workplaces and provides
equal pay (Terry-Armstrong, 2015).
Culture-related initiative
Wesfarmers adopts the culture where the employees are expected to be honest, open and
operate their roles in an ethical manner. The company serves the diversified community and
has respect towards the people and the diversified culture. The company provides maximum
satisfaction to the customers and are responsible for the environment. The employees have
the flexibility to work and enjoy the freedom to speak but the company comprises of the
internal board of directors to direct the actions and supervise them (Colla, 2017).
The company sustains its competitive advantage by paying attention to the gender balance
and inclusion of the indigenous people. It has introduced gender affirmation and transition
guidelines to develop supporting working environment. The company holds 40% for any
gender and 28% of senior positions are filled by women’s. The company is dedicated to
treating all employees with respect and fairness. Wesfarmers is committed towards its
reconciliation action plan in which it provides the opportunity to the indigenous people and
has employed 997 indigenous team members which are 2.5% of Wesfarmers Australian
workforce. It develops indigenous partnerships with the organizations that are focusing on
improving the lives of indigenous people. The Wesfarmers adopts the inclusive culture under

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which it does not fits all the team members to the traditional notion but provide different
strengths and styles to create a comfortable working environment for teams (Miklosik et al,
2018).
The company continuously and openly listens to the expectations of the stakeholders to
determine their needs and implement changes. It effectively contributes towards the
community and respects the customers, suppliers and team members. The company is highly
committed to providing safe products and make continuous innovation to create value for the
customers. It provides training to the customers about the safe use of the products and
welcomes 360 feedbacks to implement changes and sustain the competitive advantage. The
culture of Wesfarmers includes performing the activities ethically and open for the mistakes
and views of the members and customers. There is a proper delegation of authority and
encourages entrepreneurial spirit (Islam et al, 2016).
Engagement related initiative
Wesfarmers diversity strategy includes welcoming of the indigenous customers, employees
and develops indigenous partnerships. It creates employment opportunities for national and
local indigenous suppliers. For example, it works with Young Guns Container Crew to
provide employment opportunities to indigenous suppliers. The Company also supports the
Clontarf Foundation since 2001 to provide education, skills, and employment for young
indigenous people (Bayne et al, 2017).
The company conducts stakeholder engagement survey to improve communication and solve
the sustainability issues. It engages its employees through personal contact, periodic
divisional employee surveys, and discussions with unions and through the whistle-blower
process of the company. The company communicates with customers through continuous
review of the customer feedback. The company merely focuses on employee engagement

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through the development of a compliance system and ensuring the safety of the employees.
The total recordable injury frequency rate has reduced by 15% in the year 2018 (Sullivan and
Gouldson, 2017).
The company applies the work-role model of engagement and creates a safe working
environment for its employees. It provides equal pay and protects the rights of the members.
It is analyzed that the company promotes gender balance and 28% of senior positions are held
by women’s. They promote a safe working environment and flexibilities to the members to
create a comfortable environment (Sullivan and Gouldson, 2017).
The psycho-social theory of company provides physical protection and the psychological
wellness to the employees. The company has developed a fair work commission to provide
more to the members. It provides the right to increase the contract hours and made them
permanent. It provides the choice of the superannuation fund and developed programs to
assist the employees and their families. Effective training programs have been developed to
provide assistance and adopt changes in the environment. The Company engages its
shareholders by sharing transparent information and provides avenues for the two way
communication between the shareholders, board, and company. It has developed measures
for providing opportunities to the employees to enhance their career path (Wesfarmers,
2018).
Recommendations
To improve the performance of the employees the company must focus on getting the
feedback from the employees and understand the diversifying needs of the employees. The
company must focus on developing the non-monetary incentives which motivate the staff to
increase productivity and provide better services to the customers. It must develop open
communication channels between the team to provide a relaxing working environment and

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more engagement of the employees in the management decisions. Recognition and praise of
employees can be the best method of motivating them for higher productivity and
development of techniques that helps in the professional and personal development of
employees.
To satisfy the changing needs of the customer and employees the company focus on adopting
change management and strategically applying to the organization. It must consider
Maslow’s need hierarchy theory and must adopt the culture that provides maximum
satisfaction to the employees and the customers. It must provide enough flexibility and must
provide the authority to the employees to get involved in the higher level decisions of the
organization. It must focus on developing the culture where efforts of all the members are
integrated towards the achievement of the common goal.
Lastly, to improve employee engagement, the company must use the approach of
collaboration to develop creative ideas and interaction among the employees. The company
must adopt a people-focused culture to create work-life balance and make the employees feel
valued and heard. The company must conduct social gatherings to increase the interactions
between the different departments and members and develop respect for each other. The
company must increase the flexibility in working hours and must delegate the authority to
increase employee engagement (Gerber, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above discussions, it is critical to note that Wesfarmers has effectively contributed
to the development of the employees and focused more on employee engagement. The
company adopts the inclusive culture and have contributed towards the development and
engagement of indigenous people. The company has developed a safe working environment
and provides fair work commission to the members. The company focuses on reducing

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gender biases and retains the best talent by proving the best training. It adopts the culture
where ethical practices are undertaken and openness to the members, customers, and
suppliers. It provides maximum satisfaction to the customers by retaining the best employees.
References
Aucouturier, M. (2017) Managing Human Rights as Risks, the United Nations Guiding
Principles for Business and Human Rights and the Future of Corporate Social
Responsibility. Available at SSRN 3073892.

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Bayne, L., Schepis, D. and Purchase, S., (2017) A framework for understanding strategic
network performance: Exploring efficiency and effectiveness at the network level. Industrial
Marketing Management, 67, pp.134-147
Colla, A., 2017. Corporate governance in 2017: Failures and wins. Governance
Directions, 69(4), p.217
Gerber, S. (2017) The 10 Best Tools for Increased Employee Engagement [Online]. Available
from: https://www.business.com/articles/scott-gerber-employee-engagement-tools/ [Accessed
21/04/19]
Islam, M.A., Jain, A. and Haque, S. (2016) A preliminary analysis of Australian
Government’s Indigenous reform agenda ‘Closing the Gap’and corporate accountability.
In Key Initiatives in Corporate Social Responsibility, pp. 341-354
Miklosik, A., Evans, N., Hasprova, M. and Lipianska, J. (2018) Reflection of embedded
knowledge culture in communications of Australian companies. Knowledge Management
Research & Practice, pp.1-10
Pulker, C.E., Trapp, G.S., Scott, J.A. and Pollard, C.M. (2018) Global supermarkets’
corporate social responsibility commitments to public health: a content
analysis. Globalization and health, 14(1), p.121
Rae, K., Sands, J. and Gadenne, D.L. (2015) Associations between organisations’ motivated
workforce and environmental performance. Journal of Accounting & Organizational
Change, 11(3), pp.384-405
Sullivan, R. and Gouldson, A., 2017. The governance of corporate responses to climate
change: An international comparison. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(4), pp.413-
425

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Terry-Armstrong, N. (2015) Managing staff: Happy, safe and contented. Busidate, 23(2), p.2
Wesfarmers. (2018) Wesfarmers sustainability report 2018 [Online]. Available from:
https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/media/2467/sustainability_website_2018.pdf
[Accessed 21/04/19]
Wesfarmers. (2019) Introduction [Online]. Available from:
https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-impact/people/diversity/about-diversity [Accessed
21/04/19]