TMGT401 Assessment 1: HR Practices and Employee Performance Comparison

This essay examines the association between Human Resource (HR) practices and employee performance, focusing on a comparative analysis of Woolworths and Aldi. The study identifies key HR practices, including working environment, motivational factors, training and development, employee engagement, recruiting strategies, performance management, and remuneration. The essay explores the impact of these practices on employee retention, innovation, loyalty, and productivity. Woolworths emphasizes employee engagement and retention, while Aldi prioritizes performance management, employee growth, and development. The analysis highlights the effects of these practices on company culture, service orientation, and customer satisfaction. The conclusion recommends that Woolworths enhance training and development, while Aldi could focus on job rotation to improve employee versatility.

[Type the company name]
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
[Type the document subtitle]
student name
4/30/2019
Executive summary
Factors of HR practices which effects on employee performance includes working environment,
hygiene factors, motivational factors, and training and development. Key HR practices found at
Woolworths were employee engagement, recruiting best staff, employee encouragement to

retain. Key HR practices of Aldi included remunerations and benefits, performance management,
and learning and development.
The effect of the HR practices is identified in the result of retaining employees and an increase in
innovative ideas for the staff. The HR practices of Aldi have improved the employee loyalty
towards the company and they are willing to perform best for the company.

Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................1
Factors of HR practices which effects on employee performance..................................................3
Level of employee performance......................................................................................................3
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................3
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................3
HR practices used by.......................................................................................................................4
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................4
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................4
Comparative HR practices between Woolworths and Aldi.............................................................5
The effects of HR practices in.........................................................................................................6
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................6
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................6
Training and development...............................................................................................................6
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................6
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................7
Culture.............................................................................................................................................7
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................7
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................8
Influence of training and development at company’s culture.........................................................8
Woolworths..................................................................................................................................8
Aldi..............................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion and recommendation..................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

Factors of HR practices which effects on employee performance
 Working environment – The working environment plays a major role in employee’s
performance. In health and clean environment, the employees are also willing to perform
in the organization (Frost, 2018).
 Hygiene factors
 Motivational factors – There must be some motivation for the employees to perform well
in the organization like incentive system or higher salary base (Baron & Mueller, 2016).
 Training and development – the employees need to increase their competencies and skills
with time so they found growth in the company. Therefore, a training and development
program would be helpful in improving employee’s performance (Abdulraheem Sal,
2016).
Level of employee performance
Woolworths
Level of employee performance is high in Woolworths, however the employee turnover is found
to be high in the company. The company has focused over the excellent store experience, which
reflects the higher performance by the employees in the store and most satisfied customers
(itunes.apple, 2019).

Aldi
The company has more than thirty thousand staff In Ireland and the UK, and being able to
provide god level of performance in the company. Moreover, the company goal is to have more
35000 employees by 2020 (brickmeetsclick, 2018).
HR practices used by
Woolworths
Key HR practices found at Woolworths were
 Recruiting best staff – The company major aim was to introduce the best staff to the
organization, with approachable competencies (Mitchell, 2018).
 Employee engagement – Another practice adopted by Woolworth in the majority is
engaging employees in decision making and getting innovative ideas. This makes them
feel like part of the company are tens to increase the performance (humancapitalreview,
2017).
 Employee encouragement to retain – The employee is encouraged through various
motivating factors like more number of breaks and providing a good environment to
retain the employees in the organization (woolworths.co.za, 2018).
Aldi
Key HR practices of Aldi include:
 Performance management – Aldi use 360-degree feedback, the company uses this
strategy to assess the employees. As per this strategy, individual performance is asses by

all the members around the person and the lacking points are fulfilled through training
(Edelman, 2017).
 Remunerations and benefits – Aldi was the First mover in the industry to provide rewards
to the employees in 2008. This included paid holidays to employees, recognition
program, various bonuses to the employees in retail sector (Wells, 2018).
 Learning and development – the company provides Professional leadership and
development plans in order to gain competencies in the organization (aldi, 2018).
Comparative HR practices between Woolworths and Aldi
Both the companies have adopted various HR practices for years. However, there is some
difference in both the company adoption of these practices. From the analysis it can be said that
the Woolworth is majorly focused over the retaining the employees in the organization, for
which the company encourages the employees and also focus to engage the employee to enhance
innovation and encourage the employees. Moreover, the company is trying to retain employees
as the attempt of the HR is to recruit best possible competencies in the organization, and the
increased turnover can cause the higher cost to the company (fin24, 2019).
Whereas
In the case of Aldi, it has been analysed that the company is more concerned about the
employees and their growth and development opportunities. for instance the company attempt to
enhance the performance of the employees through the use of 360 degree feedback approach,
which will enhance the employee's performance and will also help the company to increase the
productivity. Moreover the company is concern about the effort of the employees and found to
be willing to pay back in terms of incentive, rewards, and bonus, which will also help the

company to motivate the employees and increase the productivity of the company
(digitalstrategyconsulting, 2018).
The effects of HR practices in
Woolworths
The effect of the HR practices is identified in the result of retaining employees and an increase in
innovative ideas for the staff. The major purpose of Hr practices was to engage the employees
into the management and decision making and the company found employees to provide
innovative ideas and helped the company to enhance the service quality for the customers at the
store (hunter.tafensw, 2018).
Aldi
Employee loyalty, The HR practices of Aldi has improved the employee loyalty towards the
company and they are willing to perform best for the company. This has also lead to increase in
employee retention in the company. Moreover, HR increases the productivity due to rapid
performance management in the company. The employees were trained and developed resulting
in increased employee’s performance (trulydeeply, 2018).
Training and development
Woolworths
The training and development programs associated by Woolworths include an apprenticeship
program, fastrack program, management and leadership development program, and supermarket
retailing certificate. This training program has been designed for the stores of Woolworths. This

included an interactive learning program conducted online that covers training related to safety,
customer service, loss of prevention to legal issues and knowledge of products.
The leadership development training by the company is the opportunity for the people to move to
higher position. This program included range of training at various locations in New Zealand.
Moreover for professional development, the company is providing apprenticeship program in
Australia. This included a certificate course for qualification in bakery so that the employees can
pursue their baker’s career with Woolworths (wowcareers, 2019).
Aldi
The training program considered by the company included various in store training programs
like store management training, retail assistant training, assistant store training. Moreover, the
training and development program associated at Aldi included graduate and corporate training
programs, for instance area manager training program. An intense three month program of in
store training with appropriate monitoring and support is provided to make sure that the training
for the individual succeeded (aldicareers, 2019).
Culture
Woolworths
The company considered listening culture that reflects that the company listens to their
customers and are customer oriented. Considering the cultural values of the company included
delivery of best quality and style, simple and fair trading is considered to be important to ensure
that the customer are offered with appropriate quality for the cost of the goods. Moreover,
recently The Company majorly includes the relevance of service to the customer to enhance

customers experience at the store. Innovation is another major aspect of corporate culture. The
company consider innovation and think out of the box to increase customer satisfaction
(woolworths, 2019).
Aldi
Aldi’s culture included hard work, promoting productivity and people development. This reflects
that the company considers employees to greater extent as the company believes in its human
resource than just being product oriented. This included developing of people to work towards
common objective and ensure if the employees have required efficiency and productivity as per
their job description. Moreover lean structure of the company reflects close working culture and
relationships. However, at time lack of patience has been observed within the company’s culture
as the expectation among the company is very high.
Influence of training and development at company’s culture
Woolworths
 Service orientation – The Company is able to provide services to the customer due to
effective training program and learning. For example, supermarket retailing program
ensured that the services provided by the employees of eth customer are up to date, which
makes the quality of services to high level.
 Customer centric culture – As already discussed, company culture constituted to be more
customer centric and training and development programs by Woolworth has increased the
customer satisfaction and support company’s culture to greater extent.

 Innovative culture – Skilled and competent employees and leadership programs has
influence the level of innovation in the company, which is part of company’s culture and
company is willing to introduce to new ideas and scope, which has made possible due to
effective training programs.
Aldi
 Work diversity – The training and development program at aldi has influenced the
recruitment and selection program. This has created diversified work culture, where
people from different regions are part of the company with various competencies.
 Employee benefit and better customer service – With the help of various in store and
corporate training program, company has been able to develop their employees so as to
provide good quality services to the customer and enhance customer satisfaction. The
employee development and higher productivity culture is possible for the company due to
effective training programs.

Conclusion and recommendation
From the report it can be concluded that Woolworth is majorly focused over the retaining the
employees in the organization, for which the company encourages the employees and also focus
to engage the employee to enhance innovation and encourage the employees. Aldi, it has been
analysed that the company is more concerned about the employees and their growth and
development opportunities. For instance, the company attempts to enhance the performance of
the employees through the use of 360 degree feedback approach.
The major recommendation from the analysis for Woolworths includes that the company must
increase the training and development programs for the employees in order to keep them
growing and increase their competencies. Woolworth must also go for various motivational
practices like incentives system as per the employee's performance, bonus system, additional
facilities to the employees.
Recommendation to Aldi would be that the company can enhance the competencies of the
employee through job rotation and make their employees more versatile in nature.

References
Abdulraheem Sal, M.R., 2016. The Impact of Training and Development on Employees
Performance and Productivity. International Journal of Management Sciences and Business
Research, 5(7), pp.2226-8235.
aldi, 2018. about aldi. [Online] Available at: https://www.aldi.com.au/en/about-aldi/.
aldicareers, 2019. In-Store-Training. [Online] Available at:
https://www.aldicareers.com.au/Training/In-Store-Training.
Baron, R.A. & Mueller, B.A., 2016. Self-efficacy and entrepreneurs' adoption of unattainable
goals: The restraining effects of self-control. Journal of Business Venturing, 31(1), p.55.
brickmeetsclick, 2018. Lidl is leveraging synergy with Aldi in their growth strategy: Expect a
dust up. [Online] Available at: https://www.brickmeetsclick.com/lidl-is-leveraging-synergy-
with-aldi-in-their-growth-strategy--expect-a-dust-up [Accessed 30 January 2017].
digitalstrategyconsulting, 2018. Aldi and Lidl struggling to build loyalty with UK shoppers
despite ever growing market share. [Online] Available at:
http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/intelligence/2017/04/aldi_and_lidl_struggling_to_buil
d_loyalty_with_uk_shoppers_despite_ever_growing_market_share.php.
Edelman, P.J., 2017. Training leader emotion regulation and leadership effectiveness. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 32(6), pp.747-57.
fin24, 2019. why-sa-consumers-are-most-satisfied-with-woolworths. [Online] Available at:
https://www.fin24.com/Companies/Retail/why-sa-consumers-are-most-satisfied-with-
woolworths-20170421.
Frost, S., 2018. The Importance of Training & Development in the Workplace. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-training-development-workplace-
10321.html [Accessed 30 June 2018].
humancapitalreview, 2017. Woolworths Growth Academy: Developing Local Retail Skills.
[Online] Available at: http://www.humancapitalreview.org/content/default.asp?Article_ID=976.
hunter.tafensw, 2018. Ongoing training critical to Woolworths staff. [Online] Available at:
http://www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au/about-us/casestudies/pages/ongoing-training-critical-to-
woolworths-staff.aspx.
itunes.apple, 2019. woolworths-fresh-magazine. [Online] Available at:
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/woolworths-fresh-magazine/id943275584?mt=8.