Analyzing HRM Issues and Strategies for Coles Supermarkets

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the human resource management (HRM) issues faced by Coles, a prominent Australian supermarket chain. It begins with an executive summary highlighting key challenges and the company's strategies to address them. The introduction establishes the significance of the HRM department and provides background information on Coles, including its market position and employee base. The core of the report focuses on critical recruitment challenges, such as competition from other supermarkets, the need for a capable labor force, and the impact of employee expectations. The report then suggests recommended approaches and strategies, including performance management, reward systems, retention strategies, and employer branding to mitigate these issues. It emphasizes the importance of sustainable HRM practices, employee-employer relationships, and continuous improvement. The conclusion reiterates the crucial role of HRM in Coles and stresses the need for effective policies to enhance employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. References to relevant academic sources are included to support the analysis.

Running head: Managing HRM issues
Managing HRM issues

Executive summary
The paper explains the key challenges of the human resource management. It tells that how the
company is making the effective HRM strategies to reduce these challenges. It explains the roles
and significance of human resource management in Coles. It is the biggest supermarket chain in
Australia which is dealing in various retail and consumer products. The company cannot survive
its business without a sustainable human resource department.

Table of Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Key issues for recruiting the labor force in Coles........................................................................................5
Recommended approaches and strategies....................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The report talks about the significance of the human resource department. Coles
Company has been selected to explain the case study. It explains the various key challenges and
issue of the company. It tells that how the company overcome these challenges and build a
strong position in the market.
Cole’s group limited is an Australian public company that deals in retail and consumer
products and services. It is the second biggest company in Australia in the retail industry. It was
acquired the Wesfarmers company in 2007 with the transfer of ownership. It's headquarters
located in Hawthorn East, Victoria Australia. There are approx 165,000 employees are employed
in the company. It is one of the biggest supermarket companies in Australia. Gradually, it
expanded its business across the world in order to achieve the long-term goals and objectives. It
is listed on the Australian stock exchange, the London stock exchange and New Zealand stock
exchange (Sanders, Shipton & Gomes, 2014).
Key issues for recruiting the labor force in Coles
The organization is responsible to provide all the facilities to new candidates at the
workplace. Coles is the second biggest supermarket company in Australia. Thus, various key
recruitment challenges are faced by the company. They have been discussed below.
 Strong and effective employment offers by the competitors: It is one of the biggest
key challenges that are faced by the company during recruiting the workforce.
Woolworths, Aldi, and Metcash limited are the main competitors of the company. They
offer the good employment opportunities to the new candidates compared to the Coles.
Therefore, new applicants do not join this company and they join other companies. Thus,
the firm faces many difficulties due to the excellent employment opportunities offered by
the competitors (Paillé, Chen, Boiral & Jin, 2014).
 The labor force is not enough capable: It is a major issue in such company. The firm is
not able to find efficient and potential workers to do work effectively and efficiently. The

employees are not capable to deal with any problem and terrible situations. Thus, they
cannot face the various competitors in the market. In this way, the company could not
meet the targets and goals near future.
 The new applicants have high expectations: It is the supermarket company so
employees expect high packages and wage payment for doing the work effectively and
efficiently. Thus, the company is not able to fulfill the needs, requirements, and
expectations of the new candidates. It is considered a significant key challenge for the
firm to recruiting the workforce for assigning the task and duties to the applicants (Peters,
Poutsma, Van der Heijden, Bakker & Bruijn, 2014).
 Taking up the appointment letter but not join the company: It is another key issue of
recruitment and selection in Coles. Many times it happens that the candidates who
present in the interview, they take the offer letters but they do not join the company. In
this way, the company has to face many problems and obstacles within the organization.
 Payment and wage issues: It is the common problem which is faced by every company
to recruit the labor force at the workplace. Sometimes, the company makes delay in the
payment system. It affects the image and position of the company adversely.
 Communication and motivation issues: If the Coles appoints new candidates to do the
task and employment then the managers and new candidates are not able to maintain
effective communication in the organization. Therefore, they feel lonely and they get
disappointed. As a result, high employees’ turnover is increased in the firm. The working
environment is also a big concern for the company (Kaufman, 2015).
 Organizational image: It plays a significant role in every organization. The
organizational image depends on the performance and efficiency of the candidates.
Before the interview, the candidates check the image of the company, whether the firm
image is good or not, if the goodwill of the firm is not good then candidates do not join
the company. It is one the significant key challenge for the firm to recruit the new
candidates at the workplace.
 Compensation and remuneration: It also affects the business operations and activities
adversely. Coles does not provide the higher compensation and incentives to the
employees. Hence, various recruitment and selection challenges are faced by the
company.

 Labor supply key challenge: It is one of the foremost factors in the firm. It focuses on
the labor supply and labor in the international market. It is the best source to reach the
organizational goals and objectives. But many times, the company could not fulfill the
needs and requirements of the association due to the unsatisfactory demands and supply
(Al-Refaie, 2015).
 Demographic issues: The various demographic factors include the education, culture,
sex, and district. The poverty and health care are the big concern in Coles Company. The
demographic issues include the diversity, aging workforce, and generations. In today’s
world, diversity is becoming the very important challenges for the company. Coles is the
biggest supermarket chain in the Australia. The company does not expand its business
because various HRM issues are faced by the firm. The cross-cultural differences also
influence the recruitment strategies in the company negatively. Further, the organization
checks the potentials and capabilities of the new candidates to gain the competitive
advantages (Alfes, Shantz & Truss, 2012).
The generation also plays a vital role in every organization. The company does not
provide the good opportunities to younger people. In this way, the firm is not able to gain
the experience and knowledge of the younger candidate. They are more active and
passionate compared to the older. It influences the performance and productivity of the
organization. Coles does not check the capabilities and potential of new candidates at the
time of recruiting the workforce in the firm. But it is mandatory to check and analyze the
knowledge and experience of the new candidates. The demographic issues influence the
business operations and activities of the company adversely (Singh, Darwish, Costa &
Anderson, 2012).
 Cross-cultural training: Cross-cultural training is essential for all the new candidates if
they are hired by the firm for the international business and operations. Therefore, the
firm needs to invest huge amount on the training of the new applicants. It is very
expensive and time-consuming process. If the organization does not provide cross-
cultural training to applicants then they could not perform the task and duties effectively
that are assigned by the company (Andreeva & Kianto, 2012).
All these key issues and challenges are faced by the Coles during the recruitment and selection
process.

Recommended approaches and strategies
After various researchers, it has been found then the firm should control the various
recruitment challenges and issues to gain the sustainability and long-term goals and objectives of
the firm. Thus, various approaches have been described to address these key challenges which
have been discussed below (Thite, Wilkinson & Shah, 2012).
Mainly, Coles is using two HRM strategies to address these challenges such as
performance management and reward management. Reward management uses for providing
motivation and reward to new candidates for their excellent performance. On the other hand,
performance management is based on the efficiency and productivity of the employees. Both
play an integral role to enhance and increase the motivation and morale of the employees. It is
the supermarket company that operates its business in Greenfield areas (Holm, 2012).
The firm should make the retention strategies to improve and prevent the high turnover
rate in the organization. It should improve the recruitment and selection process to attract the
more applicants in the market. The firm should build and develop the human resource
management in the organization to recruit the potential and capable applicants (Bardoel, Pettit,
De Cieri & McMillan, 2014). A company cannot run the business without sustainable human
resource department. The HR personnel help to improve the quality and performance of the
employees. The association should continue the development and improvement process to reduce
the key HRM issues. The company should maintain the personnel management in the firm to
manage and maintain the good employee-employer relationship. This management will also help
to fulfill the basic needs and requirements of the employees at the workplace (Collings, 2014).
Various cross-cultural training is conducted by the firm to improve the performance and
efficiency of the workers. In this way, they are able to gain a lot of business knowledge and
experience. The company should also provide various training and development programs to the
workers. The company should use various retention, compensation and motivation methods to
provide job satisfaction to the employees. In this way, they will do work with more efficiently
and effectively. The company should take the employees feedback to analyze and evaluate their
performance. The firm should recruit the employees on the basis of the worker's capabilities,
experience, knowledge, and qualification. The false and wrong commitment should not be done
by the employer and management (Thompson, 2011).

The top management and managers should build and develop the good relationship with workers.
They should maintain proper communication and teamwork in the firm. Supervisors must listen
to the grievances and complaints of the workers and they should solve these problems and
grievances to provide satisfaction to the workers. It will also help to build the trust, faith and
believe among the co-workers (Zoogah, 2011).
Coles should use the employer branding strategy to reduce the various key challenges of
the recruitment and selection. The brand is an identity to give an opportunity to the workers in
the company. The employer branding strategy of the company is very good. Through branding
strategy, the company can appoint the potential and talented employees in the organization. To
promote the employer branding, the company should conduct various awareness programs in the
market. Further advertising is another good strategy to attract the more candidates in the market.
If the company appoints skilled and potential workers then it will help to increase long-term
profit and revenue of the company. Through branding and advertising strategies, the company
can achieve the mission and vision of the firm in near future. All these strategies play a vital role
to reduce the key challenges of the recruitment and selection. The company should maintain a
good working environment for the employees (Festing & Schäfer, 2014).
Conclusion
A sustainable human resource management plays a crucial role in Coles. The paper
explains the key challenges of recruitment in the firm. Thus, the company should make effective
policies, procedures, and systems to reduce all these key challenges and issues. It should provide
the job satisfaction to the workers to gain the competitive advantages. In this way, the company
can also increase the sales in the market. It should also make some effective rules and regulations
to control on the high employee turnover within the organization.

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