Human Resource Management Report: Countdown New Zealand

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices within Countdown, a supermarket chain in New Zealand. It begins with an introduction to HRM, emphasizing its role in maximizing employee performance and fostering positive employer-employee relationships. The report then delves into Countdown's strategic goals, focusing on corporate social responsibility, strategy alignment, and environmental sustainability. It examines the factors considered in the recruitment process, the induction program for new employees, and the benefits of workplace learning programs. The report further explores the advantages of performance appraisal, highlighting how it improves employee performance and clarifies expectations. Additionally, it discusses Countdown's reward system, succession planning, and potential problems with HR policies. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of aligning HR activities with organizational goals and the impact of ethical HR practices on employee performance and organizational success. The report leverages theoretical concepts to analyze real-world scenarios within Countdown, providing valuable insights into effective HRM strategies.

RUNNING HEAD: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
0
Human Resource Management
Student Name
4/18/2019

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................4
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................................7
Task 4..........................................................................................................................................................8
Task 5..........................................................................................................................................................9
Task 6........................................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Human resource management is the process that includes the management of people
and human resource of the organization in an effective manner. HRM focuses on maximizing
the employee performance through efficient utilization of resource, by achieving harmony in
the relation between employees and employers and through maximizing the individual growth
in the organization. The human resource department of any organization is mainly responsible
for recruitment process, performance appraisal, reward system, human resource policies and
practices and for training, development and induction of the employees (Price, 2011).
For understanding the aspects of human resources management a company has been
chosen from New Zealand so Countdown a super market chain is selected. Countdown
operates in the country in supermarket segment and serves 2.5 million customers. The
company has 18,500 team members who work in the organization to deliver qualitative
services. Countdown recruitment team focuses on hiring the best talent and work on their
training and leadership development through different programs that give the opportunities to
the employees for their personal growth and in enhancing their skills (Countdown, About us ,
2019).
This report consist implications of human resource management concept on Countdown
New Zealand, a supermarket chain. The project includes the insight on communication
strategies used by Countdown, their reward system and the organization culture in which
employees are working in the Countdown. Through that study give the learning by using all
theoretical aspects of the subject into practical scenario. The assignment focuses on the ethical
human resource management, recruitment and induction process performed by the company,
advantages of performance appraisal to the employee performance and the reward system of
the company. Furthermore, succession planning strategy and the problems and
recommendation related to the company HR polices is assessed.

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Task 1
The strategic direction or goals for the Countdown are to focus on corporate social
responsibility, strategy alignment and environmental sustainability that all are the goals or
objectives in which countdown employees are working and the human resource of the
company is trying to deliver high value services to the customers, and company focus in
development of employees so that they give innovative ideas for achieving the goals
(Countdown, 2019). Corporate social responsibility strategy of the company is to encourage
diversity, using environmental friendly processes and giving back to the society. Strategy
alignment is related to using the practices and policies that helps in aligning individual goals
with organizational goals it directly impact on the performance of the employees as by
achieving on organizational objectives their goals are also fulfilling. Environment sustainability
practices includes introduction of energy efficient processes in countdown, freezers that reduce
cold air loss and overall contribute to energy reduction all that initiatives by the countdown
prove to be advantageous for employees as they get eco friendly working environment that
improve the morale and motivate employees to work with best of their ability for the society as
well as for the organization.
Alignment human resource activities with the organization are one of the ways to
contribute towards achieving the goal of the company (Collings, Wood, & Szamosi, 2018). For
countdown, goal is to align strategies with the departmental goals and implementing strategies
in a way that is supported by the employees and improve their performance. Strategy
alignment is directly related to change and it impact the employees as many of them resist
change due to number of factors some of them are increasing responsibilities, loss of control,
status quo and many more. The strategy alignment is done in an ethical way or by following
ethical HR practices, as high ethical standard affects the performance of the employees. In
countdown employees get proper training and strategic alignment is done by communicating to
each department about their role and responsibilities and need to implement new strategies.

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The goal of strategic alignment is achieved through employee development programs
like communcating them regarding need of change, train them for their new roles , using
democratic style of leadership while doing strtaegic alignment and focusing on maintaning
employee relation. The main HR factors that contribute in achieving strategic alignment in the
organization are:
Employee Development
Communication
Leadership
Motivation
Human capital is an important element of an organization and managing them is also
essential for achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. To achieve Countdown
strategic goal it is important that company should focus on development of employees as they
will learn the new roles and technologies that will be helpful in improvement of their
performance and through that they can understand the need of aligning their goals with
organization goal and can contribute more. Communication and style of leadership also affect
the performance in greater extent so countdown managers should focus on communicating the
actual need and goals of the company to the employees and welcome their feedback and ideas
that encourage and boost productivity (Mupepi, 2017).
Task 2
a.) The factors that are to be considered in the recruitment process or for hiring employees
in Countdown are organization culture, growth rate of the organization, salary structure
and the working conditions in which people work. Organization culture is an aspect that
is considered more as each employee wants to work in an organization where best and
ethical working practices are used because that culture help in building and

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development of employees. Growth rate is the opportunities and benefits an employee
get while working in the organization. Salary structure is least prefered factor if above
two were present as accordance to the demand of employee. In countdown recruitment
process it was found that most of the employees are motivated and attracted towards
the culture and working conditions in the organization. All factors are important for
countdown because it these factors help in getting the right candidates and retaining
them for the longer span of time . By focusing on these strategies or practices the
employees contribute in higher percentage for achieving the goals. All these factor
directly impact on employee productivity (Cushard, 2019).
b.) Induction process in an organization helps the employees to become familiar with the
practices and policies of the organization. The process starts with giving right
information to the employees that facilitates the organizational improvement as
employees start understanding and fulfilling their roles and responsibilities (Swart,
Mann, Brown, & Price, 2012). The Countdown provides induction program to the newly
joined employees to make them aware about policies and practices of the company and
to ensure that the employee will work on the prescribed obligations and deliver their
best. Induction process facilitates the Countdown improvement by reducing the stress
level of the employees and by motivating the person about the new job and make them
involve in the organization culture. Hence the employee and organization improvement
is facilitated by induction process held in the Countdown. Induction process in many
ways benefits he employees and organization that includes introduction of employees
with the company procedure and policies that is to be followed, face to face
introduction amongst the team and department, explaining safety and emergency
guidelines to the employees, assigning and stating the organization expectation from
the staff. All the things are part of the induction process that needed to be done for
making them feel part of the organization (Nankervis, Baird, Coffey, & Shield , 2017).

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c.) In countdown the workplace learning programme can be done for 4 days for the new
employees. The day starts with the introduction of new employees to the staff and
department heads followed by communicating mission, vision and polices of the
Countdown. A day is needed to make them familiar about the organization environment
and working for that orientation and a tour of supermarket stores of countdown is
conducted that give the knowledge to the new employees how the company work in
team and deliver best to their customer in the supermarket chain in New Zealand. On
second day, new employees will be given knowledge on their job roles and
responsibilities that they have to follow in the Countdown. Seminars will be conducted
to make the employees aware about the methods, application, procedure used by
Countdown and the chain to supply the product in the market that will make the
employees. To improve the performance of staff in retail segment some modular
training session will be given realting to inventory management through Epicore
software and a role play can be conducted that give the new employeesan idea on
sales training and they can observe the skills and communication required for their job
role (Taylor & Yue, 2017).
Countdown Learning Programme
Training Objectives Resources Time
period
Benefit
1. Orientation
&
Introduction
To make employees
familiar with the staff of
Countdown
Time, Flexible
environment, Staff
and Handbook for
new employees
1 day Make new employees
aware about the policies
and rules and the
authorities.
2. Tour of the
Countdown
Supermarke
ts
To inform new
employees about
working environment
and the chain of supply
Time, Expert or
trained staff, and
convenience
1 day To build the better
relationship with others
or coworkers in the
retail stores
3. Seminars
and Training
To enhance the skills of
employees and to give
knowledge about the
tools and application
used in the company
Time, Internet
connection,
Training head,
working areas
2 days Increase efficiency of
the new employees and
getting them engaged in
their roles

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Task 3
3.1 Advantages of Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal is a process to evaluate the performance of the employees on
the basis of some targets and the objective of the organization that is done to know the most
effective and high performers in an organization and to motivate them or appreciate them for
their efforts and hard work (Albrecht, Bakker, & Gruman, 2015). Some of the advantages of
performance appraisal are;
Performance Improvement: Appraisal of the employees is assessing the work of employees
according to the standard given to them. It gives clear picture about the high performers and
employees who are not contributing in the organization so that manager influence or motivate
them to improve their performance.
Motivation: The process of performance appraisal is a way of motivating the employees to do
their best and rewarding them on the basis of their efforts, this helps in bringing the positive
working environment in an organization.
Clarify Expectation: Through this process individual get to know about the expectations and
roles that they have to fulfill in order to be productive and the performance appraisal help in
clarifying all the expectations with the employees.
Feedback: This process give manager the authority to provide feedback of the performance of
the employee in a fair and transparent manner so that any improvement can be made
accordingly or it increases the scope of development in an individual personality.
Career Planning: The performance appraisal adds value to an employee in a positive note that
helps an individual in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of themselves. It serves as a
valuable tool for career growth of the employee and to gain the future opportunities.

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3.2 Two advantages that can improve employees performance in Countdown
Looking into improving the performance of employees in the Countdown, it is necessary
to motivate the employees on regular basis than only it become easy to add value on each side
of the supply chain and to satisfy the customer in this segment. Countdown use performance
appraisal as a tool to identify high performer employees and low performer employees and
than give the high performers monetary benefits and recognition as best performer of the
month. On the basis of customer feedbacks Countdown give awards to the most courteous and
polite staff who deal customers queries efficiently.
Another advantage of appraisal process is the feedback system that gives the
employees the idea about where they lack and where they are the best. Countdown employees
get feedback on the basis of working in stores, inventory handling, solving customer problems,
maintaning footfall in stores, providing ideas and marketing strategies and achieving targets of
selling in supermarket stores. Countdown employees are always motivated and ready take the
feedback and work accordingly to change and implement the new learning in their job
(Countdown, 2019).
Task 4
4.1 Propose three rewards plan
Reward plans have benefits for employees as they will get appreciation or positive
feedback in monetary terms for their performance in the organization. The three reward plans
that help in improving or motivating employees to contribute to the greater extent in achieving
organization goals include incentives or bonuses to the staff, stock options or perks and
opportunities in form of international tours or non-monetary benefits to recognize the
employees. Here monetary benefits are in term of money that include bonus that is extra
payment to employee for his good work and non-monetary rewards includes perks,
international tours to employees, development programs and flexible working hours.

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4.2 Evaluation of two rewards plan
Countdown plans the reward system of the employees keeping in mind the current New
Zealand legislation; the company designs the payroll structure and pay on weekly wages and
monthly salaries on time. The company can use two major reward plans that will be evaluated
for the employee and employer both that includes
a.) Bonuses and cash rewards: The cash and bonuses given to employees will help in
improving employee attitude and working atmosphere, and other also put extra
efforts in work to get extra pay so overall bonuses and cash rewards increase
productivity but on other side this way of giving incentives demotivate employees as
salesperson of countdown believe that they are not getting cash rewards as per their
work.
b.) Employee Recognition: To recognize the employees is beneficial for developing the
culture of the company because it gives value recognition to employee instead of
money. Most of the time employee recognition does not work all the tim as it is not
possible to motivate employees that put their lots of efforts. Countdown give letter
of gratitude and gestures of appreciation for motivating and boosting the confidence
of employees.
Task 5
Succession planning is done by the organization in perspective to fill higher position
within the organization members or employees. It is a process to make an employee capable of
handling different work and roles so that when a recruitment is done for the higher position or
when a position in vacant in the top management the employee from the organization get
promoted to take the higher responsibilities. Succession planning is identifying the future
needs, key positions that would be vacant and then accordingly finding out the high potential
employees within the organization then analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, and
selecting the training program accordingly and then implementing it in order to improve the

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skills of potential employees. For that career development programs are used , countdown
used this strategy for succession planning (Gordon & Overbey, 2018).
Career development program by the countdown includes identifying high performers
employee and then preparing their career path that help in their development and than posting
them to top level positions . The role of HR manager in Countdown is to to succession planning
strategy that will be require to fill the vacant position of the CEO that is a top level
management. Proper strategic implementation will be done and most deserving employee who
has experience and can handle the role will be promoted whenever the CEO resign. This
become easy because of the proper succession planning strategies and this career development
strategy benefits the Countdown in a way that include an analyses on the current employees
and recommending some best employees to the board. The person who is selected for the
position will be given proper or enough time to understand the increased responsibilities and
role that will be beneficial for the person and company to know whether the selected person
can handle the role and consider a best fit or not and top management should support the
employee in learning new skills as per the requirement of the CEO position and help them to
manage the overload till the person feel confident about taking all the responsibilities.
Succession planning is done in a thoughtful and strategic manner for long term by choosing the
right candidate with the right skills and experience and then invest on them to make them
more capable and knowledgeable according to the demand of role and responsibilities
(Schepker & Wright, 2018).
Task 6
One of the HR problems faced by the Countdown in recent years is related to employee
recruitment and management, company doesn’t get enough applicants or skilled one according
to the job description. The main problem for Countdown is lack of higher skills; it is an
important aspect for any organization dealing in supermarket segment to have skilled workers
or employees to ensure long term sustainability in the market. Recruitment of employees is a
main problem for 91% of companies in the New Zealand; Countdown also facing it as it is
difficult for the company to get skilled workers even after company is investing good amount of

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resources in the recruitment process (Malikus, 2019). This problem affect the productivity and
growth of the company in current competitive environment as human resources are asset for
the company that help in developing and building the brand image in the market. Efficient
human resource is a necessary requirement for a company to grow (lles, 2019).
This problem can be solved by shifting to e-recruitment process and doing all process on
online portals. The growth of web or use of online sources impacted on the process of
recruitment and selection. Now Countdown has to focus on getting talent from different areas
by making its presence in the online portals or it can be done through recruitment service
provider. It reduces the cost and resources used in hiring process and also help the Countdown
to get skillful human resource. This enables recruitment manager to have relationship directly
with potential candidates. Countdown should make job pages on their website to accept the
application from applicants and to get pool of skilled candidates and can use recruitment
software that enable the company to boost its recruitment process and have fast and personal
interaction with the candidates. This problem is managed on timely manner so that it can’t
affect the growth of the company and don’t leads to mismanagement in the organization.
Effective workforce helps the countdown to deliver its services to its best and to satisfy the
customers in supermarket chain. Recruitment is the key element in human resource
management as it is inducing pool of skilled people to apply so that company get more
alternatives for selection and hire most productive and suitable employee for the company.