MBA401 Report: Enhancing Employee Engagement at Wesfarmers

This report provides an analysis of Wesfarmers' HR practices and employee engagement levels, aiming to identify areas for improvement and suggest actionable strategies. It begins with an overview of Wesfarmers, highlighting its organizational structure and mission. The report then identifies and discusses Wesfarmers' HR strategies, including recruitment, quality improvement, and performance appraisal, evaluating their effectiveness in enhancing employee engagement. It also examines current employee engagement levels within the organization, referencing McGregor's Theory X and Y. Furthermore, the report proposes a structured plan of initiatives to increase employee engagement, focusing on salary increment, communication of organizational vision, and recognition of employee achievements, supported by Maslow's motivational theory and McClelland’s achievement motivation theory. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of gender equality, workplace diversity, and anti-discrimination policies in fostering a positive work environment and maximizing employee engagement at Wesfarmers.

Running head: HRM
People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
The present report deals with the level of employee engagement in Wesfarmers. However,
Employee engagement is a crucial part of any business to achieve success. It has been received
that recruitment, appraisal, employee development and quality improvement are the major parts
of HRM. In the context of Wesfarmers, they focus on anti-discrimination policy, cultural
diversity, establishment of positive work culture and employee benefit program. Such HR
practices are useful for such organization to enhance the employee engagement in this
organization. Therefore, bringing cultural diversity in the workplace allows the employees to
start a collaborative work. This discards the racism from workplace. However, to increase the
employee engagement in an organization it is mandatory for every organization to meet the basic
needs of the employees. This can be done by providing well-structured salary and celebrating the
employee performance. However, performance appraisal is a good way to respect the employees
and engage them in their work. In the context of Wesfarmers, they can follow the salary
increment process and the performance celebration technique. This will allow such organization
to increase the employee loyalty and revenue generation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the organization..........................................................................................................4
Identification and Discussion of Wesfarmers HR strategies...........................................................5
Evaluation of the HR practices and policies in the Wesfarmers.....................................................5
Overview of the current employee engagement in Wesfarmers......................................................6
A structured plan of initiatives to increase employee engagement in Wesfarmers.........................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Organizations are now facing a huge challenge to increase the employee engagement. It
is a great concern for every organization about how to create high levels of employee
commitment in their organization (Bratton and Gold 2017). The human resource manager plays
an important role in enhancing the employee engagement in an organization. An HR has much
knowledge and good technique to increase the employee engagement in an organization. This
study reveals the effectiveness of HR practices in enhancing the employee engagement in
Wesfarmers. Wesfarmers is a popular retail organization situated in Australia. This current study
deals with the people engagement level and HR practices in this organization.
Overview of the organization
Wesfarmers is a popular retailer in Australia. This organization offers coal products,
chemical, fertilizers and industrial safety products. This organization is considered as the largest
retailer in Australia based on its revenue. The revenue generation of Wesfarmers is high than
Woolworths and BHP Billiton in the recent years. In the year 2017, the revenue generation was
AU$65.98 billion (Wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Wesfarmers has conglomerate structure, which is
their winning formula in global retail industry. This structure leads this organization to establish
many branches. Therefore, by following this structure, such organization is able to grow and get
a high return by taking the risk in business. The mission of Wesfarmers is to deliver the
satisfactory return to their clients as well as the stakeholders. Their vision is to develop a
disciplined business culture in their organization. Wesfarmers has branches in Southbank,
Melbourne, and Perth in Australia. Apart from this, they have a branch in New Zealand also.
They have approximately 203,000 employees in Australia. Providing high quality of service to

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the stakeholders is the major objective of such organization. Therefore, the well conglomerate
structure is another effective aspect of such organization to gain competitive advantages in the
market.
Identification and Discussion of Wesfarmers HR strategies
HR strategies include recruitment and selection, quality improvement, performance
appraisal, training, and development. However, Wesfarmers uses a three rounds selection
process include telephonic interview, face to face interview and aptitude test. On the other hand,
in quality improvement process they assess the employee performance on a regular basis
(Wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Therefore, performance appraisal is a major HR strategy of this
organization, which is done to motivate and engage the employees in their work. However,
performance appraisal and compensation planning is a critical area of HRM (Bratton and Gold
2017). Wesfarmers HRM department gives their focus on performance appraisal process to
retain the employees in their organization. However, employee satisfaction is associated with the
performance appraisal. For this reason, the HR of Wesfarmers offer good compensation planning
to the employee to maximize their engagement.
Evaluation of the HR practices and policies in the Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers has a dynamic team in HRM department. The major HR practice of this
organization is performance and reward program. They have an annual incentive plan for their
employees based on their performance. Therefore, they focus on employee benefits program
by providing paid parental leave. The main purpose of this HRM practice is to assist the
employees to make a healthy balance between the work and family responsibilities
(Wiscareers.com.au 2018). On the other hand, Wesfarmers targets to bring cultural diversity in

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their workplace. For this reason, the HR has established diversity policy by providing equal
opportunity to each employee. This HR practice is established to maximize the employee
engagement in their organization. However, cultural diversity is crucial in the workplace to
involve the employees in their work (Cascio 2018). Therefore, the HR actively takes part in
increasing the employee learning process by providing them training. One of the major HR
practices of Wesfarmers is the women leadership in the organization. However, the females
often get less respect in comparison the male employees. During the recruitment, the HRM
department focuses on the recruitment of female employees in this organization to reduce the
gender discrimination. The HR focuses on strength assessment process of the individuals and
establishment of a positive working culture in the workplace. The organizational structure is
employee oriented, which leads the employee to work comfortably in this organization. The HR
follows effective communication to build an interpersonal relationship with the employees. This
motivates the employees towards their work. The HR of Wesfarmers follows anti-
discrimination policy to reduce the racism and gender discrimination in the workplace.
However, maintenance of equality in the workplace is the major focus of HRM in Wesfarmers.
Overview of the current employee engagement in Wesfarmers
Employee engagement refers to a workplace strategy to influence the employees to give
their best (Mone and London 2018). On the other hand, employee engagement is a process to
establish a working environment where the employees are able to show their capability.
Employee engagement depends on the trust, integrity, and communication between the
employees and its organization. However, for an organization employee engagement is crucial to
meet the organizational goals and objectives. One of the vital theories of employee engagement
is theory X and Y that is proposed by McGregor. This theory focuses on human motivation and

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management in an organization (Gürbüz et al. 2014). Theory X highlights the significance of
strict supervision. According to this theory, a strict supervision is required to improve the
employee performance in an organization. On the other hand, theory Y focuses on the motivating
role of job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction influences the employees to perform their tasks
properly. By applying this theory Wesfarmers can use the participative management style to
increase the supervision level, which will maximize the employee engagement in this
organization.
Wesfarmers has 223,000 employees in the global market and 203,000 employees in
Australia. However, this business always tries to learn from their employees based on their issues
(Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Many divisions of Wesfarmers have taken a range of
employee engagement initiatives to manage regular employee engagement. From the above data
it has been found that the employee engagement level is high in this organization. They have
taken open survey, employee pulse survey and regular online survey to measure their employee
engagement. On the other hand, Wesfarmers always give their concentration to understand the
issues and expectation of the employees. They take feedback from their internal stakeholders by
conducting stakeholder survey. Wesfarmers invested $8.7 billion to increase the salary and
benefit of the employees (Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). They have high employee
retention in their organization, which ensures that their employee engagement is good.
A structured plan of initiatives to increase employee engagement in Wesfarmers
Salary increment along with communicating the vision and mission of the organization
One of the major initiatives’ of employee engagement is to increase the salary (Mone and
London 2018). However, for Wesfarmers, it is important to communicate the vision and mission

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of the organization with the employees. This will create awareness among them. Hence, to bring
the interest of the employees towards the mission of an organization it is important to provide
them a good salary. This will fulfill the basic needs of the employees and motivates them in their
work. Application of Maslow's motivational theory supports this initiative as this theory also
focuses on the physiological needs of the employees. If an employee gets proper salary then their
basic needs will be fulfilled as a result, they will involve in their work. Implementation of such
initiative will satisfy the employees, which maximizes their performance. However, intrinsic
motivation theory supports the significance of salary increment in employee engagement.
However, as per this theory, it has been found that internal motivation is important to enhance
employee performance (Albrecht et al. 2015). Hence, by providing well-structured salary
Wesfarmers can carry out internal motivation in their organization.
Celebrate the achievement
It is important for an organization to celebrate the hard work of the employees. By
providing recognition Wesfarmers can celebrate the employee performance. This will show
respect the employees, which also increase their confidence level. Mcclelland’s achievement
motivation theory supports that employees want achievement against their hard work
(McClelland 2015). This increases the level of employee engagement in an organization.
However, this theory also supports that if the employees can celebrate their achievement than
they become interested in their work, which allows them to engage in an organization.
Conclusion
The entire study deals with the employee engagement and HR practices in the context of
Wesfarmers. It has been found that Wesfarmers follows gender equality during the recruitment

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process. Therefore, workplace diversity is another vital HR practice of this organization, which
reduces the racism and brings cultural diversity in the workplace. On the other hand, application
of the anti-discrimination policy is an effective HR policy that reduces the inequality based on
religion and gender. Apart from this enhancement in salary and celebration of the achievement
will be helpful of Wesfarmers to maximize their employee engagement.

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References
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), p.308.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Gürbüz, S., Şahin, F. and Köksal, O., 2014. Revisiting of Theory X and Y: A multilevel analysis
of the effects of leaders’ managerial assumptions on followers’ attitudes. Management Decision,
52(10), pp.1888-1906.
McClelland, D.C., 2015. Achievement motivation theory. Organizational behavior, 1, pp.46-60.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Our people. [online] Available at:
https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/people/people-development/our-people/
[Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/ 2018. Stakeholder engagement. [online] Available at:
https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/people/people-development/

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Wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Wesfarmers policy. [online] Available at:
http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/corporate-governance/whistleblower-
policy---may-2015.pdf [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Wesfarmers. [online] Available at: http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/
[Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Wiscareers.com.au. 2018. Human Resources. [online] Available at:
http://www.wiscareers.com.au/career/career-to-suit-you/human-resources [Accessed 10 Apr.
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