Strategic Human Resource Management Practices at Coles

This report delves into the human resource management (HRM) strategies employed by Coles, a prominent supermarket chain in Australia. It examines Coles' approach to talent selection, highlighting both online and offline recruitment strategies, including the 'Breed Approach' for candidate management and online application processing. The report analyzes Coles' performance management system, emphasizing its agile method, short-term appraisal programs, and the use of a customized application for feedback. It also covers the training and coaching processes, pay compensation structures, and learning and development opportunities offered to employees. The report uses sales data from 2018 and 2019 to demonstrate the impact of HRM practices on the company's performance. Finally, the report provides recommendations for improving Coles' HRM practices, focusing on the integration of team-focused strategies, employee development, and the enhancement of recruitment processes to improve efficiency and attract highly skilled candidates.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the student
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:..................................................................................................................3
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................4
Background of Coles:.................................................................................................................4
Talent selection strategy of Coles:.............................................................................................5
Performance management strategy followed by Coles:.............................................................7
Training and coaching process, followed in Coles:...................................................................9
Pay compensation structure, followed in Coles:......................................................................10
Learning and development opportunity, offered by Coles:.....................................................11
Conclusion and recommendation:............................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................14
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Executive Summary:
The aim of the research paper is to focuses on human resource management strategy
in the context of Coles- the leading supermarket chain of Australia. It has been observed that
the company is extremely dedicated towards effective management of human resources as
they are the key factor of running the internal functionality of the organisation with utmost
efficiency.The rate of sales of two consecutive year i.e. 2018 and 2019 in the context of Coles
have been compares in order to show the influence of human resource management practice
on its public image.
In addition to this the paper will also show how the company is innovating various
types of strategies in order to benefit the work culture of the employees and workers working
in the organization. It will also show how the organization is keeping on improving its
timeliness and cost efficiency techniques in the recruitment and selection procedures. It will
thus help the organization to gather few extremely efficient employees or candidates in their
family in a cost effective manner and procedure. It will also try to find out how the
organization used to go through the paper recruiting methods and strategies which was quite a
difficult task for the recruitment team to handle. Finally, recommendation has been provided
for Coles to build their human resource practices.
The paper also has discussed about the breed approach which is one of the best
recruitment and selection technique currently implemented by the organization. With the help
of this approach the organization is also able to screen, rank, and track the online applications
which are sent by the employees applying for the job. With this type of assistance that is the
comprehensive recruitment and selection program, Coles is becoming able to hire highly
skilled staffs who can satisfy the diverse need of the customers.
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Introduction:
In the intense competitive business environment, appropriate management of human
resources is very much needed in order to keep an organisation productive. According to Noe
et al., (2017) appropriate management of human resources is the key factor in the
contemporary times as it paves the way for the firms to attain competitive advantage by
improving their capability. In the fast moving business environment, the organisations need
to be stay aside from the hard-core competition in the market. This is the reason for which the
firms need to improve their capability. There lies the significance of appropriate management
of human resources as it will play a pivotal role for the firms to improve their capability. As
discussed by Berman et al., (2019) therefore, it is the prime responsibility of all organisations
irrespective of its size to ensure that they haveample ranges of talented people who are
capable of dealing with diverse requirements of the customers. This paper would put forth the
discussion of human resource management in the context of Coles-the leading supermarket
chain in Australia. In-depth discussion of the human resource management strategy of the
company will be carried out in the paper. Furthermore, recommendation will also be provided
for the company to improve their human resource management practice.
Background of Coles:
Coles is one of the leading retailers in Australia, which is operating more than 2000
retail outlets across the nation. The fundamental aim of the company is make the lives of the
customers easier by providing them with high quality of products and services. Currently the
company is holding more than 20 millions of customers, who used to ship with Coles on
regular basis. Coles is one of the most significant national supermarket retailer in Australia
with 800 supermarkets around the nation. It is worthy to mention in this context that since
1960, Coles is continuing to deliver extremely superior quality of products, incredible
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customer service along with millions of people across the country. It is the long term
commitment of the company to make better lives of the Australian people by putting stress on
sustainable future. The company is extremely dedicated towards developing lasting
relationships with that of the Australian farmers and thereby supporting employment in the
local food industry (Coles.com.au. 2019). Recently, the company has launched their online
shopping store in order to offer the customers with 'anytime, anywhere' shopping proposition
with home delivery option. The underlying vision of the company is to be the most trusted
retailer across the country and strengthen the long term value of the shareholder. The purpose
of the company is to ensure sustainability for all the Australian people and thereby support
them to lead happy life (Colesgroup.com.au. 2019). The total number of employees of the
company is 112,298 and in the year 2018, the net operating income of the company was
$1.414 billion.
Talent selection strategy of Coles:
Being one of the largest supermarket chains in Australia, Coles is highly committed
towards hiring extremely competent staffs in order to strengthen their organisational
productivity on continuous basis. Morgeson, Brannick& Levine (2019) observed that the
company follows both online and offline recruitments strategy in order to acquire largest pool
of talent. As the rate of unemployment in Australia is comparatively low, the company has
implemented online recruitment strategy for the sake of hiring extremely proficient staffs.
Recently, the company has renewed their focus on the recruiting staff with heightened skills
in multiple specific areas such as sales, customer service and production.
In addition, Buckley et al., (2019) also showed that the company keeps on stressing
on improving the timeliness and cost-efficiency of their recruitment process, which is very
much needed in terms of gathering extremely proficient candidates in a timely and cost
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effective manner. Earlier the company used to follow paper recruitment strategy, which lead
them to handle 3,000 – 5,000 paper based applications on weekly basis. It was creating major
problem for the company to run their recruitment and selection1 process in a timely and cost
effective. At the same time,Lee et al., (2019) counter argued by saying that this was also
hampering the consistency of the recruitment and selection strategy. This is the reason for
which the company has implemented online recruitment strategy in order to provide the
candidates with positive quality and consistent experience of selection process. The
fundamental aim of the company behind implementing online recruitment strategy is to
improve the processing capability by ensuring fair and transparent recruitment and selection
program. Moreover, in orderto improve the candidate quality, the company has executed
online recruitment and selection program. Tweedie, et al., (2019) shaded light on the fact that
the company aims to hire the tech savvy candidates who can provide high quality of services
to those customers who used to shop from the online stores. This is another major reason, for
which the company has implemented online recruitment and selection program.
Breed Approach is one of the major recruitment and selection process. This is the way
of strengthening the candidate management system which is the key of appropriate
management of requisition and thus make the induction process integrated. As opined by
Kendrick et al., (2019) with the assistance of breed approach, the company is becoming able
to automated screening, ranking and tracking of the online applications and thereby support
the integrated assessment of the applicants (Aiec.idp.com. 2019). At the same time, by
implementing online recruitment process, the company has followed voice recognition tool,
which is the key of initiating reference checking of the candidates. With the assistance of
online recruitment strategy, the company has also ensured electronic transfer of applications
to that of the line Managers, which is very much needed for the sake of ensuring integrated
online induction management.
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Performance management strategy followed by Coles:
Proper human resource management is one of the most critical and vital parameters of
attaining organisational success as it is the key of managing the internal functionality of the
firms with utmost efficiency. Onnis (2019) put stress on the fact that being one of the most
progressing firms around Australia, the higher authority of Coles is highly committed
towards evaluating the performance of the human resources and take action accordingly in
order to improve the same. Measuring tie performance of the staffs on regular basis is one of
the most significant aspects of the performance management process, followed by Coles. It
has been observed that, the company gas implemented agile method with the intension of
ensuring speed in their internal functionality.
Coles has implemented short term performance appraisal program as the staffs used to
work on the smaller projects. Sharma (2019) highlighted by saying that the line managers as
well as the HR executives of Coles is extremely committed towards the evaluation of the
performance of human resources. The evaluation process, followed by Coles comprises of the
assessment of the attributes, hold by individual employees towards performing the assigned
roles and responsibilities. This is the way, through which Coles also measure the dedication
level of the staffs towards accomplishing organisational goals and objectives. A
comprehensive feedback model is being followed by the company in terms of offering the
staffs with constructive feedback on the basis of their performance. Machado &Davim (2019)
stressed on the ideology that with the assistance of frequent performance appraisal. The
company is becoming able to focus on offering the staffs withmore-immediate feedback,
which is the key of improving the performance level of the individual employees. In the user-
cantered approach of performance appraisal, the companies like Coles are putting ample
stress on shaping and testing new performance management process.
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From the observation of Saeed et al., (2019), it is evident that one of the most notable
features of performance management strategy followed by Coles is that the company has
developed a customised application, in which the employees, peers, and bosses can exchange
their valuable feedback regarding the performance of their co-workers. This is the way,
through which the staffs can get valuable feedback on their degree of performance. The
higher authority of Coles is highly committed towards updating the performance objectives
and real performance level among the staffs. Through this way, the customers can have clear
idea regarding the extent, to which they are contributing their effort towards accomplishing
the organisational objectives of Coles.Macke &Genari (2019) shaded light on the fact that
integration of such awareness regarding their performance level serve the staffs of Coles with
the capability to perform their assigned task with utmost efficiency. It has been observed that
comprehensive project management strategy is followed By Coles with the intension of
leading the staffs to be more team focused, which is the key of running an organisation in a
collaborative manner. By putting more focus on the team, the companies like Coles are
becoming able to create and execute the organisational goal with that of the performance of
the staffs which is Very much needed in order to strengthen the competency of the team and
enable them to provide high quality of services to the customers. Pak et al., (2019)
commented that this is the way, through which Coles is becoming able to improve their
external image by keeping the customers happy and satisfied. It is important to evaluate the
rate of sales and profitability of Coles in order to evaluate the impact of human resource
management practice of the company on their external image.
Sales revenue Retail sales Gross margin Comparable
sales growth
2018 15,629 20,345 24.0 0.9
2019 16,195 20,867 24.1 3.0
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Change 3.6% 2.6% 14 bps 219 bps
Table 1: Annual growth of Coles
(Source: Colesgroup.com.au. 2019)
Based on the above presentation, it is evident that the company is growing in a rapid
manner. Ur has been observed from the annual report of the company is that every aspect, the
company is experiencing drastic improvement. In the year 2018, the rate of sales revenue of
the company was 15,629, which has been increased by 3.6% in the year 2019 and become
16,195. The rate of retail sales of the company has also been increased by 2.6%. In the year
2018, the rate of Sales of Coles was 20,345 which gas become 20,867 in the year 2019.
Analoui (2018) stressed on the fact that the inclusion of extremely skilled and competent
staffs is playing a critical role for Coles to improve their production procedure and thereby
strengthen their public image. Therefore, it is evident that the inclusion of extremely
competent human resources is paving the way for Coles to build their external image.
Training and coaching process, followed in Coles:
Papa et al., (2018) stated that training, coaching and motioning are the key factors of
keeping the human resources in an organisation skilled and competent. In this aspect also, the
HR department of the rapidly progressing companies are becoming agile with the intension of
providing the staffs with high quality of training and development opportunity. In Coles,
effective training program has been designed especially for the staffs working in the sales
department for the sake of making them capable to provide incredible customer
service.Successful implementation of agile project management strategy of Coles is playing a
pivotal role for the company to involve the staffs in effective learning sessions, which is the
key of amplifying learning spirit among them and thereby enable them to drive new skills.
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The higher authority of Coles is showing utmost commitment towards providingthe
staffs with high quality of training and development opportunity, as productive workforce is
the key factor of sustaining in the highly competitive business environment. As the leadership
is one of the most complicated issue in today’s fast moving business environment, the higher
authority of Coles is putting utmost stress on providing leadership training to the individual
people (Machado &Davim, 2019). The fundamental aim Coles behind designing such
leadership training program is to motivate the staffs, setting goal and control them in
accordance with the ongoing trend in the market. At the same time, the training related to
leadership has been designed in Coles in order to enable the staffs to carry out faster decision
making process (Colestraining.com. 2019). Apart from the management training, the HR
department of Coles is also putting stress on providing training to the customers in order to
improve the customer service skill. Effective training is provided to the staffs of Coles in
order to improve their, problem solving and communication skill, which is the key factor of
maintaining healthy relationship with the customers and thus provide superior customer
service (Colestraining.com. 2019).
Pay compensation structure, followed in Coles:
Pay and compensation act as the biggest motivational factor for the staffs and play a
critical role in order to keep them productive. Morgeson, Brannick& Levine (2019) said that
due to the adaptation of agile HR strategy, the pay and compensation structure, followed by
the companies in also changing in a rapid manner. Now, the companies are putting more
focus on the spot bonuses, as it is the key factor of recognising the contribution of the staffs
towardsattaining long term success from business. Researchers are showing that the
compensation serves as the best motivator for generating desired behaviour among the staffs.
By adopting agile HR strategy, Coles is becoming able to generate positive behaviour and
commitment among the staffs towards accomplishing organisational objective.Noe et al.,
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(2018) showed that instant rewards is acting as one of the most powerful mediums, based on
which the companies are becoming able to reinforce positive and constructive feedback,
which is very much needed in order to manage the performance of the staffs with utmost
efficiency.
The adaptation of agile HR strategy is also helping the companies to modify their pay
and other compensation structure. Now, the companies are putting stress on increasing the
salary of the staffs who have completed a large project in a timely manner. The pay structure
in Coles is entirely dependent on the position of the staffs in the hierarchy. Recently, an
enterprise agreement has been formed in between SDA and Coles for the sake of ensuring
hike in salary for everyone and protecting the take-home pay. This agreement has made a
significant change in the employment constitution of Coles by securing the wage structure.
This agreement is acting as the driving force behind Coles to protect the existing staffs and
thereby ensure equal hike in salary in Future. Now, the employees of Coles, who have joined
before June, 2017 can access the off Cash payment of £475(Sda.com.au. 2019).
Learning and development opportunity, offered by Coles:
Providing the staffs with effective learning and development opportunity is one of the
key factors of keeping them productive. Effective learning and development opportunity
plays a major role in bringing new skills in the organisation in a timely and cost effective
manner. Now, with the adaptation of agile HR strategy, the companies are relying
onlinelearning modules, which the staffs can access on the basis of their requirement, in
addition, the firms are also relying on the artificial intelligence in terms of creating an
effective learning environment in the organisation. Special training are being developed by
the organisations in order to enable the staffs to fit in the agile working environment
(Cappelli&Tavis, 2018).
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Coles Group is highly focused on providing the staffs with effective learning
environment. Moreover, the high authority of Coles is extremely committed towards
promoting the career of the team of 113,000 members. Job specific training and career
development opportunities are provided to both the full-time and part-time employees of
Coles. Structured in-store training is one of the most significant aspects of training and
developmental opportunity, offered by Coles (Colesgroup.com.au. 2019).
Conclusion and recommendation:
Based on the discussion, it can be concluded by saying that being one of the largest
supermarket chain in Australia, Coles is highly committed towards appropriatemanagement
of human resources as it is the key factor of accelerating the organisational productivity.
However, as the degree of competition in the Australian market is increasing in a rapid
manner, it is imperative for the companies like Coles to strengthen their HR strategy in terms
of enabling the staffs to keep on updating their skill on regular basis. It has been observed
that, the company used to follow online recruitment strategy as it is one of the most cost
effective ways of gathering largest pool of talent.
However, it is recommended for the company to ensure transparency in the way of
designing the job roles. It is important for the higher authority of the company to select
straightforward job titles which is the key of being specific regarding the expectation of the
employers. It is recommended for Coles to evaluate the skills, competencies and experience
of the applicants before hiring them. As pay and compensation acts as the biggest
motivational factor for the staffs, it is suggested for Coles to execute considerable salary
structure. Salary must be given to the staffs on the basis of their efficiency and ability. This is
the way of keeping the staffs motivated. Training and development opportunity in an
organisation is the biggest factor for remaining productive Therefore, it is recommended for
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Coles to provide training related to sales and customer service to the staffs, which is the of
promoting their carer.
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