Strategic Workforce Planning for Aldi Australia: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of strategic workforce planning at Aldi Australia. It begins with an overview of Aldi's background and its presence in the Australian market, highlighting its competitive position. The report then identifies key workforce issues, including conflict management, work-life balance, and the impact of the flat organizational structure. It explores the concept of strategic workforce planning, including environmental scanning (internal and external), and labor demand forecasting. The report also discusses the balance between labor demand and supply, emphasizing the importance of recruitment, career development, and employee retention strategies. Finally, the report offers recommendations for Aldi, such as training and development, flexible working hours, and a transparent recruitment process. The conclusion summarizes the benefits of strategic workforce planning for Aldi, including improved workforce management and a competitive advantage.

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Strategic Workforce Planning Aldi Australia 1
Contents
Company’s Background..................................................................................................................2
Workforce Issues at Aldi Australia..................................................................................................3
Strategic Workforce Planning..........................................................................................................4
Environmental Scan.....................................................................................................................4
Labor Demand For casting..........................................................................................................5
The balance between Demand & Supply.....................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Strategic Workforce Planning Aldi Australia 2
Company’s Background
In Australia, there are a number of prominent supermarket chains that have developed a
strong niche for themselves in the supermarket industry. In addition to this, there are also a
number of supermarkets, which have a foreign origin. Though the majority of the outside origin
supermarket brands have failed to make a mark in the Australian supermarket industry, the
organization Aldi has carved a solid niche for itself in the supermarket industry. The
organization has imposed a strong threat on the dominant organizations in the market like
Woolworths, Coles, and many others.
The organization Aldi is popular with the name “hard discount market”, as it offers
customers with humongous discounts, by offering products at low prices. The organization was
started by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946. The organization was launched in Germany
and since then, it has expanded internationally to various geographical locations. The
organization later entered the retail market too and created a more powerful brand name in the
international market.
In 2001, the organization entered the Australian region and opened its first store in
Sydney. Since then the organization has moved to many different regions in Australia. The
organization has a total of 546 outlets in the whole Australia. The organization has struck a chord
with the customers as it has been very helpful for them, due to the different economic
instabilities which the country has faced in almost the last two decades. It is due to this reason
that the organization has built a solid mark for itself in the Australian market, by offering the
customers with purchasing power.

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Apart from this, the organization is also familiar with the importance of human resource
and employee retention in any organization, especially in the current environment of competitive
competition. It is due to this reason that Aldi understands that the workforce is the main key to
success for any organization. Thus, with the main focus on building a strong workforce, the
organization has an efficient and effective human resource management system. This system is
responsible for offering training to employees, which is specially designed according to the
changing needs of the industry and the latest trends in the market. Furthermore, the human
resource management system also focuses on the importance of motivation and the right
recruitment process, so as to develop a good image of the current and the potential employees of
the organization.
Workforce Issues at Aldi Australia
According to Esbjerg, Buck & Grunert, for a supermarket or a retail store, it is important that
the organization focuses on employees from different perspectives. They have divided the store
employees into three different categories, which include core employees, career seekers, and
transitional employees. The organization Aldi should also categorize its employees in a similar
manner, as this will help them in motivating them in different ways, as all these three employees
will have different motivational drivers, which will be distinctive from each other (Esbjerg, Buck
& Grunert, 2010). Some of the issues that have been reported by the employees of Aldi Australia
are –
 The employees of the organization Aldi are not well trained to handle conflicts between
the employees effectively. In addition to this, they are also unable to build a disciplinary
environment in the organization, a lack of which results in humongous problems in the
organization (Mayo, 2014).

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 The other issue which the workforce of the organization has reported is the lack of work-
life balance. For an organization, offering its customers a work-life balance is a priority.
It is due to this reason that the organization has also suffered various issues of employee
retention (Nolan, 2011).
 Furthermore, the organizational structure of Aldi is flat, which is divided into different
layers and each layer functions individually. Therefore, the organization fails to build a
coherent working environment for the employees.
These are some of the issues which the organization has been facing, which has also
impacted the workforce of Aldi. This has also impacted the human resource operations and
management in the organization. In the current competitive environment, the organization needs
to tackle these issues and therefore, they need strategic workforce planning, to address the
various issues effectively (Aspden, 2011).
Strategic Workforce Planning
The organization needs to implement a number of different strategies to ensure that they
build a solid, efficient, and dedicated workforce. Some of the aspects which have to be covered
for the environmental scan are –
Environmental Scan
Environment scanning is the method of analyzing the different patterns, trends, relationships,
and occasions, that occur in an organization’s internal and external environment. This facilitates
the managers of the organization, with a solid path, so as to address the problems between the
employees and the management, along with various human resource issues. Through

Strategic Workforce Planning Aldi Australia 5
environmental scanning, the managers are able to identify the various threats and opportunities
surrounding the organization (Guechtouli, 2010).
 Internal Environment Analysis.
The internal environment structure of the organization Aldi is flat, which is
divided into different levels. Due to this flat structure, the communication between
different levels is minimal and also, the problems at the lower level never get addressed
as they are never conveyed by the heads of that department. It is due to these
communication gaps that the organization Aldi has lost a number of efficient and skilled
employees (Rathi, Shiri & Cockney, 2017).
 External Environment Analysis.
With the increasing competition in the market, there are changes that are rapidly
taking place, forcing the organizations to stay on edge, so as not to miss any crucial
change. The organization Aldi though have imposed huge pressure on its competitors, but
the organization does not offer the employees equal growth opportunities to its
employees like its competitors. This has impacted the organization’s workforce morale,
which exhibited in the growing employee retention rate of the organization (Zoller,
2018).
Labor Demand For casting
With the approach of labor demand forecasting, the main objective of an organization is
to estimate the exact need of employees in the organization, who possess the correct needs. It
should be noted that an organization does not need a surplus employee or there should not be any
gap in the employee pool. The organization wants a workforce that offers performance,
profitability, and productivity. With this approach, the organization Aldi will be able to forecast

Strategic Workforce Planning Aldi Australia 6
the labor need of the firm in the coming three to five years and will be able to develop a plan
accordingly. This will help the organization in expanding the organization in a better way, by
utilizing technology and the latest trends in the market. This also helps in analyzing the turnover
rates and the absenteeism in the organization of the employees (Rhidian Hughes, 2012).
With the labor forecasting approach, the organization will be able to hire more trained
and skilled labor, depending upon the different needs of the organization (Obisi, Samuel and
Ilesanmi, 2018). The organization is pushed to hire employees according to future needs, which
helps in better development of the organization. In addition to this, it also impacts workforce
planning as the organization is forced to implement different measures that improve the abilities
of the employees and also, utilizes approaches for employee retention.
The balance between Demand & Supply
In addition to this, the organization Aldi will also be able to create a balance between the
demand and supply of the employees, by the information attained through the labor forecasting
approach. This is paramount, as the organization will be able to employ the correct number of
employees needed in the organization (Mayo, 2015). For building a balance between the demand
and supply, the organization Aldi will need to build a better recruitment process. Therefore, it is
crucial that the organization focuses on career development, job design, flexible working hours
for employees, recognition and rewards, and also various different remunerations (Dr.Prafulla
Arjun Pawar, 2013). In addition to this, it is crucial for the organization Aldi to manage
redundancies effectively.

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Recommendations
These are some of the strategic workforce planning approaches which the organization
should utilize for building a solid workforce. In addition to this, the organization should also
utilize other approaches for managing the workforce effectively. They are –
 In the current competitive environment, the organization Aldi should ensure that the
employees are offered training and development opportunities regularly. It is due to this
reason that the employees will stay motivated and energetic, which will push them to
work more dedicatedly for the organization. With regular training approaches, the
organization Aldi will be able to develop an environment of continuous improvement.
This will help in addressing the issues of bad conflict management in the organization.
Also, this will help the organization in building a more disciplined environment at Aldi.
 The management of a supermarket involves a humongous workforce. In addition to this,
there is also the pressure of long working hours, which ruins the work-life balance of the
employees. For this, the organization needs to ensure that they offer the employees with
flexible working hours and help them in different ways to achieve work-life balance
(Bartlett, Johnson and Schneider, 2016). To ensure that the employees of the organization
are having a good work-life balance, the organization should conduct regular surveys to
know their opinions. Also, the labor demand forecasting is about finding the right number
of people, with the right skills, at the right time.
 The organization Aldi should also ensure that they have a correct recruitment process.
With the increasing cases of nepotism and favoritism in the organizations, the employees
have an opinion of distrust against the management. It is due to this reason, the
organization needs to ensure that the recruitment process is conducted in the correct way

Strategic Workforce Planning Aldi Australia 8
and all the employees who are hired should be employed on their abilities and skills only
(Wang, 2010). In addition to this, the organization also has the responsibility of changing
the negative opinion of the current and the potential employees by building a transparent
recruitment system.
 With the advancement in the field of technology, the organization Aldi has a platform to
attract a huge number of employees. The organization should utilize technology for
informing employees about job opportunities at Aldi, the different job needs, and the
various facilities that the organization will offer the potential employees of the
organization (Mazza, 2013).
Conclusion
With this, it can be concluded that the organization Aldi with the approach of strategic
workforce planning will be able to identify its different strengths and weaknesses associated with
the workforce. Along with this, it will also be able to identify the different opportunities, which
will help the organization in attaining a competitive advantage. Furthermore, the organization
will also be able to manage threats appropriately. The organization Aldi is a foreign firm in
Australia, therefore, the organization needs to have a loyal and dedicated workforce, which does
not get easily shifted by the competitors, as it can impact the organization’s functioning
immensely.

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Bartlett, K., Johnson, K. and Schneider, I. (2016). Comparing strategic human resource
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Dr.Prafulla Arjun Pawar, D. (2013). Advantage India: A Study of Competitive Position of
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Esbjerg, L., Buck, N. and Grunert, K. (2010). Making working in retailing interesting: A study of
human resource management practices in Danish grocery retail chains. Journal of Retailing and
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Guechtouli, M. (2010). E-HRM’s Impact on an Environmental Scanning Process. International
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