Woolworths HRM Practices: Impact on Recruitment, Retention, Growth

This research report delves into the impact of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on Woolworths, an Australian supermarket giant, with a specific focus on recruitment and retention strategies. The study utilizes secondary data from Woolworths' annual reports, code of conduct, and employment statistics, alongside data from 30 other companies in the industry, to assess the effectiveness of Woolworths' HRM approaches. The analysis reveals that while Woolworths emphasizes training programs and young candidate recruitment, it lacks in fostering motivation and growth within the workplace, contributing to lower profits and market share loss. Regression analysis indicates that only a fraction of companies employ strategic HRM practices, a deficiency identified in Woolworths. The report concludes with a recommendation for Woolworths to adopt strategic HRM initiatives, including effective planning to enhance employee engagement and reduce the high employee turnover rate, aiming for improved sustainability, growth, and profitability.

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Impact of HRM practices on Woolworth

Abstract
This research study intends to offer a new dimension towards attaining a significant way to
enhance HRM practices for the company Woolworths. In addition, the impact of HRM practices
towards Woolworths has been accessed in this research study filling the literate gap in the past
research studies which only offered a generic view. The data has been collected based on
secondary resources specifically from company’s website such as annual reports, code of
conduct and employment statistics which enhances its appropriateness, (Alfes, Truss & Soane,
2013). Furthermore, the use of 30 data samples of different compels in the specific industry has
been used for assessing the criticality in HRM practices of Woolworths. It has been assessed that
although the company focuses on training programs and recruiting young candidates, it lacks
motivating and growth in the workplaces environment leading to lower profits and loss of market
share. Regression analysis illustrated that around 20 companies are using strategic HRM
practices which the company Woolworths lacks. Hence, it is recommended that the company
must follow strategic practices and initiative of HRM practices with effective planning in order
to engage its employees and reduce employee turnover which is estimated 47% in the business
year 2017. This would lead to sustainability, growth, and profitability in the market.
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Justification of topic..............................................................................................................4
1.2 Project aim.............................................................................................................................5
1.3 Research question..................................................................................................................5
2. Literature review..........................................................................................................................7
3. Methodology..............................................................................................................................12
3.1 Data collection.....................................................................................................................12
3.2 Data analysis........................................................................................................................12
4. Findings.....................................................................................................................................13
5. Discussion of findings...............................................................................................................14
6. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................15
7. Recommendation.......................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
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1. Introduction
1.1 Justification of topic
Human Resource Management practices are a significant aspect of businesses for maintaining
standardization and credibility of human resources, (Anderson, 2013). Based on such note, these
research studies analyze the impact of human resource management practices towards the
company Woolworths. Woolworths Limited is an Australian supermarket and grocery store
accounting for 80% of the Australian market share. In addition, they also sell stationery items,
magazines, household products as well as baby and pet supplies. It has 19 convenience stores
and 976 supermarkets across Australia. It has also integrated online platform for offering home
shopping delivery services to customers. It is headquartered in Bella Vista, NSW, Australia. In
the business year 2015, its company careened revenue of A$ 42.132 billion. It has more than
111,000 efficient and hard working employees that have assisted the company to maintain its
industry standards. As put forwarded by (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014), in relation to the criticality
of human resource management practices in today’s world, businesses are getting affected due to
such vulnerability. This, in turn, requires the need of appropriate human management system and
practices for companies in order to attain competitive advantage as well as growth. By
conducting the analysis of the company Woolworths, a new dimension in the business world can
be depicted which would assist to enhance the HRM practices and lead to proper management of
employee. In addition, the impact of human resource management practices for the company
Woolworths can be also assessed based on which significant recommendation for improvements
can be offered.
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1.2 Project aim
This research study aims to analyze the impact of human resource management practices on the
company Woolworths in a detailed manner by illustrating qualitative assumptions. Several
research studies have proposed a significant assumption based on enhancing HRM in the
organization but none of them have forecasted such assumption based on any distinct business
entity. Hence, this research study intends to fill the research gap and offer a new direction by
analyzing the impact of human resource management practices for the company Woolworths
extensively. In addition, it has been also analyzed based on literature that past research studies
have forecasted only generic view for the chosen hypothesis and none of them specifically
identified the impact of human resource management practices in relation to recruitment and
retention procedure for a specific industry or company, (Aswathappa, 2013). Based on such note,
this research study aims to fill such a literature gap and analyze the impact of recruitment and
retention strategies attained by the company Woolworths as HRM practices. In fact, based on
such flaws in the field of HRM in the company, significant recommendations can be offered in
order to enhance its business and make a possible adjustment for managing human resources
efficiently. Furthermore, as the research would use only secondary data for examining the
company, the outcomes of the research would be highly qualitative and descriptive successfully
proving the hypothesis.
1.3 Research question
RQ1- What is the impact of human resource management practices of Woolworths based on
recruitment and retention strategies in the particular industry?
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Based on the research question the dependent variable is the human resource management
practices and the independent variable is the company Woolworths and other companies in the
specified industry.
Data link-
Annual report 2017 of Woolworths
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/188795_annual-report-2017.pdf
Code of the conduct of Woolworths
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/content/Document/Dec%202016_Code%20of
%20Conduct.pdf
Employment statistics ofWoolworths
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/183822_Corporate_Responsibility_Report_-
The links that have been provided significantly illustrates the HRM practices and strategies
implemented by the company Woolworths. In addition, based on such data criticality in its
employee management can be accessed in relation to industry standards. The data provided in
the annual report and the code of conduct depicts the HRM practices of the company which
impacts its sustainability and efficient employee management practices. Furthermore, these data
can assist to formulate significant assumption about the company with required
recommendations for reducing employee turnover and enhancing its recruitment strategies
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extensively, (Budhwar & Debrah, 2013). In addition, the employment statistics of Woolworths
can assist to analyze the retention strategies and turnover of the company extensively fulfilling
the basic criterion of the research study.
2. Literature review
Within an organization, the recruitment and retention practices is considered to be the most vital
part of the Human resource department. The HR department is responsible to hire and retain the
right candidates for the appropriate roles and having the required skills which will fulfill the
needs of the organization. For having clear, measurable and successful selection criteria the HR
department has to speculate both the internal as well as external factors. Such factors have a
greater influence on company’s functioning and its growth to a significant level. The main
objective of this paper is to analyze and deliver the procedure involved in the recruitment and
retention process at Woolworths considering all the internal factors having an impact on it.
Furthermore, there are certain external factors related to legal, social, economic and political
factors that have major impact on recruitment and retention process are also discussed in depth.
Woolworths is an Australian largest Super grocery store chain. It is headquarter is in Bella Vista,
Australia. At Woolworths focus is on ensuring the recruitment of suitable candidates for the right
jobs at the correct time in the recruitment process. It has set its criteria for selection of an
individual on the fair terms and based on merit, relevant experience as well as capabilities of the
applicant. The company believes in treating its employees with respect and equally. The HR
division of the company is committed to abiding by the company rules and regulations and
ensures that Anti-discrimination law and Equal Employment Opportunity Legislation are
followed fairly in the process of recruitment and selection. Along with that, as per the Privacy
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Act, HR department maintains all the personal documents that are provided by the candidates
during the selection process (Adamovic, 2017).
An effective recruitment and selection process to recruit a worthy candidate for an esteemed
position in the company can be paramount to the success of any organization. In the company,
candidates are selected on the basis of jobs or position available in the organization by
scrutinizing pool of potential candidates having required knowledge and experience. According
to the findings of various studies, the HR department is responsible for manage the entire process
in such a way which can ensure the proper regularity in filling the positions and getting the
optimum output from the employees. While recruitment and selection process, internal as well as
external recruitment is being conducted, which is time-saving and allows creative and fresh ideas
to float in the organization. Moreover, there should be clearly stated policies related with
recruitment that allows an organization to select the most appropriate candidate to fill the job
position against predefined descriptions and specification of a vacancy that increases the
productivity with the smooth functioning of an organization (Hogler, 2014).
The HR department of Woolworths is specialist and efficient in conducting recruitment and
selection process. There are various internal factors involved in the recruitment and selection
procedures which have impact and influence on the process are discussed below:-
Recruitments policy- Fisher, Schoenfeldt & Shaw (2016) remarked that Recruitment policy
classifies the objectives of Woolworths, preferred sources of recruitment and well-defined
recruitment policies. These are the factors, which act as guiding principle in the recruitment
process that helps in knowing the basic requirement of the recruitment. Primarily, with the help
of the Recruitment Policy, an outline is drawn to achieve recruitment basic process. Its
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recruitment policies are made in such a fair manner that everyone is bound to follow its rules to
conduct a fair recruitment process.
Firm size - Ivancevich & Konopaske (2013) stated that the recruitment process of a firm gets
affected by its size. As the enterprise grows, diversifies, expands, its recruitment and selection
process also changes accordingly as it is natural that company would require more manpower to
meet daily operations and ultimate objective. It is in regard to expand the business and launch
new products, Woolworths has such strong and systematic Recruitment and Selection process for
generating a pool of capable candidates for the organization. The company is known for
retaining and sustaining its customers with the help of clearly defined guiding rules and
regulations in the process of recruitment and selection. Woolworths’ workforce size is
considerably huge even though it keeps on trying to expand its business to gain edge globally by
having great strategy execution and hard work.
Cost- An imperative part of a company is its cost and company’s recruitment and selection
process gets affected by it. Hence, before going through the whole process it is imperative for an
organization to calculate the cost involved in the recruitment procedure. After that, it is also
necessary to identify the need for the process. As far as Woolworths is concerned, as it is a big
firm and because of its nature of expanding, there is always need of new employees.
Growth and expansion- To execute the planning of expansion of the organization, the company
focuses on continuous filling up of vacant position with the qualified candidates. It is the need of
the hour for an organization that to sustain in the market it is always in need of creative ideas and
well-experienced for people which recruitment process is a must. Being Australia’s huge
supermarket, it has made its significant position across the world by expanding and constantly
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meeting the consumers’ needs. For the growth of the organization, new talent with fresh ideas is
crucial, this need results in carrying out recruitment and selection process fairly. Mondy &
Martocchio (2016) stated that the organization is carrying out its recruitment processes based on
the firmly formulated recruitment policies hence, it never misses out any potential and talented
candidate, it recruitment process is carried out on the grounds of merit, experience, and energy
that gives them the best people to work with.
Human Resource Planning- The human resource planning is an indispensable part as it
comprehends Human Resource department to identify the current gap in the existing manpower
of the organization. Constantly increasing the number of employees in Woolworths clearly
depicts that it is growing, expanding, and introducing new products at a good pace. The need of
clear recruitment policies can be easily understood by anyone, as this is the only way to bridge
the gaps by filling in the appropriate candidate.
The various external factors affecting the Recruitment and retention Process in Woolworths
Woolworths proactively take some general considerations related to external factors that affect
recruitment and selection procedures of the organization. To ensure employees’ retention and
satisfaction, there are external factors that influence the fairness of the recruitment procedure.
Below referred external factors are discussed at length:-
Social Factors- In Woolworths, social factors have great influence on the recruitment and
selection procedure. Woolworths being well-renowned in Australia has to be very particular
while recruiting the appropriate and efficient candidate for the company. A company’s culture
gets directly affected by its employees hence, it should be closely taken care of while recruiting
and retaining the employees. To retain the employees, a healthy, supportive and responsive
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culture must be maintained in an organization. It should be ensured that vacancies should be
filled on fairgrounds of merit and experience alone. It should follow a fair practice right through
the recruitment process to decision taken so that in the end all are assured that the new
candidates are being recruited by following a clean procedure and tend to stay in the company
(Redman, Wilkinson & Dundon, 2014).
Legal Factors- The HR department is responsible to look after the organization along with the
Government & administration rules, laws and policies, also to ensure to follow them strictly.
Employers shall have clearly stated policies and practices within the firm, also must maintain the
records of international laws related with labor, employment etc. for the proper functioning, and
to meet the legal requirements to be legally safe to avoid any legal troubles. Woolworths keeps
all the proper record of employees like personal documents, identifications etc to abide by all the
legal requirements. Furthermore, legal factors like employment discrimination and wages
discrimination should abstain. The employer should not delay in giving salaries and wages to the
employees as stated in standard rules of the industry.
Political Factors- There is various political factors that are important which influence the fair
play of recruitment process. Keeping into consideration the political factors, Woolworth should
follow the regulations and policies of the Australian government all the while monitoring the
political scenario of the country. As per the Schuler & Jackson (2017), Woolworths is capable of
following and maintaining employment and labor laws with that national security and national
interest is being concerned
Economic Factors- HR department of Woolworths has proper awareness and takes full
consideration of the economic factors involved in the company. Economic factors play a pivotal
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role. It is a significant factor to be focused on while conducting recruitment and selection
procedure. Economic factors comprise of a company and country’s economic conditions. While
going global, expanding its business or introducing a new product into the market Woolworths
should consider fairly and rapidly its recruitment and selection procedure (Mathis, Jackson,
Valentine & Meglich, 2016).
3. Methodology
3.1 Data collection
In order to gather significant evidence about the criticality faced by the company Woolworths in
the HRM management practices based on recruitment and retention strategies, the use of 30 data
samples of different companies specific to this industry has been considered. In addition, the data
of the companies are based on annual reports or code of conducts. As it has been discussed
earlier, that in order to conduct the analysis qualitatively the use of secondary data has been
considered. This would formulate strategically concept to maintain its integrity and relevance to
the industry standards, (Hoch & Dulebohn, 2013). Based on the company Woolworths, the use of
annual report, code of conduct and employments autistics data has been utilized from the
company’s website. The information presented would be reviewed critically for examining the
impact of human resource management practices towards the company.
3.2 Data analysis
The data required for analyzing the HRM practices of the company Woolworths have been
attained from its company’s website. In addition, the other 30 samples of data of different
companies have been also attained from their respective website based on which significant
conclusion has been withdrawing by cross-examining. As stated by (Kehoe & Wright, 2013),
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secondary resources are one of the major sources of collecting information which increases the
viability and credibility of the result. Based on such a context, the use of secondary data has been
entirely used for maintaining its effectiveness.
4. Findings
As put forwarded by (Marler & Fisher, 2013), regression analysis is one of the statistical models
that assist to analyze the relationships amongst variables. As the research hypothesis ‘impact of
HRM practices on Woolworths’ contains both independent and dependent variables, the use of
regression analysis has been highly credible which is the primary reason for its selection in the
research study.
Regression analysis
The hypothesis based on the research question has been tested by regression analysis. In order to
conduct such an analysis, the dependent variable used is the human resource management
practices and independent variable used is the company Woolworths and other companies in the
specified industry. It has been analyzed based on n=30 that the HRM practices in relation to
recruitment and retention strategies have been formulated by more than 20 companies in the
specified industry. On the other hand, around 8 companies had a vague illustration of their
practices and retention strategies. 2 companies did not have any data about their employee’s code
of conduct or their HRM practices. In addition, the company Woolworths has illustrated its code
of conduct as well as its employee engagement programs elaborately in its annual report.
However, the increase in employee turnover specifically in young employees has been evident.
47% of the employee turnover issue has been evident in Woolworth’s employment statistics.
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0 5 10 15 20 25
0
5
10
15
20
25
human resource management practices
human resource management
practices
5. Discussion of findings
After analyzing the data through the regression analysis, it has been comprehended that the
company Woolworths have HRM practices in order to manage its employees. However, due to
the lack of focus on its employees and poor management skills, most of the young employees are
leaving the company, (Messersmith & Wales, 2013). In addition, it has been analyzed that the
retention strategy of the company is critical that led to 47% of employee turnover in the business
year 2017. Based on other companies in the specific industry, it has been analyzed that most of
them have developed their HRM practices in a strategic way which lacks the organizational
structure of Woolworths. As put forwarded by (Morgeson, Waldman & Siegel. 2013),
recruitment and retention strategies are significant in order to maintain growth and success in the
competitive market. Based on such context, it can be stated that recruitment and retention
strategies of Woolworths is critical as HRM practices and have a significant impact of the
company’s sustainability and profitability in the global world. In addition, the company focuses
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on recruiting youth generation more than experienced one that states the reason behind
increasing turnover. The regression analysis proved that the vulnerability and lower profit
margin in the organizational structure are mainly due to poor HRM practices in the organization
specifically in the particular industry. Furthermore, the company Woolworths primarily focuses
on training programs as evident from its annual reports without considering the view of its
employees that brings criticality in its HRM practices.
6. Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded from the complete analysis that the impact of human resource
management practices on the company Woolworths is critical. As stated by (Nankervis, Baird,
Coffey & Shields, 2016), it is significant for business entities to follow HRM practices in a
strategic way. Based on such context, it has been observed that most of the companies follow
HRM practices in a strategic way that enhances their business performance and leads them
towards growth. On the other hand, the regression analysis depicted that Woolworths adopts
several strategies to implement bets HRM practices in order to maintain its sustainability in the
competitive market. However, the result shows that 47% of the employees are leaving the
company due to poor HRM practices. In addition, recruitment strategies are also relatively poor
of the company as it mainly focuses on recruitment young candidates. This is the basic reason
which degrades the environment of the company both internally and externally making it
vulnerable in the market. Furthermore, lack of credible employee and poor motivational skill
amongst employees have lowered the dignity of the company extensively Woolworths. Hence,
this research study has filled the literature gap by analyzing the impact of human resource
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management practices on the company Woolworths with significant details proving the
hypothesis.
7. Recommendation
In order to maintain its competitive advantage, it is significant for Woolworths to engage
employees efficiently by offering a motivating and sustainable work environment. In addition,
the declining profitability margin can be increased by recruiting more experienced staffs than
young staffs as it would provide a competitive advantage. Other than training programs, the
company must focus on communicating with its employees effectively in order to analyze their
view and thoughts, (Nickson, 2013). This would assist to enhance the HRM practices of the
company assisting to gain competitive advantage, sustainability and profitability in the market
attaining huge market share, Furthermore, the strategic practices and initiatives must be also
formulated in company’s code of conduct and policies to retain its employees strategically. The
use of strategic HR planning and cultural diversity must be also integrated to reduce employee
turnover and enhance its recruitment strategies extensively, (Stredwick, 2013). Lastly, the
company Woolworths must follow significant strategies by modifying its business model and
organizational structure to motivate its employees in a sustainable way that would lead to growth
and success in the competitive market.
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Websites-
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/188795_annual-report-2017.pdf
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/content/Document/Dec%202016_Code%20of
%20Conduct.pdf
woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/183822_Corporate_Responsibility_Report_-
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