Report: Challenges and Solutions for Woolworths HRM in Australia

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the human resource management challenges faced by Woolworths Limited, a major retail company in Australia. It examines the issues within the existing recruitment process, including labor shortages, high employee turnover, and demographic shifts within the workforce. The report identifies key challenges such as the impact of economic crises on labor availability, competition from other retail organizations offering better pay, and the aging workforce. It also addresses issues related to employee branding and the need for improved advertisement strategies. The report then proposes advanced recruitment processes to address these challenges, including recruiting from foreign nations, introducing mentorship programs, and maintaining demographic and gender diversity. It concludes with recommendations for Woolworths to adopt new advertisement techniques, offer attractive pay packages, and implement thorough background checks to improve its human resource management practices and sustain its competitive edge in the Australian retail sector.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Executive summary
With the fast changing scenario of the retail sectors in Australia, it is essential for all large scale
companies like Woolworths Limited to have effective recruitment and human resource policy in
order to sustain within the industry. With the help of effective recruitment policy, it is possible
for any organisation improve upon their productivity and performance level within the
workplace. In this current report the focus will upon the challenges that are faced by Woolworths
Limited while recruiting candidates within their organisation. Report will also suggest advanced
level of recruitment process, which can be incorporated to ensure proper work force within the
organisation. From the findings of the report, it is recommended for Woolworths limited to bring
about necessary changes that can help them to deal with the existing challenges of selection
procedures. This can be mainly achieved by bringing about changes in a selection criteria and
providing extra training to the Employees.

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Table of Contents
Introduction and Background..........................................................................................................4
Challenges faced in the existing recruitment process......................................................................5
Advanced recruitment process to deal with existing challenge.......................................................7
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction and Background
With revenue of a$ 59 billion that is of the financial year 2016, Woolworths Limited is
the second largest business organisation in Australia and is also one of the largest retail units in
Australia and New Zealand. With a workforce of 202,000 the company is also one of the largest
recruiter in all over New Zealand and Australia (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). The vast and
rapidly developing network of employees has been one of the major causes of growth of the
company over the past many years. The company has also been able to provide effective
customer service, which has helped to raise their brand value among the Australian consumers.
For talented job seekers, Woolworths limited has always been one of the top preferred choices,
due to the Bright Career prospect and flexible working opportunity.
Nevertheless, in the recent times the retail sector of Australia has encountered issues
related to recruitment and retaining working staffs, which has highly compromised upon the
workplace performance of companies like Woolworths Limited. The workplace reputation of the
company is also at stake due to various factors related to poor process of selection. In this
context it is essential for the company to identify the challenge that exist in the current
recruitment policy and thereby bring about changes within the Human resource policies, which
can help them to bring about changes and improve upon the existing selection procedures. This
will help the company in retaining workforce and thereby help to maintain high level of
performance within the workplace.

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Challenges faced in the existing recruitment process
According to Cludius et al., (2014), there is a wide acceptance about the fact that the
Retail Industry within the Australian consumer market is changing rapidly, due to the emergence
of several new factors. The Woolworths Limited being one of the biggest recruiter in the
respective industry has to face with relevant issues related to crisis of labour and supply chain
network. Fleming and Measham (2015), have mentioned about the unsustainable labour
challenges, which has hugely affected the supply chain network of the Retail Industry in
Australia. As Woolworths limited has expanded their chain of retail network, it is essential for
them to recruit sufficient labours to meet up with the demand of the customers. Nevertheless, due
to shortage of labours in Australia that is cause due to economic crisis, it is not possible for the
company to meet up with the demand of the customers. The company also has to face the issue
related to high wage demand of the employees. This is mainly due to the fact that new
organisations, which are entering into the domain of Retail Industry of Australia, are offering
better pay packages. It is also responsible for high rate of turnover for Woolworths Limited. The
company has also faced issues related to unwillingness of the employees to work on full time
basis, as most of them are looking forward to having multiple career options that can help them
to improve upon their range of working capability. Hence, the average working hours for each
worker have also decreased.
McPhail et al., (2015), have mentioned about the demographic issues, which has also
been one of the major area of concern for recruitment process in the Australian retail sector. It is
important to mention that large scale retail organisations like Woolworths Limited have been
dependent upon younger group of population, which can help them to deliver effective customer
service. With the aging workforce within the organisation, it is not possible for the employees to

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deal with the challenge of multitasking ability and inheriting flexible nature that is needed in the
existing workforce. It is relevant to mention that the projections about the emerging profile of the
Australian workforce have highlighted up on certain demographic issues, which will have direct
impact on the recruitment and selection process. It is expected that by the year 2050, the total
number of people within the age group of 60 to 80 years is likely to be doubled (Bailey et al.,
2015). This will cause a crisis in the younger category of workers, thereby compromising upon
the workplace performance. With the increase level of competition within the retail sector it is
essential for Woolworths to initiate face to face sales option. This type of process requires high
level of physical support, which is only possible for the young employees to execute the process
properly.
One of the other major demographic issues that are faced by Woolworths is due to the
increased in cultural diversity among the Australian population. This issue is well it is due to the
increase in total number of immigrants from Asian and African regions. As the population from
those developing countries are settling in Australia in search of Bright Career prospect, there is
an increase trend of racial discrimination that is a major social issue. Hence, it is not possible for
the company to easily recruit the immigrant candidates, which can increase the risk of lack of
coordination among the employees within the workplace.
According to Brown et al., (2014), employee branding process is one of the essential part
of all organisation, which help them to attract talented candidates. The workplace reputation of
an organisation is a primary tool that is used in this context to attract the employees. Due to the
currently existing issues in the workplace of Woolworths, it is not possible for the company to
project effective employee branding technique within the process of selection and recruitment.
Without effective employer branding technique it is not possible for the company to properly

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recruit the qualified candidates that is also believed to be one of the major issues of the
globalised retail market.
This issue in the employer branding has also directly affected upon the advertisement
process, which is used by the company to spread the news related to recruitment process. The
company has not been able to properly use the public forum for publishing news of recruitment.
It is also not possible for the company to verify up on the background of the candidates through
the existing selection procedures, which is entirely dependent upon traditional process.
The higher rate of turnover number with in the recent past Woolworths Limited, has
compromised upon the organisational image. Hence, it is not possible for the company to make
use effective techniques in the advertisement of recruitment.
Advanced recruitment process to deal with existing challenge
As the demographic composition of the Australian population is changing rapidly, it is
essential for large scale recruitment organisations like Woolworths Limited to restructure up on
the human resource policies along with the selection procedures. With the increase in the average
age of the Australian population, it is essential for the HR managers of Woolworths Limited to
select candidates from other foreign nations. The company can also introduced special strategy to
recruit older people. However it is also essential to ensure that the company provide special
training programs for them. The older workers also need to be recruited in special policy as it is
not possible for the company to assign all kinds of jobs for them.
It is relevant to mention in this context that maintaining demographic diversity within the
workforce is essential. This can help to manage the reputation within the workplace of large
scale business organisations and thereby able to improve upon the range working capability

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among the employees (Kurtz & William, 2017). One of the essential parts of recruiting older
employees within the workplace is the ability to make use of their high level of experience.
Maintaining gender diversity is also one of the important strategies that can be incorporated in
the selection procedure. This is also one of the essential parts of corporate social responsibility
for all large scale business organisations.
Pashayan et al., (2015), have mentioned about the importance of employee retention
strategies, which can be achieved through establishing effective relationship with the employees.
The strategy should focus upon fulfilling the need of individual employees based upon their
strengths and weaknesses. Introduction of mentorship program, with recruitment of older
candidates can be effective in this process of making proper use of the human resource. As the
new employees are able to get accustomed with the protocol of the company's work environment
they are able to get motivation and thereby plan for longer period within workplace (Oaya et al.,
2017).
In order to deal with the crisis of labour supply and demand, it is essential for the HR
department to recruit employees from foreign Nations. However, it is essential to improve upon
the workforce cultural diversity within the organisation, which can also help to improve upon the
employer’s brand image (Guedes, 2015).
Conclusion and recommendations
Due to the crisis and shortages of labour along with the demographic issues, Woolworths
Limited has encountered challenges in the recruitment and selection procedures. The fast
changing demand of the Retail Industry of Australia has also been one of the major challenges in

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the recruitment process. It is also not possible for the company to attract the talented candidates
due to the poor reputation of workplace and high turnover rate of the employees.
Nevertheless, it is highly recommended for the company, which is one of the biggest
recruiter in Australia to bring about necessary changes in the form of effective recruitment
strategies. The primary changes that is recommended for the company is to introduce new
techniques in the advertisement of the recruitment process. With the advancement of digital
technology, it is recommended for all major recruiters to use digital form of advertisement
through the platform of social media website and other recruitment platforms.
It is also recommended to provide detailed description of the job profile along with
offering attractive pay packages, which should be provided not only depending upon the
experience level but also on individual working capability. The HR department of the company
should take proper time in order to verify the background of every candidate before they are
finally recruited as a part of the organisation. This can also ensure that only genuine candidates
are being selected that is an important part of maintaining employer's reputation.

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References
Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: contrasting cases in
Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online),
40(1), 1.
Brown, A., Susomrith, P., Sitlington, H., & Scott, G. (2014). Determinants of employee-turnover
intentions in atypical employment: The FIFO mining industry in Western Australia.
Australian Bulletin of Labour, 40(2), 116.
Cludius, J., Forrest, S., & MacGill, I. (2014). Distributional effects of the Australian Renewable
Energy Target (RET) through wholesale and retail electricity price impacts. Energy
Policy, 71, 40-51.
Fleming, D. A., & Measham, T. G. (2015). Local economic impacts of an unconventional energy
boom: the coal seam gas industry in Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural and
Resource Economics, 59(1), 78-94.
Guedes, S. (2015). The Use of Social Media within the Recruitment and Selection Process.
Kurtz, J., & William, A. (2017). INFLUENTIAL ROLE OF EMPLOYEE PERCEPTION OF
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION ON PERFORMANCE. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL
OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES, 7(5).
McPhail, R., Patiar, A., Herington, C., Creed, P., & Davidson, M. (2015). Development and
initial validation of a hospitality employees’ job satisfaction index: Evidence from
Australia. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(8), 1814-
1838.

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Oaya, Z. C. T., Ogbu, J., & Remilekun, G. (2017). Impact of Recruitment and Selection Strategy
on Employees’ Performance: A Study of Three Selected Manufacturing Companies in
Nigeria. International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 3(3), 32-42.
Pashayan, N., Gray, S., Duff, C., Parkes, J., Williams, D., Patterson, F., ... & Mason, B. W.
(2015). Evaluation of recruitment and selection for specialty training in public health:
interim results of a prospective cohort study to measure the predictive validity of the
selection process. Journal of Public Health, 38(2), e194-e200.
Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017). About Us - Woolworths Group. [online] Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2017].