Report on Human Resource Management and Challenges at Woolworths

This report provides an analysis of Woolworths, a major retail organization in Australia, focusing on its Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within the competitive retail sector. It examines the nature of the retail industry, the level of competition, and key external stakeholders. The report details Woolworths' operations, products, services, current strategies, and performance levels, identifying five key problems faced by the organization, including low compensation, workplace discrimination, employee unrest, competitive pressures, and weak staff morale. An analysis of Woolworths' HRM performance highlights recruitment, selection, and feedback processes. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement, such as implementing feedback systems and managing diversity through training. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The report is based on the analysis of a retail organization which has its operations in
Australia. The nature of the retail industry and the levels of competitiveness of retail sector
has been analysed in the report. The organization is also analysed based on the HRM related
functions of Woolworths and the ways by which the company is able to operate in the retail
sector of Australia. The services and products of the company have been discussed in the
report. The strategy that has been implemented by the company and its performance is also an
important part of the discussion.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Nature of the industry.....................................................................................................3
Level of competitiveness within the industry................................................................3
Key external stakeholders of the industry......................................................................4
About the company........................................................................................................4
Nature of work done by the organization.......................................................................4
Products and services of the organization......................................................................5
Current strategy of the organization...............................................................................5
Current level of performance of the organization..........................................................5
Five keys problems being faced by the organization.....................................................6
Analysis of the HRM performance of the organization.................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................7
References......................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The organization that has been selected for analysis in the report is Woolworths. The
context behind the choice of Woolworths for the analysis is based on the ways by which the
company has been able to develop its position in the Australian industry. Woolworths has
acquired the position of second largest retail organization of the country after the Australian
conglomerate named Wesfarmers. The report will be based on the analysis of different human
resource based activities that are performed within the organization (Afr.com 2018).
Nature of the industry
The retail based sector of Australia is quite large in spite of the low population of the
country. The highest number of employments are provided in the country by the Australian
retail sector. The retail organizations of the country do not have high prominence in the other
countries of the world. However, the companies have not been able to flourish globally in the
industries of different countries. According to the report named “Global Power of Retailing”
which is compiled by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, ranks have been provided to the Australian
retail organizations in the different countries (Patty 2018).
Level of competitiveness within the industry
The Australian retail sector is highly competitive in nature and the organizations
which operate in the industry have thereby started facing huge levels of competition from the
new entrants. The levels of competition in the industry have increased both from the domestic
and the international organizations as well. The factors which have led to the struggle of
retailers mainly include, the decline in margin levels, high rates of price deflation and the
changes which have been seen in the spending patterns of the consumers (Brewster, Chung
and Sparrow 2016). The increase in competition which is provided by the international

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retailers has been able to affect the consumer staples based area of the Australian retail
industry.
Key external stakeholders of the industry
The retail industry of Australia has many internal and external stakeholders who are a
part of the operations of major retail organizations in the country. The external stakeholders
of the industry thereby include, auditors, buying groups, competitors, consumer groups.
Government based agencies, investors, customers, suppliers, shareholders, wholesalers, local
authorities. The levels of revenues that are earned by the organizations are affected in a huge
manner by the external stakeholders (Crawshaw, Budhwar and Davis 2017).
About the company
Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian retail organization which operates in both
Australia and New Zealand. The company has been able acquire a large part of the Australian
retail industry along with Australian conglomerate named Wesfarmers. The first store of
Woolworths was established in the year 1924 in Sydney. The five founders of the company
include, Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, Ernest Williams and
George Creed. The store model which is used by the company is innovative in nature and the
customers are provided with huge importance (Woolworths.com.au 2018).
Nature of work done by the organization
Woolworths is considered to be one of the largest supermarket based chain in
Australia and the company relies on more than 100,000 members who are a part of the stores,
support offices and the distribution centres. The major responsibility of the company is
thereby to provide effective services to the customers by providing them with the fresh
products. The needs and demands of consumers based on the simple and new ways of
shopping are thereby fulfilled by the company (Marchington 2015).

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Products and services of the organization
Woolworths is known in the Australian retail based sector for the products that are
offered under various brands which include, Delicious Nutritious, Free from Gluten, Farmers
Own, Gold, Macro wholefoods market, The Woolworths Food Range, The Odd Bunch, Little
Ones, Apollo, Baxter’s, Your Majesty, Smitten. The company thereby offers a wide range of
products under the brands which are based on different needs of the consumers. Woolworths
is also known in the industry for different services like Woolworths money, drinks based
business (Woolworths.com.au 2018).
Current strategy of the organization
The major goal of Woolworths and the strategy that has been employed by the
company is based on five major priorities which include,
 Building the store-led and customer based team and culture.
 Generation of the sustainable levels of sales momentum based on the Food
business.
 Evolving the Drinks based business.
 Empowerment of the portfolio based business in order to pursue the strategies
for delivering value to the shareholders.
 To become a lean retailer (Marchington et al. 2016).
Current level of performance of the organization
Woolworths has been able to increase its revenues in the retail industry of Australia
for the seven years in a row. The company has thereby grown faster as compared to its
biggest competitor Coles. The organization had however suffered from huge amounts of loss
in the year 2016 which led to the increase in its aggressive strategies. Woolworths had

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increased its focus on needs and consumers and was able to bounce back again in the industry
(Rathi and Lee 2015).
Five keys problems being faced by the organization
Low compensation levels and strikes in the workplace – The levels of
compensation in Woolworths which has led to many strikes done by the employees within the
organization.
Discrimination and bullying in the workplace – The issues based on discrimination
are quite high in Woolworths. This has led to the development of a negative workplace
culture in the country (Patty 2018).
Unrest among the employees and high degree absenteeism – The employees of the
organization taken multiple actions based on strikes related to the fair wages that are to be
paid by the company.
Greater levels of competitive pressure due to entry of Aldi – The competitive
pressure in the industry has increased due to entry of global companies like Aldi. This has
affected the loyal employee base of Woolworths.
Weak morale of staff – The morale of the employees has been reduced due to the
lack of effective levels of revenues of the retail organizations (von Bonsdorff et al. 2015).
Analysis of the HRM performance of the organization
The retail organizations face some major HRM based challenges which can be both
from the point of the employer and the employee as well. The employees in the retail industry
have direct contact with the customers. The human resources or employees of Woolworths
thereby play a major role in the organizational operations. Human resource based department
of Woolworths has been designed in an effective manner in order to develop and recruit

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talent within the organization. The functions of the Human Resource department of
Woolworths have been performed both on the functional and strategic levels (Taylor 2017).
Different types of activities are also performed by the line managers of the company
in order to conduct effective organizational operations. Recruitment and Selection is thereby
considered to be an important function which is efficiently performed by the HR managers.
The right people are recruited by the HR department of Woolworths at the right positions.
The constant feedback based process in Woolworths has ensured the effective operations of
HRM department of Woolworths (von Bonsdorff et al. 2015).
Conclusion
The report is thereby concluded by stating that Woolworths has been able to depict an
effective performance based on the HRM department. The company has shown continuous
improvement based on human resource operations in order to retain the employees in
different positions. The performance management based strategies of the company are based
on the operations of the HRM based department.
Recommendations
Woolworths can be recommended to implement feedback based systems within the
organization so that the employees are able to provide their opinions to the management. The
diversity within the organization can be managed with the help of training provided to
employees.
The lesson that I have learnt from the analysis of Woolworths is that the organizations
need to address the grievances of the employees in order to maintain the levels of
performance and provide them with effective working environment as well.

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References
Afr.com 2018. 10 challenges for Woolworths. [online] Financial Review. Available at:
https://www.afr.com/business/10-challenges-for-woolworths-20150120-12u29m [Accessed
26 Sep. 2018].
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Crawshaw, J., Budhwar, P. and Davis, A. eds., 2017. Human resource management:
strategic and international perspectives. Sage.
Marchington, M., 2015. Human resource management (HRM): Too busy looking up to see
where it is going longer term?. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp.176-187.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Patty, A. 2018. Woolworths workers claim alleged $1 billion in underpayments. [online] The
Sydney Morning Herald. Available at:
https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/woolworths-workers-claim-alleged-1-billion-
in-underpayments-20180823-p4zzbj.html [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Rathi, N. and Lee, K., 2015. Retaining talent by enhancing organizational prestige: An HRM
strategy for employees working in the retail sector. Personnel Review, 44(4), pp.454-469.
Taylor, S., 2017. Contemporary issues in human resource management. Kogan Page
Publishers.

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von Bonsdorff, M.E., Janhonen, M., Zhou, Z.E. and Vanhala, S., 2015. Team autonomy,
organizational commitment and company performance–a study in the retail trade. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(8), pp.1098-1109.
Woolworths.com.au 2018. [online] Woolworths.com.au. Available at:
https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].