Woolworths' Human Capital: Performance, Economic Shock & Crisis Plan

This report provides a comprehensive human capital assessment of Woolworths, focusing on performance management, economic shock handling, and crisis management planning. It highlights the importance of performance management in enhancing employee productivity and aligning with organizational goals, using methods like alignment, financial benefits, OKR methodology, and employee development practices. The report also examines how Woolworths navigated the economic shock during the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply chain disruptions and fluctuations in sales, and the strategies implemented to mitigate these challenges, such as transitioning to online platforms and automating fulfillment centers. Furthermore, it discusses Woolworths' crisis management planning, emphasizing the significance of handling corporate social responsibility to maintain brand value and image. This analysis showcases Woolworths' adaptive strategies in managing its human capital and overcoming various operational challenges. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

HUMAN CAPITAL -
ASSESSMENT 2

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................1
Introducing performance management and its impact on business organization:......................1
Section 2: Handling of economic shock in Woolworth..............................................................3
Section 3: Crisis management planning......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The study was conducted in order to elaborate the topic related to the human resource
development within an establishment. In order to discuss certain facts, Woolworths had been
chosen which elaborate all the necessary aspects of the company along with certain issues that
had been faced by the firm. The study conducted and discussed over topics that are related to
performance management in general context along with discussing it by taking an aspect of
Woolworth's as well. This highlights the overall performance criteria within which the company
measures the performances of their employees along with taking appropriate actions in order to
handle challenges related to the similar topic in most efficient manner. Moreover, the study also
highlight the concepts that are related to handling economic shock by the Woolworth's. From
various perception, it had been evaluated that companies were faced huge amount of critical
situations specifically at the time of pandemic situation and so does by the Woolworth's
company as well. Thus, it had been mitigated by adopting specific measures appropriately.
Furthermore, the company also adopt various effective strategies in order to mitigate and
handle crisis management which had been faced by the firm specifically in context of handling
corporate social responsibility because it had been identified that this particular activity highly
affects the brand value and image of the company in most drastic manner.

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is one of the most important thing for every business
organization as this focus on handling and managing employee and their productivity in the
workplace. HR is supportive pillar that allow company to stay stable and achieve goals, from
searching talent to crafting them into employee is process of human resource management.
There are certain roles of HRM, including hiring, training and performance management
Bratton, Bratton & Steele, (2021). Company and other department depend upon HR because
hiring right people is crucial part for every department, fulfilling demand of employee is key
element of effective HR practice.
This study is based on Woolworths Supermarket, this company is one of the largest retail
giant that have wide range of product. This company have ability to fulfil almost every demand
of consumer with quality product and effective customer service. This report will discuss
performance management and its impact on business organization. Later this report will discuss
economic shock that company have faced during COVID-19 condition and its impact on smooth
flow Stone, Cox & Gavin, (2020). At last this report will discuss crisis management and its
impact on performance of employee and company.
MAIN BODY
SECTION 1
Introducing performance management and its impact on business organization:
Performance management is crucial element of business process, company focus on
managing performance of employee. Unlike other type of management done by business, this is
something that provide internal strength. Every business organization focus on betterment of
employee, from performance appraisal to promotion every practice is considered as effective
management of employee's performance Armstrong, (2021). As HRM is key important pillar of
every business, they consider highly efficient workplace culture which allow them to increase
effectiveness of employee. It is very clear that company depend on employee and their skills to
achieve organizational goals, employee with rare skills is managed effectively by HR. there are
certain best practice of performance management that allow HR to manage employee, these are:
Alignment: every employee should align with mission and goals of the company for better
performance, company have to be clear about their policy, procedure, aims and roles which
employee have to perform Ashdown, (2018). Under HR best practice, employee should be aware
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about their role in the company, without clearance of goal, employee often misguided and their
performance is impacted. Woolworths Group have to set clear goals and objectives for their
employee, this allows them to avoid any kind of confusion lead to ineffective performance. After
COVID-19, Woolworth Group have face issue in management of employee, with unclear goals
company have face lack of employee engagement impacting their overall growth.
Financial benefit: financial benefit is one of the most common but effective method to maintain
company's and employee's performance, it is very clear that company provide financial benefit
to employee to boost their motivate and allow them to perform effectively. HRM consider
financial benefit as key practice that impact employee and build trust between company, every
business organization focus on those employees who have skills and ability to make company
profitable, keeping them satisfied is considered as effective performance management Cappelli
& Tavis (2016). Woolworths Group not only provide financial benefit to employee but this
allows them to gain long term advantages, this group provide benefit according to performance
of employee.
OKR methodology: OKR methodology is one of the most effective method to manage
performance of employee, OKR means Objectives and Key Result. Company who focus on
continuous development use this methodology to boost performance of employee, it is very clear
that when employee is assigned with challenging goals then they will become active. Company
will measure their performance with the help of key result, if employee successful meet all
criteria that means they are effective DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, (2016). Woolworths Group
adopt this methodology for effective management of employee and their performance, OKR
allow them to create track process and measurable goals which employee consider while
performing their role.
Employee's development practice: company who focus on betterment of the employee gain
long term competitive advantage, every business organization should craft those HR practice
that allow them to focus on betterment and development of employee and their skills. HR of
Woolworths Group craft effective development strategies including training and development
program, this is one of the best way to manage performance of employee and turn company
towards success. It is very clear that employee develops themselves in workplace but if they do
not get opportunity t grow and explore then their performance will be impacted Gerrish (2016).
Employee development is one of the common issue in HR practice, Woolworths Group not only
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provide development program to employee but this company allow their employee to explore
greater opportunities that will help them to become productive in the process.
Performance management tools:
 360 degree feedback: 360 feedback is effective performance management tool that
allow company to provide feedback to employee regarding their effectiveness in the
workplace. Feedback can be both, negative as well as positive. Under HR best practice of
Woolworths Group, manager of workplace provide feedback to employee according to
their performance DeNisi & Murphy, (2017). Employee themselves provide feedback to
their subordinate as per their performance, this company focus on solving challenges that
arrive in the workplace, for example ineffective performance of employee is the biggest
challenge that can be solved with feedback provided by the manager.
 KPI: KPI is most effective performance management tool that allow company to
measure performance of employee with the help of indicator set by company Mathis &
et.al. (2016). In the form of HR software, Woolworths Group measure growth and
effectiveness of employee for example if company assign task to individual employee
then they will measure their performance with outcome of that particular task. This
company focus on data driven information about employee which means company can
measure past performance of employee and make decision further according to criteria
set by company. Meeting KPI is one of the most challenging part for every employee, at
some point, employee will fail to meet the demand which is not bad for them as company
will decide to provide training according to employee demand.
Section 2: Handling of economic shock in Woolworth
Australia handled economic shock specifically during the time of pandemic situation due
to lock down at the time of coronavirus which also impacted the global financial crisis. Due to
Covid-19 situation, the economy of the Australia set to shrink by 15% specially in the second
quarter (Moreira & Hick, 2021). It affects all companies in all sectors or industry all across the
world and specially the retailer companies such as Woolworths. According to the company they
have to face serious challenges specifically at the time of pandemic situation for instance, they
had to close their supermarket chain nationwide for one night so that they can restock their
stores in a way to manage panic buying behaviour of the customers. Moreover, as the company
deals in other sectors as well, in which they have to face serious challenges such as the decisions
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taken by the federal government according to them, Woolworth's group hotel businesses had
been closed until further notice (di Mauro, 2020). The teams members of the firm were work to
distribute various impacted team members as possible to other group of businesses rather than
make them redundant for their job. As per current scenario, all the group businesses of the
enterprise are remained open for trading. The spread of the corona virus caused various deaths
globally and hence slowed the world overall economy. This resulted into stock market tumbling
and forced businesses all around the Australia to update contingency plans and even in some
cases close offices as well (Folinas & Metaxas, 2020).
Till now as well, the businesses faces recession in almost every business area. The shock
of Covid-19 continues to be felt in many households as well as varied businesses. During that
period of time, the footfall of the people diminishes and hence affected the overall sales of the
firm as well. The company faced fluctuations in their sales by wide numbers because of
pandemic situation. In Australia, the shoppers have stripped supermarkets like Woolworths for
small things (Makin & Layton, 2021). This creates a shock to economy of the Australia due to
unmanaged supply chain system of the company. The panic buying behaviour provide and
represent prime example of demand risk to supply chains in front of the company in order to
take initiatives in this way as well to resolve such situations and prepare policies in a way to
handle them in effectual manner. This highly affects the overall sectors and industry in which
the company operates such as health care system, tour and travel group, hospitality and
universities. Overall it drastically affects the establishment (Segal & Gerstel, 2020). This
highlight the drawbacks in the policies and procedures of the company as economic fallouts due
to the pandemic shows that the businesses are deadly prepared for supply chain risks till that
particular point of time. Similarly, the Woolworth's also have a lot to modify in order to fulfil
the requirements of the society and the users (Demmou & et.al., 2021). Specially with the rise in
such kind of situations, varied risks also arises which include the macro risk according to this,
they are having huge fear from natural disasters like Covid-19, demand risks which involves the
sudden and sharp changes and surge in the demand and forecasting errors, manufacturing risks
in which due to all such critical situations the poor working conditions might arises, supply risk
in which having only one supplier for any specific product disrupted the whole procedure,
financial risks which includes fluctuations in exchange rates along with currency and wages, etc.
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are greatly affects the company group in each and every sector in which they operate
(Zenchenko & et.al., 2022).
Furthermore, in order to deal with economic crisis, the company have to start their
business over online portal according to which Australian people can easily shopped online and
the whole supply management has been managed effectively. The company prepares more
automated fulfilment centres which assist in order to meet online demand and such kind of
investments are already on the line (Bakhtiari & et.al., 2020). With the automated dealing with
the supply chain management within the firm, the company will able to deal with the economic
crisis that had been raised specifically at the time of pandemic situation. For other sector in
which Woolworths is working, they have to initiate and prepare strategies in order to mitigate
future risks related to supplies as well as fulfil the requirements of the consumers so that each
and every group in which they are working will able to handle the economic crisis in the best
possible manner (Van Barneveld & et.al., 2020). Hence, in overall context, the challenges faced
by the Australian economy specifically by the Woolworths company is related to the slow down
economic growth, reliance over natural resources because of lack of suppliers, job growth rate,
household debt, etc. which requires urgent attention of the whole industry.
Section 3: Crisis management planning
Crisis management refers to the preparation of appropriate plan which highlight the
things in which the businesses have to react in the conditions of crisis that occurs during that
specific point of time. The plan enables the management to evaluate who are going to take
actions and the role of an individual (Zhan & Santos-Paulino, 2021). The primary goal is to
minimize damages and restore business operations in highly rapid manner. From various
researches, it has been identified that the company received various environmental backlash
comments in their opposition and hence decides to repair their image and take new and
advanced direction into the growing collectable market area in order to repair their brand image.
In order to make their corporate social responsibility highly active and appropriate, company
releases the specific collectables in order to get extreme success of Coles plastic collectables
(Bello & et.al., 2020). After the release of campaign, the Woolworth's faced backlash from
general public as well as media people. The huge concerns about the plastic collectables have
been originated which creates issues that the company is not at all environmental friendly and
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them they decided to act and going towards that direction only. For this reason, the company
releases brand new collectable series only. For this they have to introduce new system with the
platform of targeting the company policies, management as well as other significant areas
(Schermer, 2021). For this, the company considered implementing the flexible solutions in order
to mitigate risk and to appropriate crisis management practices.
The issues have been originated because of the lack of foresight which is the most
important factor in context of all the significant incidents in the recent history. At the
governmental level, risk minded people have tried their best to get the things ready at least the
major stuff that is being prepared by the firm for their betterment (Dubey & et.al., 2021). But
furthermore, the company faces lack of funds, political as well as external influences due to
which, they have faced systematic failure. According to the campaign, it has been identified that
listening to the target people or audience is the key in order to decide campaign strategies. The
firm have to heard about the customer's complaints and cat accordingly. In order to repair their
brand image in front of other competitors, it has been identified that they did not just have to
work towards removing the plastic collectables but also implemented a brand new
environmental supportive campaign in favour of the topics through which the users and society
people were facing issues (Stone, Cox & Gavin, 2020).
Furthermore, the enterprise releases sessions which illuminate environmental friendly
education and interactive sessions or campaigns in order to put thousands of shoppers back
towards the positive side of the company along with recreate a huge amount of customer base in
complete manner (Smith & Lawrence, 2018). With this, the company faces lots of challenges
due to which they have to deal with low probability, high impacts and uncertain cause and
effects of the crisis. The whole situation requires urgent decisions by identifications of specific
threats in most considerable manner. Thus, the company have to remove the issues by taking
preventive measures in order to survive and get successful outcomes. The company took actions
in order to mitigate crisis such as by assessing risks, produce plans, define the roles and
responsibilities in most effective manner, appoint special crisis management team, drawing
communication plan, produce contact and company chart, promotion of crisis ready culture,
publishing plans and conduct appropriate training sessions along with test the scheme, review
them and practise it continuously in order to mitigate the risk in permanent manner and get
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benefits from it in long run situation. All such steps should be highly followed in order to
manage the crisis situation within the Woolworths (Chang & Chong, 2021).
In order to mitigate CRS issues, company adopts various practices such as they develop
five social initiatives that are extremely focused towards empowering and building sustainable
communities with the help of various required projects that provide appropriate access of their
services to their users. The company also promotes sustainable farming practices in their supply
chain management through varied programmes for instance the farming for future. Their
primary aim to provide appropriate supplies to their users which are highly free from pesticides,
chemicals, reduce water usage or wastage, protect biodiversity, etc. Apart from this, by
effectively utilizing business code of ethics, following workplace health and safety program,
commit to protect external environment, provide appropriate supplies on board, donate required
things and similar kind of practices which provide high level of satisfaction to the users (Heron,
2020). By respecting people requirements and support them to their core who grow them well or
establish the brand into the market place, the Woolworths repair their brand image in front of
their competitors so that they can survive for long term.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that appropriate performance management
within an organization along with crisis management enables the companies like Woolworth's in
order to overcome from drastic challenges that has been generated due to economic crisis.
Within the above described study, various practices had been elaborated in context of
performance as well as crisis management. Moreover, the study also discussed the economic
shock which had been faced by the Woolworth's specially at the time of Covid-19 pandemic
situation which drastically affects even the overall economy of the Australia up to considerable
level.
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