JK Industries: Analysis of Workforce for Business Sales Expansion Plan

This report analyzes JK Industries, an Australian company in the trucking industry, as it expands its business into sales of medium and large-range trucks, while withdrawing from the truck rental market. The analysis examines workforce data, employee turnover, and the need for new personnel to s...Read More

Running head: EXPANSION OF BUSINESS INTO SALES
Expansion of Business into Sales
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Assessment 1:
Answer 1:
A review of the simulated documents which includes the workforce data and information
about the employee retention juxtaposed against the number of personnel required in each
position in conjunction with the case study reveals several facts about the business. First, the
name of the firm reads ‘JK Industries’ followed by the phrase ‘is an Australian company’. It can
be inferred from these two phrases that the firm is a proprietary limited company registered with
the Australian Government and ASIC (Business.gov.au. 2019). The second finding from the
analysis of the case study reveals that the company was the company had its headquarters in
Sydney with branches in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. This means that
the company enjoys a strong market presence in Australia and is financially strong. This
financial stability is evident from the fact that the company had sustained in the competitive
market of Australia 12 years and in fact received sales rights of medium and large range trucks
from an overseas company. The fourth finding from this statement is that the company enjoys a
strong market goodwill not only in Australia but also in other countries. The fifth finding from
the analysis is that core business of JK Industries was selling fortlifts, small trucks and ancillary
parts of trucks. The company also leased forklifts and small range trucks. The company post its
receipt of new sales rights from the overseas company would shift its business to retailing trucks
of small, medium and large ranges. The company would also withdraw from the truck rental
market. An analysis of the fifth finding shows that the company had in depth knowledge about
the trucking market in Australia. An analysis of the workforce data provided shows that in spite
of its business growth, the company had suffered high employee turnover. The reasons
responsible for this, as shown in the appendices provided were retirement, better job

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opportunities, work culture issues and lack of job development opportunities within the
company. The sixth finding as per the annexures provided shows that company would require
more personnel. It can be inferred from this finding that JK Industries would be required to
reduce its employee turnover rate and acquire new employees to meet its increasing business
requirements.
Answer 2:
Part a.
A review of the current data of staff turnover and demographic of JK Industries show that
the rate of turnover was very high in the company. The turnover of staff was in fact higher in the
managerial level. This means that company failed to provide legitimate opportunities to the
managers to attain career growth. This factor led to managerial staff to switch to other companies
offering better opportunities. The second reason responsible for high staff turnover as reported
in the company was unhealthy work culture. The current requirement of staff in JK Industries
was pretty high in various levels. For example, the current required numbers of staff in senior
managerial level was 4 and branch manager level was 6. The number of line managers required
as reported by the provided annexure was 18 while sales force and customer services required
80. The high turnover rates at these four positions of 1, 2, 3 and 25 roughly amounted to a
quarter of the requirements. Thus, it can be inferred that the rate of turnover in the middle level
management at JK was affecting the operations at the company. It can also be summed that the
apex management of company in order to support its new business requirements of marketing
middle and large run trucks in Australia should take steps to reduce this high staff turnover.

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Part b.
The projections for future requirements of staff at the middle level management of JK
Industries shows that the company would require more number of staffs in the reported positions.
The future requirements of staff in the company would 4 in senior managerial roles, 6 in branch
managerial roles and 12 in line managerial roles. It can be pointed out JK Industries decided to
concentrate in truck retailing and servicing as its new future business strategy. The requirements
of sales force and mechanic in the company would increase keeping the new business
requirement in view. The company would require 80 sales staff and 32 mechanic in financial
year 2013-14. The requirement of sales staff and mechanic in financial year 14-15 would be 84
and 34 respectively. It can inferred from this analysis of future requirements of JK Industries as
per the annexures provided that the apex management of the company should take two steps. The
first step should be acquiring new talents to fill up the aforementioned vacancies and secondly
reduce employee turnover.
Answer 3:
Part a.
The following are the external factors which may affect workforce supply:
Macroeconomic factors affecting workforce supply of JK Industries (as per the provided
annexures)
Political factors:
1. Political stability: The Government of Australia is Federal Parliamentary Constitutional
Monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head represented by Governor-General at the central
level and Governors at the state levels. The actual executive powers lie in the hands of the

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Prime Minister of Australia along with his/her council of ministers. The Government of
Australia is stable and makes laws for the industrial sector.
2. Foreign relationships: The Government of Australia has strong relationship with several
countries like the US, the UK and the Asian countries like India and China. The government in
addition share strong relationships with international organisations like the EU. This enables
the companies of Australia expand into foreign countries to get access to their resources and
customer bases. The foreign companies other hand can expand into Australia, thus making
more goods and services available to the customers residing in Australia (Australia.gov.au.
2019). This foreign relationship of the Government of Australia is evident in the case study of
JK Industries. The case study report that the company received sales right to market middle
and large range trucks from an overseas company which would mean companies would
require more supply of employees Thus, foreign relations have positive impact on workforce
supply since foreign relationship encourage business expansions which in turn creates more
demand for workforce.
3. Legal framework: The Government of Australia makes laws which the industries like
trucking industries have to comply with while operating in the market. For example, the Safe
Work Act makes it compulsory for employers in Australia to establish work health and safety
measures to ensure safety of workers (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. 2019). Thus, in other words it
can be inferred that laws formed by the Government of Australia provide protection to
employees against exploitation of employers. Thus, laws have positive effect on the workforce
supply in Australia.
Economic factors:

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GDP of Australia: The GDP of Australia is increasing and as in 2017 the GDP of the country
was 1323.42 USD billion (Tradingeconomics.com. 2019) (Appendix 1). This means the value
of goods and services produced within the country is increasing. This means that the country is
experiencing rise in productivity in the industrial sector which leads to higher demands for
workforce. Thus, GDP have positive effect in the workforce supply.
Supply chain: Supply chain have positive effect on the workforce supply. Ho et al.(2015)
mention that supply chain of goods enable the companies to boost their productivities. Larger
supply chain requires companies to use more logistics to transport materials from suppliers to
their respective manufacturing plants. Behzadi et al.(2018) strengthen the argument by
mentioning that higher productivity also means that the companies require more trucks to
transport finished goods to customers. Thus, trucking companies have to employ more
employees to serve these increasing demand for trucking services. Thus, supply chain has
positive impacts on the workforce supply. As far as Australia is concerned, the country has
strong supply chain which means that trucking companies like JK Industries in the country
would be able to expand their businesses (Heckmann, Comes and Nickel 2015).
Social factors:
Demand for goods: The increase in demand for goods in the Australian society would result
in the manufacturing companies in the country acquire higher volume of raw materials and
also manufacture high amount of products which they would send to the retail market. This
would lead to increase in demand for trucking services in the Australian market which would
boost the business generation of the Australian trucking companies. This increase in business
would lead to the trucking companies employ more employees. Thus, increase in demand for
goods in the Australian society would have positive influence in the workforce supply in the

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country.
Technological factors:
Advanced technology: Advanced technology would boost the operations in the trucking
companies. Advanced trucks with modern technology like GPS would enable drivers to drive
more safety. This would reduce accident rates and promote wellbeing of the drivers. Thus,
advanced technology would have positive impacts on the workforce supply in the Australian
trucking sector.
Part b.
The industrial relations in Australia is under the dominance of the Government of
Australia and the state governments through relevant government agencies. The FairWork
Ombudsman, Australia ensure that both the employers and the employees operate legally
(Fairwork.gov.au. 2019).
Part c.
The industrial relations in Australia is governed by legislations formed by the
Government of Australia. Some of the key legislations are Safework and Fair Work Act. As
already pointed out that companies in Australia have to registered to obtain their respective
Australian Business Number or ABN and under ASIC. Thus, it can be inferred that the
companies in Australia have to comply with several laws and legislations formed by the
government and its agencies.

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Answer 4:
Part a. Executive Summary:
The report below shows that JK Industries should take steps to enhance employee retention. The
apex management should train the employees and appraise them to curb high employee turnover
rates.
Part b. Organisational needs:
(i). Description of organisational requirement of skilled and diverse workforce:
The requirements of JK Industries as mentioned in the case study would be acquiring
skilled and diverse workforce to serve its growing business needs. The company acquired sales
rights to sell middle and large range trucks from an overseas company. The apex management
had decided to exit to truck renting and leasing market due to the stagnation in the market. This
means that company would require to employ higher number of sales personnel and mechanics.
The current requirement of JK Industries is to curb the high employee turnover rate and retain its
talents to align them with future business strategies.
(ii). Data considered:
The research into external and internal influences on workforce took into account
immense volume of secondary sources like articles and books. The research also included
analysis of the several reliable government websites like official websites of the different
ministries of Government of Australia.
Recommendations:
The following are the recommendations which would be considered in modification of
the employee force and retention of employees at JK Industries:

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i. Development of skills and capacity in the organisation:
The apex management of the JK Industries should develop the skills of the existing
employees which would gradually boost the organisational capacity to perform in the market.
The HR department along with the departmental heads should schedule a training session of the
employees to boost their capacities.
2. Retention of skilled labour:
The apex management should provide professional developmental opportunities to retain
talented employees. The apex management should promote the senior employees and give them
salary hikes to boost their job satisfaction level.
3. Promoting workforce diversity:
The company should promote workforce diversity to employing people across different
cultural origin. The manager should be fair to employees irrespective of their gender, races or
any other distinct identity.
ii. Proposed strategy:
The apex management should adopt the strategy of training the employees which would
develop their skills. The apex management should offer managerial training which would enable
retaining of employees. The company should provide diversity training to enhance workplace
diversity at JK Industries.
iii. Processes proposed:
The managers, especially the top level managers should use the process of establishing a
strong communication channel. This would boost coordination among employees and boost their
motivation.

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Answer 4:
Appendix 2-Communication strategy
Communication
objectives
1. To boost employee retention
2. To acquire new talents
Audience Message
Strategy: Media,
Approach, Rationale Resource/Budget Person
JK Industries
The need to boost
employee retention and
acquire new talents to
cater to the new
business requirements
Email, face to face
meetings, team
meeting, internet
Meeting rooms,
communication software
like cloud etc
Apex
management
Suppliers
To supply more trucks
of small, medium and
large scale
Email, face to face
meetings, team
meeting, internet
Meeting rooms,
communication software
like cloud etc
Apex
management
Recruitment
Agencies
To provide JK Industries
with talented and
skilled employees
Email, face to face
meetings, team
meeting, internet
Meeting rooms,
communication software
like cloud etc
Apex
management
Human
Resources
To operate in more
responsible ways
Email, face to face
meetings, team
meeting, internet
Meeting rooms,
communication software
like cloud etc
Apex
management
Industrial
Relations
To develop more
employee centric
industrial relations
Email, face to face
meetings, team
meeting, internet
Meeting rooms,
communication software
like cloud etc
Apex
management
Answer 6:
Appendix 3: Risk management and contingency plan
Workforce objectives: Risk likelihood Risk consequences
Operating in more responsible manner H Increased accidents
Operating in ways to reduce accidents H Increase accidents
Operating in ways to boost productivity H Fall in profits
Workforce objective Reduce risks
Risk mitigation strategy or contingency plan
1. Training of employees.
2. Formation of risk mitigation strategies

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References:
Australia.gov.au. 2019. Australia.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.australia.gov.au/about-government/international-relations [Accessed 27 Feb. 2019].
Behzadi, G., O’Sullivan, M.J., Olsen, T.L. and Zhang, A., 2018. Agribusiness supply chain risk
management: A review of quantitative decision models. Omega, 79, pp.21-42.
Business.gov.au. 2019. Business.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.business.gov.au/planning/new-businesses/legal-essentials-for-business [Accessed
25 Feb. 2019].
Heckmann, I., Comes, T. and Nickel, S., 2015. A critical review on supply chain risk–Definition,
measure and modeling. Omega, 52, pp.119-132.
Fairwork.gov.au. 2019. Fairwork.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/legislation/the-fair-work-system/australias-industrial-
relations-timeline [Accessed 27 Feb. 2019].
Ho, W., Zheng, T., Yildiz, H. and Talluri, S., 2015. Supply chain risk management: a literature
review. International Journal of Production Research, 53(16), pp.5031-5069.
Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. 2019. Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/ [Accessed 27 Feb. 2019].
Tradingeconomics.com. 2019) Australia GDP | 2019 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast |
News. [online] Available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/gdp [Accessed 27 Feb.
2019].

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Appendix:
Appendix 1: GDP of Australia:

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