Workforce Planning Report: Bunning Warehouse Analysis and Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of workforce planning, specifically focusing on the Bunning Warehouse. It begins with an introduction to workforce planning and its importance in human resource management, followed by an overview of the company. The report then delves into the factors affecting the supply and demand of labor within the industry, including the impact of government initiatives and the COVID-19 pandemic. Part A of the report examines labor market dynamics, while Part B focuses on organizational strategies and workforce plans, including strategies for staff diversity, employee retention, and sourcing skilled labor. The report also addresses contingency planning for extreme situations and provides recommendations to management. A detailed analysis of the organization's current workforce and future needs, including strategies to address gaps or oversupply of staff, is presented. The report concludes with recommendations for management and a comprehensive list of references, providing a thorough and well-researched examination of workforce planning in the context of Bunning Warehouse.

Workforce Planning

Executive Summary
Workforce planning serves managers a basis of developing strategies for making
decisions regard human resource department. It enable HR manager to accept change as
opportunity rather than as threat. If managers of the company make effective methods and
strategies to address issues and challenges this will be helpful to make other employees of the
company to deal with that such as the situation of COVID-19 pandemic.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................5
PART-A...........................................................................................................................................5
Factors that affecting the supply of labour in the industry.....................................................5
Factors that affecting demand of the labour in the industry...................................................6
Government initiatives may affect the demand and supply of labour....................................7
PART-B...........................................................................................................................................8
Identification of staff diversity that meets the requirements of organization.........................8
Organizational strategies and Workforce plans......................................................................8
Strategies to retain employees and reduce staff turnover.......................................................9
Strategies to find skilled labour from external sources..........................................................9
Developing contingency options to deal with extreme situations..........................................9
PART-B.........................................................................................................................................10
Required changes required for the modification or retention of the workforce...................10
Determining future workforce needs....................................................................................10
Analysing the organisation's current workforce...................................................................11
Identify strategies to address gaps or oversupply of future required staff...........................11
Developing options for communicating strategies...............................................................11
Recommendations to management.......................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................13
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Workforce planning is important for Human Resource Management. It facilitates the
strategic base for making such decision in the organization. It makes the HR manager to counter
change rather than being surprised situations as they providing strategic methods to resolve
issues regarding workforce (Blackmore, K. L. and Allitt, E. W. H., 2019). It consider as the
process to an organization that used to analyse, forecast and planning workforce supply and
demand plus it determines the future step to take prepare future employment needs. Bunning
Groups is an Australian household hardware chain; trading as Bunning Warehouse. Since 1994,
the chain has been owned by the Wesfarmers. It has their warehousing stores in Australia and
New Zealand. In 1886, the company was found in Perth, Western Australia. It is the limited
company founded by two brothers, initially it focused sawmilling then it became a public
company in 1952 and then it enlarged their enterprise into retail sector that has been purchasing
various hardware stores. The respective company has the market share in the Australian “Do-It
yourself” hardware market about 50 percent with their competitive chains such as Home Timber
and Hardware and other hardware retailers.
MAIN BODY
PART-A
Factors that affecting the supply of labour in the industry.
The supply labour in the industry is considered on the basis of population, participation
of sex ratio, different age groups and the education of them. Supply of labour can relate with the
numbers or quantity and the rate or wage that labour are ready to work for the company. It will
be the upward sloping for labour supply curve in the industry (Britnell, M., 2019). Because as the
wages rise, other workers will attract to do work for this industry as they will get higher
incentives rewards.
Factors affecting the supply of labour:
 Overtime: Workers will attract to the organization if they will get the opportunities to
rise their earnings through overtime shifts, share option schemes and productivity related
pay schemes.

 Barriers to entry: This is used to restrict entry of labour supply which forces to pay
higher labour wages by limiting artificially in the supply of labour industry. This criteria
to restrict labour force is used in the case such as legal services and medicines.
 Improving occupational mobility of labour: For a particular job, labour will be trained
with required and necessary skills.
 Number of working hours the labour is willing to work: Supply of labour cannot be
determined without knowing of working hours in the Bunning Warehouse. The working
hours have been faded with the shifts in the labour workforce firm and the supply of them
is also get affected. There will be automatically change in the supply of labour workforce.
The supply of labour will automatically get reduced if the company has increased their
working hours.
Factors that affecting demand of the labour in the industry.
Demand of labour is a downward sloping curve in the industry (Gaietto, K. J. and
Williams, M. E., 2020). The labour market industry have the demand and supply curves as the
industry of goods or products. The law of demand of labour is applicable in such way that higher
wages is a higher price in the industry of labour and that will leads in the reduction of demand of
labour by the employers of the Bunning Warehouse (Flory, E. S., 2017). While on the other side
if the there is a decrease in the labour wage rate; will increase the demand by the employers of
the firm.
 Changes in Technologies: If the change in the technologies will increase the demand of
the labours and reduction in demand of some labours. It can be understand by an
example; the manufacturing of more powerful chip may increase the demand of technical
and software engineers but on the other decide it will reduce the labours which are not
useful. This may also enhance the production process computerized so that labour need
will also decrease.
 Changes in products: In short run, there may be a change in the demand of final
product. If the demand of product increased by the consumers, the production for same
will also increase and that factor will affect the demand for labours also or vice versa.
 Changes in the number of firms: It can be understand by the factor that if there will be
change of increase or decrease in the number of firms. This will also affect the demand of

labour as if the firm wants to expand their business at some other locations it will need
the labour from local markets for the smooth going and understanding of the business.
According to the research, due to Covid-19 pandemic; the Australian Company has facing a
V-shaped recovery with boosting energy and confidence. As per the latest research
unemployment rate is declined from January this year that is supply of labour has increased and
many labour get jobs and employment advanced by 29,100 from this year. The rate of
unemployment has been fall from 6.6% to 6.4%.
Government initiatives may affect the demand and supply of labour.
Government influence the employment term in various ways not just by establishing laws
and regulations to the industry. In the labour industry, government intervenes to reduce
inequality and industry failure may take several forms. Their initiatives is to prevent gender
discrimination, child labour and the discrimination of religion.
Government initiatives affecting demand and supply:
 Change by COVID-19: COVID-19 caused an important decline in the demand of
labour. In modern times, it has never experienced before; how it attacked the national
economy. Every industry and community is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the
Australia as well. State and federal government actions and policies changes quickly and
spreads the necessary information to prevent the disease and make effective treatment.
Due to this uncertainty, it is very clear that economy is affected in various ways.
 Trade Union Legislation: Government take actions to reduce the power of trade unions.
It has been studied that if trade unions had too much power that might cause the
economic insufficiency through strikes, make difficulties for non-union members to get
the employment. On the other side, some of the economists also researched that it can
increase the labour productivity and also serve counter balance to monopolist companies
(Moore, K. L., 2019, July).
According to research Covid-19 pandemic affects considerably decline in labour demand by
as much as 30% dignified by the number of job advertisements, but it did not result well in
advertised wages. The PPP program helped to stabilize the labour demand with advertised
wages.

PART-B
Identification of staff diversity that meets the requirements of organization.
Diversity is essential to creating innovative ideas, acquiring talent and understanding the
market of the industry. It refers to the identity based differences among and between two or more
people. Identification of advantages and challenges is inherent to staffing diversity within the
companies.
Treat each employee as an individual: Employees engaged in the Bunning Warehouse
must be treat without discriminating their backgrounds. Instead, without making any
assumptions employees working there must be treated for their success or failure rather judge for
their cultural backgrounds.
Be open-minded: Recognizing and encourage labours that one's experience, background
or culture cannot put enough value to the Bunning Warehouse. Rather look for efforts and talents
that can help to achieve objectives of the organization.
Hiring: To develop diverse workforce, it is complicated to hire talented and skilled
people from different backgrounds (Hellyer, P., 2020). This includes the great leadership and
management skills to make staffing decisions to overcome biased hirings in the company.
Organizational strategies and Workforce plans.
Organizational strategies refers the sum of actions that company wants to take to obtain
long term objectives and this strategies of the company will make their strategic plans. These
strategies must originate mission for the company that why the Bunning Organization is in
business.
Current strategies to improve effectiveness of the firm:
Work on quality services and products: The Bunning warehouse must prepare and
work on that level to serve their customers a quality service or products. The basic key is to serve
quality of services but with a cost effective strategy. Overall goal is to provide quality services
but not with an intention to exceed budget for the company.
Use of technologies: The best way to protect business is to work and make use of
technologies and technological professionals. By the most effective and efficient use of
technologies, company can make business strategies without compromising the quality of
services and exceeding budget.

Workforce plan process when done in a right way, it can help to reduce the labour costs
and can effectively respond to change in the needs of the customer. It also allows HR manager to
make decisions and recommendations about how a company can deliver best by utilizing best
labour force.
Strategies to retain employees and reduce staff turnover.
Employee turnover rate can be measured by the number of employees who leave the
Company of Bunning in a specified time duration hardly one year. As per the reports of Work
institute 77% of voluntary turnover can be avoid. For the employers, strategies to retain staff and
labour must be adopted and make rational decisions where they hire or fire:
Hire the right people at start: It is important for the HR manager to make clear
decisions about the expectations from the labour so that right people are involved in the working
process and this will reduce the employee turnover.
Reduce employee pain: If the employers can understand the pain and work stress of
their labour; and understand that they cannot make them to work in robotic way (Okrah, S. K.
and KwartengSpooner, S., Laverty, L. and Checkland, K., 2019). There is a life out of their work
which they might to enjoy and spends time with their family. By understanding this concern can
reduce employee’s turnover.
Strategies to find skilled labour from external sources.
Employees Referrals: Employees may refer their friends or know personal whom with
good relations are maintained can refer and bring them to the Bunning Warehouse.
Newspapers advertising: Many companies may find skilled labours from this way of
sourcing. HR manager can put noticeably advertisements to invite labour and select from them to
the firm. Examples of this are seek.com.au and The Daily Telegraph (Sydney).
Developing contingency options to deal with extreme situations.
The main aim of contingency planning is to allow Bunning Warehouse to return to its
regular functions as soon as possible after an unexpected event. Basically it protects resources,
identifies key staff, minimizes customer inconvenience and assigning specific responsibilities in
the point of recover things.

Risk analysis and Monitoring: The basic aim is to understand the potential risks factors
and to trigger Advanced Preparedness’s Actions (APA) where it is needed. Coordination among
labour can help a lot to face such extreme situations.
The overall goal is to agree on a situation, respond strategies and coordinating to make
arrangements to the available resources. Examples; employees may met with an accident in the
company due to some improper functioning of machineries at workplace so that they have to be
understanding the risk factors accordingly.
PART-B
Required changes required for the modification or retention of the workforce.
Organizational Strategies can be defined as a set of actions that company aims to
accomplish long term goals. In the context of Bunning Organization, the developed strategies
serves visions and prevent someone from losing direction. There are number of key areas that
helps to managing workforce such as redeployment, triple bottom line, retention, recruitment,
retrenchment, redundancy, training and development.
Triple Bottom Line: TBL objectives may include reducing waste output and water usage,
disposing toxic materials, reducing organization’s carbon footprint. Bunning Warehouse adopt
TBL approach to their business so that they are more likely to attract and retain their labour.
The objectives of the Company needs to be clearly measurable to determine the
workforce plan such as treat each employee as an individual any many more is successful or not.
It requires to establish before implementation of the strategies (Spooner, S., Laverty, L. and
Checkland, K., 2019).
Determining future workforce needs.
It is strategical decision made by HR team for the future needs of workforce. Demand for
labour is an outcome of demand and supply of goods and services. Workforce planning is not
only focus on the current needs of the staff but also focus on the future needs of the employment
of labour's needs and availabilities. On the basis of estimating total revenue, HR management
can launch the number and the combination of HR needed to obtain that revenue. For generating
revenues, manager’s primary may limit the factor to hire the qualified staff.

Analysing the organisation's current workforce.
Workforce capacity planning model helps to predict future demand and supply of the
workforce. It has been generated to support the transformation of workforce to ensure that
resource are being used in a best possible way to get better outcomes and results from the labour
with an intention to support the needs and requirements. It is the important part of analysing the
current workforce that will be supported and creates value for Bunning Warehouse as well.
Identify strategies to address gaps or oversupply of future required staff.
Australian labour force has been significantly impact by the demographic trends. The way
in the change of the Bunning warehouse can access or utilize the labour workforce by
globalization and rapid development of technologies. It has been identified that more labour will
labour will retire than employ in the organization between 2010 and 2020. The firm may face the
increase shortage of labour. For demographic locations firm can opt for virtual team with labours
(World Health Organization, 2019). Accessing and attracting skills of labour from different
countries might be the solution for supply of labour.
Developing options for communicating strategies.
 Use of technology to facilitate communication: It is important to communicate
internally with the labour that enhances the great environment for the Bunning
Warehouse where labour will follow up with sharing ideas and all.
 Create an open environment: When the Bunning Warehouse creates open environment,
team members or labour will not be afraid to hesitate to say something or to put their
issues in front of HR team.
 Keep communication from both directions: Employees want to serve feedback but if
there is not any option to serve that they probably do not. Consider the best path for
constructive feedback based on the structure and serve it at the right place.
Recommendations to management.
 It is vital to react quickly if the managers know that their company is at interesting
position. Whether they made any decisions or not, it must be follow up with the
employee, also respond to any queries concern.
 Proper background investigation of employees or labour must be their because it very
legally risky allow labour' social media activity to consideration into hiring decisions.

CONCLUSION
As per the mentioned report, it has been summarized that workforce planning is a
strategical decision that are made by the understanding of vision, mission and the future goals of
the company that are obtained by the successful workforce. It is important for both private and
public organization to develop models and methods for workforce planning. It is totally depend
on the strong management and the leadership. As any organization depends on the right
employees to work at the right time to face challenges and issues. It also helps to identify the
needs for staff that is demand and supply of labour and keep enough workforce that have the
right values to the company.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Blackmore, K. L. and Allitt, E. W. H., 2019. Building and sustaining the defense simulation
training workforce. The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation,
p.1548512919869559.
Britnell, M., 2019. Human: solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare. Oxford University
Press.
Flory, E. S., 2017. Preparing for the Future of the Workforce. Community College
Journal, 88(3), pp.12-13.
Gaietto, K. J. and Williams, M. E., 2020, November. ATTENTION: Workforce shortages as a
barrier to optimal dialysis. In Seminars in Dialysis (Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 505-512).
Hellyer, P., 2020. Younger workforce increasingly working part-time. British dental
journal, 228(9), pp.686-686.
Moore, K. L., 2019, July. Automated radiotherapy treatment planning. In Seminars in radiation
oncology (Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 209-218). WB Saunders.
Okrah, S. K. and Kwarteng, A., Application of Workforce Optimization to the Award of Projects
in a Biding Tender.(A Case Study of Shame Senior High School).
Spooner, S., Laverty, L. and Checkland, K., 2019. The influence of training experiences on
career intentions of the future GP workforce: a qualitative study of new GPs in
England. British Journal of General Practice, 69(685), pp.e578-e585.
World Health Organization, 2019. Meeting on Improving Health Workforce Management for
Universal Health Coverage, Manila, Philippines, 24-26 June 2019: meeting report.
Manila: WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific.
World Health Organization, 2019)