Discuss about the level of employee engagement in Wesfarmers.
Organizations are now facing a huge challenge to increase the employee engagement. It is a great concern for every organization about how to create high levels of employee commitment in their organization (Bratton and Gold 2017). The human resource manager plays an important role in enhancing the employee engagement in an organization. An HR has much knowledge and good technique to increase the employee engagement in an organization. This study reveals the effectiveness of HR practices in enhancing the employee engagement in Wesfarmers. Wesfarmers is a popular retail organization situated in Australia. This current study deals with the people engagement level and HR practices in this organization.
Wesfarmers is a popular retailer in Australia. This organization offers coal products, chemical, fertilizers and industrial safety products. This organization is considered as the largest retailer in Australia based on its revenue. The revenue generation of Wesfarmers is high than Woolworths and BHP Billiton in the recent years. In the year 2017, the revenue generation was AU$65.98 billion (Wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Wesfarmers has conglomerate structure, which is their winning formula in global retail industry. This structure leads this organization to establish many branches. Therefore, by following this structure, such organization is able to grow and get a high return by taking the risk in business. The mission of Wesfarmers is to deliver the satisfactory return to their clients as well as the stakeholders. Their vision is to develop a disciplined business culture in their organization. Wesfarmers has branches in Southbank, Melbourne, and Perth in Australia. Apart from this, they have a branch in New Zealand also. They have approximately 203,000 employees in Australia. Providing high quality of service to the stakeholders is the major objective of such organization. Therefore, the well conglomerate structure is another effective aspect of such organization to gain competitive advantages in the market.
HR strategies include recruitment and selection, quality improvement, performance appraisal, training, and development. However, Wesfarmers uses a three rounds selection process include telephonic interview, face to face interview and aptitude test. On the other hand, in quality improvement process they assess the employee performance on a regular basis (Wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Therefore, performance appraisal is a major HR strategy of this organization, which is done to motivate and engage the employees in their work. However, performance appraisal and compensation planning is a critical area of HRM (Bratton and Gold 2017). Wesfarmers HRM department gives their focus on performance appraisal process to retain the employees in their organization. However, employee satisfaction is associated with the performance appraisal. For this reason, the HR of Wesfarmers offer good compensation planning to the employee to maximize their engagement.
Wesfarmers has a dynamic team in HRM department. The major HR practice of this organization is performance and reward program. They have an annual incentive plan for their employees based on their performance. Therefore, they focus on employee benefits program by providing paid parental leave. The main purpose of this HRM practice is to assist the employees to make a healthy balance between the work and family responsibilities (Wiscareers.com.au 2018). On the other hand, Wesfarmers targets to bring cultural diversity in their workplace. For this reason, the HR has established diversity policy by providing equal opportunity to each employee. This HR practice is established to maximize the employee engagement in their organization. However, cultural diversity is crucial in the workplace to involve the employees in their work (Cascio 2018). Therefore, the HR actively takes part in increasing the employee learning process by providing them training. One of the major HR practices of Wesfarmers is the women leadership in the organization. However, the females often get less respect in comparison the male employees. During the recruitment, the HRM department focuses on the recruitment of female employees in this organization to reduce the gender discrimination. The HR focuses on strength assessment process of the individuals and establishment of a positive working culture in the workplace. The organizational structure is employee oriented, which leads the employee to work comfortably in this organization. The HR follows effective communication to build an interpersonal relationship with the employees. This motivates the employees towards their work. The HR of Wesfarmers follows anti-discrimination policy to reduce the racism and gender discrimination in the workplace. However, maintenance of equality in the workplace is the major focus of HRM in Wesfarmers.
Employee engagement refers to a workplace strategy to influence the employees to give their best (Mone and London 2018). On the other hand, employee engagement is a process to establish a working environment where the employees are able to show their capability. Employee engagement depends on the trust, integrity, and communication between the employees and its organization. However, for an organization employee engagement is crucial to meet the organizational goals and objectives. One of the vital theories of employee engagement is theory X and Y that is proposed by McGregor. This theory focuses on human motivation and management in an organization (Gürbüz et al. 2014). Theory X highlights the significance of strict supervision. According to this theory, a strict supervision is required to improve the employee performance in an organization. On the other hand, theory Y focuses on the motivating role of job satisfaction. However, job satisfaction influences the employees to perform their tasks properly. By applying this theory Wesfarmers can use the participative management style to increase the supervision level, which will maximize the employee engagement in this organization.
Wesfarmers has 223,000 employees in the global market and 203,000 employees in Australia. However, this business always tries to learn from their employees based on their issues (Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Many divisions of Wesfarmers have taken a range of employee engagement initiatives to manage regular employee engagement. From the above data it has been found that the employee engagement level is high in this organization. They have taken open survey, employee pulse survey and regular online survey to measure their employee engagement. On the other hand, Wesfarmers always give their concentration to understand the issues and expectation of the employees. They take feedback from their internal stakeholders by conducting stakeholder survey. Wesfarmers invested $8.7 billion to increase the salary and benefit of the employees (Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). They have high employee retention in their organization, which ensures that their employee engagement is good.
Salary increment along with communicating the vision and mission of the organization
One of the major initiatives’ of employee engagement is to increase the salary (Mone and London 2018). However, for Wesfarmers, it is important to communicate the vision and mission of the organization with the employees. This will create awareness among them. Hence, to bring the interest of the employees towards the mission of an organization it is important to provide them a good salary. This will fulfill the basic needs of the employees and motivates them in their work. Application of Maslow’s motivational theory supports this initiative as this theory also focuses on the physiological needs of the employees. If an employee gets proper salary then their basic needs will be fulfilled as a result, they will involve in their work. Implementation of such initiative will satisfy the employees, which maximizes their performance. However, intrinsic motivation theory supports the significance of salary increment in employee engagement. However, as per this theory, it has been found that internal motivation is important to enhance employee performance (Albrecht et al. 2015). Hence, by providing well-structured salary Wesfarmers can carry out internal motivation in their organization.
Celebrate the achievement
It is important for an organization to celebrate the hard work of the employees. By providing recognition Wesfarmers can celebrate the employee performance. This will show respect the employees, which also increase their confidence level. Mcclelland’s achievement motivation theory supports that employees want achievement against their hard work (McClelland 2015). This increases the level of employee engagement in an organization. However, this theory also supports that if the employees can celebrate their achievement than they become interested in their work, which allows them to engage in an organization.
Conclusion
The entire study deals with the employee engagement and HR practices in the context of Wesfarmers. It has been found that Wesfarmers follows gender equality during the recruitment process. Therefore, workplace diversity is another vital HR practice of this organization, which reduces the racism and brings cultural diversity in the workplace. On the other hand, application of the anti-discrimination policy is an effective HR policy that reduces the inequality based on religion and gender. Apart from this enhancement in salary and celebration of the achievement will be helpful of Wesfarmers to maximize their employee engagement.
References
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), p.308.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Gürbüz, S., ?ahin, F. and Köksal, O., 2014. Revisiting of Theory X and Y: A multilevel analysis of the effects of leaders’ managerial assumptions on followers’ attitudes. Management Decision, 52(10), pp.1888-1906.
McClelland, D.C., 2015. Achievement motivation theory. Organizational behavior, 1, pp.46-60.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance managementmanagement: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Our people. [online] Available at: https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/people/people-development/our-people/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/ 2018. Stakeholder engagement. [online] Available at: https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/people/people-development/
Wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Wesfarmers policy. [online] Available at: https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/corporate-governance/whistleblower-policy—may-2015.pdf [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Wesfarmers.com.au. 2018. Wesfarmers. [online] Available at: https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Wiscareers.com.au. 2018. Human Resources. [online] Available at: https://www.wiscareers.com.au/career/career-to-suit-you/human-resources [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download