The identified study paper has illustrated the current recruitment and selection strategy of Woolworths Limited, the second largest retailing firm operating in the target market of Australia and New Zealand. In order to manage the diversified extensive retail business including supermarkets, retail liquor marketing, home improvement items, and general merchandise business, Woolworths Group needs to hire the best staff members and executives to meet the standards of customer satisfaction (“Woolworths Group”, 2017). In the contemporary business scenario, the company has to deal with substantial competition from Wesfarmers Limited, another conglomerate business giant operating in the same target market and industry. Precisely, the study has investigated the role of recruitment and selection practices in human resource management of Woolworths Limited. Furthermore, the leading challenges in hiring the best talents within the different business segments have been logically described in the study providing evidence (Herring, 2017). In addition, the study also elaborates the strategic recommendation that can be taken into consideration by Woolworths Limited to manage the workforce recruitment and retention.
The qualified and efficient employees of Woolworths Limited have been recognised as one of the major business strengths for the retail business. In order to tackle different segments of the business of Woolworths Limited, the management of the organisation has adopted evident recruitment and selection practices and policies to hire and retain the best sales executives, managers, marketing managers, and in-store sales personnel, etc (Herring, 2017). The selection and recruitment practices of Woolworths Limited has primarily based on the types of vacancies to be filled up. Precisely, the organisation has hired professional recruiters and analysts to formulate the best recruiting advertisements for attracting the best talents. In the contemporary business status of Woolworths Limited, it is important to set up a recruitment team so that employees can be recruited in a cost-effective manner (Chen, 2013). The current hiring strategy of Woolworths Limited has largely driven by referrals to source talents.
The existing hiring model of Woolworths Limited has based on potential brand advocacy, to be precise. The conventional interviewing hiring process system has been one of the major recruitment strategy utilised by the retailing company in the target market. Predominantly, by multi-threading the hiring related campaigns; Woolworths Limited has influenced its market reach to recruit the best-qualified employees for a position. Followed by well-supported campaigns, Woolworths Limited has majorly utilised referral networks and e-recruiting strategies during staff selection (Katz, 2009). Meanwhile, social networking sites and job websites have been considered to recruit the right people providing best compensation and benefits.
Alternatively, the legal aspects of staff selection can be managed swiftly by offering the employee hiring tasks to the professional recruiters. In order to save precious time and capital, e-recruiting practices have been influenced by the latest recruiting professionals. Clearly, by using e-recruiting strategy in-stores sales persons, inventory managers, and qualified marketing executives have been hired in a cost-effective way (Marie Ryan, & Derous, 2016). Such robust recruitment practices of Woolworths Limited have massively contributed to enhancing the services standards. Moreover, the effective recruitment strategy has increased the overall collaboration of the staff members as right employees have been selected at the right time.
In the contemporary retaining industry, Woolworths Limited has to deal with significant number of aspects and challenges to hire the best employees according to the vacancies. Meanwhile, the leading challenges in employee hiring in Woolworths Limited have been illustrated as follows:
During hiring the staff members, the Australian Employment Law must be followed according to the order to select high-performing candidates. Precisely, there are a number of legal issues to be considered by the management of Woolworths Limited in recruiting the personnel (Hamilton, 2009). Most evidently, recruiters must identify the factors in the Fair Work Act 2009 to avoid illegal hiring practices. Alternatively, employers are strictly prohibited from committing discriminatory activities during employment on the basis of race, gender, religion, age, disability, and other beliefs of the candidates (Mahmood, 2014). Therefore, the Anti-Discrimination Act must be considered to avoid legal issues. Moreover, during the preparation of employment contract, the Fair Work Act 2009 must be taken into account to follow the important aspects of the employment legislation (Wiley, 2012). Moreover, the Equal Opportunity Act 1999 must be prioritised to provide significant opportunity based on qualification and skills. Maintaining such compliance and legal aspects has been one of the most comprehensive issues in recruitment within the Australian territory (Sutton, 2016).
The development in the industrial sector and information technology has increased the demand of the skilled labours in the Australian market. As a result of the scenario, it is difficult for the recruiters to hire efficient and experienced employees at a reasonable cost-effective way (Wheatley, 2010). Due to the high demand of the skilled employees, the compensation and benefits structure should be produced in a competitive way so that best talents can select the offer made by Woolworths Limited. Moreover, the branding of business must be developed so that best employees can be retained for a long-term (Gavrel, 2015). In the hiring process, Woolworths Limited has recruited raw talents and graduates. Therefore, the organisation has to train the employees to be fit in the respective job positions. So, after hiring staffs employee orientation and training have been an additional responsibility for the management of Woolworths Limited.
Due to the high demand of the skilled labours, the management of Woolworths Limited has to offer convincing offers to hire the best talents available in the market. Notably, the major business competitors of Woolworths Limited have offered suitable remuneration and benefits during their job advertisements (Goroll, 2016). Hence, to counter the offers made by the competitors, Woolworths Limited has to increase the compensation and flexibility of jobs to attract the candidates. Meanwhile, developing the right offers and job advertisements can become another substantial issue in the hiring process.
The demographic changes in the Australia labour market have been a major challenge for the recruiters of Woolworths Limited. With increasing globalisation, Australia has turned to be a major destination for students to study abroad. On the other hand, the increasing migration rate has resulted in a diverse population in the Australian labour market (Kramar et al., 2014). Additionally, the development of medical science has increase the mortality rate resulting in ageing population. Hence, three different demographic issues are faced by the retailers such as Woolworths Limited while recruiting new workforce.
The development of medical science and technology has increased the mortality rate among the Australian population (Kramar et al., 2014). It can be seen through the report of Australian Bureau of Statistics that the population of age over 65 years have increased from 12 percent in the year 2008 to 25 percent in the year 2015 (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). Hence, the growing age of the population has become a major issue for the retailer company because the population of these ages are not suitable to work in the retail sector (Wheatley, 2010). The proportion of available population to work in the retail sector has decreased in the recent years resulting in a lower supply of adequate talent in the Australian labour market.
The people of age under 25 years are called as Generation Y (Kramar et al., 2014). The individuals of age below 25 years are fresh blood in the field of retailing business and have poor experience (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). The development of technology has resulted in increasing rate of migration in Australia. On the other hand, the proportion of generation Y has increased to around 57 percent in the recent years. According to the need of Woolworths Limited, the fresh blood below 25 years of age and above 18 years of age is quite effective for the retailing business. But, the individuals of this age lack adequate skills and experiences (Manz, 2010). Therefore, the company needs to make changes in its job descriptions in order to hire fresh talent at lower price and provide adequate training to prepare them for future challenges.
However, workforce diversity is another major issue faced by the recruitment team of Woolworths Limited. According to the rules and regulations of the Australian government, the company needs to hire people irrespective of their culture, ethnic background, caste, religion and gender. Hence, it is important for the management to consider the employment laws and regulations related to discrimination while planning the recruitment strategy (Kramar et al., 2014). Furthermore, the culture of the applicants must be considered while planning the recruitment and selection tactics. For example, individuals of individualistic culture prefer jobs that offer proactive achievements and autonomous goals (Sutton, 2016). Alternatively, individuals of collectivistic cultures prefer jobs that provide group work and group achievements.
Woolworths Limited can make use of different strategies to meet the challenges of recruitment and selection in the current Australian labour market. Some of the strategies to deal with current challenges faced by Woolworths Limited are evaluated herein below:
Woolworths Limited must conduct market research in order to evaluate the current labour supply and demand in the market. Furthermore, the market research will help the firm to analyse the compensation and benefit packages offered by the rivals in the Australian market (Nel, 2012). Additionally, the evaluation of the current market factors will help the firm to develop adequate recruitment strategies that will help the firm to seek sustainable growth in the future by hiring the best talent available in the market.
Conducting an internal assessment is quite essential for Woolworths Limited to observe the competencies of the current workforce and analyse the talent gaps inside the firm. It helps the firm to develop adequate job descriptions and choose the proper source of recruitment for hiring employees in the future (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). On the other hand, the assessment of internal environment will help the recruiters to observe the satisfaction level of the workforce and develop better recruitment policies to meet the current challenges in the Australian market.
With increasing population of generation Y, the use of internet has increased among the younger generation (Kramar, 2011). Hence, the company must focus on implementing digital advertisement tactics by using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to advertise the new job openings in the firm. Alternatively, Woolworths Limited can make use of online recruitment techniques in order to reach a higher number of audiences.
The management of Woolworths Limited must focus on developing employer branding by re-structuring its total reward package and conducting PR activities. The internal HR policies must be re-structured according to the market standards and the success stories must be narrated in order to improve the employer branding of the firm (Kramar, 2011). The PR campaign can be used to make the suitable candidates aware of the internal environment of the firm and attract them towards the company.
Finally, the HR management of Woolworths Limited must focus on conducting training and development programmes for the recruiters to make them aware of the current situation of the job market. Furthermore, the training and development programmes will help the recruiters to get aware of the employment laws and regulations that must be followed while hiring new employees (Dessler, Teicher, & Cascio, 2015). Alternatively, the training program will help the recruiters to understand the demographic issues and develop adequate recruitment and selection policy for the Woolworths Limited.
Conclusion & Recommendation
On the basis of the above discussion, the HR management of Woolworths Limited need to face several challenges in hiring new workers due to the falling supply of talented labours and increasing demand in the Australian market. Alternatively, the high level of skills gap among the younger generation has made it difficult for the recruiters of Woolworths Limited to find the best talent using traditional methods of recruitment. Moreover, the changing employment laws must be considered by the recruiters in order to keep the company safe from adverse legal implications. The increasing demographic issues such as increasing population of generation Y, ageing population and diversity among the workforce also makes it difficult for the company to hire adequate talent in the Australian market. Therefore, the management of Woolworths Limited must conduct proper market research and internal assessment in order to use the industry standards for developing the job descriptions. On the other hand, the use of modern technology in recruitment and digital advertisement will increase the reach of the firm and create a better employer branding. Finally, the HR management of Woolworths Limited must conduct training and development programmers for the recruiters to make them prepare for the current and future challenges.
References
Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management (1st ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chen, J. (2013). Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs. Journal Of Economics & Management Strategy, 22(2), 281-311.
Dessler, G., Teicher, J., & Cascio, W. (2015). Recruitment and selection (1st ed.). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.
Gavrel, F. (2015). Participation, Recruitment Selection, and the Minimum Wage. The Scandinavian Journal Of Economics, 117(4), 1281-1305.
Goroll, A. (2016). Recruiting Quarterbacks. Academic Medicine, 91(2), 168-170.
Hamilton, J. (2009). Trends and Strategies in Recruiting and Retaining Talent. Journal Of Petroleum Technology, 61(05), 34-38.
Herring, J. (2017). The unpredicted turnaround at Woolworths. European Management Journal, 5(3), 149-153.
Katz, R. (2009). Recruiting strategies for today’s staffing trends. Employment Relations Today, 26(2), 43-51.
Kramar, R. (2011). Human resource management in Australia (1st ed.). North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill Education.
Kramar, R., Bartram, T., Gerhart, B., Hollenbeck, J., Noe, R., & Wright, P. (2014). Human resource management (5th ed.). N.S.W. Australia: McGraw-Hill Education.
Mahmood, M. (2014). Strategy, structure, and HRM policy orientation: Employee recruitment and selection practices in multinational subsidiaries. Asia Pacific Journal Of Human Resources, 53(3), 331-350.
Manz, A. (2010). The Human Document Project and Challenges. Challenges, 1(1), 3-4.
Marie Ryan, A., & Derous, E. (2016). Highlighting Tensions in Recruitment and Selection Research and Practice. International Journal Of Selection And Assessment, 24(1), 54-62.
Nel, P. (2012). Human resource management in Australia & New Zealand (1st ed.). South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Sutton, H. (2016). Consider advantages, challenges of implementing competency-based transcripts. Recruiting & Retaining Adult Learners, 18(9), 6-7.
Wheatley, S. (2010). Making the Right Investment – Recruitment and Selection. Legal Information Management, 10(04), 279-282.
Wiley, C. (2012). Recruiting Strategies for Changing Times. International Journal Of Manpower, 13(9), 13-22.
Woolworths Group. (2017). Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Retrieved May 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/
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