Employee Effectiveness In Woolworths Limited

Macroeconomic and Sectoral Context

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The project for employee effectiveness in Woolworths Limited has its own reasons for commencement. The reasons for the initiation of the employee effectiveness is not, because of the failure of this retail company, rather it is considered as an opportunity by the company to increase the effectiveness of the services of the company and improve the customer satisfaction, by improving the effectiveness and quality of the services rendered by their employees. Here, effectiveness is very subjective and so though the present degree or level of effectiveness of the employees is good enough, there is always a scope for improving the effectiveness of the employees, towards improving the objectives and missions of the company, in terms of offering the best services to its customers.

Every business gets successful, when all the stakeholders of the company work with and feel satisfaction. Here, Woolworths looks for the satisfaction of all its stakeholders, like management, employees, customers, public, vendors, suppliers, etc.

Legally and practically, the company, Woolworths Limited can set policies directly to make the employees work with higher standard and quality of their works, however, it makes them harder and highly stressed from the work, as it works like a stick method. Woolworths Limited considers that motivation of the employees can make them to feel better and intentionally improve the quality and effectiveness of their work.

Woolworths Limited wishes improvement in efficiency, rather than expanding its capacity, by recruiting more number of employees, allocating smaller tasks to them.

The employee effectiveness through motivation helps the company the reputation of the company undoubtedly, both in macro level and micro level. When seen in macro level, it enables it to stand as one of the best company with customer orientation and satisfaction (Florio, 2014).

The project can address the development problem of winning the competition in the marketplace, by winning the customer heart and customer satisfaction. The project can solve both the development problem and works as a great opportunity.

The project of employee effectiveness is through motivation and it has three alternatives. The first alternative is to provide training to the employees for improving the effectiveness in their roles and responsibilities and day to day activities in the company. The second alternative is to motivate the employees by initiating and running motivation forum for employees and assessing the performance of the employees and awarding and rewarding them, based on their performance (Evans, 2006). The third and last alternative of the project is to have the best and effective human resource personnel for recruiting the best employees, who can directly provide their services with effectiveness and start working immediately, as a plug and play.

Project Alternatives

There are three options to increase the effectiveness and improve the customer satisfaction, in the Woolworths Limited. Each of the three options has its own pros and cons. Having analysed the pros and cons of each of the options, towards the benefit of the employees as well as the organization, one best option is selected (EIB, 2013). However, in terms of the cost effectiveness and respective benefit, each of the option is going to be economically analysed, so that it helps in concrete decision making.

The employees, who are recruited in Woolworths Limited are either talented fresh and young force or experienced and well-built profile employees. The freshers need very effective induction that should be able to connect them strongly to the company. When the induction and first company experience is strong and connecting, there would be no surprise that they get retired in the same company. When the experienced professionals get joined in the company, they need to explore the company they have joined now and should be adaptable to the new culture and new environment in the company.

Woolworths Limited has an option of providing the training to the existing employees that provide the tools and opportunities for exploring and using their inherent skills. The training program can motivate the employees for achieving the objective of improving the effectiveness in their services and customer satisfaction, by committing to employee skills perpetual enhancement.

The company can offer programs of accreditation and licensing would be effective for growing the knowledge and enhance the skills of the people and allow them to self-motivate to grow themselves and grow the company. Such offers improve the attitudes of the employees to the company and to the customers, as their self-confidence can be boasted. When the assertion is supported by the company, it provides motivation to the employees, to learn. It is related directly to a great extent that the participants or employees to believe the affect of training on the career and job utility. When the skills enhanced during the training can be applied to the work and activities on the floor, the objective of Woolworths Limited would be achieved in improving the effectiveness in providing the services and improving the customer satisfaction.

So, induction and training programs can be very effective to both the freshers and experienced employees. And the company enhances the profiles and rich work experience to the employees.

• Organizing Forums of Motivation, for Motivational Talks
• Establishing Motivational Program, by Employee Performance Assessment and Reward Employees

Estimations

Woolworths Limited is a reputed retail organization that has numerous branches and so huge number of employees, in all these retail organizations. All these retail branches have the employees in a large number. Though most of these retail branches follow a common approach for motivation, there are multiple options for the motivation of the employees that can be implemented, apart from the two approaches of maintaining the forums and employee performance and assessment program.

Offering decision making authority and more responsibility can improve the realms of control, over the assigned activities and tasks, for which the employees are felt and act responsible. Such offers equip them for carrying their assigned tasks. Offering accountability for the tasks, rather than the responsibility, can reform the employees to fulfil the tasks as their own and personal tasks. Eventually, the success of each and every task would be increased to a great extent and in addition, it makes them to deserve for rewards and awarding them. This is the empowerment and the expenses for the empowerment needs creating a detailed and crystal clear strategy. Before the accountability is assigned to the employees, a detailed discussion is important, with the human resource department, so that his or her profile and experience are clearly discussed and let know, why and how the accountability and responsibility of a certain department is assigned to the respective person. It gives the trust and convincing logic of why and how he or she is eligibility for the accountability of the specific task and feeling of deserving gives him or her to fulfil the complete the tasks.

In terms of expenses, it needs an effective job from the existing human resource department and no need for the additional human resource personal. All it needs a clear and quality time spent by the human resource department with no additional expenses. All it needs is allocation of the credit points and rewarding them with additional package and preferably, promotion to the next level. It does not give direct expense but the future package (Harrison, 2010). However, the future package and the respective worth of expense would be obtained by the organization, through improved sales and improved customer satisfaction, all with the improved accountability of the employees.

The empowerment relieves the employees from the feelings of frustration from the accidents and miscommunication or mishandling of the customers. It improves the health, communication and coordination between the management and employees, in the organization. It results in diversion of energy from the self-preservation towards improvement of the accomplishment of the tasks.

Employee Training Program

Woolworth Limited is a large and reputed company that hires eventually talented people with creative and good life skills. The inherent skills of each employee have to be identified and the respective tasks are to be assigned to the respective people. When the power is offered to the employees to create motivates the employees and new minds show different dimensions of improving the effectiveness and improving the customer satisfaction of the Woolworths Limited. It needs offering flexible workforce, by making use of the employees experience more wisely and exchange of ideas and information can be increased, among the employees as well as the departments. The organization allows the working environment with friendly and openness, to allow change. Such friendly environment and openness among the employees and department allows it to adapt to the market changes, easily and quickly and will be able to sustain to become first mover advantage, won in the marketplace.

Creativity and innovation is one of the ways of motivating the employees and it demands no expense, except giving additional freedom to the employees and willing to listen to them, for their view of solving the existing problems and exploring the new opportunities to develop the organization.

Employees get motivated, not only by improving the environment on the floor and within the workplace, but also, by improving quality of their personal lives, off the work. So, Woolworths Limited can offer certain benefits for motivation. The daily working hours are to be set very strictly limited and if there are any excess working hours are worked by the employees, they should be offered with appropriate compensation.

All the employees should be offered various other benefits like, coupons, paid holidays with paid tourist packages. These benefits can be offered commonly to all the employees, however, certain additional benefits are to be offered to the employees, who perform better.

1. Employment advertisement

The employment advertisement has multiple expenses including in it. The costs related to the employment advertisement are, advertising in the print media, electronic media initially and advertising through the consultancy portals and platforms.

1. Employment agency

There are many employment agencies available, which offer skilled human resources, who have relevant and rich experience in the retail industry. It includes the fees for the search to the employment agency. It also includes the fees to the agencies of employment, recruitment consultants and search firms.

1. Internal referrals

Internal referrals also are found to be important aspect of improving the recruitment processes. It is because, each of the employee in the organization, having known the processes and the skills and knowledge required for the same processes, can refer the people, who have relevant skills and knowledge, from their own networks.

Motivation Plan in Operation that Includes

Internal referrals include the costs for bonuses, gifts, etc. The employees, who sponsor important referrals can be awarded, based on the level of the employee, referred.

1. Applicant expenses

When the employment advertisement is published as a public call, the number of applicants become huge and numerous. It is important for the recruitment team to explore each and every profile that they have received and has to filter at each stage and each round of interview. These expenses become huge, as the number of applicants is huge.

1. Travelling expenses

The recruitment personnel have to keep moving to the nearby cities to cover wider range of applicants, by increasing geographical area

1. Recruiting Profound Recruitment Personnel

Highly experienced and skilled recruiting managers

In order to improve the recruitment process, the human resource department has to be well equipped with highly skilled and experienced recruitment personnel. So, experienced and skilled professionals are to be recruited initially, with much higher packages and additional expenses are to be incurred, for recruiting such highly experienced profiles.

1. Recruitment Staff Compensation

Since the process of recruitment has to be refined and scaled up, the number of staff in the human resource department has to be increased. Eventually, the total amount of salaries, bonuses and benefits of each of the recruitment

1. Other Employment Expenses

There are other employment expenses, like the expenses of telephone, consultants and other facilities.

1. Orientation and Training

Other expenses, for better recruitment process, are materials, trainer fees, management time and for induction and training for the new recruits.

The training program is designed and strategized to conduct for three day session, for 8 hours continuously. The total employees are divided into four groups. Each group attends for the training, with the period of four months. As an alternative, the four schedules of training for four groups can be conducted in continuous four months. Or, if the same training is expected to be conducted in the same month, each three days of session can be conducted in the same month. However, the total expense for the training would be the same (Hagan, et al, 2012).

For the first alternative project, which is the training program, the investment is given as the following.

Investments are,

1. Trainer package = $200 per hour

So, for each group of employees, the total training expenses would be 3 * 8 * 200 = 4800

And for the four groups, total expenses = 4800 * 4 = 19200

1. Other expenses related to facilitations = 3000 per training session

Facilitation expenses for four groups = 3000 * 4 = 12000

Total expenses = 19200 + 12000 = 31,200

Empowerment

This is the alternative, which is opted. This alternative option of the project has the following programs.

First thing is to establish a forum, preferably a digital forum that can be accessible through the website of the Woolworths Limited. Here, the forum has to be developed and built by the information technology department of the organization. The forum is made accessible to each and every employee of the company. The employees would be able to login with their user credentials and can participate in the discussion in the forum, where each and every employee can have discussion and work towards improving the effectiveness in their overall work and performance.

After developing and building the forum for the discussion, policies are to be defined, to maintain coordination and harmony among all the employees. Policies are developed by the human resource department, after consulting the management and information technology.

Then all the employees are given training. The training is conducted with the objectives of educating about the usage of the forum, the policies to know and follow. Rules and regulation of using the forum are also trained, in the training session. Mock sessions are conducted, after educating the usage of the forum. The roles of the policies, consequences if not followed and fulfilled and the roles of the moderators are discussed in the training (Potts, 2012).

The other combined option in this project alternative is the employee performance assessment. It is a longer process and it involves many processes and many stakeholders of the company. Here, the role of the human resource department is very precious and demands profound skills of performance assessment. The process involves one to one sessions of the human resource personnel and employee. Each of the tasks of assessment has to be scientific process that should have been validated, in the practical world.

1. Development and building of the forum = 2000
2. Training session for the forum = 500
3. Maintenance of forum = 500 per year
4. Other and miscellaneous expenses = 200

1. Expenses for human resource personnel for the assessment of performance = 3000 per year
2. Budget set for rewarding the employees = 15000

Effective recruitment program is the third alternative project, proposed for improvement of the effectiveness of the employees and improve the customer satisfaction.

Though it looks like a simple process, it is very tedious and can be successful, only with the profound skills and human resource personnel and scientific recruitment processes.

Initially, very highly talented and profound skilled recruitment manager has to be hired, which becomes the first recruitment process. Then the scientific and proven recruitment methods are identified to follow. Each of the recruitment process has its unique set of expenses and the approximate values are taken for the investment purpose (Kristofersson & Navrud, 2001).

1. Recruitment of HR personnel = 3000
2. Additional package expense to the additional team = 15,000
3. Additional and varied recruitment activities = 10000

The best alternative among the three would be cost-effective and determined according to the life cycle cost analysis, compared to the other and competing alternatives (Boardman, et al, 2006). The best one would have lowest costs, in terms of present value, for the proposed benefits. The cost effectiveness analysis is done, on the basis of benefits dollar value, by the considered alternatives.

The project’s financial benefit cost analysis is performed for project effect evaluation, for the three alternatives, by providing income, balance, sources and balance projected. However, economic benefit cost analysis is distinguished from the financial cost benefit analysis, in teh way of entire economy view point (CEPS, 2013).

S.No.	Parameter	Training	Forum & Performance Assessment	Effective Recruitment
1	Investment for the program	Trainer Package = $200 per hour Total trainer package = 3 * 8 * 200 = $4800 Expenses on facilitations = $1000 per day Total facilitations expense = 3 * $1000 = $3000	I.                   Forum development = $2000 Forum maintenance = $500 per year Basic Training for usage, policy awareness  = $500 Other and Miscellaneous expenses = $200 Total forum expenses = 2000 + 500 + 200 = 2700 II.                Performance assessment and reward Expense of assessment of performance per year = 3000 Expense budget for reward = 15,000 per year Total expense of the programs = 2700 + 18000 = 20,700	Recruitment of effective HR team = $3000 Yearly additional package of additional team = 15,000, yearly Additional activities of HR = 10000 per year Total expense of program = 3000 + 15000 +10000 =28,000
	Investment for each quarter	Investment for Training for each quarter $ 4800 + $3000 = $7800
	Total investment for year	$7800 * 4 = $31,200	(2700 + 500 ) + (18,000) = $21,200	=28,000
	Interest Rate	5%	5%	5%
	Interest for the year	$31200 ( 1 + 0.05) = 32,760	$21200 ( 1 + 0.05) = 222,60	$28,000 ( 1 + 0.05) = 29400
	For second year,	$32,760 ( 1 + 0.05) = 34,398	$222,60 ( 1 + 0.05) = 23373	$29400 ( 1 + 0.05) = 30870
	For t years, financial analysis	P(1 +i)t Where, P is principle amount and i as the interest	P(1 +i)t Where, P is principle amount and i as the interest	P(1 +i)t Where, P is principle amount and i as the interest
	Expected sales growth, from improved effectiveness and customer satisfaction, after 1 year	10% of approximate profit of A$500,000 = A$50,000 =	10% of approximate profit of A$500,000 = A$50,000 =	10% of approximate profit of A$500,000 = A$50,000 =
	Expected sales growth, from improved effectiveness and customer satisfaction, after 2 years	10% of approximate profit of A$550,000 = A$55,000 =	10% of approximate profit of A$550,000 = A$55,000 =	10% of approximate profit of A$550,000 = A$55,000 =
	Cash flow diagram	B        C A A = $31,200 B = $50,000 C = $55,000	B        C A A = $23373 B = $50,000 C = $55,000	B        C A A = $30,870 B = $50,000 C = $55,000
	Net Benefit, NBt= Bt – Ct, where Bt = Benefit at that time and Ct = Cost at that time	If t = 1 year, NBt = 50000 – 31200 = $18,800	If t = 1 year, NBt = 50000 – 23373 = $26627	If t = 1 year, NBt = 50000 – 30,870 = $19130
	, where P = Present Value of net benefit	= At the end of five year, = $81395.36	= At the end of five year, = $25359 + 24151+ 23001+ 21906 + 20864 = 115281.28	= At the end of five year, = 18219 + 17351 + 16525 + 15738 + 14989 = 82822
	Capital Recovery Factor, CRFT = i(1+i)T / (i(1+i)T -1), where, T =life of effect of project = 5 years, with assumption	5(1+ 5)5 / (5(1+5)5 – 1) = 38880 / 38879 =1.000257	5(1+ 5)5 / (5(1+5)5 – 1) = 38880 / 38879 =1.000257	5(1+ 5)5 / (5(1+5)5 – 1) = 38880 / 38879 =1.000257
	Equivalent annual value = A = P.CRFT	= $81395.36 * 1.000257 = $81397.45	= $ 115281.28 * 1.000257 = $115310.91	= $82822 * 1.000257 = $82844

The three alternative projects are analysed, in terms of economic analysis and financial analysis. All the three project alternatives are analysed, based on the basic investment needed for each of the program.

For the training program, the equivalent annual value = $81397

For the forum and performance and rewarding program, the equivalent annual value = $115,310

For the effective recruitment program, the equivalent annual value = $82,844

Here, for each of the alternative project option, the targeted profit is 10% of improvement in the profit. And based on the same, each of the programs is scaled. Having taken approximate values for the expenses of each of the program in Australian dollars, the final annual value of each of the alternate project option considered, the best option that can be useful and beneficial for Woolworths Limited would be the option 2. So, motivation through the forum for discussion and performance assessment followed by the awarding and rewarding program is recommended to be the best option, after economic analysis is performed (Harrison, 2010).

Conclusion

Initially, Woolworths Limited and the company is explored with the objective of improving the effectiveness of the services provided to the customers, through improving the customer satisfaction. The company identifies the path to win this objective, through motivating the employees and improving the effectiveness of the services. The company proposes three different alternative options, to achieve the same objective. Here, the three options are explored and analysed with economic analysis, by analysing the expenses and benefits to the company. Among the three options, option 2 is selected and recommended, because of greater profit compared to the other two options.

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