Key Challenges And Strategies For Human Resource Management – Wesfarmers

Thesis Statement

Discuss about the Human Resource Management for Employees.

The report talks about the key challenges for recruiting the workforce in an organization. Wesfarmers Company has been selected to explain and address these key challenges and issues. It also explains some effective strategies to overcome these challenges. 

Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian company was founded in 1914. Its headquarter is located in Perth, Western Australia. The company deals in chemicals, coal mining, fertilizers and safety and industrial products. It is one of the biggest companies by revenue and currently, approx 205,000 employees are employed in this company. In 1984, it was listed in Australian security exchange and expanded its business as a major retail corporation in Australia. It provides various products and services to the farmers of the Western Australia. The revenue of the company is approx $65.98 billion (2016) and profit of the company is around $2.35 billion (2016). The total assets and total equity of the company are approx $40.78 billion (2016) and $22.95 billion (2016). The main objective of the company is to expand its business worldwide and achieve the long-term goals and objectives. In 2001, the company becomes a free traded public listed company with excellent open ownership. The organization is acquiring other business also, after becoming a public company (Jones, Willness & Madey, 2014).

Wesfarmers is facing key challenges in regards to recruiting the workforce which requires the company to form effective strategies so that it could achieve its goals and objectives.

Recruitment is the process of analyzing and identifying the organizational needs and requirements to employ the candidate in an organization. The selection is the process of choosing and appointing a suitable and potential candidate for doing the job. Recruitment and selection are the primary functions of human resource management (Jiang, Lepak,  Hu, & Baer, 2012). The Wesfarmers uses effective recruitment and selection process to select the applicants in the organization. The human resource department plays a significant role in an organization. An organization cannot survive its business and operations without effective human resource management. Sometimes, it becomes a series challenge for the company. The Wesfarmers is facing the various key challenges for recruiting the workforce within the organization. The key challenges which are faced by the company during the recruitment of labor force which have been discussed below (Cook, 2016).

• Compliance and conformity with laws and regulations: It is the major key challenge for recruiting the labor force in an organization. It is very serious key challenges for the firm. Sometimes, Wesfarmers ignores the various employment laws, regulations, faith and belief which are not applied by the organization (Salas, Tannenbaum, Kraiger, & Smith-Jentsch, 2012).
• Measurement changes: It is another issue in the organization which affects the productivity and efficiency of the firm. Further, it searches the potential and competent people for doing task effectively, some workers take a lot of time to cope with these challenges and obstacles. In this way, it is reducing the morale and productivity of the firm (Majumder & Hossain, 2012).
• Leadership development: After various researches, it has been analyzed that leadership development and programs play a significant role in order to meet the organizational challenges of the firm. But now a day’s the company is facing various challenges while implementing the leadership development and other programs. The company is not being able to implement the leadership development programs (Bratton & Gold, 2012).
• Workforce training and development: Wesfarmers invests the huge amount in the training and development of inappropriate and lower level of workers for doing the task. It is the biggest key challenge for recruiting the employees at the workplace. Thus, the company finds many troubles and key challenges for the appointment of employees. Further, the company may take a lot of works and resources within the organization. Wesfarmers does not provide the training and development programs to employees. Thus, the employees are not able to understand the culture and environment of the company (Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen & Bolino, 2012).
• Adapting to innovation: Training and development are continuously changing process. Therefore, the company uses innovation and new technology but it is not able to provide training to the new Hence, many challenges are faced by the organization.
• Compensation: Many companies are thinking that how to make the best structure for employees compensation. Sometimes, the company is not being able to make effective compensation and remuneration policies for the employees. Thus, it faces many difficulties during recruiting the labor force at the workplace (Howe-Walsh & Schyns, 2010).
• Recruiting the talented employees: Talent is very important for the employees but it takes a lot of time and money. Talented candidates join the company at higher package; they demand higher salary and wages. But the company is not able to afford the extra salary. It is very difficult to know whether an applicant will really fit and talented with good communication skills or not. In this way, it is a major issue in recruitment and selection.
• Retaining talented employees: There is high competition exists in the market for talented employees. Employee turnover is also very expensive and it affects negatively the business success and growth. Therefore, the company cannot retain the talented employees due to high competition (Stone & Deadrick, 2015).
• Workplace diversity: It is another issue in Wesfarmers Company. The cross-cultural differences exist in the organization thus; the company cannot diversify its business due to the cultural On the other hand, generation differences also influence the recruitment of labor force in an organization. Currently, the company is appointing only fresher’s for doing the job, therefore, it affects the business activities and operations of the company. The company cannot gain the experience and knowledge from the adolescent candidate. The organization does not give the negotiated package to employees.
• Organizational image: The organizational image is the major key challenge for the recruiting the workforce in the organization. Wesfarmers is one of the biggest companies in Australia. But the goodwill of the company is not good in the market due to its competitors. It influences the recruitment and selection at the workplace (Nilsson & Ellström, 2012).
• Labor supply/demand: The labor supply/ demand are also important factors which influence the operations and activities of the company. Sometimes it happens that the company demands large labor force for doing activities and operations but it offers fewer packages to candidates thus, the applicants do not join the company. It shows the shortage of labor force and it is another key challenge for the organization. All these key challenges influence the operations of the company. So the company should control all these recruitment key challenges to gain the growth and success in the future (Baum, 2015).

There are some strategies to address and reduce the key challenges of recruitment, they are discussed below.

• The company should follow all the federal laws and regulations. All these laws and regulations are important to wage payment, hiring practices and workplace safety. It can reduce the key issues of recruitment at the workplace.
• The company should focus on the leaders and team players to maintain collaboration and cooperation in the company. The organization should provide more opportunities to candidates for enhancing and increasing the motivation.
• The training and development do not take a lot of time or money. Thus, the company should provide the training and coaching to employees. The organization should also provide the online training and development programs to candidates. If the company provides training to employees then it will enhance the loyalty and increase the productivity and efficiency of employees (Pereira & Anderson, 2012).

Recruitment and Selection

• The communication is a major problem in Wesfarmers, therefore, the top management, managers, and supervisors should maintain proper communication with candidates. In this way, the employees will feel comfortable and give full contributions in success and growth of the company.
• Compensation is an important factor for the candidates. The company should create effective rewards system to compensate the candidates for their marvelous performance. Further, the organization should offer the incentive programs like a bonus, medical benefits, and other extra benefits to enhance the morale of the employees.
• Staffing is another good strategy to address and reduce the key challenges of recruitment at the workplace. It is the best way to find the right candidate for the business activities and operations. It will save the time and money and provide the potential candidates for future (Thite, Wilkinson & Shah, 2012).
• The company should create a culture of teamwork and collaboration; it will help to reduce the diversity issue. It also provides the positive and favorable working environment to the company. The company should also provide the diversity training programs to employees for reducing the cross-cultural differences across the world. Further, the company should eliminate and reduce the risk and uncertainty of the employees (Kaufman, 2012).
• The company should adopt the excellent advertisement and brand strategies to gain the competitive advantages in the market. The company must use effective branding and advertisement strategies then it can reduce the key challenges of recruitment.

In this way, Wesfarmers can improve the recruitment process and it can reduce the key challenges of the recruitment at the workplace. In this way, the company can also build the sustainable human resource department in the company. It will help to attract the potential and competent candidates for doing the job (Sparrow & Cooper, 2012).

Conclusion

Wesfarmers is one of the biggest companies in coal mining industry. The report is based on the recruitment strategies of the company. The report presents the key challenges of recruiting the labor force at the workplace. Thus, the company is making the effective strategies to overcome these challenges. But it should improve its strategies and policies to improve the key challenges and obstacles. It will help to improve the efficiency and productivity of the employees as well as organization.  The company should focus on the skills and abilities of the employees. In this way, the company can build the sustainable human resource department in the organization. The organization should also promote and encourage the motivation of employees.

References 

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