GJ Coles established the Coles supermarket in the year 1914 in Victoria. The main motive of the founder was to lead a happy life, which he tried to achieve by keeping the employees happy in his organization. The company was in to during the 1930s when the Great Depression began to take toll on the economy but the company managed to donate a part of their earnings for charity, which according to the founder was a social responsibility for all the executives at that period. The Second World War helped the company in selling ready-to-eat products, which happened due to the hiring of the married women as employees. These women had less time to prepare food at their homes, which led to the rise of selling these products. The company even launched its own range of cosmetics and included celebrities for its campaign (Lewis and Huber 2015). The company then progresses and after the launch of the World Wide Web in 1993, the company attracted many buyers through a scheme of fly buys, where the customers would earn a free air ticket by shopping from their organization. The company followed all these policies until it was sold to another Australian company called Wesfarmers in 2007. Under their leadership, the company started to operate with a new management team whose main aim was to deliver quality products at the lowest price that is available in the market (Phillipov 2016).
The newly operated company was facing issues with its performance, as the low prices that were given by the company lead to a decrease in its percentage of profits. The issue within the company was that the employees were not being compensated at a promised rate with the level of performance they were giving in the organization. this led to a decrease in the level of productivity by the employees, as they saw that the company was not being able to compensate them at a promised scale (Lewis and Huber 2015).
According to Aguinis (2013), the concept of developing the skills of the employees within the organization can be done with a perfectly executed performance management, which is through meetings and the appraisals of the performance for those who are underperforming in the organization. It is done through the practices that help in taking decisions about the remunerations, disciplinary processes, promotions, terminations and the transfers of the employees within the organization. It helps in improving the level of performance within the organization as well as the employees. The performance is reviewed and monitored so that it can be evaluated to identify the best practices for the organization and the employees as well. The framework of performance management should be based on the following principles:
According to Noppeney, Endrissat and Karreman (2014), the compensation management process helps in establishing and maintaining an impartial cost structure of wages and salaries. It is done by evaluating the job and conducting a survey to find out the best wages and salaries that is present in the market. The two functions on which the compensation is based on are equity and motivation function. The primary purpose of compensation management is that it helps in establishing and maintaining a reward system that is impartial in nature. The primary focus of compensation management is that it helps in providing the financial needs and rewards to the employee, which helps them in being motivated. The managers of the organization analyze the needs of the employees, which helps them in evaluating the extent of rewards that should be given to the employees.
According to Muganda, Otuya and Waiganjo (2014), the structure of a good compensation management tries to attract the best available labor in a competitive market. It also helps the organization to control the salaries and wages, which helps in determining the rate of change and the frequency of increment in the organization. This helps the organization in maintaining the level of satisfaction for the employees by giving them then proper remuneration structure. The employers of the organization have to plan the turnover of the organization so that they can make the employees achieve their level of productivity with the remuneration that is being given to them.
The issue with Coles was that the employees were not getting motivated with the amount they were receiving from the company and the level of productivity that they were achieving for the organization. The company failed to identify the efficiency maximizers, the balancers and the innovation leaders within the organization that led to a disruption in the payment structure. The company failed to provide the monetary rewards that would help in motivating the employees to perform better in the organization (Van Dooren, Bouckaert and Halligan 2015). The efficiency maximizers within the organization were those employees who had a better experience of the trends that are present in the market and the communication pattern through which they can influence the customers in purchasing the products. They were the ones who helped in achieving the yearly target of the company for which they expected to be remunerated in a proper way. The balancers of the organization were those employees who assisted the efficiency maximizers in achieving their targets. They helped in balancing the communication pattern within the organization and achieved the short-term objectives of the firm. They had to be remunerated based on their performance within the company (Rashidi 2015). According to Shields et al. (2015), the innovation leaders within the company are the ones who had set their goals, which are aligning the objectives of the company. They helped in achieving the targets by setting short-term objectives so that the long-term targets of the company can be achieved in an efficient way. The innovations that they made helped the company in achieving better outcomes through a proper network of communication pattern, which acted as a guide in achieving the strategic objectives of the company.
The Goal Theory helps in motivating the employees because they know that they would be rewarded after the completion of the objective. It is seen that the employees tend to work better if there is a policy of reward after the completion of the task where the nature of rewards has to be stated previously. The specificity of the goal will help the employee in bringing out the best of him towards the completion of the task before the specified time limit so that they can get the maximum reward. The process of feedback is necessary as it will help in achieving the goal that has been given to them by the company and at the same time, the executives of the company can review their work (Bogsnes 2016).
The Expectancy Theory helps in measuring the outcome of motivation of the employees through the rewards and the effort that they will put in assessing the expected performance along with the belief that it will end with reward with the level of performance in the organization. Thus, it can be said that the employees need to be associated with the outcome that is expected from him within the organization, which is influenced by the factors such as the level of skills that are required in performing the job. It is also based on the availability of the resources and the valid information that will help the employees in completing the task. The advantages of this theory were that it helped in achieving the maximum level of satisfaction among the employees, which is based on the expectations and the perceptions of the employees regarding the job within the organization. It also helps the employees in achieving the rewards that is given by the company by experiencing pleasure within the workplace. By experiencing pleasure in the workplace, it can be seen that the employees feel motivated to work under the given circumstances within a limited period. This theory can be implied within the company if the managers feel that the employees can achieve the level of performance that has been given to them. The employees who deserve needs to be rewarded based on their level of performance and the system of rewards needs to be fair within the organization (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
The Reinforcement Theory helps in identifying the behavior of the employees, which has a close link with the functions that may lead to consequences within the company. The employees in Coles have a positive attitude in their behavior when they are serving the customers because the surrounding environment has a positive effect in motivating the employees to perform better within the company. The managers of the company use appropriate methods that are related to the control of behavior of the employees. Positive reinforcement within the company helps the managers in getting a positive response from the employees who shows a positive attitude towards their work in the company (Muczyk 2013). This helps in increasing the chance of repeating the same behavior within the organization, as it has been noticed and appreciated by the superiors. The effect of rewards may be positive in nature if the behavior of the employees towards the organization improves and helps in achieving better level of productivity within the organization. The negative reinforcement is done by rewarding the employees by removing the undesirable consequences that the employees have within the organization. The use of this reinforcement policy is done because it helps in increasing the required behavior of the employees within the organization. The company even punishes its employees if the managers feel like they have broken the rules and regulations on which the company is based. The undesirable behavior that the employees show towards the organization may result in termination of the particular employees by the senior management. This theory helps in understanding the nature of behavior of the individual by making the employees feel motivated about the type of work that they are doing within the organization along with the rewards that they will get in achieving the targets set to them by the organization (Johnston and Marshall 2016).
According to Sparrow, Brewster and Chung (2016), the types of compensation that the company allows its workers are basic pay along with the commissions and the bonuses that the employees are entitled to get if they meet their level of productivity. The compensation that is being given to the employees now is only their basic pay because of the low turnover by the company. This has led to a commotion within the workplace and the employees are unwilling to increase their level of productivity within the organization.
The compensation system that Coles follows is based on the description of the job where the job is described in writing along with the responsibilities and the requirements of the job, which helps the employees in carrying out their duties in a proper manner. The analysis of the job is done based on the description of the job that the employees have enrolled in, which helps in identifying the best job that will suit the candidate based on a series of interviews and questionnaires (Osarenkhoe and Komunda 2013). According to Muczyk (2013), the evaluation of the job needs to be done so that the candidate can understand the appropriate level of compensation that will be provided to him for the services that he will provide to the company. The salary structure is also explained to the candidate with the various grades that are available, which will help in incrementing the salary of the employee. These things have to be understood by the candidate before joining the company so that the employees do not face any trouble after joining the organization.
It can be recommended that the managers have to make the employees understand the overall strategy of the company so that the human resource management can include the process of compensation management. The market in which the company operates is highly competitive in nature and the level of maturity is also high. The company has to adopt different strategies so that it can survive in the environment. The compensation policy has to be modified by the company so that it can be competitive with the rival companies such as Woolworths who has a fair compensation policy. The company will be advantageous if they adopt this technique because it will give them a competitive advantage over the other companies. The company through a proper compensation policy can retain its employees because of the structure of salary that they will be providing to its employees. The company needs to understand the various factors such as the living cost and the development of the economy before forming their pay structure. This will help the company to give the best salary that is available in the industry in the particular place. This will help in attracting more candidates towards the company from where the company can choose the best employees. The incentives that will be provided by the company has to be based on different scales so that all the employees can enjoy it irrespective of their productivity level within the organization. This will help in providing a competitive advantage over the other firms.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the supermarket needs to adopt new concepts in its workplace so that the employees can receive a fair amount of compensation for the performance that they give within the organization. The company needs to review its policies regarding the structure of its payment so that they can retain the employees in its organization. the main competitor of Coles that is Woolworths allow the employees to enjoy greater compensation rates, which will try to attract the best employees that are present in the market. This will give them the opportunity to perform better than any other company within the retail industry may perform. Coles have to identify the employees who help in generating surplus sales within the organization and help them in getting recognition so that it would motivate the employees in working harder.
Reference List
Aguinis, H., 2013. Performance management (Vol. 2). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A., 2015. Reinventing performance management. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), pp.40-50.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Johnston, M.W. and Marshall, G.W., 2016. Sales force management: Leadership, innovation, technology. Routledge.
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Muganda, D.A., Otuya, R. and Waiganjo, M., 2014. Effect of customer loyalty schemes on competitiveness of supermarkets in Kenya. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(16), pp.155-164.
Noppeney, C., Endrissat, N. and Kärreman, D., 2014, January. Branding McJobs: The Art of Symbolic Compensation. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 11496). Academy of Management.
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Phillipov, M., 2016. ‘Helping Australia Grow’: supermarkets, television cooking shows, and the strategic manufacture of consumer trust. Agriculture and human values, 33(3), pp.587-596.
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Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.
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