Recruitment Process Of Woolworths Supermarket

Challenges Faced by Woolworths in the Recruitment of the Workforce

Discuss about the Recruitment Process Of Woolworths Supermarket.

To achieve and possess the employees that are talented, competent and effective, the companies are in a need to improve their recruitment strategies and processes. Recruitment is the major element of the human resource management function of the organisations as the selection and recruitment of the individuals is completely dependent upon the recruitment process. The better the process and strategies will be, the more potential candidates would be able to employ in the organisations. In modern and globalised business environment, it is necessary to retain the potential candidates for gaining increased number of competitive benefits. But due to several issues in the recruitment of the employees, the organisations lack behind in attaining these benefits and had to suffer with dropped down sales, profits and decreased brand recognition. To understand the challenges faced by the HRM department of Woolworths in the recruitment of the employees, the report will present some of the most dominating challenges including the adverse organisational image, high level of competition in the business environment, rapidly up surging cultural diversity, low supply of the workforce and the rising number of ageing workforce (Price, 2016). These are the aspects that are hindering the successful recruitment of the employees and posing challenges for the organisation. The paper will help in understanding the issues of Woolworths which is one the top most supermarkets of Australia. The organisation had its grounding in the year 1924 and presently it is giving employment to approximately 111,000. There are few issues which have been identified in the recruitment of the workforce at Woolworths and being a renowned employer, it is still required to have better recruitment practices to attract competent talent (Woolworths, 2017).

Woolworths is one if the top most supermarket chains of Australia which has extended global reach with almost 111,000 employees in several countries. Due to increasing business competition, industrialisation and setting up of several other companies the recruitment challenges for Woolworths are increasing rapidly which threatens the fast development of the company.

Organisational image is among one of the key issues in the recruitment of the workforce at Woolworths. There are both positive as well as negative aspects of the organisational image for Woolworths as the company poses a strong brand image from the perspective of sales, revenues and operations. But on the other hand, there is also an adverse image associated with the organisation because of the industry it operates. The individuals consider the retail sector as one of the highest pressurized sector which is not good for the people who are less communicative and cannot meet the monthly targets (Mokhlis, 2014). Thus, the individuals escape from getting employed in this industry rather they work in other industries in lower wages. And this occurred as one of the biggest recruitment challenges for the company to cope up with as because of such established image of the organisation as well as the sector, there has been experienced a sudden decline in the number of job applicants in Woolworths. Because of the growing pressures upon the employees in respect with solving the issues and queries of the customers, meeting targets and increasing sales have resulted in decreased recruitments I the last few years as well as the employees recruited are also of les competence and skills with limited qualifications.

Challenge Due to Organisational Image

For managing such kind of challenges taking place in the recruitment of the workforce can be coped up by taking steps that can support the restricting of the image of the organisation as well as the retail sector. It is advisable that the organisation must take use of various kinds of advertisements so that there can be a changed image in the minds of the individuals who are in a need of job. The various advertisements can help in enhancing the visibility of the reorganisation it is also essential that the advertisements must explain the enormous career growth opportunities present in the company as well as chance for attaining personal development sessions as well as better employment opportunities (Atkinson and Storey, 2016).

Another major issue in the recruitment of the workforce at Woolworths is high level of cultural diversity. Because of the presence of several diverse cultures in the nation, there are both job applicants who possess high level of cultural diversity. And thus, it is difficult for Woolworths to perform workforce management of diverse cultural groups (Peltoniemi, 2015). Many a times the recruitment challenge is related to diversity in cultures and thus the recruitment managers are not able to understand the competence of the potential candidates as well as the candidates also unable to found themselves comfortable in getting adjusted in a group where there are more of culturally diverse individuals.

For effectively managing the challenge of cultural diversity, it is recommended that Woolworths must start offering it employees with effective cross-cultural trainings. In the culturally-diverse society, it is essential to have a good understanding of the culture of other people. Thus, these trainings, discussions among each other as well as giving adequate feedbacks on a daily basis is must fir overcoming the issues of cultural diversity in the recruitment of the workforce (Saxena, 2014).

Another challenge faced by Woolworths in its recruitment of workforce is the extreme shortage of the supply of workforce in the Australian markets. Because of presence of enormous n umber of companies and organisations, the demand for the talented workers are rising and there had been analysed issues of shortage of lab our in the retail sector and primarily in big organisations like Woolworths. There are vast business operations that hold because of the absence of supply of adequate amount of labour (Atkinson and Storey, 2016).

For managing such issue in the recruitment of the workforce, it is recommended that Woolworths must have potential policies and practices to fetch the attention of the workforce. The better the employment opportunities, incentive programs and recognition and rewards are offered to the employees, the greater are the chances that the labour would have an association with the company. Thu, by reviewing the policies and taking initiatives to attract the labours, there can be managed the demand of the workers with adequate supply of labour (Ruhs and Anderson, 2010).

Challenges Due to: Cultural Diversity

Another major challenge in the recruitment of the workforce at Woolworths is the intense market competition. Because of the continuously increasing number of business organisations and development of industries, the individuals i.e. the potential recruitment candidates are attracting towards the job opportunities offered by these organisations. Thus, it becomes an extreme challenge for recruiting talented and component employees for the organisation. The retail sector has a tendency to recruit the people who have just completed their graduation as well as recruit people who are even under-graduated for the part time shifts. This has resulted in decreased interest of the competent employees to associate themselves with the retail sector organisations. Thus, the recruitment face challenge of not getting recruited the qualified and talent candidates. The lack of qualified pool of employees also results in less productivity and declined business efficiency (Choudaha, Chang and Kono, 2014).

For managing the recruitment issue, it is recommended that to attract and acquire the best talent, Woolworths must have an efficient use of the various strategies such as the employer branding tactic. It is one of the most recognized ways of fascinating the competent workforce to be a part of the organisation without much direct efforts for recruiting them. It is a way there are initiatives taken by the organisation for developing itself as the employer of choice so that the competent individual themselves want to have a long term association with the organisation (Lievens and Slaughter, 2016). Through employer branding, the organisations or the companies tend to have an improved brand visibility and recognition from the perspectives of offerings employment opportunities with utmost comfort to the employees. When Woolworths will develop employer branding then the recruitment of the competent and talent applicants can be increased. Therefore, there will be improvement in the recruitment of the employees.

Woolworths is also facings some of the key challenges in respect with the issues such as higher generation gaps as well as ageing workforce. The presence of elderly age people is high on number in the Australian organisations and industries which is hampering the rapid success and growth of the companies. In present time, the organisations need employees that can actively participate in the operations that are based on innovative technologies and know-how. The ageing workforces are resistant to change as well as cannot work in a much efficient manner on such pioneering technologies (Beck, 2014). Thus, the productivity and the overall efficient declines and this weakens the recruitment process too as most of the applicants are of elderly age group only. When there are recruited young employees in the company, there are vast chances of conflicts due to higher generation gaps (Connell, Nankervis and Burgess, 2015). And thus, this also impacts the accomplishment of tasks and workplace environment. Thus due to dominance of the old employees who are higher in age, the youth do not want themselves to get employment in such organisations (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Challenge due to Shortage of Labour Supply

To save the organisation from such challenges and issues, it is recommended to Woolworths that it must take efficient use of the advertisements for attracting the new and fresh talent. The advertisements can be of various types such as on the social platforms to have a social visibility and connection with the potential candidates. Another advertisement strategy could by the posters and emails (Schröder, Muller?Camen and Flyn, 2014). The posters must be there are various institutes to attract the individual who have completed their education qualification. The company can also send emails to the individual explaining the job role, its significance and the various other things highlighting the career opportunity in Woolworths. To manage the challenge of generation gap, there just be initiate discussions, feedback sessions and informal channels of communication at the workplace (Boussebaa and Morgan, 2008).

Conclusion and recommendations

Having a good and effective recruitment of the workforce is must for the organisations. Woolworths is also required to work on few of the challenges identified so that it can have a better work for e to carry on the operations and give improved results. Thus, it is concluded and recommended that the company is required to improve its organisational mage through employer branding and must also offer good wages to them for retaining them as well as for having recruitment of potential candidates. By following the recommendations mentioned above, Woolworths can manage its challenges and can possess good recruitment process with effective recruitment of competent candidates.

References

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Woolworths, (2017). About Woolworths, Retrieved on: 30^th September, 2017, Retrieved from: https://www.woolworths.com.au/