Recruitment Strategies Of Woolworths Supermarket And HR Management

Importance of Recruitment in a Public Organization

Question:

Discuss About The Forms Recruitment In A Public Organization?

The Human Resource department’s most essential responsibility is the recruitment and selection process. According to Billsberry (2008), this department is tasked with the crucial role of placing the right applicants into their respective positions in the operations. Recruitment is basically the process through which an organization searches and pools candidates with the relevant experience, skills, and knowledge necessary to enable the organization to pick out only the best-qualified candidates who meet the description and work criteria of the vacant position (Dineed, 2011). The process aims to bring together the widest possible pool in order to improve the chances of selecting the best people for the roles. Hiring the most qualified applicants may prove to be a competitive advantage for Woolworths due to the increased productivity and organizational efficiency.

Woolworths is an Australian supermarket chain with headquarters in Bella Vista, Australia. Being among the largest organizations in Australia, the supermarket employs a large number of people (Arli et al., 2013). Woolworths prides itself in adopting a recruitment process that is strictly reliant on the candidates’ professionalism, experience, and merit. Woolworths’ Human Resources department is obligated to follow the company’s recruitment rules and regulations as well as the Australia’s Employment Opportunity Legislation, the Privacy Act, and Anti-Discrimination laws (Nutall, 2007).

Failure to select a competent candidate may result in unfavorable and adverse effects on the organization such as customer service complications, operational disruptions, interpersonal conflicts, and reduced productivity (Swider, Zimmerman and Barrick, 2015). Once the organization identifies the candidate pool, a selection process is used to pick the most qualified candidates. The selection process involves activities such as testing, reference checking, aptitude tests, and interviews.Thisensures the most appropriate candidates are selected using equitable, fair and effective activities.

This recruitment plan aims to highlight the Human Resource management department’s recruitment and selection strategies in Woolworths supermarket. The study analyzes the significance of the project, the risks involved, stakeholder analysis and strategies Woolworths HR team will enforce to implement the recruitment plan while attempting to help achieve the organizational goal in a cost-effective manner.The recruitment strategy will only be enforced within Australia as it focuses on employing a workforce to occupy roles in local supermarkets.

• Increase the size of the applicants’ pool so as to improve the possibility of selecting high-quality candidates.
• Enforcing effective methods to analyze the abilities, experience, and professional skills of applicants.
• Select a qualified workforce able to help Woolworths achieve its organizational goaland improve efficiency.

This recruitment plan enforced by Woolworths provides the organization with various benefits. A carefully implemented plan will benefit Woolworths and help the company achieve its general business goals and objectives. The recruitment project will help Woolworths ensure that they have the necessary attributes, knowledge, and relevant skills that the organization requires to achieve its long-term goals and current operational needs. The recruitment project which will be strict and keenly monitored will result in the recruitment of a highly effective workforce ready to positively impact the organization (Narchal, 2013). The selection criteria will be enforced by authorized HR personnel with strict instructions to abide by the set-out recruitment regulations. The applicants will further be exposed to various interview stages and thorough investigations into their previous jobs and ethicalinclinations. Competent candidates with the necessary skills and qualifications to help Woolworths achieve their long-term goals and operational requirements will be selected.

Woolworths’ Recruitment Process and Regulations

The project will further help Woolworths to meet its supply and demand requirements. A highly effective workforce selected as a result of the recruitment project will enable Woolworths to meet its customer service demandsin an efficient way. Woolworths serves a large base of customers spread in various regions and locations (Stevens, Plaut and Sanchez-Burks, 2008). The company, therefore, need to ensure they have a competent workforce to meet the customers’ demand and preferences. This recruitment project will help Woolworths achieve customer satisfaction.

A carefully implemented strategy will increase the organizational efficiency of Woolworths. The company must enforce effective measures to ensure all operations and activities are operating in an optimal manner.Organizational efficiency ensures the relevant companies are successful in achieving their objectives. Any successful company is driven by a qualified workforce working as a team to achieve the organizational goals. This recruitment project will provide Woolworths with a team capable of working cohesively to facilitate organizational efficiency.

The recruitment must complement the organizational structure of Woolworths.The main aim of Woolworths’ recruitment and selection process is to facilitate the improvement of organizational efficiency and profitability. In relation to the recruitment plan, a stakeholder is any party interested in what the recruitment and selection process achieves (Breaugh, 2017). These parties might influenceWoolworths’ future, or they might be affected by the candidates chosen. Potential stakeholders in Woolworths’ recruitment and selection process include the owners of the supermarket chain, employees, the surrounding community, insurance companies, and customers. It is important for organizations to involve stakeholders in their recruitment plans in order to cultivate positive relationships with them, benefit from valuable information, reinforce their commitment to the organization, and facilitate a conducive business culture.

The owners and shareholders of Woolworths being the main beneficiaries of an increase in profitability have a keen interest in the recruitment process adopted by the HR team. Likewise, if the process doesn’t meet its objectives, it’s the same shareholders and owners who feel the greatest impact (Blundell, 2013). The HR team must, therefore, put the owners in mind when formulating and implementing a recruitment plan.

Insurance companies are directly involved with the Woolworths employees’ health coverage and benefits. The companies will hence have an invested interest in the workforce structure of Woolworths. The insurance service providers need recruitment updates so as toprovide cover plans that specifically suit Woolworths.

Most projects launched by the HR team aim to improve the level of skills in the workplace, enhance the workplace structure, and improve operational processes. Employees are the primary stakeholders in any organization. The recruitment and selection process will have a direct impact on their productivity, skills, earning capacity, and confidence. The recruitment process by Woolworths may provide existing employees with a competitive threat in terms of roles, responsibilities, and promotions. Ensuring cohesiveness and employee satisfaction is important so as to reinforce their commitment to Woolworths.

Selection Process for Recruitment

In the supermarket and service industry in general, the mode of interaction with customers is crucial to an organization’s success. Customers and clients are primary stakeholders who will be directly affected by a recruitment process. The HR team of Woolworths must, therefore, ensure the candidate who proceeds from the selection stage are competentand well-versed in professional and ethical consumer interaction. A successful recruitment process benefits the organization by increasing their service delivery and cultivation of a positive organizational structure.

The recruitment process by Woolworths affects the surrounding community by providing employment opportunities (Griepentrog et al., 2012). In a community with high rates of unemployment, the non-discriminatory hiring opportunity providingan employment opportunitycultivates a positive relationship with the community.

Cost is one of the main factors that have a direct impact on the recruitment and selection process of an organization (Zhao and Liden, 2011). Before implementing the recruitment process, Woolworths must fully understand and put the expenses that the process will incur into consideration. The recruitment project must satisfy a cost-benefit analysis before the supermarket giant implements the plan. It is prudent for Woolworths to forecast the possible amounts of money these future employees from the selection process will cost the company in terms of benefits, allowances, and salaries.While planning the recruitment activities, teams from the HR and Finance department in Woolworths may be required to determine the recruiting yield ratio and the cost per hire (Jabbar, 2016). Woolworths must also budget for cost resulting from posting the job advertisements, agency costs, backgrounds check expenses, recruiter salaries, and referral program incentives. Despite the financial burden imposed by the recruitment strategy, Woolworths expects that the incorporation of a qualified workforce to fill the existing organizational gap will provide long term benefits to the company. Woolworths aims at employing 10 new employees. The following 5-year financial analysis of the company outlines the expected costs and benefits from the recruitment process.

In order to develop and implement the recruitment it is important to analyze costss associated with the process. Costs are expected to be particularly high during the first year. Recruitment costs may be analysed on an internal and external costs.

Advertisement costs = $ 50 000

Consultation costs = $ 25 000

Internal costs

Identification of gaps = $25 000

Interviewers training and renumeration costs = $65 000

Applicattion and screening = $39 000

New empoyees’ salary = $100 000

Total costs: Internal recruiting costs + external recruiting costs. = $304 000

Benefits of a Carefully Implemented Recruitment Plan

Cost per hire (CPH): Total costs / Total number of hires = $30 400

Second to Fifth year

After implementation of the recruitment plan, Woolworths expects an improvement in the organizational structure and efficiency including cost reduction and innovation. These expected returns should provide a postive cost-benefit result to Woolworths.

Return on Investment (ROI) is the percentage calculation of (Benefits-Costs)/costs.Based on figure 1 above, Woolworths expects a total program benefit of $400 000 and a total cost of $304 000. Therefore, the project’s ROI is represented by:

100*($400 000 – $304 000)/$304 000

ROI = 31.58%.

An effectiverecruitment process ensures the organization has the required experience, skills, and knowledge to achieve its goals. There, however, exists risk associated with the recruitment process.Potential risksinclude the risk of selecting candidates who are incompetent or do not fit into Woolworths’ organizational culture.This may result in Woolworths’ failure to achieve its operational and strategic goal. The company can mitigate this risk by updating the recruitment policies and using effective assessment tools (Warhurst et al., 2009). Woolworths can alternately train the hiring personnel of efficient screening and assessment techniques before placing the candidates.

A legislative risk exists due to the non-compliance possibility in Woolworths.This may be greatly damaging to the organization. The risk exposes Woolworths to fines and legal lawsuits. Training the workforce on the relevant legislative rules, hiring legal advisors, and updating the organization’s internal policies such that they are legally compliant will mitigate the legislative risk.

Applicants may gain employment in Woolworths as a result of deception during the recruitment process.This may encourage fraud, legal prosecution, and failure to meet the organizational goals. The hiring team should enforce strict screening and background checking procedures to alleviate this risk (Robson, 2011).

It is of paramount importance for any organization to have an effective strategy to implement their recruitment plan. The selection or recruitment function must be enforced in a proactive mannerso as to avoid unnecessary costs due to a faulty process. Woolworths’ strategy to implement their recruitment plan is largely consistent with ensuring Woolworths has the necessary attributes, knowledge, and skills required to meet the organization’s goal and operational requirements (Humburg and Van der Velden, 2015). The implementation strategy will also aim to ensure that only qualified and competent candidates are selected for recruitment into Woolworths. By formulating an implementation strategy, Woolworths can improve their chances of selecting a suitable candidate. The strategy will also increase the number of potential applicants from which the company can select qualified candidates.

Stakeholder Analysis in Woolworths’ Recruitment

The first step in implementing a recruitment plan is to identify the existing skill gaps in the organization (Udechukwu and Manyak, 2009).This will help the HR department of Woolworths to analyze the current skill level and determine what type of skills the supermarket chain needs so as to achieve organizational efficiency. The analysis simply involves identifying the skills needed, determining the existing skills in Woolworths, and finally comparing the desired skills to the current skills.

In order to fill the skill gaps identified, Woolworths is expected to launchrelevant advertisement strategies to reach as many potential applicants as possible. The vacancy advertisements should be non-discriminatory and target widespread (Downes, 2011). After sending out the job application invites, Woolworths’ HR team should formulate appropriate strategies to receive the responding applicants. The organization must select a hiring team to oversee the recruitment process and activities. It is important to train the interviewers and use processes that do not favor oroffer any form of bias.The next step of the implementation plan is to screen the applicants, expose them to employment tests, conduct face to face interviews, investigate the applicants’ background and finally select the successful candidates ready for placement into their respective roles in Woolworths.

After implementing the recruitment process, it is important that an organization applies therelevant measure to evaluate the effectiveness of the recruitment plan. The outcome of the recruitment plan must be complementary to Woolworths’ organizationalgoals and objectives. Woolworths can utilize various performance to analyze the success of the recruitment and selection process. The company can analyze the average fill time. This is the time it takes them to fill a vacancy. Depending on the result of the applying this measure, Woolworths may consider enforcing strategies to shorten the fill time. Another measure is to determine the cost per hire. It would be wise for Woolworths to reduce any unnecessarycosts incurred during the selection process. Woolworths may also use the number of applicants who showed interest to measure the effectiveness of its recruitment methods (Parry and Tyson, 2008). After measuring the recruitment process and the activities, the next step is to suggest and enforce appropriate control and improvement measures to make the process more efficient.

Recruitment Action	Time Frame As from:	Responsibility	Estimated Cost
Identification of human resource skill gaps in the organization.	August 2017	Human Resource department.	$25 000
Advertisement of employment opportunities.	October 2017	Woolworths’ marketing department	$50 000
Collection and sorting of applications from interested parties.	November 2017	The human resource department	$15 000
Select and train interviewers	November 2017	The HR team	$65 000
Screening of applicant using interviews and other employability tests.	January 2018	Trained interviewers.	$24 000
Selection and inductment of successful candidates into the organization.	March 2018	The HR team and the Woolworths community.	$100 000
Evaluation of the recruitment plan’s effectiveness.	March 2018	Relevant consulting firm.	$25 000
Total cost	$304 000

In conclusion, the HR team of Woolworths is tasked with thecrucial responsibility of overseeing the successful implementation of the recruitment strategy.The process aims to bring together the widest possible pool in order to improve the chances of selecting the best people for the roles. The recruitment strategy will only be enforced within Australia as it focuses on employing a workforce to occupy roles in local supermarkets. The recruitment team must ensure they consider the various stakeholders as they enforce the various implementation activities.A carefully implemented plan will benefit Woolworths and help the company achieve its general business goals and objectives. It is, however, important to keep up with the various risks and financial implications of the process.

References

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