Employee Re-sourcing & Development of Safeway Company - Case Study Example

Running Head: EMPLOYEE RE-SOURCING & DEVELOPMENT Employee Re-sourcing & Development of the of the Employee Re-sourcing & Development Introduction Safeway's people have performed superbly well in driving Safeway's strategy forward, and never more so than in the exceptionally challenging circumstances of the past few months. During the current bid period Safeway's priorities are to retain as many of Safeway's people as possible, especially floor staffs and local store managers and supervisors to continue to develop their talents and skills. Safeway's retention strategy is based on three key elements - good leadership, strong financial incentives and effective communication. (Walton, 1999, 47-58) Safeway's Policies And Practices During the course of the year, 132 of Safeway's managers have participated in Safeway Leadership programme and 174 have attended Safeway's Coaching programme. Since January Safeway have refocused their activities on managing change and over 120 staff members have participated in these courses to date. Safeway's normal skills training for store staff, launching apprenticeship programmes for butchers, fishmongers and florists. Additionally, 210 bakers completed the craft baking NVQ, while over 7,000 of Safeway's people have now received craft skills and systems training at one of Safeway's three regional training centres. (Beardwell, 2001-58-62) Delivering the best customer service continues to be a high priority. During the year Safeway extended Safeway's Star Service programme to include a new initiative designed to help Safeway become the "friendliest store in town". Safeway's people in stores have been asked to concentrate on "smiling, greeting, helping and thanking" customers every time they have contact with them. High standards are expected and by the end of the year independent monitoring showed that over 90% of Safeway's stores were either meeting or close to meeting all of these targets. (Corbridge, 1998, 78-86) Safeway people Safeway employs approximately 85,000 people in stores, depots and offices across the UK. Through Safeways employment policy Safeway aim to provide fair treatment for all colleagues, invest in their development, protect their well-being and keep them both informed and involved. In 2004/05 Safeway defined 12 employment and training targets to ensure that these aims were achieved. For example: Safeway encourages open and honest communication through a range of initiatives. Safeway conduct a 6-monthly survey of Safeways colleagues, "Survey for Everyone", which allows every individual to give feedback on their job, their manager, their location, Safeway as a place to work and their perception of the Company's performance. At local level, teams of colleagues are empowered to take action on anything arising from the survey results. Other initiatives such as focus groups and Safeways intranet facility ("Grapevine") are referred to in the Chief Executive's review. Safeway have established a Colleague Council for the Hayes site, with representatives elected from all Head Office divisions. The meetings have opened up a valuable channel for two-way communication with employees to discuss how Safeway can improve the way in which Safeway work together. Such has been their success that Safeway have already begun to roll this out to other areas of the business. Safeway's centralized recruitment centre at Warrington is now fully operational and receives an average of over 11,000 hotline calls per week. Safeway also receive over 800 job applications through Safeways website every week. Safeway have enjoyed ongoing success in working with the Investors in People framework, with several divisions achieving recognition and a significant proportion of Safeways store colleagues working towards accreditation. Storebrand Investment's assessment of 86 retailers worldwide in 2005, which included Safeway in the top 30% "best in class" of its sample. Safeway are pleased with these results and will continue to work with all these organizations to develop their performance measures. Safeway's is committed to promoting policies to ensure that employees and those who seek to work for us are treated equally regardless of sex, marital status, age, creed, colour, race, nationality or any other similar factors. It is the group's policy to give full and fair concern to applications for employment by people who are disabled, to continue wherever possible the employment of staff who become disabled and to supply equal opportunities for the career improvement of disabled employees. (Harrison, 2003, 123-9) The health and safety of the group's employees, customers and members of the general public who may be affected by the group's activities is a matter of primary concern. Accordingly, it is the group's policy to manage its activities so as to avoid causing any unnecessary or unacceptable risk to the health and safety of employees and members of the public. The number and wide geographic distribution of the group's operating locations make it essential to communicate effectively with employees. Communications and consultation within the group's retail activities are principally through the operational structure of store and area teams, with particular use being made of the Meetings for Everyone, which are held regularly, video conferencing with regional depots and Company magazines. Copies of the Company's Annual and Interim Reports are made available at the group's principal office and operating locations. The Safeway Pension Scheme was open to all full-time and part-time employees of wholly owned subsidiary companies of the group. With effect from 9 May 2002 the defined benefit "final salary" scheme was closed to new entrants while progressing unaffected for current members. (Harrison, 2002, 64-82) A new "career average salary" section of the distinct benefit scheme has restored the "final salary" arrangements for current and future employees who are no longer able to join the final salary plan. The Scheme provides benefits additional to those from the State Basic Pension Scheme, whilst enabling members to be contracted-out of the State Second Pension. In addition to the normal retirement pension based on pay and length of service at retirement, there are further benefits payable when members die in service. Policies in practice Safeway's policies address the facts that business fortunes rise and fall periodically, staffing and talent needs change and evolve, workforces age and retire in perhaps unplanned ways that don't match business needs, and the market value of talent changes over time - sometimes becoming more valuable and at other times becoming less valuable: Safeway is a best business place to work, not just a best place to work. Safeway has developed a human resource management strategy that lives with throughout their business cycle. The policies are tested for some alternative solutions assuming growth and shrinkage of the number of customers and their profitability. Reward those that help you be successful. (Harrison, 2003, 37-41) Safeway mentors employees with the critical business skills so they grow and learn. While everyone is important, some people have skills your business needs more than do others. This means investing in the talent that is closest to your business' core competencies - those capabilities that are essential to making the business a winner. Tell everyone what your talent priorities are and build a reward solution that fits. Spend your talent dollars where you will get the most business value - on people with the skills that add most to your business. Safeway educates its employees about the rules of staffing growth and reduction early in their career. During the staffing build-up over the last five years, Safeway implies that jobs were more secure than they really are. So when the business tide turned, workforces recalled these implied "promises" and interpreted them as job guarantees. It's extremely important to have people understand the actual "deal" the company can provide. Be clear that staffing levels will change. But, also make employees understand what they can do to improve their value to make it less likely they will be picked for lay off or pay reduction. (Corbridge, 1998, 124-5) Safeway has built a valid and accepted way to judge performance before they are needed. Safeway believes that it's essential to have a credible and reliable performance measurement system in place when times are going well. In good times, it is easy to protect inadequate performers when staffing levels are high - but not when cutting is necessary. (Walton, 1999, 56) The best way to foster distrust, to say nothing about litigation, is to adopt a makeshift "ranking" system just before you need to reduce staff and try to use it to decide who goes and who stays. Safeway cuts the workforce quickly and humanely. Spreading the pain around doesn't make much business sense. When you need to reduce staff, reduce it. Build a reputation for keeping people close to the meat of the business even when cutting is essential. Recommendations In Safeway managers and employees both work towards meeting the needs of the customers and the needs of each other if they are to survive in such turbulent times. Managers assess choices made by reference to risk, resources and potential benefits and for all parties the emphasis is on high quality, flexibility, and commitment to improvement and growth. To achieve this Safeway's senior managers should: Realise that not everyone will embrace the changes. Change agents should put sustained effort into selling the benefits of the proposed change through internal marketing activities. Tell people candidly what is planned and why. This, of course, presupposes that senior management are clear about their intentions. Confidence helps breed trust. Consider carefully the timing of the communication. The changes must be formulated and the messages planned and delivered before the grapevine "runs the story". Show that top management is involved, committed to the changes and is actively listening to the feedback, including "murmurs" of both employees and customers. Reassure, involve and support middle and junior managers through the changes so that they do not feel neglected or appear ill-informed in front of their staff or customers. Whatever the future holds for Safeway, Safeway is extremely proud of everything Safeway's people have done and are doing to deliver Safeway's strategy, day to day, under very difficult circumstances. It is a privilege to lead such a team and Safeway is sure that whatever the outcome of the current uncertainty, their skills and experience will be recognised and needed. References Beardwell. I & Holden. L (2001) Human Resource Management, A contemporary approach 3rd edition, Prentice Hall. Corbridge. M & Pilbean. S (1998) Employment Re-sourcing, Financial Times/ Pitman Publishing. Harrison, R. (2003) Human Resource Development in a Knowledge Economy: an organisational view, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Harrison, R. (2000) Employee Development, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Walton. J (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development, Financial Times / Prentice Hall Read More