Workplace Communication in Coles Supermarket - Case Study Example

i. Abstract: It has long been advocated by researchers that communication is essential for organizations because it connects employs and permits organizations to function (Downs, 1988). Effective workplace communication, as numerous researches have confirmed plays a crucial role in determining the success of an organization. An organization whose members are satisfied with the way that communication is carried out at their workplace are generally better informed of what their organization desires of them, hence they usually perform much better as compared to those individuals who are unsatisfied with the way communication is carried out at their workplace. Retail organizations, like most other organizations, to a larger extent are dependent on their employees for achieving outstanding success on their behalf. internal communication, may it be between peers or between supervisors and managers, forms a link between the people of an organization, which in the long run serves to improve their productivity. This report analyzes the effect that an appropriate communication strategy has on the performance of the employees of a large supermarket in Australia. The report also attempts to find out which communication processes are most effective in the context of a supermarket setting and tries to analyze the reason for their effectiveness. 1. Introduction: In most organizations, communications is controlled by a set of rules and norms which may be written down formally in the more centralized organizations, or may be communicated orally and informally in more decentralized work settings. It is essentially these rules, and their perception by the employees of a supermarket, that this essay plans on exploring. Gilsdorf (1998), notes that workplace communication and the rules which govern it, whether they are written, unwritten, formal or informal instruct the employees on how to act and what is expected of them. She also points out that having this knowledge maximizes both their effectiveness and the success of their organization because this knowledge helps these employees improve their performance. However, what is most crucial in making this statement is the fact that any sort of communication practice will only achieve its aim if the employees perceive it to be worthwhile. According to Gray and Laidlaw (2002),research literature confirms that organizational communication has been examined mainly from two perspectives; the first one being the process perspective and the second being the perception perspective. The perception perspective is based on the idea that a person’s individual cognitive and affective perceptions of the organization, and it‘s communication strategies and procedures, will influence the individuals behavior in the organization (Goldhaber et al, 1979). For this paper, the workplace communication strategies at the supermarket Coles have been observed. Coles supermarkets, are the largest retail businesses owned by the Coles Myer Group Ltd. The stores are large, full service supermarkets operating over 400 stores throughout Australia and employing more than 50,000 employees (Dawe, 2002). The following is a detailed account of the practices followed for workplace communication employed at different Coles stores across Australia. 2. Methodology: The methodologies used for this research have mainly been bifurcated into two parts. Firstly, A detailed study of related text has been carried out and relevant researches and their findings have been thoroughly analyzed with the purpose of finding out about the practices of communication that are followed by major retail organizations around the world. This has helped to provide me with the information about the different methods of communication employed within the retail industry, and these methods -from the way employees are socialized at the beginning of their induction, to the training that is provided to them on the workplace, to the way simple official communication is carried out on a day to day basis - have helped me to evaluate those processes that are found most effective by the employees of a Coles super market in this particular context. The second method that was employed for the purpose of gathering information was a small interview discussion that was carried out with a number of local Coles supermarket employees off the premises of the store. This discussion was carried out in an informal way and provided me with a great deal of in-depth information about the workings of the communication “machine” at the Coles supermarket, and also about how the employees perceived these practices. 3. Workplace Communication at Coles Supermarkets: I. Recruiting, Training & Socializing the employees: Supermarkets, as a trend have always been known as a place to work part time. For a long time, researchers had believed in the theory that part-time employees make up a sort of peripheral workforce who have little impact on the success of the organizational on the whole.(Harley, 1994). But during recent times, researchers like Walsh & Deery (1999) have suggested that workers, even if they are temporary make up the core component of the workforce of an organization. Hence, it is noticeable that Coles began the process of permanency of it’s employees as far back as 2001. This, according to Dawe, (2002), was an innovative departure from the industries trend of casualization of workforce, and the organization had more than 80% of its employees in a permanent position by the year 2001. A reason that this has helped Coles to achieve success has been the fact that it has saved the organization the millions of dollars that it was wasting each year on training people who would eventually leave the organization. The reason that this point has to be highlighted here is that this training, socializing and other such communication procedures that the Coles employees go through play an important role in forming their perception about this organization and on the whole help these employees achieve their maximum productivity. This section of the report deals with the recruitment, training and socializing policies of Coles, as these activities play a very large part in the workplace communication processes of the newly hired employee and it would not be incorrect to say that the perceptions that these employees form about their organization during this period is one that lasts them a long time. Recruitment : Coles employs a recruitment policy that may seem slightly in-depth and more detailed when compared to the recruitment policies of other supermarkets and stores. Initially, the information about a new vacancy is provided to an external recruitment agency which is responsible for the initial screening and interviews of the possible applicants. This interview is mainly to evaluate the applicant, their reason for wanting a job in retailing, and their suitability for working in the public (Dawe, 2002). The Cole’s Aptitude Test which is also customary for the applicants to pass is conducted at this stage and it is basically related to retail processes, includes arithmetic, and judges the applicants ability to pay attention to details along with following instructions in a logical manner (Dawe, 2002). The employment agency, on average screens out about 70 % of the applicants and gives a list of two or at the most three suitable candidates who are further interviews by the Human Resource Department at Coles. This interview is a behavioral testing interview during which the employees are tested on the way they did things in the past. At the end of the procedure, the candidate who is most likely to be able to perform well is selected with the help of the recommendation of the store manger (Dawe, 2002). For a larger part, this recruitment procedure develops a very positive image about the organization in the minds of those who get selected at the end. The discussion interview that I had with Coles employees suggested that they associated a certain level of accomplishment to the fact that they were the ones who were eventually selected and the fact remains that this sense of having ‘earned” their way to work at a place where talent was appreciated, acts as a great motivator for the Coles employees and creates in their minds, a positive image about their organization. Training: Training plays a major role in the development of perception about the workplace communication that the Coles employees have. The organization currently uses the Retail Training Package to provide training to its employees. This training is not just limited to those who have been newly inducted to the organization but is a part of the employees career path at Coles. The newly inducted employees are provided with an opportunity where they receive industry accredited training and Coles’ partnership with Deakin University gives the organization the chance to provide professional education ranging from entry-level traineeship to University Degrees to it’s employees. This training is a communication tool which provides powerful guidance to the employees on how their organization wants them to work and by providing it’s employees a chance to understand the organization, its workings and the retail business in this way creates a truly positive image of the organization’s communication procedures in the minds of the employees. These employees, and their experience and education in the long run helps Coles get further head of all the other retailers in the market and by employing this strategy, the organization has truly defined a clear cut example of how market leaders provide innovation to the simpler and mundane aspects of communications with the employees. Socialization: Socialization is the process by which organizations; according to Kreps (n.d), give structure and predictability to the new member’s perception of the organization and helps them decide how they should act in response to particular and yet different situations that arise on a day to day basis at their workplace. For a person working at a supermarket, it is imperative that a standardized sense of the organization , its purpose and its stances on most issues, is communicated to in detail and not only at the beginning of his/her job, but also periodically. This is important because this job puts these people in direct contact with customers and it is highly impossible to predict human behavior because one can never e sure about what may happen at the work floor. For this purpose, a clear sense of the organization’s desires and visions should be communicated to the employees to begin with because it helps them act to the situations accordingly. At Coles supermarkets, the employees who are being trained are at the same time implementing what they learn at their workplace, this socialization process is a hands on experience. Not only are they engaged in activities where all employees are encouraged to discuss their experiences with the organization, the usual stories and the shared rituals, but they also learn what their employer wants of them through their training sessions. This detailed communication is a sharing of information that provides the employees with valuable information about the organizational ‘ropes’. II. Written Communication at Workplace: Although it may be argued that communication, in general, and information derived out of that communication is valid in a lot more contexts if that communication is unwritten, but the importance of written communication practices at workplace cannot be ignored. With the advent of the modern age, a lot of organizational communication either takes place face to face or behind computer screens. Even though the virtual medium of communication provides a lot of conveniences to the employees of the organization, there are still things which are better left to being written. Written Communication between employees : At Coles, like many other major retailing organizations, a lot of communication is carried out through the written medium. With the passage of time, this written communication has passed on from office memos written on pre-printed sheets of paper with the organizational logo on the letterhead, to a more advanced medium such as an office intranet which connects the major departments of the store together and which allows the people in authority to maintain a leveled flow of information coming and going out of each department. This flow of information is necessary for the daily functioning of the supermarket and allow the employees to maintain contact without being in the direct proximity of each other. It is also a medium through which instructions and orders are passed on to the lower level staff by the upper level management. Written Communication between Management & Employees: The written communication is usually a letter of commendation or one of warning or some sort of penalty that is issued upon the employees by the management. It could also be a bulletin or a reminder about some up coming training session that the management wants the employees to attend. Although e-mail notifications are issued to all the employees about all such issues and proceedings but there is a also a copy of major announcements displayed in printed form for the information of the employees at Coles. III. Verbal Communication at the Workplace: Verbal communication makes up a large part of the day to day communication that goes on at the supermarket. Although the major communicational processes that fall under the category of the daily business activities are usually performed through a written medium, the medium of personal communication is verbal. Supermarket employees deal closely with people on a daily basis. May it be someone working in the delicatessen or at the checkout, most of the employees’ work description involves handling customers, dealing with their complains and helping them make buying decisions. Although the organization can provide a set of standardized rules to these employees about how they are to react with particular people or what their reaction should be in a particular situation, it is still an impossibility to predict accurately, all forms of contacts that these employees will have during a particular day. Hence I reinforce the point I made earlier that verbal communication is the key to solve issues and is an important part of the workplace communication at a large supermarket. Following are The major aspects of verbal communication that goes on at Coles and although they are all inter-related, they are presented Verbal Communication between Sales Executives and Customers: The most important form of communication that takes place at a super market is the communication which takes place between the sales people, the other staff on floor and the customers. As I pointed out before, this is the most important form of communication because, in all eventualities, it decides the fate of the business itself. At Coles, the sales executives are trained to always put the customers first. Like many other retailers, Coles promotes the ideology that ‘the customer is always right’, and the staff on the shop floor is also taught this ideology rigorously. It is also maintained that the duty of the sales people is to guide the customers when they inquire about the attributes of a product, and not to talk them into making a buying decision. This is an important point because it leads of the general disillusionment that people have about the sales people of all superstores, irrespective of the success of the place. According to one of the employees, this point is reinstated regularly that the face to face communication that takes place between the customers and the supermarket staff should not appear contrived to the customer on any level. The verbal communication between the staff and the customers is not only at a face to face level. Apart form that, their interaction may also take place over the phone, or over the internet. Mostly, this communication takes place when a customer has any enquiry to make about things like store locations or timings, or is having difficulty or is suffering dissatisfaction with some purchase. In this case, the Coles management encourages the employees to do their utmost to help these customers and to alleviate the customer’s problems to the best of their abilities. The staff is also encouraged to contact the manager of the store if he/she is unable to solve the problem that the customer s facing, and by doing so, ensuring the customers that his satisfaction is the organizations top most priority. Verbal Communication between employees and the management: As I mentioned before, the major part of daily communication that takes place between the employees and the management is mostly verbal. Starting from the daily morning session to any meetings or other discussion, all the matters are communicated verbally. From the start, all Coles employees are taught to engage in various learning activities, in which they take part along with their peers. These activities are a sort of of-the-job training sessions that help these employees form a bond with their co workers. These activities involve listening skills and questioning techniques and are illustrated in simple games such as Chinese whisper, riddles and celebrity heads (Dawe, 2002). All such activities help the employees understand each other better and reach a level of comfort with their fellows so that their communication is effortless and efficient. There are other learning activities that are used so that workplace communication between peers can be made better. These off the job activities may also involve role-play, where telephone skills may be taught to those who are novices at it. All the skills that are taught during these off-the-job activities are also tested with their application on the job (Dawe, 2002). This in all eventualities serves the organization because the better the level of communication within the organization, the better will be the performance levels of all concerned and hence the organization. IV. Conclusions: Coles supermarket employs communication practices that are extremely effective and which play a very big role in the success of this name as an organization. On the whole, the organization spends a lot of revenue and time on the development and implementation of these practices and all this considerable effort pays off in the sense that it improves the performance of the organization’s employees by leaps and bounds. This report has tried to analyze these communication practices and discover how and why they effect the performance of the organization’s employees. By providing a detailed analysis of the various mediums of communications that are used in the workplace setting of Coles Supermarkets, this report presents a clear picture of how the organization has created a winning strategy, due to which it has become the leading force in its market. The analysis confirms the fact that organizations which have invested time and effort on affecting proper strategies for providing it’s employees with detailed knowledge about what they desire from them, always reap the benefits of this effort. Recommendations: This report recommends that all retailing organizations the likes of Coles should aim to devise strategies that try to align the goals of the employees with the goals of the organization. This should be done by effectively communicating to each and every employee the level of expectation that the organization has of them. It should also be noted that this report aims to suggest that a retail organization, where verbal and face to face communication is a big part of the ‘trade’, there should be a set parameter which defines these actions so that the most can be derived out of them. References Dawe, S. (2002). Focusing on generic skills in training packages. National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Deery, S., Walsh. J. (1999). Understanding the peripheral workforce: Evidence from the service sector. Human Resource Management. Vol. 9. No. 2 . pp 50-63. Downs, C.W (1988), Communication Audits, Scott Foresman, Glenview, IL. Gilsdorf W. Jeanette, 1998, “Organizational Rules on Communicating: How Employees Are- and Are Not- Learning the Ropes”. ‘The Journal of Business Communication’, Vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 173-201 Goldhaber, G.M, Porter, D.T, Yates, M.P., Lesniak, R (1978), "Organizational communication: 1978 (state of the art)", Human Communication Research, Vol. 5 pp.76-96. Gray, J., Laidlaw, H. (2002), Part time employment and communication satisfaction in an Australian retail organization. Employee relations. Vol. 24. No. 2. Harley, B. (1994). Measures of Communication satisfaction. Human Communications Research. Vol.4, No.4. Pp 350-68. Kreps, Gary L., n.d, “Using interpretive research: The development of a socialization program at RCA”, ‘Communication and Organizations: an interpretive approach’, Sage Publications, pp 243-256. Read More