Workforce Planning for the Coles Group - Case Study Example

Student’s Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Workforce Planning for the Coles Group Workforce planning is defined as the “process of ensuring that the right people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time” (Workforce Planning Instructional Manual 3). To effectively carry out workforce planning, human resource managers in any workforce need to base their decisions on a firm’s mission, budgetary resources, strategic plan, and the workforce competencies that will serve the organization well. Having been established the Coles group is undergoing some skills gap that need to be filled, this essay will seek to identify how well the retail group can recruit, retain and attract skill workforce. More to this, the essay seeks to identify how Coles Group can use job redesigning strategies, separation, learning and development to meet its strategic workforce objectives. Strategic Objectives for: Recruitment: Coles Group experiences skills gap in almost all its major departments except in legal affairs and finance, both which have a skills gap rated at below 10 percent (Australian Institute of Management 8). When developing the strategic objective on recruitment, the HR department would therefore need to identify the specific competencies that the firm will target for recruitment and placement; and ensure that adequate assessment tools that will help in identifying training needs in the new employees. According to Wesfarmers, recruitment efforts at the Coles Group focus on “delivering cost-effective, well-planned and timely recruitment by attracting quality candidates to [the] business” (1). The group can use the following strategic objectives in order to meet the identified objectives. Action Objective Advertise job positions externally Obtain the necessary skills necessary in the different departments of the retail chain. Attract the right people to the organization. Infuse fresh talent into the organization. Filling the skills gap that exist in the firm Having a talent pool with the necessary qualities, abilities, skills, competencies and experiences needed to fill the different skills gaps in the firm. Develop and implement nationwide recruitment plans in order to attract potential candidates from all over Australia. Implementation plan (IP): use specifically designed recruitment channels Strengthen relationships with existing employees Improve the firm’s workforce retention capabilities IP: address employees’ needs and concerns in a timely manner Advertise job positions internally Identify internal talent for use in other job positions within the organization IP: place internal job advertisements, identify talent among the internal applicants Retention and attraction: In an environment where scarcity of talent prevails, the Coles Group, just like other firm operating in Australia is facing increased challenge in retaining the competent staff members. This is further complicated by the fact that Australia is an open job market where organisations compete for talent. Worse still, it has been noted that the country labour pool is declining thus meaning that organisations do not have the luxury of a ready labour market. According to Kaye, people employers can succeed better in retaining their competent workers if they give them: exciting and challenging work; an environment where they can grow, learn and develop; and a job that gives balance to the employees’ life and work (11). Further, retention is higher in firms that offer: fair pay; supportive management; recognition, value and respect; benefits; meaningful work; a sense of belonging; and great organisation culture and work environment (Kaye 11). This means that for Coles Group to succeed in employee retention, it would need to come up with a retention and attraction strategy actions that meet specific objectives as stipulated below: Action Strategic Objectives Identify star performers in the firm To reduce talented staff turnover Use adequate compensation as one of the viable retention strategies IP: analyse employees’ performance and rank their contribution to the firm accordingly. Enhance formal and informal communication in the workplace Understand employees’ values and needs Address employees’ concerns in the workplace Create lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with the employees IP: establish open communication channels of communication in the organisation Establish training programmes Creation of an environment that attracts, nourishes and retains competent staff members Enhance employees professional and personal growth Support the workforce by giving them the information, tools and knowledge required to get the work done Provide employees with cutting edge skills Provide employees with development opportunities IP: identify and create the necessary training programs for new and existing employees Review how work is done in Coles Group Provide a platform to redesign work in the company in order to make it more interesting for the workforce IP: seek employee suggestion regarding the interesting aspects they would like to be included in their work, consider the suggestions and implement the viable ones. Train good managers Provide employees with leaders who lead by example Foster respect IP: Identify managers who can lead by example and train them accordingly Job redesign: Slocum defines job redesign as “the deliberate, purposeful planning of the job, including all its structural and social aspects and their effect on the employee” (19). Among the approaches that Slocum suggests as viable for adoption for job redesign include: studying the work involved and determining how best it can be divided amongst the workers in order to enhance efficiency and simplicity; matching employees’ skills to selected jobs; training employees in order to equip them with skills needed to accomplish specific tasks; and encouraging employees to meet set standards through employee motivation strategies (Slocum 20). A job redesign involves the restructuring of tasks, so that they can be performed more efficiently while providing the worker with enhanced personal satisfaction. In Coles Group, the following can be done as part of the strategic job redesign: Action Strategic objectives Provide a learning environment Individual employees gain more skills needed to perform their duties, as well as discovering the essential characteristics of the job IP: Establish training programs Job enrichment To make jobs at the Coles Group challenging, interesting and meaningful Introduce job security measures in order to motivate employees to stay with the Coles Group Allow employees to feel some sense of self-fulfilment through nourishing their self-esteem. IP: Establish employee motivation programs that include the three identified aspects of job enrichment. Job enlargement Adding more variety to the existing jobs at the Coles Group thus providing existing and potential employees with more variety to choose from. IP: Establish existing work gaps that would benefit from enlargement and adding variety to the same Job rotation Allowing employees to do different jobs in order to not only add variety to their work, but also give them a chance to make some extra money. Lessen the job deficit gap using the available internal talents IP: Give employees the independence to decide whether to participate in job rotation schemes or not. Job Separation: This is defined as the voluntary leaving or loosing of one’s job (Shah 7). According to the (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1), 22 percent of working Australians estimated to be 9.8 million lost or voluntarily left their jobs in 2002. The trend has not changed much over the years especially considering that Australia is an open economy where employers can downsize their workforce or recruit more workers when the need to do so arises. Further, employees are not tied to one employer and can switch between jobs, or opt out of employment due to varying reasons. Such include ill health, family reasons or retirement. According to (Shah 7) job separation in most firms in Australia is dependant on the employment relationship that exists between the employer and the employee. Specifically, the employment is beneficial to both sides when productivity is enhanced through efficient worker-job or worker-firm match. The Coles Group can decrease job separation through the following identified strategic actions: Action Strategic objective Offer competitive salaries to the skilful and competent employees To enhance employee retention by preventing job-to-job transitions IP: identify competent staff and reward them accordingly Offer jobs that balance between employee’s career and personal life Decrease the number of skilled and competent employees (especially women) who leave the workforce due to family reason IP: Design flexible jobs Offer to sign casual contracts with seasonal workforce, fixed term contracts with employees needed on a long-term basis, and periodical contracts with employees who cannot sign a long-term commitment with the firm Offer a sense of job security to the employees, while giving the firm a sense of stability where the vital employees will have to stick to the terms of the contract. Ensure that an employee who wants to quit alerts to the Human Resource department at the Coles Group of his or her intentions in good time, hence allowing HR to seek a replacement in good time. IP: Ensure all future and existing employment is done on a contractual basis Evaluate the performance of all employees constantly Ensure that knowledge gaps are identified and the required remedial action taken Lay off underperformers, and recruit others who can perform their duties more efficiently IP: establish performance evaluation procedures and benchmarks for use. LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (Harrison 5) defines learning and development as a “series of organised activities conducted within a specified time and designed to produce behavioural change”. The author further observes that learning and development focuses on “the learning needed if organisational and individual development is to occur”. Based on the above definition and observation, one can easily theorize that strategic learning and development in the Coles Group should be an initiative by the HR department, whereby, the firm’s long and short-term goals and objectives should be examined. The HR department would also need to evaluate existing competencies in the firm, and identify existing shortfalls. The strategic learning and development programs would then be designed to specifically address the shortfalls based on Coles Group’s business needs. According to (Larsen 1), strategic learning and development has the capacity to contribute immensely to a firm’s bottom line and other strategic resources. In the Coles Group Scenario, the firm need to consider adopting the following proposed actions: Action Strategic objective Identify competency gaps and design training programs Infuse knowledge and skills in the workforce IP: Establish training programs Measure the impact of training Determine if the training attained the desired effect Determine if further training is needed IP: Establish an evaluation criteria to gauge the effect of training programs on the employees Design a strategy driven approach Ensure that the approach will have a return on investments, that methodologies will fit the Cole Group’s scenario, and that the approach will ensure that the employees are motivated to learn. IP: Develop a strategic learning and development program that will address the inadequacies identified in the firm’s human resource skills. COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS FOR STAKEHOLDERS The Business Dictionary defines stakeholders as “a person, group, or organisation that has direct or indirect stake in an organisation because it can affect or be affected by the organisation’s actions, objectives, and policies”. Coles Group stakeholder therefore includes employees, suppliers, creditors, customers, shareholders, the general community and the government. While designing the communications process, Coles Group would therefore need to identify the specific group of stakeholders it wishes to target with its communiqué. In workforce planning, the chain retailer would target employees. Having established that Coles Group has 94,000 employees, it is possible that the communictaion fostered in the organisation is functional. According to Galvin and Wilkinson (6), functional communication is usually observed where details such as coordinating work plans, arranging schedules, and the exchange of impersonal information occurs. Such mode of communication, although not very efficient is adopted for purposes of running big organisations smoothly (Galvin and Wilkinson 6). However, a more fitting communication process that would fit the Coles Group well is the Nurturing Communication process. According to Galvin and Wilkinson (6), nurturing communication processes ensures that healthy relationships between the communicator and the information recipient exist, because such the communication process makes people “feel cared for and valued”. This means that even when the Coles Group management is communicating warning messages to its underperforming employees; it can do so in a caring manner. In turn, employees will feel valued and would therefore work on improving their performance. Works Cited Australian Institute of Management. “Australia’s Workforce ‘Skills Gap’.” Dec. 2009. 18 Nov. 2010. Business Dictionary. “Stakeholder- definition.” n.d. 18 Nov. 2010. Galvin, Kathleen and Wilkinson, Charles. “The Communication Process: Impersonal and Interpersonal.” 2006. 18 Nov. 2010. . Harrison, Rosemary. Learning and Development. New Jersey: CIPD Publishing. 2005. Print. Kaye, Beverly. Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting the Good People to Stay. 4th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Bernett-Koehler Publishers Inc, 2008. Print Larsen, Nan Gesche. Implementing Strategic Learning. New York: American Society for Training and Development, 2002. Print. Shah, Chadra. “Determinants of Job Separation and Occupational Mobility in Australia.” Working Paper, 66 (2009):1-32. Slocum, John. “Job Redesign: Improving the Quality of Work Life”. Journal of experimental Learning and Simulation. 3.1 (1981): 17-36. Wesfarmers. “Coles.” n.d. 18 Nov. 2010. < http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-businesses/coles.html> Workforce Planning Instruction Manual. “Workforce Planning Summary/Briefing Document.” 2006. 18 Nov. 2010. Read More