Managing Human Resources of Coles - Case Study Example

Managing Human Resources of Coles Name of Student: Name of Course: Name of Instructor: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Part 1 3 2.1 Importance of Operations Management to Coles 3 2.2 Key Roles and Responsibilities of the Operations Manager 4 2.3 Selection Documentation Package 5 2.4 Compensation and Rewards Package 5 2.5 Training and Development 6 3.0 Part 2: Employee Performance 6 3.1 Proposed Approach to Managing the Employee’s Performance 7 3.2 Developmental Plan 8 3.3 Recommendations 8 4.0Conclusion 9 References 11 Managing Human Resources of Coles 1.0 Introduction In the light of the ongoing organizational change process at Coles, there has been a need for the company to appoint new staff to work in various departments in the firm. Coles is one of the largest supermarkets in Australia. The retail store started small in1914 but has since grown to a major supermarket in Australia with 741 supermarkets in Australia. The supermarket aims at providing Australians with a supermarket with quality services and goods, value and trust. The retailer has a wide range of products ranging from farm produces to consumer products. Other key aspects of its product and service delivery includes Coles online that provides its customers with an e commerce platform, Coles liquor that is responsible for retailing alcoholic products and Coles Express that provides fueling services. One of the key job positions that have to be filled in line with the appointment of new employees is that of the operations manager. In part 1 of the following report will give an insight into various human resource management practices that need to be used to get the most competent employee for the job while part 2 will evaluate those practices that will enable Coles motivate the hired individual. 2.0 Part 1 2.1 Importance of Operations Management to Coles Operations management is an important management function in any organization. It the business management practice that focuses on all the business processes involved in planning, controlling, leading and organizing resources efficiently hence leading to the production of goods and services (Wright & Mechling 2002). As seen in the analysis of Coles above, it has been noted that the company aims at providing its customers with quality products and goods and quality service delivery. Additionally, the company aims at establishing healthy and long lasting relationships with farmers and other suppliers in Australia; hence being able to contribute to the general growth of Australia. For this reason, there is a need for the company to have in place a highly effective operations management so as to be able to achieve its objectives. Some of the core processes in the company includes the management of the supply chain. The supply chain system is responsible for sourcing and supplying various products to its stores. The management of employees, organization of the store floors, customer service, cleaning and quality management are other core processes to the company. With 741 stores, over 99,000 employees and 19,000,000 weekly transactions, it is important that the company has in place a competent operations manager who will be able to steer the company towards achieving its organizational strategies (Coles, 2014). 2.2 Key Roles and Responsibilities of the Operations Manager The operations manager to Coles is expected to be engine of operations management in the company. The operations manager is expected to analyze processes in the company and develop and implement business processes that increase the quality of service delivery, efficiency in the processes, customer and employee satisfaction and generally success of the retail chain store. The operations manager has to take responsibility of any process reengineering in the firm. The manager is also responsible for undertaking a periodic audit of the operations in the firm and advising the executive on possible areas of improvement. He/she is also responsible for ensuring that the human and capital resources in the company are optimized. This will ensure that the company will get maximum outputs from the available inputs. The manager will also be responsible of undertaking the main management functions in the firm. On leadership, the manager is expected to exhibit great leadership. Transformational leadership approach will be efficient in guiding the employees towards great operational management. Additionally, the manager is expected to integrate in diversity HR management practices owing to the diversity that exists in the over 99,000 employees. He/she is also expected to be actively involved in the planning of operations and also the general organizational plans. Thirdly, the successful candidate is expected to organize the company’s resources towards improving the operations in the company. The manager is also expected to control the operations in the company so that they are aligned with the core strategy. 2.3 Selection Documentation Package It is recommended that the company uses E recruitment to recruit the operations manager. E recruitment will enable the company to get access to the global labor market; hence increasing its chances of getting a competent candidate (Allden & Harris, 2013). Additionally, e recruitment eliminates human interference in part of the recruitment process; hence increasing its efficiency (Girard & Fallery, 2011). As part of the selection process, the candidates will be subjected to several tests both on the online recruitment portal and the face to face interviews. Lastly, the candidates will be selected against the job description of the position. Further qualifications and tests will be used to select the most competent candidate. 2.4 Compensation and Rewards Package The successful candidate will be eligible to $2000 basic salary per month, $300 travel allowance, $600 house allowance and $250 communication allowance. Additionally, the successful candidate is entitled to company transport in official duties, family medical insurance and other benefits accorded to Coles employees. Additionally, the successful candidate and his/her family will have unlimited aces to the company’s health club, receive special discount on Coles purchases and also eligible to a 5% increase in the basic salary with an increase in the company’s profits. 2.5 Training and Development The successful candidate will be inducted into the company by the current general manager. He will work closely with the chain and regional managers so as to acquaint himself or herself with the operations at the company. He will also be inducted into the company’s executive management. As part of training and development, the successful candidate will be put in a 3 month probation where he /she will undergo training on his / her job position (Dysvik & Kuvaas, 2010). It is expected that he / she will undergo training periodically as part of the training and development to ensure that he/she is able to manage the responsibilities that comes with the duties. 3.0 Part 2: Employee Performance After a successful recruitment and selection exercise, Coles hired a 31 year old man as the e operations manager. The candidate met all the requirements outlined by the company’s human resource management department. However, one month down the line, the employee seems Cleary bored and is not challenged by the job. The general manager believes that the employee is most likely looking for a new job elsewhere. However, with the age of the employee, his qualifications and experience, the general manager believes that he can make a positive contribution to the company. The following section discusses ways in which the employee’s performance can be influenced positively. 3.1 Proposed Approach to Managing the Employee’s Performance Currently, the operations manager is retrained by the former organizational norms and practices. He is unable to make independent decisions in his docket and has to continuously consult before making any decision. Additionally, there’s no clear line of command in his department and the conflict of responsibilities in departmental levels is very common. In order to improve his performance, it is expected that the following will be done. Firstly, organizational planning should be done in line with the development of the new organizational strategy. As part of the planning process, the roles and responsibilities of the operations management department will be outlined. Additionally, the operations manager will be given the responsibility of developing a departmental structure. With these responsibilities, the company will set expectations that the department ought to meet within a specific period of time (Busi & Bititci, 2006). This will challenge the new operations manager make him more involved with his job. It will also make the manager feel responsible for all the activities that occur in his department, Secondly, the human resource department should come up with strategies to measure his performance continuously. This will ensure that the expectations of the company from the operations manager are realized continuously. Any challenges that crop up during operations will be remediated appropriately (United States Office of Personnel Department, 2014). Thirdly, the company should come up with strategies of developing the employee’s capacity to perform. Possible training in supply chain management, leadership, control, organizing and management training would come in handy in developing the employee’s capacity. The company should also come up with rating system for all the managers so as to reward good performance and also work on bad performance. This will challenge the employee to work harder. 3.2 Developmental Plan There are various developmental needs for the company and employees. On the side of the company, it needs to change its organizational culture in a move to improve its competitiveness and sustainability. For this reason, there is a collective need to not only appoint new employees but to also change the human resource management strategies that are currently in use. For this reason, the human resource management development will be geared to towards re innovating human resource management for the whole organizations and not for the operations manager’s docket. The development needs includes: need for performance management, employee motivation and training and development. In order to manage the performance better, the human resource management department should develop strategies of planning work and setting goals for the employees, continuous monitoring of performance, personal capacity development of the employees and developing rating and reward schemes (United States Office of Personnel Department, 2014). 3.3 Recommendations In a move to ensure that the operations manager is retained at Coles. The human resource management department should adopt the following strategies. First, the compensation of the employee should be reviewed. The remuneration should be linked with the performance of the employee. Every improvement in the company’s operations should be matched by a monetary reward. The allowances of the employee should also be increased. Owing to the high travelling rate of the operations manager; the current $300 is not sufficient for him. Other allowances such as housing allowance should also be increased to reflect the market prices (Bjerke, Ind & De Paoli, 2007). As part of the reward scheme, the company should give the operations manager a lee way to work remotely so as to be able to get details from individual stores. The executive management should also give the operations manager more power to make decisions and implement changes in the company’s operations. It is more likely that the bad attitude towards work is more psychological due to the restrictions on his job. It is expected that giving him more decision making power will revert this (Halm, 2011). As part of the general human resource management practice in the company, the employee will undergo periodic performance appraisal where he will be assessed according to expectations. 4.0 Conclusion Concluding, this report has been able to give an insight into various aspects related to human resource management. Using Coles, a major supermarket chain in Australia as a case study company that is undergoing change and is appointing new employees as part of its restructuring process, the report has been able to give the importance of operations management at Coles and ways of improving the performance of employees. The report has identified that operations management is responsible for leading, controlling, planning and organizing all activities that are focused on developing a given set of inputs to a desired set of outputs (Mahesh & Lynn, 008). The report also gave the roles and responsibilities of a n operations manager. In the selection package, the job description and e recruitment staffing strategy was recommended. This is owing to its ability of enabling the company reaches out to the global labor market. The report also identified appropriate strategies of rewarding and compensating the operations manager. In the last section of the part 1, the report discussed ways of training and developing the operations manager. In part 2 of the report, ways of managing the performance of the operations manager and the entire employees was discussed. Towards the end, the report gave recommendations on how the human resource department can retain the newly appointed operations manager. References Allden, N & Harris, L., (2013). Building A Positive Candidate Experience: Towards A Networked Model Of E-Recruitment, Journal of Business Strategy, 34(5); 36 - 47 Busi, M., & Bititci, U., (2006). Collaborative Performance Management: Present Gaps And Future Research, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 55(1);7 – 25 Bjerke, R.,Ind, N., & De Paoli, D., (2007). The impact of aesthetics on employee satisfaction and motivation, EuroMed Journal of Business,2 (1)57 - 73 Coles, (2014). Coles, Coles, Retrieved on 24th March 2014 from http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-businesses/coles.html Dysvik, A.,& Kuvaas, B., (2010). Exploring the relative and combined influence of mastery-approach goals and work intrinsic motivation on employee turnover intention, Personnel Review, 39(5); 622 - 638 Girard, A., & Fallery, B., (2011). Chapter 8 e-Recruitment: From Transaction-Based Practices to Relationship-Based Approaches, in Tanya Bondarouk, Huub Ruël, Jan Kees Looise (ed.) Electronic HRM in Theory and Practice (Advanced Series in Management, Volume 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 143-158 Halm, B., (2011). Employee Engagement: A Prescription for Organizational Transformation, in Jason A. Wolf, Heather Hanson, Mark J. Moir, Len Friedman, Grant T. Savage (ed.) Organization Development in Healthcare: Conversations on Research and Strategies (Advances in Health Care Management, Volume 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 77-96 Mahesh C. & Lynn, B.,, (2008). Theory Of Constraints: A Theory For Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 28(10); 991 - 1012 United States Office of Personnel Department, 2014. Performance Management, United States Office of Personnel Department, Retrieved on 24th March 2014 from http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/overview-history/ Wright, C., & Mechling, G., 2002. The Importance of Operations Management Problems In Service Organizations, Omega, 20(2); 77-87 Read More