Bakers Delights Human Resources - Example

Name Instructor Course Date Bakers Delight’s Human Resources Strategic Plan Company Background Strategic human resource planning is a critical component of strategic human resource management. Strategic HR planning is important as it links HR management to an organization’s strategic plan and the fact that it helps in guiding a company on how to successfully achieve their goals (Rothwell and Kazanas 32). Bakers Delight is one of Australia’s fastest growing restaurants. The bakery chain opened its doors in Australia in 1980 and has since expanded to become a multinational brand. Despite the challenges associated with operating in a hospitality industry, Bakers Delight has emerged as one of the few bakeries that have continued to thrive, winning huge markets from their competitors. With more than 587 stores in Australia, Bakers Delight employs more than 750 people who ensure that customers get value for money through the provision of quality products and services (Bakers Delight 1). However, considering the changing internal and external business environment in which Sepia operates, it is important for the company to consider coming up with a robust and comprehensive human resource strategy that would not only ensure that it is in compliance with the laws and regulations, but also to be able to attract and retain the best talents in the industry. Mission Statement The mission of Bakers Delight is to deliver quality broad and unmatched services and to delight its stakeholders (Bakers Delight 1). Vision Statement The vision of Bakers Delight is to become the world’s number one fresh bread retailer (Bakers Delight 1). Aim of HR Strategic Plan Strategic human resource planning is an important undertaking that any company that hopes to success in the modern day business environment, where employees are viewed as a source of competitive advantage must undertake. Strategic HR planning is important as it helps guide a company in human resource management (Rothwell and Kazanas 51). Bakers Delight is an example of a bakery that understands the value of strategic HR planning. As a company that seeks to become the best employer in the Austrian restaurant industry, the aim of the firm’s strategic HR planning is to ensure delivery of strategic HR program, technologies and services to produce talented, productive, diverse and engaged workforce to support its business operations and to ensure the success of the company. Bakers Delight understands that the key to its success and sustainability depends on the kind of workforce it has and their ability to deliver the set goals. As such, the bakery giant aims to create a diverse workforce comprising of highly talented and productive workforce to enable it compete effectively in the already crowded market, where talent competition is at its peak. Stakeholders Involved Like any other company, Bakers Delight has a number of key stakeholders who either have an interest in the company or are affected by the decisions made by the company. Accordingly, the HR plan that Bakers Delight comes up with must ensure the participation of its key stakeholders in the HR strategy development to ensure the delivery of a strategy that is agreed upon for the benefit of all the stakeholders. The first major stakeholders to be involved in HR strategy planning process are the managers. The managers of Bakers Delight are a critical stakeholder to be involved in the planning processes because they are the ones to be involved in the implementation of the strategy developed. Managers will also be involved in the planning process considering since their input in the planning process will ensure the development of an effective HR plan that suits the needs of the company based on their assessments of the HR needs of the company (Boxall and Purcell 319). The other key stakeholders to be involved in the planning process are the employees. Employees are a key stakeholder and must be engaged in the planning process because the HR strategies to be developed will affect them directly. Besides, the HR planning seeks to ensure the creation of a working environment that suits their needs by promoting their professional development, ensuring better career opportunities, enhanced leadership skills and as well as creating an reward and benefit structure that is agreeable to all. As such, their input in the planning process will be very critical in developing an all inclusive HR strategy. Employee representatives are the other key stakeholders to be involved in the HR planning process. The Australian workers have strong and active labor unions that advocate for the rights of its members. Australian Workers Union (AWU), for example has over 100,000 members. The input of trade union, particular those representing the workers of Bakers Delight would be involved to ensure that the HR strategy proposed is that which is agreed upon even by the employee representatives. This is important as it would minimize friction between the company and trade union representing the workers. The HR professionals are the other key stakeholders who will be involved in the planning process as their input will help in developing effective recognized HR strategies that will result in greater business outcome (Boxall and Purcell 321). Involving the input of HR professional will also be critical as it would ensure that the HR strategies proposed for implementation are within the law and ethical. Internal and External Business Environment External Environmental Factors Bakers Delight operates within a legal framework that affects the HR strategies that the company can implement. The Australian government came up with the FAIR WORK ACT 2009 that affects the HR strategies adopted by companies. The law establishes the relationship between the employer and the employee by setting the minimum standards of entitlements, and requires that employers allow flexible working arrangements for its employees. This implies that the HR strategy developed will have to ensure that employees are allowed flexible working schedule to allow them to attend to personal and family matters. The FAIR WORK ACT 2009 also requires fairness in the workplace and prohibits discrimination (CCH Australia, Limited 84). This would affect the HR strategy as the law requires that employers like Bakers Delight employ people based fairly without discriminating a candidate based sex, age, gender, disability, religion or nationality. The legal issue that will affect the HR plan is the minimum wage law applicable in Australia. In Australia, the national minimum wage currently stands at $17.70 per hour. Casual workers who are protected by the national minimum wage must also be paid at least 25% casual loading (CCH Australia, Limited 96). This implies that the deliberations on the HR planning will have to be conducted within the minimum wage rate when coming up with the right minimum wage to implement. The other is the Workplace Health and Safety laws that require that employers provide employees with a healthy and safe working environment. As such, the safety and health of the employees will have to be incorporated in the HR planning to ensure compliance with the law. Employee exploitation is a legal and ethical issue in Australia. As such, the HR planning will ensure that the strategy developed does not exploit employees in line with the expectations of the country. Internal Environmental Factors Strengths Strong distribution and sales network Effective management High revenue and profitability Highly talented employees Weaknesses Under-investment in HR technology Lack of consistent HR process Low investment in strategic HR processes, such as training, workforce development, and recruitment and performance improvement programs. High turnover Less diverse in terms of workforce composition Opportunities Increase investment in HR technology Take advantage of benefits of having a diverse workforce Recruit from across the globe Go green and become more ethical to attract growing ethical and environment conscious employees Introduce more flexible working program Threats Growing competition Changing laws Employees preferring ethical and green companies Current Human Resource Functions and Polices Bakers Delight has grown to become the largest bakery in Australia. The growth and success of the company is largely attributed to the skills that the company has in its workforce that has ensured that the company provide quality products and service. This has been enabled through human resource functions and policies adopted by the company. Bakers Delight’s HR functions involves recruiting, selecting, training and development, as well as reward. The company has a robust recruitment policy that involves recruiting both fresh candidates from universities and experienced employees. Once the employees are recruited, they are subjected to on-the-job training to ensure that they acquire the right skills to perform their assigned task. The company also adopts a competitive remuneration approach to attract and retain its top performers. The employees are also provided with health benefits on top of the salaries they get. HR Strategic Plan Based on the analysis of the HR functions and policies adopted by Bakers Delight, there are areas that require improvements to make the bakery more attractive to top performers and to ensure the company’s competitiveness. Training and Development Bakers Delight’s success and competitiveness depends on the type of skill set its workforce has and their ability to deliver quality products and services. For this reason, as much as the company hires qualified employees, the company will have to invest more on training and development to ensure that the employees are equipped with new skills and multi-skills (Boxall and Purcell 37). For this reason, the company should implement both internal on-the-job training and external training programs to equip employees with the skills to be able to meet customer expectation. The organizing training programs can involve a two-day or one-week training program every month. The training should also involve organizing seminars and workshops, as well as fully paid scholarship programs for employees to enable them develop their skills. Implementing such training and development programs will not only improve the skill set of employees, but also increase their morale and satisfaction, thus resulting in increased commitment and low turnover. Recruitment The success of a company begins with recruiting the right people. However, considering that the world has become a global community, Bakers Delight needs to change its hiring policy by ensuring that it hires from across the globe. This is important as it would enable the company to increase diversity that is still lacking. Having a diverse workforce consisting of individuals from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds will result in the company benefiting from new and innovative ideas and perspectives from a diverse workforce (Chun and Evans 11). Additionally, the new recruitment policy should ensure that women are given equal opportunity in all positions to help increase diversity management. Reward and Benefits The pay and rewards system is one of the factors that employees look for when choosing a company to work. Although Bakers Delight adopts a competitive pay strategy, the company needs to do more to be more attractive to top-notch employees. In particular, Bakers Delight needs to adopt a total reward system. Total reward system will ensure that key elements of workers value from their employment, including benefits, compensation and work experience are incorporated in the system (Manas and Graham 8). The successful implementation of total reward system will help Bakers Delight build a powerful benefit structure that would be agreeable to employees, thus making the company attractive top performers. Fig. Total Reward System Source: (Manas and Graham 8). Technological Requirements for Implementation of the Strategy To implement the above proposed HR strategies, various technologies will play a critical role in this regard. As far as recruitment is concerned, Bakers Delight will have to consider using the Internet as platform for recruiting its workers. By placing an ad on the website, this would enable Bakers Delight to reach out to potential candidates from across the globe and this would enable the company to get diverse talents that it needs to become more competitive and successful. As far as training is concerned, Bakers Delight will have to consider using virtual classrooms (Chanda 41). Virtual training will help the company train a large number of employees faster and be able to assess their progress via computerized testing programs. Lastly, when conducting performance management, the HR professionals at Bakers Delight will have to consider using computerized technology appraise employees’ performance and to receive their feedback for use in bettering the company (Chanda 6). Employees that fail to meet the standards expected are subjected to additional training or let go so that suitable replacement is sourced. Budget Below is the proposed budget for the implementation of the proposed strategic plan. Items Amount (US$) Training Materials 50,000 Consultancy 20,000 Salary and benefits increment 100,000 Contingency 30,000 TOTAL 200,000 Monitoring and Evaluation of the HR Plan The success of the HR strategy implemented will be evaluated by adopting a number of strategies. First, the company will assess the success of the HR strategy by looking at the satisfaction, and commitment level of the employees to the company. Second, the success of the strategy will be evaluated by analyzing how potential employees view the company, whether or not they are willing to work at the company. Additionally, an evaluation will be conducted by looking at whether the company performance has improved or not. Any deviation from the expected standards will be monitored and appropriate action taken to ensure successful strategy implementation. Works Cited Bakers Delight. The rise and rise of Bakers Delight. Web. 15 February 15, 2017 https://www.bakersdelight.com.au/company/ Boxall, Peter and John Purcell. Strategy and Human Resource Management: Third Edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print. Chanda, Ashok. Strategic Human Resource Technologies: Keys to Managing People. New York, NY: SAGE Publications India, 2007. Print. CCH Australia, Limited. Understanding the Fair Work Act. Sidney: CCH Australia Limited, 2011. Print. Chun, Edna and Alvin Evans. The New Talent Acquisition Frontier: Integrating HR and Diversity Strategy in the Private and Public Sectors and Higher Education. London: Stylus Publishing, LLC., 2013. Print. Manas, Todd M. and Michael Dennis Graham. Creating a Total Rewards Strategy: A Toolkit for Designing Business-based Plans. Cambridge: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2003. Print. Rothwell, William J., and H. C. Kazanas. Planning and Managing Human Resources: Strategic Planning for Human Resources Management. Mason, OH: Human Resource Development, 2003. Print. Read More