Introduction
Coles supermarket is the leader in food retailing industry in Australia. 90 years ago it stated its operation and has successfully expanded all over Australia. Retail industry requires maximum human interfaces. The customer service provided by the company and its employees gives it a competitive advantage. Today Coles has a huge human capital of 1 lakh employees (Official website of Coles, n.d.). To maintain its market share and leadership in the industry it had to constantly increase and upgrade its workforce as they formed the face of the company.
The recruitment policies of the organization
Recruitment is the process of identifying and hiring the most suitable candidates for a vacant job role in an organisation in a timely and cost effective way (Barber, 1998). Recruitment can be internal or external. The major forces shaping the HR agenda at Coles are technological advancement, globalization, talent management and demographics management. Coles operates within a globalized atmosphere. Within a global world wherein cost effectiveness is one among the chief drivers of continuing growth, speedy adaptation to technology innovation offers competitive advantage to the companies (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). The HR should be capable to taking this competitive advantage and utilize it in a very proficient manner that it adds considerable value to the organization’s brand.
Coles supermarkets has a different recruitment process which has been devised to serve the best interest of the company as well as the employees (Coles Group Recruitment, n.d.). The company recruits as per the requirements of the business by external as well as internal recruitment (Official website of Coles, n.d.). The internal opportunities provide the existing employees opportunities to develop and excel their skills and competencies. Coles uses all modern amenities to advertise for their external recruitment including newspapers and job portals. The department estimated 60,000 annual hires for all store across all levels (Official website of Coles, n.d.).
The demand for the right talent is high and the HR department faced different challenges. The company faced severe competition in the employment market also. The preliminary screening is the paper based applications. The company receives 3000 - 5000 application every week (Coles Group Recruitment, n.d.). The company requires people who are good at customer service and sales. Within the challenging business environment the recruitment and selection process of all levels from General Managers to entry level staff are conducted. The retail giant, Coles supermarket, does not follow any particular type of selection process. They devise the processes as per the requirements. They conduct personal interviews as well as case interviews (Coles Group Recruitment, n.d.).
The offer letters comply with the standards specified in the National Employment Standards 2010 (Fair work. Australian Government, 2010). Also previously, there were agreements which specify the employment norms and conditions (Coles Group Recruitment, n.d.). The company tries to provide the best facilities to its employees to motivate them and retain for a long time (Coles Group Recruitment, n.d.). As retail industry caters to everyday needs, the company operates its stores from morning to night. Hence the labor has to work in shift. So constraints have to be adjusted according to the requirements.
The strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s policies
Strengths:
- The recruitment system is based on a situational strategy.
- The strategies of the company comply with the legal requirements.
Weaknesses:
- It was seen the rate of recruitment was not at par with the demand of manpower forecasted. This was primarily due to an unstructured interview process which was time consuming.
Recommendations and conclusion
In the paper it can be seen that human resource planning is a complex set of activities which includes strategizing for how many candidates to be hire, how should they be hired, what should be the selection process, whom to appoint and how to draft the offer of employment. It not only involves in the designing of all the process but also in the proper implementation of all process for successful recruitment. At Coles, it is found that the process of recruitment is not specific and hence it would lead to confusion and mismanagement leading to more cost and time. For a more professional approach the company needs to work on a HR strategy which should be standardized and electronically maintained for proper communication track, reduce time consumption and future reference (Official website of Coles, n.d.). A proper implementation of human resource planning process would help the company devise a more effective and efficient process of recruitment, that would contribute to the overall organizational objectives. This would also help the HR staff to attend to the strategic needs of the company. It can also involve the functional managers to make better selection and recruitment. To perform productively in a job an employee needs to be motivated. So the company can evaluate the motivational fit (job fit motivation and cultural fit motivation) for the candidate they are selecting to recruit. With growing focus on retention, importance of psychological contract in recruitment and retention is gaining importance. So the company should consider the psychological contract with the employees. The more the company meets the expectations of the employees and fulfill the psychological contract, the higher will be the commitment of the employees to the job and the company, better identification with the organization and higher employee retention.
References
Coles Group Recruitment: Embracing technology – changing the way we recruit. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://www.aiec.idp.com/pdf/Thompson%20Thu%201350%20JBT.pdf
Coles Supermarket. (n.d.) Official website of Coles. Retrieved from
http://www.colescareers.com.au/Store-Support/Joining-our-team/Application-Selection-Process.aspx
Fair work. Australian Government (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment/national-employment-standards/pages/what-are-the-10-nes-entitlements.aspx
Ulrich, D. & Brockbank, W. (2005). The HR Value Proposition, Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Press.
