Attracting and Retaining Staff

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Theme 1: Industrial Relations

According to Nankervis & et. al. (2016), Industrial Relations refers to all the regulations, rules, as well as institutions that appropriately govern employment relationships, along with setting the terms and condition of workplaces. This aspect has a very complex history within Australia, which has its clear and precise impacts within retail sector of the country. Moreover, it operates within micro and macro level, where employer associations emphasise upon the employee relations within a single organisation and unions focus upon the macro level industrial relations within the country.

However, within the Australian retail sector, there are several challenges which the industry is currently facing in terms of staff retention. This is because employee relations are very crucial to develop a healthy and appropriate working environment within the organisation that is one of the most prime factors is associated with retaining competent individuals within the company and ensure their sustainable engagement.

According to Seeto, (2016), the retail industry of Australia has certain challenges in store in context of maintaining healthy employee relations. For instance, one such challenge which directly has an impact upon staff attraction and retention is restructuring the organisation. This includes shaping the organisation's structure in a way in which retail organisations could cut up costs. There are certain companies, who have quite recently included programmes which was related to engagement of new individuals, through teaching them several courses which were in adherence to the terms of modern award, rather the enterprise agreement. Such a restructuring led to disputes within several regulations like the Fair Work act which was disadvantageous for the organisations. This represents the challenge that is associated with restructuring the organisation that might put the adherence to regulations into jeopardy. Moreover, doing so might also lead to insufficient staff retention as there will not be much protection which retail organisations would be providing the staff with.

However, as per Mortimer & Ingersoll, (2015), deregulations upon the employment relations within the Australian Retail Industry is actually an advantage towards staff attraction and retention. This is because it reduces the rigidity in functions and let staff become more flexible in operating in a way which is best for them as well as the company. Moreover, using restructuring as a strategy to ensure protection, attraction and retention of the staff through applied deregulation might be a way through which the above challenge could rightfully be addressed. Moreover, promotion of flexibility within these organisations might be advantageous for appropriate attraction of workforce into the industry. As for compliance with the regulations, the restructuring must be in adherence to the workplace regulations which provide security to the new and existing employees within the sector, which helps in resolving the challenge in a better manner. Get Assignment Examples.Talk to our Experts!

Theme 2: HR Planning in a Changing Environment

Human Resource Planning refers to a bridge between the HR functions, as well as strategies of the organisation. Moreover, it is the planning of workforce for a company within changing national, as well as global industry environments (Nankervis & et. al., 2016). It is again a very crucial aspect related to the staff attraction and retention, which allows the companies within the retail sector to appropriately manage the workforce, as well as regulate the same within the overall industry.

According to Kokemuller, (2020), retail sector companies experience several challenges within Human Resource Management which has an influence upon the strategic planning of the sector for staff attraction and retention. One challenge regarding the same is associated with the changes in trends of shopping of individuals. For instance, the demand of workforce within the retail sector fluctuates as per the seasons. This usually happens throughout the holiday seasons within the Australia, which is the busiest period for retailers due to the holiday buying season of individuals . Hence, in this context, staff attraction becomes challenging because of higher demand and low supply. Moreover, the changes in current environment, specially in terms of global recession contributes in challenges associated with staff retention as well. Such challenge within the changing environment is quite disadvantageous for the sector as it also exert burden upon the existing staff, which gets problematic for their retention. Thus, inappropriate planning of human resources contributes majorly in context of this challenge.

However, according to Nankervis & et. al. (2016), effective workforce planning within changing environment could be used deal with the challenge in relation to this sector. For instance, Human Resource Information Management Systems (HRIMS) could be implemented to deal with changes in external and internal environment. The reason to support this argument is that these allow in an improvised planning, as well as program development. In addition to this, through this system, the response time also reduces which is beneficial in terms of planning the human resources during the holiday seasons.

In addition to this, Silva & Lima. (2018), Information system has contributed in the transformation of Human Resource Management as a strategic partners for the organisations. This is because it could be used as a tool to anticipate the demand and supply appropriately through management of information. This further strengthens the argument in favour of retail sector of Australia as within changing environments, like the ones in buying seasons, workforce planning through this system could contribute in a better management and attraction of human resources in the retail sector, due to more effective information processing, as well as automated management of the whole workforce. Order assignment help from our experts!

Theme 3: Work Design Challenges in a Global Environment

Staff attraction is a key aspect that involves the nature of jobs and adherence to the global environment in order to manage this function in an appropriate way (Nankervis & et. al., 2016). Moreover, work designing is a crucial task which retailers within the organisation must abide by due to the fact that within global environment, the workforce demands are becoming more diverse which requires to design jobs that suits the current situation. Moreover, with different functional areas within the retail industry, work designing is implemented to essentially contribute within companies related to attraction of suitable individuals.

However, according to viewpoints of Sharma, (2019), there are several challenges which are faced by retail sector in terms of getting new individuals within these organisations. One such challenge is associated with work design in context of attracting, as well as retaining a diverse workforce. The reason for this is because diversity requires retail organisations to design different jobs in a unique manner that fits different individuals within these profiles. However, diversity becomes as a challenge when the job design is quite rigid, which is again quite challenging in this context.

According to Robinson, (2019), there are certain steps which could be used by retailers in order to overcome the challenge and ensure appropriate job design for better attraction and retention of staff. The very first step in this regard is skill variety, which requires the recruiters to segregate as per the requirements of the job. Another step is related to determining the extent up to which the job includes accomplishment of identified work within the firm. The next step of work design requires identification of significance of the task in line with the organisation's goals and objectives. Furthermore, autonomy level must be decided and allotted to each of the job role along with margins to include diversity. Lastly, the degree up to which feedbacks are to be provided to clients are decided. All these steps are viable enough to overcome the challenge of work design as such a pattern makes effective room for diverse individuals with different culture, backgrounds, intellect and working styles.

Theme 4: Talent Attraction and Selection

Talent attraction and selection is the process of appropriate recruitment and selection of competent individuals within retail sector that are necessary for the organisation to accomplish its goals and objectives in an appropriate manner. Within the retail industry of Australia, it is highly useful as it is related towards a better and more effective workforce, that contributes majorly towards increased profitability and productivity of the businesses within this sector.

As economy is changing,Australia is facing several challenges in attracting and retaining capable work force. Well-qualified job seekers have many choices of jobs and hence, candidates' bargaining power is more than recruiters of the retail sector. If employees are not satisfied with the job then employee can easily switch over the company. In retail sector, employees directly communicate with customers, and thus, choosing right candidate is very necessary.

According to Gentle, (2018), one of the major challenges which recruiters in retail are facing currently are in context with the channels which they use to recruit the clients. For instance, recruiters use aspects such as professional social networks, Print and Social media, Websites, ads and so forth. However, some of these elements represent challenges for the organisations, within the sector. As an example, Television ads and print media are not helpful for retail recruiters due to the shift of customers upon social media. Moreover, the selection processes such as interview and the discomfort associated with the same discourages candidates to attend this procedure.

Martic, (2018), describes further challenges which retail recruiters face during their search for competent candidates within the workplace. For example, attraction of right candidates for the job, especially when technology is involved. Reason for the same is that in-store candidates who have a desired work experience are very hard to find. The downfall within the Australian Industry which contributes in this challenge is the lack of choosing appropriate and effective channel in context of attracting the right pool of talent within its organisations.

Johnson, (2019), provides in detail of certain recruitment tools that could be used by the retail industry to resolve this issue in an appropriate manner. For instance, the very first one of this is related to the online job boards, which requires companies to provide information about the job to the professional social networks, which saves time and cost for the companies to attract the right people for the job. Moreover, an argument could also be made within the same in relation to usage of print media. As an instance, instead of using newspapers to publish the requirement for workforce, the companies must use trade journals in order to acquire talented individuals in an appealing manner. This would allow the firms to channelise their marketing strategies to an appropriate and desired point that would be helping the sector in overcoming this problem.

Hence, the channels described above could be used by the Australian retail sector in an appropriate and strategic manner to ensure that attraction and selection of talented individuals could be accomplished with ease, and all the challenges associated with the same are resolved effectively.

Theme 5: Talent Retention and Development

Talent Retention and Development is yet another human resource element that is related towards effective and essential retention, management and planned growth of the human resources within an organisation.

There are several retention factors that retail industry must use to retain the existing talent within the organisation. For example, flexible working arrangements, challenging work, effective and reasonable salary, autonomy and empowerment are few such factors that are used within the same. However, retail sector is facing high employment turnover in recent years. This industry is amongst the top five sectors where employee churn is very high. This is because there are increased challenges that are related towards providing arrangements associated with employee retention practices.

One such challenge associated with the same is rotation. According to Silva, (2018), where digitalisation enhances productivity of functions related to the human resources, it is also impacted through challenges by this aspect. For instance, to deal with skill shortages, staff rotation programmes are organised by the retail companies, where employees are required to work effectively within different departments for a specific period of time. This might work for other departments, but in technology, this could lead to major blunders, resulting in weak performances and ultimately dismissal of competent individuals.

Another challenge associated with the same is in context of flexible workplace practices. It is believed that it is one of the most crucial strategies associated with retention of staff, however, it comes up with certain severe challenges. For instance, one key aspect of flexible working is part time employment, and increase in the same enhances burden of HR managers in retail because people are preferring part time job over full time. Despite provision of workplace flexibility, this does not go well with the growth of individuals. Moreover, this also has a negative impact upon the regular employees within the organisation which is bad for their retention and sustainable growth. Ask for Academic Writing Service from our experts!

However, the benefits subsiding flexible working arrangements are greater than its challenges. For instance, it provides the individuals a work life balance which enhances the retention and engagement of employees within the workplace. Moreover, flexible working also encourages productivity of the company through consistency in works and regular deadlines. However, to enhance the scope of success, firms in retail sector must provide training and must ensure effective communication channels to constantly inform the employees who have opted for flexible working to overcome the challenges and ensure staff retention and growth.

CONCLUSION

Thus, it is concluded that staff attraction and retention is a highly crucial activity within organisations in the retail industry. Moreover, description of challenges and specific arguments associated with the same are essential in order to get a better understanding of how best the human resources are attracted and retained within the companies and strategies that are required to overcome this ultimate challenge.

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