HRMT20024 Human Resource Management Report Sample

HRMT20024 Human Resource Management Report

Students have completed the ‘Reviewing the HRM Literature’ for Assessment 2, and that material should be used towards Assessment 3, including the feedback received. Assessment 3 will assist students to apply their learning to a particular industry sector or problem, and tailor their argument to that sector’s specific challenges. It will give students the opportunity to enhance their research, analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills, particularly in the areas of argument development and report writing. Before starting this assessment, please read the marking criteria at the end of this document.

This assessment requires you to write a report on current human resource management challenges in the Australian context in any one of the two sectors (Retail or Financial sector).

Your report structure is provided in a template, and includes:

§ Executive summary
§ Table of contents
§ Introduction
§ Sector context
§ Current human resource management challenges for the sector in Australia
§ Conclusion
§ References

You can reuse journal articles you used in Assessment 2, as well as current news stories, and develop an argument applying that literature to your selected sector.
You must cite at least ten (10) relevant peer-reviewed journal articles.

You can cite other academic references such as books and conference papers, and book chapters but these will NOT be counted as part of the 10 journal articles.

Important: Plagiarism will be reported to the Academic Integrity Unit and may result in a “zero” mark.

Solution

1) Introduction 

According to the data-driven age, business organizations are transforming with respect to their organizational culture, work patterns, employee dimension, and many more. The inclusion of human resource management HRM plays a pivotal role in ensuring the systematic arranging of information concerning the employees within the organizational context. Based on the study, opined by Malik et al. (2020), it has been noted that the systematic arranging of HRM is related to different aspects including significant planning, adequate decision making, streamlining of business operations, and so on. All these aspects help the organizations to deliver exceptional business performance to the end customers, followed by achieving more growth and success respectively. According to MBA Assignment Experts, On the other hand, the retail sector seeks much attention as it makes possibilities for customers to have the access of gaining a wide range of products and services. Therefore, the retailing industry has been responsible for developing possession utilities accordingly. 

In addition, the supermarkets are considered an integral part of the retail sector that is responsible for the offerings of food and groceries based on a low marginal gain. Based on the study, opined by Gutierrez-Gutierrez et al. (2018), in order to maximize the selling of the products and /or services, the HRM of supermarkets has to maintain a trained workplace culture accordingly. The primary purpose of the study reflects on the challenges of HRM within the supermarkets in the Australian retail sector. Furthermore, this study focuses on different types of critical approaches to get the best details, followed by the development of an effective conclusion. 

2) Sector Context

The Australian retail industry has been considered one of the major contributors with respect to the mentioned country's economic concerns. As per the study, opined by Wang & McCarthy (2021), in 2019, the retail industry of Australia has accounted for a turnover value of AUD 329.6 billion. With time, the supermarket region of the Australian retail industry seeks much importance and during the post-pandemic period, its demands increase by 11%. Based on the research, propagated by gov.au (2022), in late 2020, the supermarket value in Australia gains the profitability amount of AUD 151 billion. In order to deliver exceptional business service, a great amount of employment is required. According to the study, propagated by gov.au (2022), in 2021, the Australian retail industry has employed 13.3 million employed people. Since the Australian retail industry is quite big and hence, it significantly divides the responsibilities of the retail employees into different categories like management, intermediate, buying and merchandising, customer service representative, visual merchandiser, and many more. In order to deliver exceptional service, the retail employees need to speak English fluently and the other approaches can be trained accordingly. 

In addition, it is known that the Australian retail sector has been divided into different segments like Food and Beverages, Personal and Household Care, Electronic and Household Appliances, Apparel, Footwear and Accessories, and so on. Besides this, the distribution channel of the Australian retail industry is interlinked with Supermarkets or Hypermarkets, Department Stores, Specialty Stores, Convenience Stores, and many more. However, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, there is the presence of numerous norms like the implementation of national lockdown measures, social distancing norms, stay-at-home-to-stay protected protocols, and so on. Based on the research, opined by gov.au (2022), the overall profit margin retail industry of Australia has decreased by 3.2% in 2020 accordingly. 

3) Current Human Resource Management Challenges for The Sector in Australia 

Theme 1: Inappropriate maintenance of SHRM and IR within the Australian retail sector

The inclusion of SHRM plays a vital role within the organizational context as it delivers a coherent approach to achieving competitive advantages. It has been noted that the SHRM policies are mainly reciprocated by the changes in demographic factors, globalization, political impacts and so on (Rehman et al., 2021). Since SHRM has been associated with a more long-term orientation towards the organizational objectives and hence, it requires proper business strategies accordingly. Due to the pandemic, the traditional businesses are moving online and similarly, the supermarkets of Australia are trying to embrace the technology to thrive the business through online platforms. However, the concern of data security is becoming one of the most challenging aspects that the HRM should look out for. 

The data science advisors of the Australian government have developed Data61 as a roadmap to manage the HRM practices and save the data on cloud systems (gov.au, 2022). However, in order to implement this technology, the HRM practices of the retail sector need to maintain the industrial relations accordingly. This is because, industrial relations are responsible for maintaining the relationship between employees, employers, employee representatives, and employer associations respectively. Therefore, based on the above discussion, it can be said that the employees are represented as the primary resources within the organizational context. 

Since the industrial relations is dealing with the compensation in terms of exchange for work of employment contract and hence, the implementation of new technologies regarding the securing of data raised the emphasis on ethical questions on the security of organizational resources (Tawfig & Kamarudin, 2021). In this regard, the HR practitioners of the retail industry of Austria need to be aware of the consequences of implementing advanced technologies within the organizational context to maintain the industrial relations accordingly. However, due to digitalization, the HRM is lacking with suitable policies to create job opportunities, followed by enhancement of competitive advantages respectively. 

Theme 2: Lack of commitment and awareness to contribute to the bottom line success of organizations

Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, the traditional business has been disrupted and hence, the companies need to develop appropriate HRM policies to evolve their respective workplaces accordingly. According to the stud, opined by Alam et al. (2021), due to the global pandemic, the international economies face negative economic growth whereas the Australian economy is mainly measured through fractions of a percent. This significant aspect puts more pressure on the HRM practices of the Australian retail industry to perform the business function on daily basis. In this regard, the HRM is integrating with business strategies to make sustainable growth. 

Due to improper policies, the HRM of the retail industry finds out a capability gap across the Australian Public Service (APS). As per the study, propagated by Lim et al. (2021), in order to address this gap, the APS has introduced a stream regarding HRM. This streamlined process is quite helpful for the companies as it deals with both professional network and workforce strategy to maintain recruitment, workplace training, and performance management respectively. Besides this, it has been noted that the concerns of APS are mainly associated with Treasury, several government departments, and the Australian Tax Office (Alam et al., 2021).  However, due to these changing employment contracts, the SHRM cannot emphasize the facts of formulated strategies among the employees within the organizational context of Australian supermarkets and /or retail sector. 

On the other hand, it has been noted that the retail industry has been represented as a veritable revolving door, especially for the organizational employees. In Australia, the turnover rate of part-time workers in supermarkets is 81%. Besides this, the retail sector of Australia is facing the issues of gender equality as there is a presence of a 20.8% gender pay gap (Lim et al., 2021). Since, the SHRM of Australia is responsible for maintaining the corresponding rules of local, federal, and state regulations and it becomes quite difficult for the HRM to select the best approach accordingly. As a result, the managerial department of Australian retail organizations is lacking with the implementation of appropriate commitment to engage more employees accordingly. 

Theme 3: Lacking suitable legislative policies within the retail sector of Australia

According to the study, propagated by Anwar & Abdullah (2021), it has been noted that HRM practices are mainly regulated by the concerns of the government regulations within the respective country. This is because the respective government of the country is able to outline fair practices for both the perspectives such as the business and the employees. Similarly, in Australia, there is a presence of commonwealth legislation that includes the Fair Work Act 2009, Race Discrimination Act 1975, and Sex Discrimination Act 1984 respectively (Clibborn, 2021). However, in this regard, the inclusion of the Fair Work Act 2009 seeks much attention. Based on the study, opined by Golding (2021), it has been noted that the primary objective of this act is to deliver a balanced framework to develop a productive workplace, followed by promotion of the national economic prosperity respectively. 

Apart from the Fair Work Act 2009, in Australia, there is a presence of unionization rates as well. The mentioned concept is mainly dealing with the concern of the negotiation of pay and employment conditions accordingly. However, due to the huge pay gap, and higher rates of unionization rates among the full-time employees, there has been seen a reduction in fair employment contracts among all the employees. In order to cope with this situation, freedom of association is developed under the Fair Work Act of 2009 to review the maintenance of National Employment Standards. Based on the study, opined by Clibborn (2021), the HRM of the Australian retail sector is unable to maintain the industrial relations framework due to a lack of enterprise-level negotiations. 

In addition, it has been noted that the Fair Work Act 2009 deals with a few perspectives including the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman, and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia (Golding, 2021). The primary purpose of these mentioned perspectives is to be aware of the organization's HRM practices to develop standard policies for fair treatment of the organizational employees. However, due to a lack of awareness, the hiring managers are unable to manage or encourage the employees with lower expenses. 

Theme 4: Lacking with strategic alignment to deal labor demand

According to the study, propagated by Gelle-Jimenez & Aguiling (2021), it has been noted that HRM practices are dealing with appropriate strategic alignment to give much focus on the maintenance of a corporate strategy. With time, the retail sector of Australia becomes quite competitive and hence, the HRM practices need proper implementation of strategic alignment to interpret target goals respectively. Therefore, it can be said that the strategic alignment of HRM has been responsible for establishing the relationship between the strategic management of the organization and business strategies accordingly to enhance sales. On the other hand, through the HRM practices, the companies need to give much focus on the labor demand as well. 

Based on the study, propagated by Lees & Dhanpat (2021), it has been noted that labor demand forecasting plays a crucial role within the retail sector. This is because, labor demand forecasting helps the companies to make efficient labor cost alignment, followed by cutting down the unnecessary over-staffing. Due to the global pandemic, there is disruption of labor supply and so the HRM practices are looking forward to the implementation of new approaches. Since the inclusion of a human resource information management system or HRIMS seeks much attention, hence, the retail sector of Australia also gives much focus on this. However, in order to get the appropriate result from HRIMS, it requires three types of data such as administrative functions, operational data, and strategic planning information. 

Due to a lack of legislative policies and awareness, the HRM practices are unable to identify the competency inventories accordingly. According to the study, opined by Gelle-Jimenez & Aguiling (2021), it is known that the competency inventories are mainly derived through organizational audits. Due to increased competition, the influential effect of customer service is declined by 60%. However, due to a lack of analytical approaches to HRM practices, the Australian retailers are unable to recruit or maintain the right people to grow the sales accordingly. 

Theme 5: Lacking appropriate strategies for job design in the near future 

Due to the global pandemic, like other sectors, the retail sector is also shifted towards digital platforms. Hence, in this regard, the HRM needs to develop suitable policies in accordance with the content management system, responsive websites, eCommerce, and many more. Therefore, all these mentioned perspectives are responded with the influx of tech solutions, followed by improvement of their operation and customer experience simultaneously. The traditional business does not require such individuals with high skilled competencies whereas the digital business requires such competencies accordingly. As a result, it increases the high staff turnover rates due to lack of training and /or knowledge. In order to cope with this situation, the HRM of the retail sector requires new training schemes, promotion potential, and internal communication systems respectively (Lees & Dhanpat, 2021). 

In addition, before the implementation of a new job design aspect, the HRM of the retail sector needs to take a few facts into consideration. Consequently, these facts are commonly known as consideration of human engineering, quality of work-life consideration, industrial engineering, and many more (Gelle-Jimenez & Aguiling, 2021). Through these mentioned perspectives, retail organizations are able to analyze, design, and implement jobs with more efficiency. However, the changing environment like digitalization and customer buying behavior has made it difficult for the retail industry accordingly. 

4) Conclusion

This selected study provided a transparent image of the concerns of the challenges of HRM within the supermarkets in the Australian retail sector. The Australian retail sector had been divided into different segments like Food and Beverages, Personal and Household Care, Electronic and Household Appliances, Apparel, Footwear and Accessories, and so on. However, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, there was the presence of numerous norms like the implementation of national lockdown measures, social distancing norms, and stay-at-home-to-stay protected protocols, and hence, the overall profit margin retail industry of Australia had decreased by 3.2% in 2020 accordingly. 

Due to the pandemic, the traditional businesses were moving online and similarly, the supermarkets of Australia had tried to embrace the technology to thrive the business through online platforms. Due to the presence of improper policies, the HRM of the retail industry had found a capability gap across the Australian Public Service (APS). However, with respect to these changing employment contracts, the SHRM could not emphasize the facts of formulated strategies among the employees within the organizational context of Australian supermarkets and /or retail sector. Furthermore, the Australian retailers were unable to recruit or maintain the right people to grow the sales accordingly as they lacked analytical approaches to HRM practices. Therefore, the changing environment like digitalization and customer buying behavior had made it difficult for the retail industry of Australia to shape the new or adverse job designing capabilities accordingly.

5) Reference List

Alam, M. M., Wei, H., & Wahid, A. N. (2021). COVID‐19 outbreak and sectoral performance of the Australian stock market: An event study analysis. Australian economic papers, 60(3), 482-495. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-8454.12215 

Anwar, G., & Abdullah, N. N. (2021). The impact of Human resource management practice on Organizational performance. International journal of Engineering, Business and Management (IJEBM), 5. https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijebm.5.1.4 

Clibborn, S. (2021). Australian industrial relations in 2020: COVID-19, crisis and opportunity. Journal of Industrial Relations, 63(3), 291-302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00221856211012813

Gelle-Jimenez, M., & Aguiling, H. M. (2021). Leveraging human resources management (HRM) practices toward congruence of values. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 10(1), 85-94.  https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v10i1.987

Golding, G. (2021). Major court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2020. Journal of Industrial Relations, 63(3), 395-410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185620987262

Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L. J., Barrales-Molina, V., & Kaynak, H. (2018). The role of human resource-related quality management practices in new product development: A dynamic capability perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-07-2016-0387

Lees, D., & Dhanpat, N. (2021). Relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1517

Lim, G., Nguyen, V., Robinson, T., Tsiaplias, S., & Wang, J. (2021). The Australian Economy in 2020–21: The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Prospects for Economic Recovery. Australian Economic Review, 54(1), 5-18. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-8462.12405

Rehman, K. U., Mata, M. N., Martins, J. M., Mariam, S., Rita, J. X., & Correia, A. B. (2021). SHRM Practices Employee and Organizational Resilient Behavior: 
Implications for Open Innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(2), 159. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7020159

Retail Trade, Australia, February 2022. (2022). Retrieved 20 April 2022, from https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/retail-and-wholesale-trade/retail-trade-australia/latest-release

Retail Trade, Australia. (2022). Retrieved 20 April 2022, from https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/retail-and-wholesale-trade/retail-trade-australia

Tawfig, N. F., & Kamarudin, S. (2021). Role of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on the Achieving of Sustainable Competitive Advantages: The Mediation Role of Strategic Leadership and Organizational Culture. Review of International Geographical Education Online, 11(5), 583-604. 10.48047/rigeo.11.05.58