Recruitment, Selection, And Induction Processes At ASDA: Policies, Objectives, And Strategies

About ASDA and its strategic and operational plans

Associated Dairies and Farm Group (ASDA) was founded in 1949, it is considered the second largest FMCG retail in UK that also provides financial services. The success of its business enabled it to become a subsidiary of Walmart in 1999, which added to its expertise. ASDA employs more than 175 thousands across the UK, it seeks to become a “Trusted Employer” through providing training and engaging its employees. The working team cooperates with the effective leadership to help the company achieve its mission (ASDA 2018).

ASDA’s philosophy adopts the concept of happy employees that allow the customers enjoy their shopping experience. It creates a safe and family environment for its employees that demonstrates respect and trust. ASDA culture of trust is the core of its strategic and operational plans. Trust represents that ASDA always does the right thing to its stakeholders, through providing excellent service to its customers, respect to individuals, strive for excellence and acting with integrity. ASDA customer pledge outlines what customers should expect from dealing with it. ASDA colleague pledges demonstrate what it is committed to provide for its workforce that includes fairness, equal opportunity, respect and pride of working at ASDA (ASDA 2018).

The Australian employment laws and legislations are very important to organize the relationship between the employer and the employees that consider the legal minimums that should be included in the employees’ contract. According to Australia Government (2018), the laws that can affect the recruitment, selection and induction are as follows:

• Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cwth)
• Competition and Consumer Act 2010
• State and territory WHS health and safety legislation.
• Fair Work Act 2009
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• Privacy Act 1988
• Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• Freedom of Information Act 1982
• Racial Discrimination Act 1975

ASDA’s employs a comprehensive HR strategy of colleagues’ engagement and support to the organisational culture that provide many opportunities for career development. They include, ‘Best Welcome’ induction programme, ‘Star programme’ of excellent customer service, ASDA Academy’s framework for training and development and its career progression of ‘Colleague Steps’. ASDA career development programmes, include the industry’s first 3-year BA Honours degree in retail and distribution, George retail foundation degree and accredited apprenticeship scheme. Its strategies are discussed according to ASDA (2018) as follows:

• ASDA recruitment strategy:depends on publishing vacancies on its website. It aims to attract the best talents that best fits the job requirements, it also offers competitive salaries. The e-recruitment policy enhan;ced the speed and efficiency of recruitment.
• Colleagues’ roles:ASDA offers many roles due to its large business requirements.

· Selection: Applicants register through the e-recruitment process, where the HR team selects the shortlist candidates for an assessment or interview. The job description and the personal qualifications should be matched together to help managers in selecting the best match for the available position. The assessment centre is called ‘ASDA Reality’ or ‘ASDA Magic’ allows the candidates to express their strengths to be aligned with ASDA culture. The last step in the recruitment process is to provide the appropriate training designated to the required role. Training is based on ‘Colleague Steps’ process that involves three key stages – ‘Step In, Step On, Step Up’.

Legislation and the regulations relevant to ASDA policies and procedures

Training and development: ”Step In” is an induction program that lasts for 4 weeks that involves an accreditation to allow the college to move to “Step On” stage after 6 months of work. This step includes coaching, retail apprenticeship and more services. The “Step Up” involves career progression, where colleagues take the chance to create knowledge of excellent customer service delivery across different roles.

Table (1): The recruitment, selection and induction policy, procedures and results

Policy	Procedures	Result
Recruitment	Conduct workforce planning	Increased number of acquired talents
Selection	Using the technological tools of selection	Best fit colleagues are placed
Induction	Deliver training colleagues according to their roles	Skills development

Table (2): Documents control to ensure the colleagues use the most recent version of the document

Draft V 0.1	The 1ST version of the draft
Draft V 0.2	2nd  version of the draft that includes necessary changes
Final V 0.3	3rd approved version of the document

 5. Developed recruitment, selection and induction policies and procedures and supporting forms 

Table (3): The recruitment, selection and induction policy and procedures for ASDA

Strategic objective	Targets	Expected result
Become a Trusted Employer	Inclusion strategy	Colleagues engagement
Maintaining trust	Creating trust among colleagues and with the stakeholders	Happy colleagues who provide the best customer service
Colleagues training	Retaining the highly qualified talents and allowing them to progress	Skills development and work progression

Table (4): Forms and documents

Forms and documents	Purpose
Application form	Applicants have full job information, awareness of legislation, having a consistent data file for the applicants
Reference check	Applicant description and evaluation
Selection panel schedule	Questions and answers, test results, review of candidate information
Screening template	Key selection criteria, comments, questions and score.
Recruitment training requirements	Updating records relative to job specifications,  short list of candidates, informing candidates, storing application forms, using appropriate software

ASDA analysis of strategic planning, policies and objectives reveal that it has gaps in its employees’ competency and workforce planning. These shortfalls should be eliminated to ensure achieving the organizational strategic objectives according to Aspire Training & Consulting (2018), as follows:

• Recruitment policies:They should define the procedures of recruitment of colleagues. It could depend on internal recruitment through the progression policies or it could be external recruitment that aims to attract new experiences to the company. ASDA has benefited from being a subsidiary of Wallmart by attracting new talents with global experience.
• Selection procedures:They describe the actions to be taken according to the selection policy. They should specify rules and responsibilities of using external agency, the selection panel role, defining the shortlisted candidates, ways of communicating them, testing process, referees contacting, contract development and informing the selected candidates.
• Induction policies and procedures: The induction type should match the organization size and the assigned roles to be effective. Being a large organization, ASDA should conduct a structured, formal and intensive program that lasts for a week to ensure full preparation of new candidates.

Selecting the right candidates is important for the organization well performance, cost reduction and complying with laws. The senior managers should consider these three factors to be able to achieve the organizational goals of becoming a trusted employer in ASDA (Kumar & Gupta 2014).

Job analysis is the systematic process conducted by the human resource managers to determine the skills, knowledge and duties needed for performing a specific role in an organization. While job description is usually developed from the information gathered in the job analysis. It provides a summary of the findings of the job analysis and reveals the most important elements of it. It is considered the blueprint of the job that identifies, summarizes, describes tasks and duties of the job. It should include five elements of the job title, activities, working conditions, procedures and the physical environment. It allows candidates to have the full information before applying for the job. Job analysis is used by the recruiters to determine job requirements by defining the skills, knowledge and abilities of the required candidates needed to perform the job. Job requirements are very important to enable organizations to determine the educational background and certifications required for the job (Mangaleswaran & Kirushanthan 2015). Sean should have indicated the educational level and certifications and he should have clearly defined the number of years of experience in the second advertisement. These requirements are essential to help the candidates apply according to their qualifications and facilitate the selection process.

• Store manager responsibilities:
• Developing store strategies to increase customers and enhance profitability
• Meeting the sales targets through training and motivating the staff.
• Excellent service delivery that ensures high levels of customer satisfaction
• Responsibilities:
• Carry out the store strategy, according to ASDA strategy.
• Report on selling trends, profits and performance.
• Propose innovative ideas to attract customers.
• Manage daily issues of employees
• Person specification
• BSc degree in Business Administration
• 10+ years of experiencein FMCG.
• Leadership skills with strong organizational capabilities
• Customer management skills
• High skills of communication and interpersonal
• Willing to work shift work or split shifts.

Wanted.

Young attractive and energetic assistant store manager for a new ASDA store opening in six weeks. Must have BSc degree in Business Administration, 10+ years of experience in FMCG, demonstrate leadership skills with strong organizational capabilities, customer management skills, high communication and interpersonal skills and willing to work shift work or split shifts. If interested, please mail your resume to Sean Manage ASDA regional store at PO box 120. (create your own location)

Policies and procedures of ASDA that ensure staffing requirements are met and comply with the strategic management policy

Wanted

We need at our ASDA regional store part time and causal friendly workers for shifts. Must have BSc degree in Business Administration, 20+ years of experience in FMCG or service industry, demonstrate leadership skills with strong organizational capabilities, customer management skills, high communication and interpersonal skills and you need to be reliable and own your own car. If interested, please mail your resume to Sean Manage ASDA regional store at PO box 120.(create your own location)

Dear managers, when recruiting candidates either internally or externally, you should consider the following issues, according to Mangaleswaran & Kirushanthan (2015), as follows:

• The overall objective of placing the job within ASDA
• The job tasks, including operations, duties and skills.
• Job accountabilities: Through maintaining the efficient and effective utilization of the human resources within ASDA to create value for the shareholders.
• Defining the performance criteria according to the work standards, like time and error analysis.
• Responsibilities of the job holder in terms of the job scope and amount of discretion allowed, job complexity and problems. 
• Determining the organizational factors, by allocating and controlling resources to accomplish the job.
• Reporting of relationships and other liaisons.
• Development factors required for promotion and career progress.
• Determining the environmental factors, including the working conditions, health and safety aspects, working hours (shifts) and working hazards.
• Determining the minimum qualifications of the candidate from the information collected through job analysis can be qualitatively or quantitatively analyzed.  

Outsourcing represents a good recruitment system for many organizations. Although it has its advantages and disadvantages. It can benefit ASDA through fast delivery of expertise who can perform tasks with better quality. Also, it enables HR and managers to focus on their core duties rather than conducting the recruitment process. In addition, it reduces the cost of recruitment. Outsourcing disadvantages are represented in the risk of exposing confidential data and technology to external agency. Also, choosing a wrong partner for outsourcing raises problems, including low-quality delivery and extended time for expertise delivery (Somjai 2017).

IT devotes an opportunity to the HRM at ASDA. It allows them to become more efficient and provide timely and accurate information to decision makers. Using the tools, like the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), is important to acquire and store data required for analysis and decision making. Also, IT allows for faster and more accurate recruitment and selection (Samuel & Nyarko 2014).

Letter for successful candidate

Dear Candidate, Greetings from ASDA, UK This refers to your application for the position of ‘Assistant Manager for ASDA Regional Store’. We are pleased to inform you that you have been shortlisted for the said position. The next step in the recruitment process is the written test to assess your technical/subject knowledge for the position, you are hereby invited to the test which will be held as per the following schedule: Date:                                       Wednesday 12th December 2018 Start Time:                              10:00 AM End Time:                                12:30 PM Sincerely, ASDA regional store Kindly confirm your attendance

Letter for unsuccessful candidate

Dear Candidate, Greetings from ASDA, UK Thanks for your interest in joining our team. However, we regret to advise that we cannot approve you at the moment as we decided to pursue with other candidates with more suitable qualifications for the position. But, please consider applying later and your file will be reconsidered as we need Sincerely, ASDA regional store Kindly confirm your attendance

Q8. The contract of employment for the assistant manager of the ASDA regional store

 Please see Appendix (1).

1. ASDA induction checklist:For the developed template of induction checklist, and training needs are available in Appendix (2).
2. Monitoring performance over a 90-day period in accordance with Australian legislation

Name of Legislation	ASDA compliance to the law status
· Fair Work Act 2009	ASDA should consider the human rights in all of its activities.
· Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cwth) · Disability Discrimination Act 1992 · Racial Discrimination Act 1975 · Sex Discrimination Act 1975	ASDA should clearly declare that its policies maintain equal treatment and equal opportunity for the colleagues.
· Competition and Consumer Act 2010	ASDA’s policy of compliance with legislation requires understanding and acting according to the legislation relevant to their role.
· Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 · State and territory WHS health and safety legislation.	ASDA is committed to reduce the managing health and safety risks and provide the required training
· Privacy Act 1988 · Freedom of Information Act 1982	ASDA maintains trust culture and family workplace that require information sharing among the employees, but securing the privacy of confidential data at the same time.

1. Work allocation

Human resource allocation refers to an organization’s ability to apportion its workforce. The content of work assigned to the employees could change to match their abilities and the changing environmental conditions. For example, ASDA store managers should hold the responsibilities required to do their dedicated roles in a way that fulfills the organizational strategic goal. Also, they should be supplemented with suitable candidates with the required skills to fulfill the job duties and achieve the organizational success according to the predefined performance standards in the job. Work allocation guarantees resource utilization through maintaining balanced availability of talents among different stores and departments. The excess workforce is costly that should be managed through internal recruitment to create balance and cost efficiency (The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2013/2014).

1. Assessing performance and feedback

ASDA can choose among different methods of risk assessment, the formal performance appraisal depends on explicit assessment criteria that include task completion, accuracy, quality and timing.  The provided feedback should be constructive, involves two-way communication and timing. Promotion should be based on performance according to the formal performance appraisal (Islam & Rasad 2012).

1. Managing follow up

The performance of the new store managers in ASDA should be monitored to assure it matches the organizational goals. A balance card approach is a useful tool that could be used to follow-up the performance based on predefined measures that the store managers are aware of. Also, additional performance elements should be considered in judging the performance during the follow-up process. The informal learning allows the new colleagues to be aware of information missed in the induction process and makes them up to date with new issues that could be considered later on the induction process (Aslam & Shah 2009).

References

ASDA 2018, ASDA foundation, viewed 07 Nov. 2018, <https://www.asdafoundation.org/?cmpid=ahc-_-otc-af-_-asdacom-_-hp-_-footer-_-about-asda-foundation>.

Aslam, M & Shah, F 2009, ‘Impact of employees’ performance management system to achieve the objectives of the organization’, Proceedings 2nd CBRC, Pakistan.

Aspire Training & Consulting 2018, Develop recruitment, selection and induction policies and procedures, viewed 5 Nov. 2018, <https://aspire-solidus-production.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/assets/BXHRM506/samples/BXHRM506.pdf>.

Australia Government 2018, Employment contracts, viewed 21 April 2018, <https://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/employment-contracts>.

FitSmallBusiness 2018, Free employment contract templates and when To use them, viewed 07 Nov. 2018, <https://fitsmallbusiness.com/employment-contract-template/>.

Islam, R & Rasad, S 2012, ‘Performance evaluation in assets management with the AHP’, Brazilian Operations Research Society, vol 32, no. 1, pp. 31-53.

Kumar, S & Gupta, A 2014, ‘A study on recruitment & selection process with reference’, Dronacharya College of Engineering, India.

Mangaleswaran, T & Kirushanthan, K 2015, ‘Job description and job specisication: A study of selected organizations in Serilanka’, International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, vol 41, no. 1, pp. 30-36.

Samuel, O & Nyarko, K 2014, ‘Leveraging information technology (IT) in recruitment and selection processes -A comparative study’, International Journal of Network and Communication Research, vol 2, no. 1, pp. 16-44.

Somjai, S 2017, ‘Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing’, The Business and Management Review, vol 9, no. 1, pp. 157-160.

The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2013/2014, ‘Labor situation in Japan and Its analysis: General overview’, in Allocation and transfer of human resources, The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, Japan.