HSC Business Studies Danny Chen
1
Kmart Human Resources Processes
Executive Summary
The processes of human resources management (acquisition, development,
maintenance, separation) are essential to business success. This report will analyse the
ways that Kmart Australia have achieved business success through the strategies of:
• Pre-recruitment job screening online to identify key desired attitudes/traits of
potential employees that align with the customer service goals of Kmart and its
corporate culture.
• The training process of Kmart employees onsite to gain practical experience
and expertise of existing employees as it saves costs in training.
• The monetary and non-monetary rewards offered to Kmart employees to retain
staff and increase commitment to the business; they include bonuses for
meeting sales targets, and flexible working conditions.
• The management of employee performance and separating staff that do not
reflect the positive attitude/culture of Kmart, and the retaining of older staff
from retirement to save costs and skills.
These strategies within the HR process allow Kmart to achieve its business success
and become the retail leader it is today.
Kmart Australia
Kmart Australia is a retail business operating in the tertiary consumer market with an
annual turnover of $317 million in sales revenue, and employs over 10 000 staff
around Australia. Due to changing values and preferences of customers, the retail
industry is beginning to focus more towards customer service rather than products to
attract and retain its customers. This is the goal of Kmart in achieving business
success through its HR process.
Acquisition
The process of acquisition is vital for businesses like Kmart in achieving their
customer service oriented approach to retail as staff must be “friendly, positive, and
committed to Kmart”. Kmart recruits their staff mostly externally from local areas
through their online job platform, “Kmart Jobs”. The use of online platforms for
acquisition is beneficial as it allows Kmart to broadcast vacancies to larger extents,
this increasing the skill ranges that can be obtained from larger pools of candidates.
Kmart primarily recruits young people in their 20s as it promotes their friendly,
cheerful brand images to distinguish themselves from their competitors such as Big
W, which is a clear indicator of business success. The use of online recruitment allows
the easier acquisition of young workers as they are more attracted to the use of
technology, which Kmart had realised in meeting its goals of young employees.
HSC Business Studies Danny Chen
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The job screening process is focused on selecting the right attitudes of employees as
customer service improvement requires a positive attitude of the employees. Using
online platforms to recruit allows cheaper methods of screening through online
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