Our people
RECRUITMENT
Woolworths sources the overwhelming majority of candidates for new or vacant roles from our internal talent pool. As a supplement to promoting and developing our own people, we also recruit talent externally from the local market. Where local candidates are unavailable, we source them internationally.
This ensures we access fresh ideas but continue to consolidate deep industry knowledge and expertise. During 2008-2009, almost 54,000(2) employees started work with us. Less than half of 1% of these employees were sourced internationally.
Typically, external recruitment focuses on specialist roles, often at our corporate support office in Norwest, Sydney. We source candidates through a variety of channels to ensure we locate those best suited to the role and company. These include online job boards, industry magazines, recruitment agencies, employee referrals and word of mouth, career expos and press advertising.
The Woolworths Graduate Program continues to be a key source of talent. Open to existing employees in their final year of a tertiary qualification, it provides tailored job rotations and development experiences in the graduate's chosen field. Since 2005, we have recruited 85 graduates with a 93% retention rate.
Woolworths places a high importance on supporting new employees to ensure they successfully adapt to their new role and organisation. As part of our 'on-boarding' process we have an induction program for all trading businesses, a regular business orientation led by members of the senior management group, as well as executive transition coaches.
Woolworths has a long-standing commitment to building internal capability. We consider this to be a key driver of our ability to perform, change and grow. We have retained more people during the past year and turnover rates have decreased in seven of the Australian states and territories. Overall our turnover decreased by 10 percentage points during this period.
Turnover has also decreased at executive level, with year-on-year rates falling from 8.6% (2008) to 6.5% (2009). We are pleased to have retained all executive women who were due to return from parental leave in the 2008 calendar year.
To help ensure we retain our diverse employee base, we offer a range of financial and non-financial employee benefits. These include professional development options, access to flexible work arrangements, paid maternity leave and a range of wellness programs.
(2) Excluding ALH and PEL.
