As with many organisations Asda likes to collect information to measure its success. This is done in many ways including using MIS (Management Information System). However one of the main methods Asda uses to measure its success is by using statistics and graphs which allow them to view future trends and also enable them to see whether the company is making a profit or a loss. The company also uses annual reports which are produced yearly and allow the company see whether it is succeeding or not.
Share prices are also very important, as any organisation would wish for more stakeholders to buy shares into the company. A decrease in share prices shows that there is something wrong within the organisation, therefore this in itself is a measure for the company’s success. Often the share price of a PLC is a good indicator of how it is performing in relation to its previous performances. Annual growth is another method used to measure the company’s success especially considering the fact that Asda is now part of the Wall-Mart retail empire.
Asda constantly strives to widen the price gap between its competitors in order to meet its aims. This also attracts more customers, thus it allows Asda to view whether it is doing better than its competitors such as Morrisons and Tesco. This is to say that more stakeholders would invest into the business, as they would see it is succeeding and doing better than its competitors. Asda believe that employees are an important aspect of the business as they have direct contact with the customers.
Asda is currently Britain’s biggest employer of employees aged over, 50s with more than 20,000 working in stores, depots and offices. Asda claims that one of the key drivers to its business is to be ‘The Most Enjoyable Place To Work’. In March 2002 Asda was named as ‘Britain’s Best Company To Work For’ in a nationwide survey of UK businesses. And again, this year, for the third year running Asda has featured in the top 10 companies to work for with flexible working. This is to say that Asda is succeeding it meeting its objective ‘To Be Britain’s Best Company To Work For’.
For Asda this is also another of success to see how well the company is doing. More recently, the general public have been provided with evidence of this simply through the television advertisement campaigns, which regularly pay tribute to Asda employees. As with many organisations Asda also uses questionnaires to measure its success. These allow the company to receive feedback on what their customers think about the organisation and where they need to make improvements, if receiving negative feedback.
E4) – THE VARIOUS FUNCTIONAL AREAS WITHIN THE ASDA ORGANISATION As with any nationally large, professionally established company, Asda has divided its organisation into four different functional areas of business. These are the Human Resources, Finance, Customer Services and Marketing and Sales divisions of the business. This section of the report will identify and provide further details of these four different functional areas of business within Asda, in addition to explaining how each contributes to the business activities of Asda.
An explanation and illustration of how these four departments work together in order to achieve their aims and objectives is provided in this section. Human Resources Division The purpose of the Human Resources department at Asda is to keep all their staff and personnel satisfied with their employment and work conditions, in addition to being responsible for staff promotions, recruitment and selection of future staff, staff evaluations, terminations of employment and legal employment issues.
This department is mainly concerned with employees who work for the company in addition to the overall responsibility for ensuring Asda continues its success as a great work environment for the staff. The department is responsible for recruiting new staff to the organisation. The cost of recruitment may be high but the costs of mistakes are even more expensive. The Human Resources department plays a vital contribution towards the day-to-day business activities of Asda.
I personally believe that perhaps it is one of the most important divisions of any large organisation simply due to the fact that without the rightly qualified staff for the thousands of posts within Asda, all other departments would cease to operate efficiently and effectively. Appointing someone who cannot do the job either to the standard required, to the satisfaction of management or who does not work well as a team member with other members of staff can be potentially disastrous. It is for this reason Asda aims to keep their staff turnover as low as possible, that is to say, to retain the staff they recruit.
This is in order to not only keep recruitment costs down but also ensure that staff are content in their workplace so they continue to remain loyal to Asda for many years down the line. This is another reason why Asda actively encourage over 5os to apply, as they can potentially be very loyal employees. This department is also responsible for taking on the responsibility for training staff. But the question one must ask here is why should companies want to continue to even train their staff after they have started work?
