The report is prepared to analyze the effectiveness of strategic human resource management by the application of theoretical framework. The contribution of strategic human resource management has been evaluated in context of chosen organization Apple Inc. SWOT analysis of Apple Inc has been done for explaining the planning of human resource. In addition to this, the existing human resource planning has been discussed alongside designing of new policy for the selected organization.
The mission and vision statements of Apple Inc form the base of success of company. The vision of Apple is to bring the best personal computing experience to creative professionals, educators, educators and consumers around the world through its internet offerings and innovative software and hardware. Mission of Apple Inc is to lead the digital music revolution with its online store of iTunes and iPods (apple.com 2018).
Apple Inc is a multinational technology company of America based in California. It is engaged in manufacturing, designing and marketing of software, personal computers, line of portable digital music players and networking solutions. Apple is involved in manufacturing and designing of both hardware and software products. Software products of Apple include iOS operating system, macOS, itune media player, iLife, iwork creativity and Safari web browser. Hardware products include iPad tablet computer, iPhone Smartphone, iPod portable media player, smart watch and television (apple.com 2018). The unique ability of company is leveraged through its business strategy such as development and designing of its own operating system, innovative industrial design, seamless integration and many software technologies and application (Albrecht et al., 2015).
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is an approach that helps in defining how the goals of organization will be achieved through human resource strategies and integrated practices and policies of human resources. The ability of organization to achieve mission, vision and strategic objectives are increased through SHRM by aligning the direction of organization. SHRM comes with several advantages by creating atmosphere of competitiveness via differentiation, building core competencies, workforce diversion and development of work, culture and ethics (Sikora & Ferris, 2014). An organization can adopt several human resource management strategies such as work arrangements, acquisition of talents, appraisal and motivation. Work arrangements can be done in the form of team positions and individual jobs, telecommuting options, position with discretion and autonomy. Acquisition of talent is done for internal development and can be recruited internally or externally. Appraisal and motivation are done through intrinsic and extrinsic reward system, incentives for originality and ideas and assessment for development and reward (Banfield et al., 2018).
The model of creating competitive advantage by focusing on its workforce by attracting key skills and talent within the organization is employed by Apple Inc. Apple Inc has primary objective of retaining its employees and attracting employees externally and the key people at work are in the technical, marketing and staffing positions. For achieving this particular objective, different practices of strategic human resource have been employed by Apple Inc to attract skilled professionals. By making investment in the skills of employees, the interest of Apple lies in maximizing the interest of its workforce. For enhancing the overall competitiveness of organization, human capital is recognized as vital element and strategy of human resource are regarded as driving force for strategy development (Boselie & Brewster, 2015). Therefore, the main focus of organization is to capitalize on the competencies of staffs with the principal objective of achieving competitive advantage in the market. The factor that has contributed in making the most innovative company in the industry of consumer electronics is the application of approach of managing people and sourcing great talents. The main objective of human resource of Apple Inc is to minimize the financial capital and maximize the investment whilst capitalization on human capital. Some other responsibilities with which human resource management of Apple Inc is charged include development of leadership, selection and recruitment, development of employee, incentive compensation and employee relations which is carried out in an efficient and consistent manner (Al-Sarayrah et al., 2016). Furthermore, candidate suitability to fit the culture of organization is the focus of recruitment policy of Apple Inc. Employees at Apple are provided with the opportunity for development and training along with on job training for advancement of their skills. In addition to this, such training also provides staff with the opportunity to interact with talented and experienced workforce. Therefore, it can be inferred that strategic human resource management of Apple Inc is aimed at attracting and retaining the best talent at the same time. Such strategic approaches have enabled organization to prevail as the leading provider of personal computing products (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Strength- Apple Inc has best human resource management strategies that help in attracting and retaining best talent from industry. The unique training approach of company has helped in ensuring that employees are equipped with appropriate and right skills required for job. Such approach has helped in enhancement of skills and strong self reliance development (Bailey et al., 2018).
Weakness- The recruitment strategy of Apple is dependent upon the candidates fitting the culture of organization as against experience and skills of employees. Such strategy is considered as complicated and might restrict talented candidates from applying the company’s open position.
Threat- On the job training of Apple Inc requires employees to learn on their own and this can be threat sometimes, if the employees are not able to generate advantages in the form of becoming self reliance and their failure to fit to the culture of organization (Schuler & E. Jackson, 2014).
Opportunities- Despite aggressive competitiveness, Apple Inc has the major opportunities by way of innovation, development of new product lines and expanding the distribution network. The strategic directions of business are influenced by the opportunities generated (Purce, 2014). For this purpose, it is required by organization to identify the best talents from industry.
Recommendations based on evaluation of outcomes of SWOT analysis in context of human resource management of Apple.
For any organization, human resource planning is considered crucial as it plays a significant role in management of employees. The required human resource of organization is met through human resource planning by identifying the number and types of employees. It can be regarded as the process that continuously helps in analyzing the human resource needs of organization under the changing conditions by development of activities to satisfy the recruitment, selection, training and staffing requirement. Management of organization receives assistance in determining the way organization should move to the desired staffing position from its current staffing position.
Human resource planning of organization helps in adequate and smooth supply of manpower without any interruptions. Future requirements of human resources such as up skilling, re-skilling and succession planning are properly forecasted that helps in development of employees. In addition to this, it provides assurance of optimum utilization of existing human resources. The impact of technology on requirement and job of human resources are anticipated by the human resource planning.
The process of human resource planning requires scanning of environment and interfacing with strategic planning. It requires analysis of inventory of current human resources that helps in forecasting of demand for human resources. The supply of human resource in the external labour market and within the organization is forecasted. Forecast of demand and supply is compared and this assist in planning actions that are required to handle any anticipated overages or shortages.
There exist some drawbacks on part of planning of human resource activities of any organization. The main problem is related to forecasting as it is requires to rely on past experience for predicting future developments. It is indicative of the fact that forecasting cannot include the one off events fundamentally altering the events. The characteristics of planning process stifle the qualities that are required by organization to be competitive advantage. Critics of human resources, an organization is able to gain competitive advantage by generating responses to fast changes environment that are more flexible and creative that the competitors.
Planning of human resources of an organization requires consideration of factors such as size of business, nature of business, strategy employed and types of organization, resource of business, policy of management, location of business, time horizon, environmental uncertainties, business environment, and quality of information and culture of organization.
It is required by organization to keep up with policy of human resource when it is expanding its business. Planning of human resource for Apple Inc is the framework of business for its current requirement of human resources. This would enable organization to acquire best possible results from employees in future and present scenario. Planning of human resource by the management of Apple would enable organization in ensuring that it has the right number and right kind of people at the right time and right place that are capable of completing the tasks effectively and efficiently that will help in achievement of overall objectives of organization. Human resource planning at Apple Inc comprise of employment planning, manpower planning and personnel planning.
The motto of Apple Inc is to think differently which is very well done by company following the innovative ideas development that helps in creation of innovative products that continues to define the world of computer designs. Apple Inc forecasts human resources demand and supply. Forecasting of demand is the process that helps organization in estimating quality and quantity of people that is required to meet the future requirements. For instance, say Apple in present scenario requires two highly skilled and innovative employees for handling one of its departments. Supply forecast on other hand helps in measuring total number of people that are likely to be available from within and outside the organization (Morschett et al., 2015). Supply of employees can be generated internally or externally. Third step deals with programming of human resource that is done after the personnel demand and supply of organization are forecasted. After the forecasting of demand and supply of personnel’s, there must be reconciliation and balancing so that vacancies can be filled at the right time by right number of employees. Next step is the implementation of human resources that requires conversion of human resources plans into actions. This includes a series of actionable programmes such as selection, recruitment and placements. Last step is about evaluation and controlling of programme and the plans of human resources includes targets, budgets and standards. There should be clarification of responsibility for establishment of reporting procedures, controls and implementation. It will help organization in enabling achievements that would be monitored against the plan.
Strategic planning activities of human resources of Apple intends to support the product decision of company by capitalizing on new and emerging trends and thereby helps in maintaining competitive advantage.
Selection and Recruitment strategy at Apple- It is the first and most important stage of function of human resource management of organization. Recruitment at Apple is designed in way to attract talented people following labour demand forecasting and gaol of company. Organization employs many methods for recruitment by source to internal and external source. Internal source include department examinations, transferring and recommendations of employees. Advertisement of organization is supported by external source such as job centre, employment emergency, company website and newspaper. In order to generate more competition, the focus of company is to recruit from external sources. However, recruiting from external source proves costly and time consuming for company. The training and development segment of company lies on developmental strategy creation at Apple. It is for this reason that identification of needs of training would bring benefits to organization or not. It serves organization by coming up with the appropriate solutions by reminding superiors about the weak points. However, it is required by organization to use the suitable method of training by identifying the needs of training and willingness on part of employees and company. Analysis of training needs of Apple requires people who are focus and creative in the environment they are working (Vomberg et al., 2014).
The policies of human resource management reflect the philosophies and values of organization. It is the continued guidance regarding the approach that organization adopts for managing its people. HRM policies serve as guidance for the implementation of procedures and actions taken that are well aligned with the policy for task accomplishment. It is required by organization to conduct a careful evaluation of policies of operations in determining the impact on behaviour and attitude of employees. Any prevailing issues in the organization are dealt by policies and such guidance helps in ensuring that actions are well aligned with the philosophies and values of organization (Kryscynski & Ulrich, 2015).
For managing its employees, best strategies have been implemented by Apple. The policy of human resource management of Apple aims at minimizing the financial risks and maximizing the return on investment from its human capital. The Human resource policy of Apple conducts all the responsibilities in a consistent, effective, fair and legal manner. Equal employment opportunities are provided regardless of race, gender, ethnicity and disability. The company promotes organizational diversity and is an employer providing equal opportunities to its employees (Taylor et al., 2015). Recruitment of employees is done on assessment of their computer based knowledge. In year 1995, a fellow program was created by company for recognizing successful and hardworking employees. By way of employee compensation, a large number of benefits are offered to employees by organization and such compensation being highly competitive. Some benefits that are offered by organization include employee stock purchase programs, insurance cover, savings and investing plans (Delery & Roumpi, 2017). Apple also employs retention strategies by providing economic reward.
Development of policy for managing human resources within the organization is the responsibility of human resource managers. For supporting implementation of human resource policies, management should be provided with effective support and training. Effective implementation of human resource policies would help in meeting overall objectives of organization (Cascio, 2014). Designing human resource policies for Apple requires following some steps that are listed below:
The policies of Human resources of Apple in recent years have raised many issues and human capital often faces difficulties due to lack of transparency is strict policies of human resources management (Hollenbeck & Jamieson, 2015). Among staff members, lack of clarity exists about personal and business objectives. Furthermore, there are no sufficient provisions for recognizing and rewarding employees who came up with innovative ideas. This has led to weakening of motivation and morale of employees and has increased the attrition rate. Therefore, human resource policies of Apple should incorporate proper reward system that takes into account matters such as equal pay for work that are of equal value, payment made for performance, contribution, competence and skills (Brewster et al., 2016). In addition to this, it should also include any non financial rewards that results from autonomy, accomplishment, recognition along with development opportunity. Some other areas that can be covered under the HR policies include pay, working time off, information confidentiality, intellectual property and change management. HR policies of Apple Inc should be centralized as it helps in standardization of the process across countries of operations (Bratton & Gold, 2017). However, there are some disadvantages of centralization. There can be employment of polycentric approach to manage human resources who has the conscious belief that culture and behaviour of host country market is properly understood by host country managers and therefore, local people should manage the foreign subsidiaries.
Conclusion:
It is evident from the analysis of human resource management of Apple Inc that acquisition of best and talented people from industry has helped company to be ranked as best company in providing personal computing. From the analysis, it has been further ascertained that corporate culture does not help in promoting the employees morale. Therefore, it is required by Apple Inc to create alignment between the strategy of human resources and overall organization which would help in sustainable and imminent long term success. Apple should adopt such human resource policies that would help employees in decision making by encouraging systematic practice. It would assist organization in managing diversified workforce and thereby realizing sustainable growth.
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