HRM of Apple Company - Assignment Example

Introduction The organization chosen by me for this coursework assignment is Apple Company. This organization is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics and personal computers. The most famous products of the company are Macintosh computers, iPods, iPad, iPhones, etc.It was established in Cupertino, California on April1, in the year 1976 and incorporated on January 3rd in the year 1977. The company was called as Apple Computer, Inc. for nearly 30 years of its incorporation and later computer was removed from the company’s name for its ongoing expansion in designing and producing new products. The company by the year 2010 has nearly 284 retail stores operating in ten countries and an online store where the software and hardware products are sold (Apple.com). It also sells and delivers digital content through its application stores. The products are sold through worldwide retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force, other third parties, and value added resellers. This company ranks as tenth largest company in the world (Reuters.com). This organization has employed 80,000 people worldwide of which majority hail from US. Apple Company serves its customers by offering a broader range of services and products which include mobile communication and other technological and sophisticated gadgets which attract more consumers in purchasing (Reuters.com). Besides these services and products, the Apple Company offers its characteristic software products. Task 1 a. The differences between personnel and human resource management Personnel management deals with people employed and its management; and HRM deals with managing employee skills, acquaintance, abilities and aptitudes. Personal management views employees as a money-making or profitable man where he offers his services and gets paid in the form of wage/salary. Therefore, it views employee as equipment which can be purchased and utilized. On the other hand HRM considers employees to be not only economic but also as social and psychological. This approach regards employee as a complete man and are viewed as a reserve or source for his services rendered. Personnel management considers employees as charge centre and hence expenses of employment are maintained by the management whereas in HRM employees are treated as profit centres and hence put in capital for human resources development and future effectiveness. Personnel management uses employees for organizational benefits while HRM uses them for the multiple mutual benefits of the organization, employees and the family members. HRM is a function of strategic management and it lays much emphasis on strategic fit and integration (Armstrong, 2006, p. 19), while in personnel management, personnel functions are considered supplementary. The HRM functions in terms of its contribution to organizational purpose. Managerial functions and Operational functions together constitute to the Human Resource Management functions. Managerial functions include Planning, Organizing, Directing and Controlling. All these functions are important towards the contribution to organizational purpose. The operational functions include Employment, Human Resource development (HRD), Compensation and Human Relations. b. The role and responsibilities of a line manager The line manager plays an important role in the Apple Company. The responsibilities in the performance and development system are diverse and require varying skills for effective management. The line authority is direct authority exercised by a supervisor or manager over his subordinates so that his orders and instructions are carries out in a proper manner. A line manager is considered as generalist of an organization, who directs his subordinates and delegates authority and has power to vote. He makes the operating decisions and bears the final responsibility. The role manager has to motivate his employees, subordinates to work effectively and maximize the potential by identification and supporting through various learning and development activities. The roles and responsibilities of line manager include: coaching, supporting, providing feedback, conducting initial meetings, setting competencies, approving smart objectives, ensuring personal development plans, conducting interviews and reviews and conducting performance appraisal of the employees(‘The Line Manager’s role and responsibilities’, n.d.). c. Examine the organizational environment that impacts the HRM function in your organization, outlining the impacts of legal and regulatory framework of the country. Like any other organizations, Apple Company also has organizational environment which has its impacts on the HRM function. There are external and internal factors that influence the organizational environment. The external factors include: the Technological innovation of the Apple Company, Economic factors, Labour unions, Labour markets and Political and Legal factors of the country. The internal factors include employees, management and culture. The legal and regulatory framework of the country has following acts that impact the HRM functions in the country. National Minimum Wage act 1998 which stresses on paying at least minimum wage for the workers who meet the criteria of national minimum wage. Working Time Regulations Act 1998 focuses on the working time for the residents of Britain and specify on the rest breaks, week breaks etc. Following Employment Rights Act 1996 an employer should provide a written consent of particulars of employment. It can be given in instalments to the employee in no later than 2 months from the date of joining. Transfer of Undertakings Regulations 2006, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 are some other legal and regulatory frameworks in Britain. Task 2 a. Discuss how important is the role of human resource planning in your organization and outline the stages of the planning process. Human Resource planning is defined as the process which involves assessing and evaluating the organization’s human resource needs being focused on organizational goals and making plans to ensure that a proficient, stable work force is employed. The management of an organization determines its future HR requirements and plans as to how the existing HR can be utilized to fulfil these requirements. It relates to establishing job specifications or quantitative requirements of the job determining the number of personnel required and developing of human resources. Human resource planning is essential; in determining the future needs in an organization. In the absence of such plan it would be difficult. Human resource planning is essential in Apple Company for Forecasting human resource requirements, effective management of change, organizational goals accomplishments, employee promotions and human resources are utilized efficiently. Apple Company has created several job opportunities and has 80,000 worldwide employees. As per the requirement, expansion of the Company and Strategies HR planning is done. Analysis of the Human Resource is done and the requirements are forecasted by the Human Resource Planning department of the organization. Taylor (2005, p.79) states the stages of HRM planning as: Analyzing organizational plan Forecasting future demand for human resources Forecasting future internal supply of the human resources Forecasting future external supply of human resources Formulating responses to the forecasts b. Analyze the recruitment and selection process in your organization and evaluate their effectiveness. Recruitment is a systematic procedure to determine the supply of manpower in order to meet the needs of staffing schedule and to utilize successful process for attracting that workforce in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient workforce. Selection procedure consists of selecting or preferring individuals who have required qualifications to fill the jobs or vacancies in an organization. The fundamental reason is to choose the person who can most successfully perform the job from pool of qualified individuals. Recruitment has both internal and external sources. Sources which lie and can be reached within the organization of Apple are internal sources and those which are outside the Apple Company are external sources. Most organizations use the some test while employing new workforce into the organization. They include intelligent tests, aptitude tests, personality tests and achievement tests. Recruitment process is influenced by internal as well as external factors. The vacancies, positions that are empty in the Apple Company are analyzed and are posted on the company’s website, Newspapers and other media. The applications are collected from the applicants through registration in official website and resume reception, and short listed for preliminary exam and interview. After this the applicants undergo screening test in the filed which they expertise and qualified candidates move to next level. The candidates failing in the test are declined. The selected candidates undergo personal interviews conducted by HR professionals of the company and then hiring decisions are made. The company’s main objective behind recruitment and selection is to attract multi-dimensional skill and experiences that suit the present and future organizational strategies and to search for talent that is of global importance and besides just within the company. Task 3 a. Using examples assess the link between motivational theory and reward. Reward in fact motivates the performance and properly designed reward systems motivate employees to organizationally desirable performance level. The Equity theory of motivation and reward is an individual compares outcomes or input ratio with that of relevant others. If ratios are similar, equity is felt; if ratios are dissimilar, individual seek to correct situation. The equity theory implications for the reward systems are the basis for traditional reward systems. Job evaluation promotes internal equity, wage surveys promote external equity, and merit systems promote individual equity. Organizations needs to specify which inputs are valuable with respect to rewards and make sure employees are aware of all reward outcomes (Rowley & Jackson, 2011, p. 147). Many Business organizations use this equity theory of motivation and reward. A reward for all the employees working under one job category for example HR recruitment team is incentives for above 10 recruitments per each year. This motivates the employees of a particular job eliminate inequalities and work for effective performance. b. Evaluate and discuss how your organization determines pay using the process of job evaluation and assess the effectiveness of the reward system in the chosen organization. Various jobs are evaluated totally to have significance in the Organization and this systematic method of evaluation is known as job evaluation (Aswathappa, p. 260). The most noticeable fact in this process is jobs are ranked but not the person holding the jobs. Factors that are significant in assessing jobs are importance of the job and its order of importance (Aswathappa, p. 260). Job hierarchy is established in the organization for the purpose of being fixation for satisfactory pay differentials among various jobs. The job evaluation technique is used by the management through which more consistent and rationale pay structure can be developed. This process of job evaluation is considered as basis of the pay structure. The reason that contributes to the job evaluation process is it eliminates inequalities of the pay structure. Job evaluation thus set ups performance standards for the job that are comparable and alike. This process eliminates favouritism at the place of work by paying the workers fixed for job according to the job evaluation process (Kumar & Sharma, 2000, p. 414). The Apple Company uses the performance based reward system to pay its employees. This type of reward system motivates the workers to enhance their performance to a great standard. This reduces comparison of jobs and their pay indifferences and maintains harmonious relationships with the employer. c. Discuss how employee performance is measured and examine the methods used to monitor performance in the chosen organization. Employee performance is measured by setting up of performance standards, communicate performance standards, measure actual performance, evaluation of performance and Performance review and taking corrective action, if necessary. The standards of performance for particular job are set which are considered as bench marks where the quality and time frame are described. The performance standards are communicated between the performance evaluator and the employee whose performance is going to be evaluated. After a time period the performance of the employees are evaluated and measured by actual performance and expected performance. The final step of performance measurement is providing of feedback and performance review. According to the preset standards performance reviews are provided. The employees who don’t meet the performance standards are provided with training, coaching and regular monitoring. Coaching and continuous feedback helps in identification of a problem at its initial stage and right solution for the problem can be implemented. The methods used to monitor the performance in the company are ranking method, confidential reports and management by objective. Besides these techniques there are other techniques which are used in performance evaluation. They are psychological appraisal method, group appraisal, human resource accounting, graphic rating scale, behavioural anchored rating scale. Performance measurement system should be effective as a number of crucial decisions are made on the basis of score or ratings given by the evaluator which in turn is heavily based in the measurement system. The performance measurement system should be reliable and validity, it should have job relatedness. The procedures must be standardized and of practical viability. Performance management process sets the platform for rewarding excellence by aligning individual employee accomplishments with the organization mission and making the employee and the organization understand the importance of a specific job realizing outcomes. In managing employee performance which drives the individuals and the organization, Performance management helps to achieve better performance and outcomes. Task 4 a. Examine the causes of termination of employment with an organization and discuss the exit procedures used by two organization (your chosen one and another). ‘Whenever the employment relationship between an organization and employee ceases to exist, it can be said that the contract of employment or service with in an organization has been terminated’ (Secord, p. 439). this may be voluntary where an employee can suspend the job or service on his own will. Commonly terminations are seen when the organization sees the employee no longer fit for work or because of the low performance factor of the employee. The other reasons of terminations may be retrenchment strategy, economic turbulence of the organization, mergers and acquisitions, financial crisis etc. The of the most termination are due misconduct and improper behaviour at work place may include theft or embezzlement, violence at work place, criminal acts at work place, conflicts in interests with employer, dishonesty, violations of rules and regulations (Secord, p. 440). Exit procedure used by the Apple Company is formal retirement of the employee after completing the term of employment contract. The other procedure used for exit in the company is through resignation by the employee. In other organization Samsung the exit procedures are similar where there takes formal retirement and resignation of employees. An exit interviews are conducted by the organizations formally when employees leave the organization where the information regarding the purpose of leaving is collected. b. Assess the impact of legal and regulatory framework when arranging employment cessation or termination. The employment relation between the employee and employer is based on the contract. There are legal and regulatory frame works which help the employee to retain his job upon termination or cessation from the organization. The employee, while termination and cessation must be provided with all the details, his fault, violations of regulatory frame work terms and conditions of termination. Beside this the employee must be given prior notice regarding the termination or cessation. There must be proper grievance and adjudication procedure and then final decision of dismissal should be taken. The court of the country can interfere into the matter upon the request of the employee who is under termination or cessation. Appropriate acts, laws of the country have impact on the cessation and termination. Conclusion This course assignment contains all the required knowledge and understanding for the learners in the aspects of personnel and human resource functions that are required to t recruit and retain capable and efficient staff in the organization. This assignment covers the planning, organizing and implementing of a range of approaches to improve staff performances as well as organization in general through performance management, job evaluation and performance based reward pay. References Applen.d., about Apple: Wide range of information, California, viewed 29 March2013,http://www.about-apple.com/ Armstrong, M. 2006,Human Resource Management Practice, 10th edn, Kogan Page Limited, London. Aswathappa, K. 2005,Human Resources and Personnel Management: Text and cases, 4th edn, Tata McGraw-Hill Company limited, New Delhi. Environment Influence on HRM, n.d., The Management Blog, viewed on 29 March 2013,. Kumar, A. & Sharma, R. 2000,Personnel Management:Theory and Practice, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. Profile:AppleInc (AAPL.O), n.d., Thomson Reuters, New York, viewed 29 March 2013,http://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=AAPL.O Rowley, K. & Jackson, K 2011 Human Resource Management:The Key Concepts, Taylor & Francis Group, New York. Secord, H2003,Implementing Best Practices In Human ResourcesManagement, CCH Canadian Limited, Canada. Taylor, S. 2005, People Resourcing,a 3rd edn, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. The Line Manager’s role and responsibilitiesn.d., Transforming HR-Performance and Development, viewed on viewed 29 March 2013,http://www.acquaint.me.uk/PDS/PDS%20Module%205.pdf Read More