Strategic Human Resources - Accenture - Term Paper Example

Accenture is a multinational company that offers management and technological consultancy services.The headquarters of the company is in Dublin, the republic of Ireland. The company is the largest consultancy firm in the world; this is by measuring its revenue base. The company has about 257,000 employees, and this people are spread in about 120 countries of the world. India has the largest number of people, who work for Accenture (Sullivan, 2007). As of December 2012, the number stood at 80,000 people. Its branch in United States of America consists of 40,000 people, while that of the Philippines stood at 35,000 people. On this basis, India, USA, and the Philippines are the countries that have the largest number of people working for Accenture. The company is enlisted in the New York stock exchange, and even though its headquarters is in Ireland, most of the operations of the company are in Chicago, and New-York. The company conducts its operations through three cross-functional groups, namely work force, operating groups, and growth platforms. Under work force, employees of the organization can either provide consultancy services in business, technology, outsourcing, or serve within the company by strengthening its security, business and marketing capability (Herholdt, 2012). The operating group of the organization is divided into five main areas; namely resources, products, financial services, health, and communications. Growth platforms on the other hand are the functional domains in which the company uses to deliver solution to their customers. Under this platform, there are three areas in which the company focuses on to provide services to their customers, and that is technology, business process outsourcing, and management consultancies. Basing on the information above, it is prudent to denote that Accenture is a large multinational company, and to survive in the fierce consultancy business, the company must have talented and highly skilled employees to work in its organization (Brewster, 2012). Basing on this background, this paper analyzes the human resource strategy of Accenture, and provides recommendations where necessary. There are a number of environmental and competitive trends that affect the operations of Accenture. In the current century, firms that enter into the market to provide consultancy services are growing. For instance, 20-23% of the United States work forces are operating as consultants, independent contractors, and freelancers. On this basis therefore, to succeed in this competitive industry, most consultants join a community of consultants (McMurray, 2005). These people pool their resources together, for purposes of handling bigger consultancy work/ projects. This is a great threat to the company, because these consultancy networks have the capability of attracting their customers. A good example is the Phylmar group consultancy network. This group comprises of highly experienced consultants, who pool their resources, in order to meet the demands and the needs of corporate clients, especially those found in fortune 1000 enterprises. It is important to denote that Accenture PLC targets corporate clients, and amongst its customers are companies that are found in fortune 1000 list. On this basis therefore, such consultancy networks and groups are a direct threat to the operations of the company. In relation to the environmental trends, companies all over the world always seek to ensure that they have a good working relationship with the community in which they operate under. Accenture is an example of a company that has policies that help in maintaining a collaborative relationship between its members of staff, and the surrounding community. For instance, the company has the skills to succeed program that aims to train over 500,000 people on entrepreneurial skills (Banks, 2012). This is advantageous to the company because it creates a positive brand name, and therefore gives it a competitive advantage over its competitors. In the next two years, the following are the challenges that the company is most likely to face. I. Emergence of new technologies and opportunities that the business organization lacks the necessary skills and manpower to handle. II. Insecurity arising from the challenges of globalization, such as terrorism. III. Emergence of new players in the consultancy arena, therefore increasing competition for customers. IV. Strict government rules that regulate the entry and operation of multinational companies. V. Risks of losing their work force to emerging consultancy companies, and organizations. The organization has a five step strategic planning process, and they are (Sullivan, 2005); I. Identifying the levels of uncertainty that characterize the operations of the business enterprise. II. Defining the risks identified, and the objective of the business organization. III. Developing options that the enterprise would take in mitigating the risks. IV. Creating a workforce that is highly skilled to implement the policies the organization has for purposes of mitigating the risks. V. Aligning the firm for purposes of achieving its objectives. Looking at this strategic planning process, it is prudent to denote that the human resource department is an important step in the process. The human resource department is an important element of the Accenture organizational and strategic planning process. The department is under the workforce group and this because its employees have the duty of ensuring that the internal structures of the organization are competent enough to ensure that the organization meets its own objectives (Sullivan, 2005). The department of human resource has the responsibility of hiring people who are skilled, and have the right qualification to provide consultancy services in technology, outsourcing, and business management. By employing these people, the company will manage to have workers who have the capability of implementing the organizations policies, and hence meeting the organizations objectives. The department is also responsible for training its employees, for purposes of inserting new skills that the market needs (Banks, 2012). This is an important function because of the changing needs of customers, in relation to technology. In each and every moment, people invent technological pieces that companies seek to use. On this basis, they will always require consultants to advise them on how to use these pieces of technology. Basing on these explanations, the human resource department at Accenture is fully aligned to the strategic planning process of the organization. The main item under consideration while in the planning process of Accenture is on how to mitigate on risks. According to the department, hiring the right staff, with the right skill, is an important step in loss mitigation (Hayton, 2011). On this basis, the department plays an important role in loss mitigation because it is responsible for finding hiring these employees. Employment at any branch of Accenture is usually on a competitive basis, because of its policy of hiring only the best work force. In conclusion, there are a number of changes that I would recommend for Accenture to implement. The first issue is on the manner in which the organization ought to recruit its personnel. In my opinion, the organization must hire human resource organizations to recruit its personnel. This is because it is expensive to maintain a human resource department within a consultancy organization (Hayton, 2011). Another reason is that the size of the organization is huge, and it is therefore very expensive to maintain a human resource department. On this basis, hiring human resource recruitment agencies to hire their staff is an important way of reducing costs. Another recommendation is for the company to engage in a joint venture, with consultancy groups such as Phylmar. This will help the organization to enjoy the services of its professionals, who are highly experienced in the field of providing consultancy services. This will also be an aspect of cost cutting measures, where by it will save the company the costs of hiring certain professionals in its work force, who might negotiate for a higher amount of salaries. References: Banks, T. L. (2012). Corporate compliance and ethics institute, 2012. New York, NY: Practising Law Institute. Brewster, C. (2012). Handbook of research on comparative human resource management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Hayton, J. C. (2011). Global human resource management casebook. New York, NY: Routledge. Herholdt, J. (2012). People management strategy in organisations: articles from Human capital review. Randburg, South Africa: Knowres Pub.. McMurray, S. (2005). Values driven leadership: the history of Accenture. Chantilly, Va.: History Factory. Sullivan, K. (2007). Accenture contracts. Hartford: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research. Read More