Strategic Objectives of Berkshire Capital - Assignment Example

Strategic Objectives of Berkshire Capital The Company which is being considered in this project is Berkshire Capital. It is a Limited Liability Company, founded in 1983 to deliver financial services in the Financial Services Industry. Until now the company the company has successfully managed to complete 250 transactions, 200 valuations and transferred assets worth of $601 billion, which is a remarkable achievement in the industry. There are 14 partners in the company who basically holds the key to setting the strategic direction of the company. The company’s headquarter is located in New York, and it has offices are in the following locations (Berkshire Capital): New York London Denver Colorado Exton Philadelphia The company offers the following services in the finance industry, and is considered to be leading experts in these services: Wealth management services industry Money management services industry Alternative Investment industry Real estate industry Broker and dealer industry Specific service in these domains offered by the firm includes: private placements, mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures, strategic alliances, corporate finance advice, strategic advisory and valuation services. The firm specializes in providing Mergers and Acquisition services in the financial sector. Strategic Objectives of the Organisation: As mentioned earlier the partners will decide the strategic direction of the firm and will latter pass it on to the strategic departments. One of the departments will be the Human Resource Department, which will incorporate the directions from the partners in the High Performance Work System. This system after analyzing what is expected from it will make recommendations with regards to the necessary steps that should be taken by the Human Resource Department, in order to achieve those strategic objectives. Some of the Strategic Objectives might be: Revenue growth by certain percentage Company Growth by certain percentage Expected productivity from each title holder These objectives will be given a definite shape by the High Performance Work System through its various evaluation tools, for instance: Scorecard Critical incidence Method REWARD STRATEGY: The following reward strategy has been proposed for the restructured Human Resource Department for the Berkshire Capital. Position Statement: As the company is operating in the capital and asset management industry and is providing services to several organisations, the company should have strong HR department in order to manage the human capital of the organisation. The goal or target of the HR department is to facilitate the overall operations of the organisation by providing all departments and units with the required talent and employees. The aim behind the reward strategy is to motivate and encourage the HR personnel in order to perform their functions of HR planning and employee resourcing in effective and efficient manner. Financial Industry Analysis for Wage Rate Assessment: Although, Berkshire Capital is amongst the top league of industry participants, but it still has to pay competitive wages in order to avoid the brain drain phenomenon from its organization. In such a competitive and skill and knowledge driven industry, good talent is very difficult to replace. And therefore if the company wants to keep achieving landmarks set by the board of partners, it needs to retain top notch talent in it. Most of the firms in this sector link wages with successful transaction carried out by its employees. This is similar to piece-rate pay, where workers get paid for the number of units they produce. But over here an added dimension is present also: the employee has to achieve customer satisfaction also. Based on the customers review, the success of the transaction would be decided and thereby pay also. This method keeps the employee motivated and productive all the time. Career Development: There will be clear path for the career development. The employees will be provided with proper career path during the induction session. Apart from this there will be different career development programs for the employees like mentoring program. Mentoring Program: Through this program a senior person will be a constant guidance for the person who is junior to him. The senior person will answer all the questions and concerns that may arise in the mind of the junior person. Thus the senior will act as a career-related for the junior. The purpose of this program is to enhance career satisfaction in the junior employee and train them for future roles in the organization. Other similar Programs for Employee Development include: Career Workshops Training programs Formal education/ tuition reimbursement CIPD Development Reward Strategy: Each and every employee will be required to develop the CPD plan according to the instructions and requirements of CIPD. This in turn will allow the employees to keep a track of their development and at the same time will present the organisation with the report of the employees performance. In order to encourage the employees to maintain the CPD plan, the organisation will associate these plans with certain rewards and incentives. Appraisal: The appraisal tool which will be used in this regard is ‘Critical Incidence Method’. With the help of this method the supervisor will keep a log a log of positive and negative examples (critical incidence) of a subordinate’s work-related behaviour. After a fix time period the supervisor and subordinate will meet to discuss the latter’s performance using the incidents and the performance of the subordinate on these incidents. Ethics: The partners will jointly design a code of Ethics (a document that memorializes the standards the employer expects its employees to adhere to) for the organization. The working of the organization will be built around Distributive justice, Procedural Justice and Interactional Justice. Through these forms of justice an atmosphere of fairness will be nurtured. The company personals will carry out their responsibilities with utmost dedication and integrity. Berkshire Capital is an Equal Opportunity Employer and because of this principle it does not discriminate against male/female and person belonging to any other category. No discrimination will be tolerated by the company in case anyone of its employees is found in such acts that are considered as being discriminatory. The company believes in operating in a socially responsible manner. Even though being in the services industry it believes that it can have a profound impact on the environment and therefore it supports all those measure undertaken to preserve it. The company also believes that it owns to the society in which it operates, thus it will take part in all charitable events that are aimed at the development of the society. Performance: Berkshire Capital is committed to attracting, nurturing, retaining and prospering individuals who are talented, progressive, motivated, and intelligent and believes in societal values. The company is always on the lookout for individuals who are professional in attitude, well-trained and dedicated to the highest standards of performance, quality and integrity. To harness the true potential of an employee the company will provide an atmosphere where employees can excel and think of company’s growth as their own growth. The company will reward and recognise high achievers and will strive to build long-term relationship with not only its customers but also its employees. The company considers its employees as the most valuable assets and therefore wants to nurture them for the global competition. Value and Management Style: The company believes in a democratic management style, because it firmly believes that being in a financial services industry requires innovative thought process. Keeping this in mind the company will encourage and motivate everyone in the organizational hierarchy to come up with an innovative solution to a problem. Therefore it will allow everyone to offer a viewpoint with regards to a solution or even a strategy. Holidays: There will be holidays on every social event, whether it is charismas or football tournament final. Other than this every employee is allowed yearly 30 off days. For women they can have a maternity leave of 4 months. Other Benefits for the Employees: These benefits are those which can be tailored by the employees, to fit his or her individual needs: Pension Plan Insurance Health Allowance Children Education Funds House building Plans Study Break Profit –Sharing Plan: This scheme will be used to share the firm’s annual profits amongst all its employees. The reason behind this is that the partners want the employees to start the New Year with high morale and increased productivity. Reward Strategy: Job Title Reward Method Description Analyst Competency-based Pay Pay is dependent on employee’s range, depth, and types of skills and knowledge Associate Merit-based Pay Any salary increase awarded to an employee based on his or her individual performance Laterally hired Merit-based Pay - Operations and Administration Competency-based Pay - Partners Profit-Sharing This is the method through which employees get a share of the annual profits of the firm Financial and Non-financial Incentives: Employee recognition Gift certificate Special events Cash rewards Merchandise incentives Training program Career Positions in the company: The features and practices of High quality Work System will be incorporated in all the job positions or titles that will be offered by the company. The company is expecting different goals from each of their title bearer. Each title holder should contribute to the strategic objectives of the firm. The company offers four entry points to professionals, who want to be associated with Berkshire Capital’s: Analyst- Entry Level Associate-MBA Level Lateral Hire Operations and Administration Analyst is expected to be diligent at his work. He should be analytical and effective problem solver, with strong strategic orientation. Exceptional in oral, written, presentation skills and most importantly have strong interpersonal skills. Able to build relationship at all levels with and outside the organization. He should be able to quickly understand complex situation and determine strategies and action required for improvement. An Associate is expected to be comfortable with multitasking. He should set in his work high standards of professional excellence. He should be a good time manager and very efficient with his time. The prospect should be detailed oriented, inquisitive, and critical in his work. Lateral Hire: This form of hiring is done by the partners, who if find a suitable talent in the industry, having unique skills and knowledge base, can be offered a position in the company. Operations and Administration: Personals hire in this function should be diligent in their work and self starters. They should be very good at identifying problems early and take corrective actions. REWARD POLICY: In order to implement the reward strategy presented above there will be the specific reward policies which will define the proposed operational practice. How it Operates: All employees will be provided with basic salary along with the other added incentives according to their performance. The output and performance of the employees will be checked and evaluated on the basis of set standards. All standards will be according to the strategic targets and goals of the organisation. Apart from this, in order to enhance the performance and facilitate the process of skill development there will be different training and development sessions. The employees will be provided with clear career development path and plan at the time of the induction. Review of the Progress: Biannually, the partners and those who were hired laterally will conduct a joint session in which they would review and discuss all the evaluation criteria. They would brainstorm on the probable action in case the objectives are not being accomplished. In this session they would identify the discrepancies and assign a lateral hire to the problem with clear instruction to erase it. This committee would also assess the performance of High Performance Work System and other assessment systems in place. Through a joint policy action the committee will decide the changes and up gradations. Authority: Since the company believes in a democratic style of management, in the above mention committee all decision will be taken democratically. However, the lateral hire won’t have the right to vote on the final policy but there input will be closely considered by the senior partners. In case of equal number of votes for a policy, the chairmen of the board will have the final authority. His decision would be final and shall not be further debated. List of References/Bibliography Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance Management. Dorling Kindersley India Pvt. Ltd. Armstrong, M. (2007). A Handbook of Employee Reward Management and Practice. London: Kogan Page. Armstrong, M. (2009) Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 11th edition. London: Kogan Page. Armstrong, M., and Murlis, H. (2007). Reward Management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. London, UK: Kogan Page. Berkshire Capital. About US. Available from [Accessed 10 April] Bloomberg Businessweek. Company overview of Berkshire Capital Corporation. Available from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=791752 [Accessed 10 April 2012] Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2009) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 4th edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Bratton, J., Sawchuk, P., Forshaw, C., Callinan, M. and Corbett, M. (2010) Work and Organizational Behaviour, 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Compton, F., and Nankervis, A. (1998). Effective Recruitment & Selection Practices. Australian Print Group: Australia. Glassdoor. Berkshire Capital Salaries. Available from http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Berkshire-Capital-Salaries-E260710.htm [Accessed 10 April 2012] Heneman, R. (2002). Strategic Reward Management: design, implementation, and evaluation. USA: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Henry, C. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach to Management, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Hume, D. (1995). Reward Management: employee performance, motivation, and pay. Blackwell Business. Jackson, S., Schuler, R., and Werner, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Kramar, R., Mcgrew, P., and Schuler. R. (1997). Human Resource Management in Australia. 3rd edition, Longman: Australia. Marchington, M., and Wilkinson, A. (2005). Human resource management at work: people, management, and development. London: CIPD Publishing. Maybey, C., Salaman, G., and Storey, J. (1999). Human Resource Management: a strategic introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Miner, J., and Crane, D. (1995). Human Resource Management : The Strategic Perspective. HarperCollins College Publishers. Newell, H. and Scarbrough, H. (2002) HRM in Context: A case study approach, PALGRAVE. Newman, N,. and Hodgetts, R. (1998). Human Resource Management. R.R Donnelley & Sons Co: USA. Pilbeam, S. and Corbridge, M. (2010) People Resourcing and Talent Planning: HRM in Practice, Fourth Edition, Pearson Education Limited: FT Prentice Hall. Redman, T. and Wilkinson, A. (2009) Contemporary Human Resource Management: Texts and Cases. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Salaman, G., Storey, J., and Billsberry, J. (2005). Strategic Human Resource Management: theory and practice. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Secord, H. (2003). Implementing Best Practices in Human Resources Management. Canada: CCH Canadian Limited. Taylor, S. (2010) Resourcing and Talent Management, Fifth Edition, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Ulrich, D., and Brockbank, W. (2005). The HR value proposition. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Appendix Current Salaries at Berkshire Capital: (Glassdoor) Berkshire Capital Overview: Berkshire Capital is a private investment organisation. The details about the company are presented in the figure below: (Bloomberg Businessweek) (Bloomberg Businessweek) Read More