A REVIEW OF PROVIDING EMPLOYEES BENEFITS IN SAMSUNG IN SOUTH KOREA - Essay Example

?a review of providing employees benefits in samsung in south korea ID) 18th December Word count: 2555 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Background of the company 3 1.2 Research title, research question and research objectives 3 1.3 Research rationale 4 2 Literature review 4 2.1 Introduction 4 2.2 High compensation 5 2.3 Training 5 2.4 Health insurance 6 2.5 Promotion of employees 7 2.6 Strong relationship between Samsung top level management team and employees 8 2.7 Team work 9 2.8 Seminars 10 2.9 Employees transfer 10 3 Conclusion 11 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the company Samsung Company is South Korean based firm that is headquartered in Suwon. Having been established in 1969 when it was referred to as Samsung Electric Industries, the company has embarked on product diversification an aspect that has made it to enjoy a competitive position in the electronic industry. Soon after it was established, the company embarked on acquiring other firms within the same industry with an objective of expanding its capital bases as well as putting in place effective marketing strategies. Some of the notable firms that Samsung acquired were Korea Semiconductor and Korea Telecommunication in 1974 and 1980 respectively. Investing in technology especially between 1995 and 2008 made the company to acquire a significant market share an aspect that made the company to effectively face off its key competitor Sony. In order to effectively meet the needs of its global market, the company diverted from consumer brands to enter in the filed of memory. This made it to be a key supplier of the NAND memory and A7 processors to the Apple Company. Recently, Samsung has indicated an expansive growth that has made it not only to incur high profits but also it has created a strong positive consumer product relationship. From the introduction and adoption of 5G technology to the launching of Galaxy S series, Samsung registered a profit of US $9.4 billion in the third quarter of 3013. In order to ensure that its operations are effectively varied out in the local and global market, Samsung maintains a workforce of 470,000 employees. Thus the need to keep them motivated as a way of enlacing the company profitability. 1.2 Research title, research question and research objectives A review of providing employees benefits in Samsung in South Korea Research question What is the impact of providing employees benefits in Samsung? Research objectives Analyzing the impact of employees benefit program on Samsung performance Outline the employees, benefits program Reviewing the implementation of providing employees benefits in Samsung Company What are the benefits of providing employees for the company? 1.3 Research rationale This research will use the studies done by various individuals who have done extensive coverage of the benefits offered by the Samsung Company in its effort to improve the productivity of its employees. 2 Literature review 2.1 Introduction Being an international company with an objective of expanding its customer bases and acquiring a wide market segment, Samsung has a strong linkage with its employees. Ranging from technical managers to the sales representative, the company has established a number of employee’s benefits that are aimed at motivating them thus improving their productivity. Through the establishment of Samsung’s welfare system, the company provides not only financial support to the employees, but also it provides health, leisure and education facilities to the employees. The establishment of an integrated benefit scheme, Samsung has maintained a strong workforce that has made it to put at bay it key competitors including Nokia and Apple. The part below reviews studies done by various people on the impact of providing employees benefits in Samsung. 2.2 High compensation In his studies on compensation and negotiation, Chingos (1985) support an increment of salaries not only as a way of compensating them but also as a technique of thanking them. Samsung compensation plan is based on the policy of compensation for performance and without discrimination. Key aspects that are disregarded in the company compensation plan that even Chingos (1985) and Rappaport, et al (2013) advocates for are religion, gender, age and social status. In order to ensure that its employees are appropriately compensated, Samsung management team in line with the company regulations established a compensation committee made up of Kwang-Soo Song, In-Ho Lee and Byeong-Gi Lee. The duties of the committee are to plan a long-term incentive scheme and to provide a remuneration scheme for the company directors. While Chingos (1985) as well as Bryant and Allen (2013) give a significant support for fairness during compensation, they are against the paying low salaries to well performing employees. This is based on the high salaries for well performing workers creates strong motivation for the employees. 2.3 Training Training of staffs in a company is an important benefit and always leads to the firm attaining its goals. Samsung as a company provides leadership training to the employees and job function related to an individual employee growth. The aim is to equip the employee with the relevant information concerning the firm and individual as a whole. Samsung in Korea has been a leading information technology institution due to advanced technology which is mainly implemented to the staffs in the firm due to different types of brands in the market and thus the employee has to be educated to attain the necessary information concerning different models and different brands of the firm. William and Kazanas (2004) in the strategic development of talents argues that for the firm to attain goals it must training the staffs since they have different talents and thus the best way to exploit the talent and make it useful in development of the firm. Due to the firm ability to hire employees from different parts of Korea, William and Kazanas (2004) do support the training since it will be beneficial to the company and the employees as a whole. Cohn and Khurana et al (2005) do support the same idea of training the employee since they argue that growing of employee’s talents is key to a firm success. Samsung has introduced family Hug; this is a communication forum that is emulated by the company and thus, the employees share a common vision with Samsung. The aim of the forum is to train the employees together with their families to have the same vision with the company this makes the family members to understand Samsung as the firm and Samsung in return provide education to them. 2.4 Health insurance Health insurance programs are carried by Samsung to all employees to ensure that employee quality of life is enhanced and this makes the level of concentration at work high and thus the attainment of goals in the company. Samsung provides health management services to the employees through visiting counseling centers to those working under medication to ensure that work is done according to the management and high concentration that lead to high quality brands due to stress free environment. Due to health issues, the working hours are stipulated by the management to ensure that no overworking of employees which can result to illness. This makes the workers to be flexible in their working style and be motivated since no health issues can emanate from overworking. In 2012, Samsung carried out mental health diagnosis on the employees to ensure their quality of life is increased and on the same year all female pregnant employees were offered counseling services to make sure that they attained psychological stability thus increasing work output of Samsung (Hurley et al, 2006). The health insurance programs are important to the employees since they enhance high concentration of employees thus making sure that they are motivated. Samsung has introduced health programs to ensure that daily management stress are looked upon and the employees life is considered a lot since without the employees Samsung will not run. Xyrichis and Emma (2008) support health care insurance programs since they make the life of employee to be valued a lot thus making the employee to be part and parcel of Samsung Company. These health insurance programs to the employees do motivate the employee and thus making them to work hard in the production of brands. In support of health insurance program Beaubien and Baker (2004) considers that if the employee has a terminal illness, it will lead to low production of brands or even none and thus quality and safety health care of an employee is important whenever working under Samsung and will lead to the company attaining the goals set. 2.5 Promotion of employees Samsung has promotion benefits to the employees that make them motivated when working in the firm. For example, Samsung has started a support for death in the family this means that Samsung gives vocational days so that one can take care of the situation. Samsung still provide medical expenses support to an individual when one bill is high or incase of accident and other related problems. Vacation trips are provide by Samsung to ensure that the employee will lest during that time and relax fully so that one feel good and like to be associated with Samsung. As a way to motivate the employees Samsung provide tuition support to the employee children and this makes the employee to work for many years since the children will be supported from kindergarten to the university. 2.6 Strong relationship between Samsung top level management team and employees Strong relationship between Samsung top level management team and the employees exist and this makes the firm to sustain the employees who enjoy working with Samsung. Top management works together with employees to achieve the goal set since Samsung sells its brands to different countries thus the need to strongly relate with the staffs to make the company to achieve goals and targets (Samsung’s Mobile Phone Business). The recruitment coordinator and employee services at Samsung must coordinate and relate well to other staffs since without them the goals of Samsung can not be achieved. The top management do encourage team work since working together increases creativity and change to Samsung thus innovation being achieved. Ramstad (2004) support team work in the firm and this makes relationship of top management with the employees to be strong when they work together to achieve a common goal and vision. Due to strong relationship of top management and employee the management introduces welfare programs to the employees so as to make the employee feel part and parcel of the company thus motivating them. Human resource coordinates with the employees and work together to meet the goals and deadlines. The company has also established a Samsung LiVE. This is a communication platform where employees intermingle through online avenues. Through the effective communication process among the employees of different ranks, there is free sharing of personal and internal issues that may affect the productivity of the employees. Additionally, the employees can post memos to the top management team through the Samsung LiVE platform. On its part, the top management team gives feedback on the memos thus creating a strong connection between the employees and the management team. Establishment of strong online communication channels, is one of the notable aspects that DeChurch et al, (2010) advocates for. While not all firms have taken such an initiative, Samsung Company has not overlooked the importance of maintaining a strong communication system with its employees. This is indicated by the establishment of Reply Consultation Room. This is a platform through which the discussions relating to new brands are held between the employees and the senior managers as well as executives. In addition, the company offers a survey referred to as opinion barometer that provides ample opportunity through which the employees can provide feedback on the various issues affecting the company. 2.7 Team work Team work is one of the major tools that global firms thus creating conducive environment for the development of the employees. For a team to be successful, the management must be able to handle internal challenges of the team such as management of conflicts, confidence building and motivation. In their studies on team work Salas et al, (2005) supports team work in the sense that it creates an avenue of problems solving within a firm. Secondly, it allows employees to accomplish their tasks at a faster rate thus providing chances of the employees being promoted by the top managers. Thirdly, Salas et al, (2005) depicts that team work is vital in establishing a health competition that is essential in motivating individuals while at the time making the team to excel. Samsung has adopted the culture of team work thus allowing it staff to participate in challenging duties as team thus enhancing their productivity. Through establishing a project team work, an initiative that brought together Samsung and ESPN, Inkson et al (1997) indicates that the employees are provided with opportunity to develop thus making them more productive thus having a positive impact on the company performance. Samsung aims at creating strong team in the Korean market as a way of making the employees creative and improve their talents. 2.8 Seminars As a way of enhancing the performance of the employees, Samsung Company adopts seminars that are aimed at providing the employees with opportunities to improve on their skills regardless of their duties. On their studies on discussions and seminars, Billings and Fitzgerald (2002) support the personal development seminars as well as business seminars as key aspects that firms should adopt (Noe et al, 2013). On its effort to maintain a strong workforce and put at bay its competitors in the Korean market, Samsung for example holds the Samsung Guide Dog School that focuses at making its workers responsible pet owners. By making the workers participate in the preparation and holding of the seminars such as Agility team, Search & Rescue Dogs and Pet ownership programs, the company makes the employees to feel as part and parcel of the firm thus making them motivated. Additionally, Samsung holds seminars that train the employees of the management and leadership qualities. Through the collaboration with the neighboring universities in the Seoul region including Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Hanyang University among others Samsung is able to hold employees seminars that are spearheaded by experts from the institutions. As the Billings and Fitzgerald (2002) maintains that for a seminar to be successful, it must be spearheaded by individuals who are experts at their own fields thus making the participants to benefits from the seminars. 2.9 Employees transfer Another notable benefit that Samsung offer to its employees is paid travel to Korea and back to their country such as Russia. Similarly, the company caters for the transport of the employee’s family members including the wife or husband and the children. As a result of having their family members close to where they are working or in the Korea towns where the crime rates are low, the employees able to concentrates on their duties. As indicated by Kim (2008) expatriates need to be motivated not only by initiating across cultural training and high compensation but also by providing transfer and travelling benefits. This is a strategy that Samsung Company has adopted for its employees coming from foreign countries such as US and Russia. 3 Conclusion Global companies that are experiencing stiff competition have to improve the productivity of their employees by initiating integrated benefit schemes that meet the needs of their employees. Based on the above discussion, it is clear that Samsung competitive position has not only been achieved through extensive promotion and increased investment in the technology sector but also through establishment of wide range of employee’s benefits (International Group Program. 2012). This has left the workers motivated an aspect that has made positive impact on the Samsung operations. Notable benefits are, high compensation, Training, health insurance, employees promotions, Strong relationship between Samsung top level management team and employees, Team work and seminars among others. References Beaubien, M and Baker, D. 2004. 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