Employee Management - Assignment Example

Employee Management Number Introduction The success, stability and continuity of an organization are fundamentally dependent upon planning, policy-making and the manner in which the policies are ratified. The fact of this standpoint is underscored by all functions and departments of an organization fundamentally drawing from sound formation and execution of strategy and policy. One of successful organizations that feature in the Internet and is a publicly traded company is Apple Inc. Apple Inc is a United States technology multinational with its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The company engages in designing, developing and selling computer software, computer applications, personal computers and computer parts and consumer electronics. Apple Inc also deals in hardware products such as iPhone smartphone, iPod media player, the iPad tablet computer, the Mac chain of computers and the Apple Watch smartwatch. Having been founded on April 1, 1976, the success of the company is underscored by the universal presence that it enjoys and the large market share that it has in the global market. The company has 453 Apple retailing stores in 15 countries, according to 2006 statistical release. The immense pool of financial revenue that is due to Apple Inc is underscored by the size of its operating income which is valued at USD 52.503 billion. Apple Inc also has revenue of USD 182.8 billion. Apple Inc has a total asset value of USD 231.84 billion, according to 2014 financial release. 1. How the Company Uses Its Human Resource Management Strategy to Support Its Business Strategy Steve Jobs himself attributes the success of Apple Inc to the use of open communication. In this light, information would flow hierarchically and horizontally and among people with different rankings. Because of this, communication tools and mediums such as telephones, e-mails, facsimile, internal switchboards and shared networks were greatly expended. The same is also the case since measures such as round table meetings and open door policies were used to facilitate communication. Roundtable meetings allow employees to brainstorm collectively, on the other hand, while the open-door policy on the other hand allows an employee to enter into his superior’s office and share his work-related challenges and concerns, without having to have made prior arrangements with the secretary’s desk. Apple Inc has made a lot of effort to support effective communication because it appreciates the role of communication in the cultivation and maintaining of teamwork and team spirit, intra-organizational cohesion and in the efficient expending of organizational synergy and resources, towards the attainment of the set performance target. Apple Inc also uses competitive talent management to ensure that the objective of the multinational is attained and continually upheld. This involves, conducting competitive personnel recruitment programs that are based on merit and extending competitive remunerations and emoluments to the personnel based on merit and performance. It is notable that Apple Inc. is one of the organizations with the highest paid employees. Apple Inc has been in this case using its emoluments as a tool for motivating its employees. In this case, employees who meet their performance target are earmarked for promotions, acts of acknowledgement and other incentives such as scholarships, bonuses and study tours. Workshops and training programs are also some of the tools that have been used as correctional measures on employees who have failed to achieve their performance target. Closely related to the immediately foregoing is the fact that Apple Inc has been using its exit strategy to ensure a strategic exit and entrance observation. In this light, retirees are always released not by giving priority on retirement age, but on the successful impartation of the much needed skills on upcoming successors. Potential retirees are tasked with mentoring and training members of the junior staff who have maintained a competent and professionally impeccable streak. 2. Evaluating How the Company Is Leveraging Its Human Capital to Contribute To the Financial Performance of the Business Apple Inc has been using its human capital to buttress its financial performance. To ensure that it benefits from its human capital, Apple Inc has used division of labor and job specialization to compartmentalize the duties, responsibilities and roles that are supposed to be discharged by every individual employee. Every officer has a performance target set for him. The performance appraisal is done only monthly basis, but on a minor scale. Groups in the departments are assigned a supervisor who does the performance appraisal. Major performance appraisals are done bi-annually, so that at the end of every fiscal year, Apple Inc is only geared up for the attainment of performance target. This is because correctional measures are made to ensure that the failure to achieve the performance target and factors leading up to the missing of the performance target are corrected. This is done through an elaborate spate of cooperation among the employee, the supervisor and the human resources office. In turn, there are values that the multinational uses to meaningfully and sustainably gain from its employees’ input. For instance, in order to effectively leverage between its human capital and financial interests, Apple Inc provides its employees with highly competitive remunerations. Apple Inc’s employees are among the world’s highest paid, with the average hourly pay given to Apple Inc’s retail specialist ranging between USD 15 and 20 per hour. The estimates for the hourly pay are premised upon the 249 hourly pay. The Mac Specialist working in any Apple store receives a payment of USD 13.5 per hour. Apple Inc specialists are also paid 15 dollars per hour. Any employee holding the office or title of Mac Genius is paid an hourly rate of USD 20.7. Apple software engineers are paid an average of USD 121,843. There are other benefits that accompany Apple Inc’s employees. Apple employees are provided with 50 percent discount when purchasing any of Apple Inc’s products. When it comes to accessing AppleCare, employees are accorded 25 percent discount. Employees are also provided with the choice of choosing either USD 250 off from iPad, or USD 500 off from a Mac, upon completing three months on the job. The discount of USD 500 off from Mac’s price is however exclusive of the Apple Mini. The offer is always renewed every three years. Other benefits that are extended to Apple Inc employees include incorporation into the 401K plan, a health insurance cover which allows employees to pay much lower rates for basic medical services and disability insurance cover. The 401K Plan is inclusive of discounts on Apple Inc products for employees, their immediate family and designated friends. The 401K Plan is also inclusive of discounts on vacations and vacation travels done. There are also outstanding acts of acknowledgement, promotions, grants and scholarships (either full or partial) which are extended to employees with outstanding achievements. All employees also get to benefit from the aforementioned competitive emoluments and perks. All these provisions are availed by Apple to motivate its human capital into being optimally productive, to consolidate a highly competitive workforce and to ward off high [employee] turnover. Apart from the immediately foregoing, Apple also uses its financial resources to carry out highly competitive recruitment drives, so as to make sure that its personnel are highly competent. 3. How the Legal and Regulatory Environment Impact Human Capital Management Even as Apple Inc leverages its human capital with its financial interests, it does so with the reality of the legal and regulatory compunctions in place. This is the case since, as a multinational, Apple has to factor the employment laws, company laws and civil laws of the land or the foreign market it is operating in. It is for this reason that in every country of operation, Apple has legal experts in its payroll, as to help the company with advisory roles. Generally, Apple uses permanent employment as the guiding legal principle which guides its employment practices and Apple-employee relationship. The crux of the matter herein is that, unlike some of its competitors which engage their employees in employment-at-will [as a way of escaping proclivity to employment lawsuits], Apple goes a long way to employ its employees on long-term basis. Even in jurisdictions such as Alabama, New York and Florida wherein employment-at-will is legally provided for, Apple continues to eschew the use of employment-at-will. The gravity of the matter herein is that Apple is not merely interested in following the letter of the law, but imparting the ultimate good on its employees. Specifically, Apple is not interested in being legally legitimate by the skin of its teeth, but is interested in maintaining a symbiotic relationship with its employees: enriching the lives of its employees as employees in turn grace its operations with the much needed skills, professionalism and competence. In regard to the foregoing, Apple Inc directly engages its employees and pays them directly. As already mentioned, Apple Inc also extends benefits to its employees. Some of these benefits include paid vacation and subsidized healthcare, holidays, contributions to employees’ retirement plans and sick leave. The same also follows that there are measures that Apple Inc must observe or undertake before it terminates its terms and conditions with an employee. Some of these measures include the issuance of a warning and [later] the presentation of just cause for the termination. The culmination of Apple Inc’s tradition of adhering to the law and the interests of the local environment has endeared the company to the locals. Apple Inc readily gets to recruit the best skills from the grassroots compared to its competitors. Similarly, Apple’s engagement of permanent employment in lieu of employment-at-will has both succored the company from high turnover and accorded it with optimal performance. The explanations behind these accruals is that employees who are employed on permanent basis enjoy the peace and security that come with security of tenure and the benefits that proceed from permanent employment. Resultantly, the same employees see no need for looking outward for greener and more secure pastures. Again, the same employees are inherently challenged to justify the benefits of their terms of employment by meeting the set performance target and embracing professionalism in their own volition. The multinational also accedes to other laws of employment when venturing into foreign markets. Specifically, most countries stipulate that an organization must have within its task force, a certain percentage [normally 50 percent] of the locals. Apple’s stickler for the enhancement of the welfare of the human community [both local and global] and not merely following the letter of the law is underscored by the fact that it ensures that more than 70 percent of its task force is reflective of the local population. This trend has had benefits trickling in to the rest of the cultural environment wherein Apple has been in operation as locals have benefited from increased trading activities, higher rates of employment and a higher purchasing power. In all the areas that Apple has operated in, the company has adhered to other legal directives stipulated by the law of the land. For instance, Apple Inc prepares and publishes all its fiscal statements at the end of every financial year. This allows respective governments to carry out taxation more efficiently. Read More