Challenges and Future of HR Function - Carrefour - Case Study Example

Challenges and Future of HR Function Name Institution Abstract For companies operating in United Arab Emirate (UAE) to succeed, they need to make use of the entire human resource as well as to encourage greater participation of Arab women in the workplace. This is since has a diverse workforce in the future. Expatriate workers are from Iran, the United States, India, Europe, and the United States. Examples of such countries include Carrefour. The company’s corporate strategy is to attain organic, sustained, and profitable growth in the broad market. Consistent with its corporate strategy, Carrefour has ensured that all its employees share the commitment to fair trade and retail spirit. Indeed, company has HR policies that integrate training, development, diversity, and accountability. However, employees have tended to leave since the management has faced critical issues in managing diverse cultures. Indeed, the company employs workers from different backgrounds, such as gender, age, race, disabilities, and sexual orientation. Other challenges include workplace illiteracy, integrating contingent workforce and life/work programs. Two key factors likely to affect evolution of human resource management at the company include talent management and technology, each of which will require strategic and transactional response. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Section I 4 HR Culture in UAE 4 Carrefour overview 5 Human resource management functions at Carrefour 5 Motivation 6 Internal Promotion 6 External Recruitment 7 Project Objectives 7 SECTIONS II 8 HR Department: Organisational chart, mission and role 8 Current HR Policies, objectives, and initiatives 9 Section III 10 Contribution of HR department 10 Possible evolution of HR function 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Studies across a range of disciplines have explored the current trends on human resource management (HRM) and underscored the need for employee motivation and job satisfaction, and how they would affect employee retention (Society for Human Resource Management, 2002). Indeed, motivation and satisfaction are critical aspects in HRM at most companies, such as Carrefour that operate in competitive industry. The success of Carrefour, a Dubai-based retailer, is contingent on high employee productivity, customer service and quality performance (Carrefour, 2014). This paper examines the companies and its strategies with focus on HR objectives, the overview of the company and its HR functions, as well as the contribution of the HR department to company's strategy and future evolution of HR function. Section I HR Culture in UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), like most economies in the Middle East, encounters a range of challenges, such as future demographics, issues of sustainability, balance between employment of foreigners and national workforce, gender-related and diversity concerns and educational concerns. Being a patriarchal society that believes in women’s place at home, organisations in UAE have traditionally given preference to male workers (Randeree, 2009). This has however, changed. Current studies have indicated that Emiratisation process (which entails limiting the demand and number of expatriate workers) combined with the encouraging participation of Emirati women in the private sector has been suggested as capable of alleviating a range of the UAE’s human resource problems. Indeed, an additional challenge entails engaging the country’s national human resource in employment and education while advancing at the same pace as advanced nations while maintain regard for the Islamic tradition. Studies have also suggested that in order for UAE to succeed, it needs to make use of the entire human resource, as well as to encourage greater participation of Arab women in the workplace (Randeree, 2009). This also implies that UAE is likely to face a diverse workforce in the future. Expatriate workers are from Iran, the United States, India, Europe, and the United States. Carrefour overview Carrefour is a multinational retailer that operates in Dubai. It was first opened in France in 1963 and is currently among the largest hypermarket chains globally and current operates some 1,421 hypermarkets globally (Carrefour, 2014). Currently, the company has 371 stores in Asia. Indeed, it is categorised as the fourth largest retailer in terms of revenue, behind Wal-Mart, Tesco and Costco in that order. In terms of profit, it is the third largest behind Wal-Mart and Tesco. In Asia, it also operates in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, and Lebanon. It is characterised by large stores that offer a wide variety of food and non-food items. The company places emphasis on customer satisfaction (Carrefour, 2014). Human resource management functions at Carrefour Effective human resource management promotes effective fair competition, teamwork, and respective environment. Carrefour has more than 364,000 associates (employees). Hence, HRM plays a significant role in the company. As one of the largest retailers in the world, the company has concentrated on three basic strategies motivation, external recruitment, and internal promotion (Carrefour, 2014). Motivation To ensure high quality customer service, HRM focuses on motivating the employees and creating comfortable and secure work environment leading to value addition. This is based on Alder’s Existence relatedness and growth (ERG) theory, which suggests that three basic human needs have to be satisfied if workers have to be motivated: relatedness, existence and growth (Ajang 2006). In this regards, each of the employees is required to put on staff card without name, despite the fact that the executive management puts on a similar staff card that shows some characters, such as “choice and quality for everyone.” Additionally, the company seeks to treat the directors and the employees equally. Using its culture of open door, where employees are free to communicate with the senior management, this provides a communication platform between employees and senior management. This also means that the employees are free to make suggestions and complaints, hence feel a sense of ownership and responsibility (Carrefour, 2014). Internal Promotion Since Carrefour aims to ensure employee’s involvement at all levels of association, it runs a number of learning programs designed to prepare the employees for leadership position. According to the company’s data, more than 75 percent of the company’s management started as employees who rose through the levels. The internal promotion strategies have ensured high levels of employee retention, particularly in Dubai (Chao & Tsuchiya, 2007). Through internal promotions, the employees also get to attain self-value. External Recruitment Apart from the instances of internal promotion, the company also gets to recruit employees and senior level managers. According to Carrefour’s history, the company has hired several business owners in Dubai since it was launched in the city. They are critical components of Carrefour since they are highly regarded for their entrepreneurial expertise and cultures. Additionally, Carrefour has hired external persons who are experts in certain fields in business management (Chao & Tsuchiya, 2007). Project Objectives The objectives of the HR project include creating a consistent infusion of effective management practices, ideas, as well as innovations from outside the company, improving productivity, systems’ efficiency and administrative effectiveness, and stimulating innovative thinking. Others include effective team management, employee motivation and satisfaction, employee retention, effective customer care and change management and effective organisational leadership. SECTIONS II HR Department: Organisational chart, mission and role Figure 1: Carrefour matrix organizational structure The retail store employees are the store management, hourly workforce, as well as senior level management, such as Regional vice presidents and district managers. The store management positions include the Management trainees, assistance managers, co-managers and store managers. The company's organisational structure is a formal, bureaucratic structure. The two successful operating units include store operations and logistics, which are under unified leadership team. The unified team is divided into geographic units, which have taken the company from being compartmentalised, through functions to the geographic departmentalisation. Additionally, there is a clear chain of command from the bottom to the top. The Span of control is however, narrow since the company has managerial teams that determine how the price of the merchandise has to proceed, as well as how stocks should be shipped and managed. Current HR Policies, objectives, and initiatives Carrefour seeks to ensure that all its employees share the commitment to fair trade and retail spirit. Hence, the company has an HR policy that integrates training, development, diversity, and accountability (Carrefour, 2014). Carrefour operates management skills development strategies with the view of increasing the management skills of its regional managers and supervisors. This is usually through a series of companywide breakfast seminars that are focused on innovation, customer service and change management. Carrefour also has a policy that promotes performance evaluation at all levels of operation, to ensure that the organisation pursues its objectives. The performance evaluations are through Business Process projects, actions plans, balances scorecard, as well as evaluation checklist, which ensure that the management is focused on ensuring performance improvement, quality, service and innovation (Carrefour, 2014). Carrefour also runs incentive award programs to reward employees for their contributions. The company’s employee incentive and award programs are aimed to reward staff achievements that promote the company’s goals, and to emphasise on reward programs that reduce waste, improve customer services and make processes simpler. Carrefour also has re-employment program, which is designed for providing support to workers affected by layoffs. The objective is to reduce the number of layoffs, maintain employee morale, promote competence and show support to workers affected by layoffs. The company also has Equal Opportunities Policies and Non-discrimination policies, aimed at prohibiting employees’ discrimination based on age, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and colour. The policies limit unfair-treatment of employees in terms of employment, rewards, and promotion (Carrefour, 2014). Section III Contribution of HR department Human resource management (HRM) at Carrefour consists of policies and practices that influence employees’ actions, attitudes, and performance. The company’s corporate strategy is to attain organic, sustained, and profitable growth in the broad market. The strategy is consistent with its HR strategy seeking to ensure that all its employees share the commitment to fair trade and retail spirit. Hence, the company has HR policies that integrate training, development, diversity, and accountability (RetailBuster, 2009). Human resource development and training at Carrefour centres on advancements of knowledge, skills, as well as changing employee attitudes. The strategic view of the company’s HR development and training helps prepare the employees for future work assignment, while at the same time promoting their productivity on the current jobs. The professional and trained HR managers are able to influence the subordinates to get ready for leadership positions. The strategies also ensure that retail is a core concept for the employee proficiency, who is taught how to buy, as well as sell. Employees are taught to be friendly and to create links between the customers and the company. The company has also ensured knowledge transfer though grooming of new mangers. The company also promotes diversity. Indeed, the company has built a reputation for having dynamic local employer commitment to diversity. The process calls for acknowledging of job requirements, and HR activities, tasks, responsibilities and to determine whether employees fit a position or not. Managers at Carrefour get to identify talents needed for certain positions before selecting the right people who can fit the position. This implies seeking beyond an employee’s knowledge and skills to determine whether a person is suitable for a job. On the other hand, the company could be argued to have failed to attain its objectives. While human resource strategies have been effectively applied at Carrefour, employee retention in Dubai has been an issue. Indeed, while Carrefour is considered to have the most highly regarded benefits, employees have tended to leave since the management has faced critical issues in managing diverse cultures. To this end, the company faces a range of challenges, even as it strives to become strategically aligned with its business side. The key HR challenges include diversity, workplace illiteracy, integrating contingent workforce and life/work programs (Yaseen, 2013). Indeed, the company employs workers from different backgrounds, such as gender, age, race, disabilities, and sexual orientation. While it has hinged its effectiveness on employing people for different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, there have been concerns that it has not been able to manage diversity effectively, especially in ensuring gender balance due to intricacies in attracting and employing women. Workplace illiteracy is also a critical issue. The company acknowledges that it has faced difficulties in employing literate workforce. The effects of workplace illiteracy have meant that the company experiences lower productivity, reduced rates of promotions, and declined international competition. The difficulty in integrating contingent workforce is another challenge. Contingent workforce includes non-company workers who are engaged for jobs structured to last at a predetermined period. Most of these workers tend to hold jobs for a short period, averagely 6 months, while the assignments may last for up to five years. This leads to low retention rate and continuity (Chao & Tsuchiya 2007). Possible evolution of HR function Two key factors are likely to affect evolution of human resource management at the company. These include talent management and technology, each of which will require strategic and transactional response. Technology is greatly dynamic, and will affect outsourcing and shared service options. Growth of technology and telecommuting is likely to affect how employees are hired, as well as how they communicate from remote locations. Hence, recruitments are likely to focus on employees who are technology savvy. The HR department is likely to rely greatly on technology to capture and manage information on human resource. Still, given its dynamism, technology give HR information regarding what to change or expect from employees by quantifying employee performance with the customers’ impacts, as well as the company bottom-line. At the same time, technology can be used in determining the employees’ competencies or talents, and how they translate into varied customer experiences. Once organisations identify such factors, they can be embedded into the systems, programs, or policies. Conclusion Human resource management (HRM) at Carrefour consists of policies and practices that influence employees’ actions, attitudes, and performance. Consistent with its corporate strategy of ensuring competitive advantage through organic, sustained, and profitable growth in the broad market, Carrefour has ensured that all its employees share the commitment to fair trade and retail spirit. Indeed, company has HR policies that integrate training, development, diversity, and accountability. However, employees have tended to leave since the management has faced critical issues in managing diverse cultures. Indeed, the company employs workers from different backgrounds, such as gender, age, race, disabilities, and sexual orientation. Other challenges include workplace illiteracy, integrating contingent workforce and life/work programs. Two key factors likely to affect evolution of human resource management at the company include talent management and technology, each of which will require strategic and transactional response. References Carrefour. (2014). Being a Retailer. Retrieved: Chao, P. & Tsuchiya, H. (2007). The Historical Development of Carrefour and its Competitive Advantage in Taiwan- An Analysis on the Basis of Customer Value. Kaohsiung: National Koahsiung First University of Science and Technology Society for Human Resource Management (2002). The Future of the HR Profession. Retrieved: Randeree, K. (2009). Challenges in Human Resource management and Organisational Development in the Arabian Gulf. An Analysis of National Identity and Diversity. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Science 2(5), 49-55 RetailBuster. (2009). Carrefour's Retail Store Strategy. Retrieved: Yaseen, Z. (2013). Clarifying the Strategic Role of the HR Managers in the UAE Educational Institutions. Journal of Management and Sustainability 3(2), 110-118 Read More