Strategic Human Resource Management - BrainGames Gaming Company - Case Study Example

HRM Workplace Case Study Name Institution HRM Workplace Case Study Introduction Strategic Human Resource Management is termed as the alignment of initiatives that involves how employees are managed with a company’s mission and objectives. Strategic human resource management is aimed at solving the challenges that face the management of human resources such as recruitment and selection and talent acquisition strategy (FitzRoy, Hulbert and Ghobadian, 2012). Recruitment can be defined as the process of establishing the need of an organisation to employ a staff member while selection is the process of choosing the best applicant suitable to fill a position (Shafique, 2012). The old recruitment and selection strategies may be unresponsive in today’s competitive business environment. Therefore, companies are expected to change their talent strategy in order to have a competitive edge. The main purpose of this essay is to analyse the case study of BrainGames Gaming Company and its consideration to restructure its talent strategy. First, the paper will highlight the characteristics that are expected to be seen in BrainnGames’s products and services. Second, it will translate these characteristics into recruitment and selection strategy. Third, it will give a recommendation on the way forward for the company in terms of restructuring its talent strategy. Lastly, based on the recommendations given, it will offer suggestions for recruitment and selection strategy to be used by the company. HRM Workplace Case Study Analysis Strategic management entails the theory and exercise of aligning business goals and objectives with its environments (Millmore, 2007). In order for any company to achieve competitive advantage, the objective should achieve the best fit in regard to the organisational capabilities and business environment. BrainGame is a gaming company with an operating office in Berlin which was founded 4 years ago (Sutton et al., 2014). Due to the financial inability to hire developers at the outset, the founder, Hans Faust enlisted volunteers who were given the responsibility of designing, building, testing and debugging online games. The mission of BrainGame Company is to create positive, non-violent as well as commercially feasible products that emphasizes on empathy and caring and not aggression and revenge (Sutton et al., 2014). There are many external and internal factors that affect the operation of the company. For instance, the precarious components of external environment include competition, government regulation, technology, market trends and economic trends. On the other hand, the internal factors affecting organisations include decision-making processes, strategies and performance and culture among others. For BrainGroup Company, since it is a gaming company, it is affected by factors including technology, economic growth, competition, culture, market trends, talent strategy and performance. The business model and strategy of the BrainGroup was based on the use of volunteers who are willing to work at no cost (Sutton et al., 2014). The company used free labour in an attempt to reduce cost related to hiring and salary payment and as a way of creating a movement that supports the hard work of people who care about their cause and mission. Although volunteer workforce assists the company to save on cost, the company does not have any leverage over their performance (Sutton et al., 2014). Therefore, compared to skilled developers, volunteers may not develop quality products and services that will create value to the customers. Considering the mission of the company, the expected characteristics of the products of BrainGame is gaming systems that covey positivity and empathy instead of aggression and revenge (Sutton et al., 2014). The economic, social and political changes happening in the business environment have added pressure on business entities to focus on aligning the contribution of the employees with the organisational goals and objectives (Millmore, 2007). The pressure on business entities from their environmental factors requires a different and smarter means of carrying out Human Resource Management that tend to maximize the contribution of employees in order to enable business success. The characteristics of products and services of BrainGame can be translated into recruitment and selection criteria. Recruitment and selection should be simply a matter of filing a gap. It should be focussed on bringing in some specific skills and experiences that cannot be obtained within (Shafique, 2012). Recruitment and selection criteria are used in order to choose the most effective, qualified and capable individuals for the job. An example of a recruitment and selection criteria is effective written and verbal communication abilities (Catano, 2009). Many companies often list this criterion in their job advertisement. This criterion can be used by BrainGame Company when they decide to hire specialized developers. Another important criterion includes ability to work in a team. This criterion is very important as it establishes the effective teamwork skills possessed by an applicant. Ability to work under pressure is another important criterion used by many organisations that can be used by BrainGame when filling a vacancy position in the company. Problem solving skill is another important criterion that can be used by BrainGame in selecting the best fit for a job vacancy in order for the company to be able to deliver products and services of great characteristics to the customers (Catano, 2009). Advanced computer skill is also necessary for any BrainGame applicant in order to be able to develop and design a gaming system that satisfies the customers. Other important recruitment and selection criterion to be used by BrainGame in order to ensure they produce products of greater quality and features include high-level customer service skills, time management proficiency and ability to cope with conflicting priorities (Catano, 2009). From my point of view, BrainGame should hire new developers and designers to participate in their product development. Developers and designers can act as fundamental assets for gaming companies (Sutton et al., 2014). It is very difficult for the stakeholders and investors to take the company serious when it only depends on unpaid volunteers. Use of volunteers is a good way of saving on cost but the idea can die off very fast in a very short time. In order for BrainGame to scale up, it should look for developers who have the same passion as the volunteers but execute their job with great efficacy and effectiveness (Sutton et al., 2014). Hiring of developers and designers will enable the company gain the trust of the investors who will offer reliable resources to the company that will enable it grow and expand. Nevertheless, BrainGame should not completely overthrow the volunteers since they are also a core part of the company. What the company should do is allow the volunteers to offer their ideas of a good gaming system but let the other important job be done by the hired developers and designers. This will create a clear role that the two parties play and will eliminate overlap of responsibilities (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). BrainGame should come up with ways to of establishing which phases should be taken care of by the volunteers and which should be handled by the experts. The company should not turn its back on volunteers completely as this will create a bad picture in the media and in the eyes of the customers (Sutton et al., 2014). The company should rely on both the volunteers and the developers in order to satisfy the need of the investors as well as the community as a whole. Developers have the experience and knowledge to design games in an organized way and are committed, innovative and disciplined which can translate into the success of the company in the long run (Sutton et al., 2014). The best way for the company to take is to hire developers and designers who would take a huge part in building gaming system but retain the volunteers who would offer their ideas to the company. This will eliminate the risks of relying too much on the unpaid volunteers and will create a business that attracts the interest of the investors and the customers. Good quality products would be developed and management of workforce will be easier and less engaging. Chang, Wilkinson and Mellahi (2007) suggests that for strategic recruitment and selection process to be effective, the interest of the stakeholders should be represented, should focus in long-term and short-term strategic goals and the process should be chosen on the basis fitness for purpose. Recruitment and selection of developers accomplishes the mentioned conditions. The attraction and selection of individuals is considered a talent war since organisations need to evaluate their own structures, cultures and activities in order to develop work environment that attract potential employees (Millmore, 2007). Attracting and selecting potential employees is a tall order and strategies are required which vary from one company to another. Implementing selection and recruitment strategies is very expensive and there are elements that make up an effective strategy (Mankin and Killiher, 2012). For recruitment and selection strategy to be effective, they should cover the following elements. One element that will be appropriate for BrainGame is identifying and prioritizing jobs. Requirements often arise and are a never ending process. Since it is almost impossible to fill all the positions immediately, BrainGame should identify positions that need to be filled immediately. It is essential to prioritize vacancy positions focussing on key jobs first (Edgar, 2007). In addition, the strategy should define sources of recruitment to be used for various positions (Edgar, 2007). The most effective source of recruitment to be used by BrainGame is referral. Another element of recruitment and selection strategy is the method of evaluating the candidates. The different parameters for recruitment and selection should be established and the ways to judge the candidates. The entire recruitment and selection process should be planned beforehand. Rounds of technical interviews, psychometric tests and written test among others should be established in advanced to avoid confusion and ineffectiveness (Edgar, 2007). Conclusion In conclusion, Strategic Human Resource Management is the alignment of programs that involves how employees are managed within a company’s mission and objectives. BainGame is a gaming company whose mission is to create positive, non-violent as well as commercially feasible products that emphasizes on empathy and caring and not aggression and revenge. BrainGame has been using volunteers in its workforce but this has proven to bringing a lot of risks. For instance, investors are not fully ready to offer resources to the company as a result of this culture. The company is in a dilemma of whether to retain its volunteer workforce or high qualified developers and designers. It will be a good idea to higher specialized developers and designers in order to scale-up. Some recruitment and selection criteria to be used by BrainGame include, advanced computer skills, ability to work under pressure and ability to work in a team. The elements of a successful recruitment and selection strategy for BrainGame include definition of recruitment sources and prioritizing jobs. References Catano, V. (2009). Recruitment and selection in Canada. Toronto: Nelson Education. Chang, Y. Y., Wilkinson, A., & Mellahi, K. (2007). HRM strategies and MNCs from emerging economies in the UK. European Business Review, 19(5), 404-419 Edgar S. (2007). Increasing Organizational Effectiveness through Better Human Resources Planning and Development. Sloan Management Review, 19:1, p. 1. FitzRoy, P., Hulbert, J. & Ghobadian, A. (2012). Strategic management : the challenge of creating value. London New York: Routledge. Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C. (2012). Strategic Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 82-3, Millmore, M. (2007). Strategic human resource management : contemporary issues. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Shafique O. (2012). Recruitment in the 21st Century, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 4(2), 887-901 Sutton, R., Rao, H., Bafdin, N., & Delius, V. (2014). Can a volunteer-staffed company scale? Harvard Business Review, 92(5), 125-129 Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C. (2012). Strategic Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 5. Read More