review the human resource management (HRM) of the organization within the case study.

I. HRM Functions and Practices
A. Explain why the human resource (HR) function should be aligned with an organization’s strategic plan.
B. Explain how current global conditions in this industry impact human resource management (HRM) practices within organizations.
II. Staffing
A. Describe a process to recruit and select new employees who are aligned with the organization’s vision and goals from the case study.
B. Compare and contrast recruitment and selection of internal versus external candidates using best practices from the Society for Human
Resource Management (SHRM) website. Refer to the Research and Metrics page for helpful resources. You may want to consider which method
of recruitment would be most beneficial to this organization.
III. Training
A. Describe the components of a needs assessment used to determine the training requirements of the organization.
B. Explain the importance of developing learning activities. Be sure to incorporate adult learning principles and methods of experiential learning
from this course.
C. Illustrate the value of a training needs assessment in an organization. Support your response.
D. Describe the importance of creating SMART objectives for a training plan.
IV. Evaluation
A. Determine the HRM’s role in the performance management process. How can you ensure the process aligns with the organization’s strategic
plan?
B. Differentiate between various performance appraisal systems. Provide an example where one would be more applicable.
C. How do you identify best-suited appraisals for employee job duties? Support your response with an example.
D. Identify a variety of performance rating scales that can be used in organizations that includes graphical scales, letter scales, and numeric scales.
Describe each scale.
V. Compensation
A. Describe the compensation philosophy. How does the market influence this philosophy?
B. Determine the value of salary surveys and describe the advantages of discretionary benefits.

ANSWER

Human Resource Management

Human resource management refers to the administration of human capital and employees who contribute to attaining business goals and objectives. Numerous human resource operations and practices help managers attract and keep workers and plan for future institutional wants. Different companies have diverse structures within their human resource departments, where some are dedicated while others depend on an individual to accomplish various duties. This paper plans to discover more about Maersk Company’s human resource functions and practices. The discussion will involve selecting and recruiting processes, employees’ training, performance management procedures, and the compensation process.

HRM Functions and Practices

The human resource function should be aligned with Maersk Company’s strategic plan because it has a vision of what it needs to achieve and a time frame. By aligning the human resources with the plan, the business can incorporate the right individuals and skills needed to accomplish every function and responsibility. An example would be a warehouse person who should have adequate knowledge and expertise to drive a forklift, learn the scanning system, and know more about the business products. The first action towards aligning HR with strategy is acknowledging that the department and its responsibilities are strategic assets. If the company does not recognize this concept, it misses the chance to enable HR to become strategic. This administrative notion ought to evolve into a focus on value formation. Every human resource function element ranging from reviews, hiring to training should be designed to increase human capital in the institution.

Current Global Conditions

The Moller-Maersk Group rapidly evolved into an international business, which made it reevaluate its existing human capital. Being a big oil and energy producer, the company had to face the changing times that affected its human resource operations. In 2008, the business was hit by a reduction in oil level, and this meant that the department had to concentrate on emerging markets and at the same time maintain their loyal customers. This was achieved through their hiring processes, which affected the company negatively and had to be reexamined. Maersk had to restructure their human resource to be one of a global nature, which meant they had to discover the potential workers to recruit and skills necessary for the business.

Staffing

Recruiting and Selecting New Employees

Great businesses are built through the efforts of great people. The joint attitudes and efforts of workers ultimately outline the business’s profitability, culture, sustainability, and growth. For a business to retain and hire great individuals there should be effective recruitment and selection procedures in place. The Moller-Maersk Group generally hired untrained and young people who were fresh from high school. They were subjected to a two-year training process and later dispatched to other countries. These individuals had a family rapport with the industry where workers would stay with the company for approximately 40 years. Maersk management group often found it difficult to fire underperforming workers due to the good rapport they created together. It was in line with their vision and goals through having a strong and friendly company-centered culture. Having a working strategy in which one recruits and selects workers is effective in all working environments, whether large or small.

Internal Vs. External Candidates

Businesses must carefully consider whether to recruit internally or externally. Several employers prefer to conduct internal recruitment first and turn to external recruitment if the internal attempts are unsuccessful. Internal recruitments are less costly because they engage no recruiting fees and do not need extensive training. Internal recruitments are also normally quicker, which normally takes up to few weeks. Consequently, internal hires support executives and readily available performance review documents (Krell, 2015). Of key importance is that internal recruitment is effective for worker well-being. On the other hand, employers use external recruitment to attract people with the needed skill set, not in-house or grow the business. Maersk Company can best use internal strategy due to the diverse advantages towards meeting the set goals and objectives.

Training

A training needs assessment aims at evaluating a person’s current degree of competency, skill, or knowledge in particular or more areas and compares that skill level to the needed competency standards established for their position or other positions within the industry. Assessments can be done at any time; however, it is frequently done after hiring or performance reviews. One of the components is to evaluate the business need. Maersk’s training requirement needs a proper focus on training areas essential for employees to conduct their goals successfully. The second component is to do a gap analysis that evaluates the existing department’s or worker’s performance skills. The difference between the present state and desired state is a gap. The third component is evaluating training options, which are derived from gap analysis. The list can be evaluated centered on the business’s objectives and priorities, both currently and in the future.

Developing Learning Activities

A business partner is significant to prepare candidates for the position effectively. The operations should focus on candidates who have experience and can interact adequately with people. Through simulated learning activities, including conflict resolution games and listening to Maersk’s training programs, the business will be training and developing its workers accordingly. Still, creating learning activities for the company increases its value and delivery of services to clients that do business with the organization. Customer service is grouped as a fundamental function that any company must uphold. Maersk’s customer service is the first contact clients have with the company before anything else. Creating learning activities can be done through recording calls and implementing active training techniques.

Value of Training Needs Assessment

A training needs assessment evaluates the specific knowledge and skills that workers need to become more efficient, productive, and innovative in their careers. And through performing effectively in their jobs, employees assist the business in accomplishing its strategic goals. This makes the needs analysis an essential tool in the face of limited budget and time (Cekada, 2010). Since spotting the skill deficiencies hindering the organization’s bottom line, the management can prioritize training for the largest business impact. An effective training needs assessment will assist in directing resources to areas of biggest demand. The assessment ought to address resources required to accomplish the institutional vision, enhance productivity and provide quality services and products. The process aims at evaluating an existing “gap” between performance needed and existing performance. When there is a difference, it explores the causes and reasons for the gap and techniques for closing the gap.

Creating SMART Objectives

The SMART framework can be useful for training purposes where it provides training executives with a clear plan for effective employee training. SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-framed, can help form a training program geared towards employee success. It also has significant principles for training managers to follow as they restructure corporate training programs. Using the mechanism can assist in ensuring that essential areas of employee training are not omitted. For instance, if training is too theoretical and generic, it is hard to evaluate its effectiveness without any mechanism to measure outcomes. Apart from the training purposes, SMART is still an effective tool that presents clarity, motivation and focuses on achieving goals. It can also enhance the ability to achieve them by encouraging a person to define objectives and set a completion date.

Evaluation

Implementing performance appraisal is one essential duty of a human resource department. They operate as a mediator between functional heads and assessing authorities and workers. The division must check that the process is simple and does not consume much time. In performance appraisal, human resource management plays a role in keeping a working performance plan within the organization, providing modern training programs to workers, keeping performance reviews, and maintaining relationships between employees. The other duty is to ensure that the management processes align with the company’s designed strategic plan.  Human resources should explain to the employees how the system works and ensure workers understand which of their goals are quantitative and qualitative. A majority of modern performance evaluation systems scrutinizes a combination of goals and behaviors.

Performance Appraisal Systems

A performance appraisal system evaluates a worker for his or her work and provides needed results and guidance. The primary intention of these systems is to motivate and guide the employee in enhancing their performance. It also assists a business to examine and group employees based on how they work. The first system is a 360-degree appraisal that enables managers and direct reports to share feedback on an employee’s performance and team behavior. There is also the general appraisal, which engages an ongoing communication between the manager and the worker throughout the year. At the end of the year, the manager and the employee normally hold a meeting and discuss whether the pre-set objectives were accomplished. The third system is employee self-assessment, which the employee himself does and later compared with the manager’s finished assessment outcome. All three systems are applicable in any organization.

Best-Suited Appraisals

Several appraisal types are available, from traditional to modern, simple to complicated, highly structured to open-ended. Some of these types have been proven to be effective, but the true picture is that appraisal types and systems should be as unique to a business as possible. An appraisal system that provides a useful insight is that which suits the culture of the workplace. However, self-evaluation is the greatest way of kicking of reviews. This approach’s benefit is that the employee is allowed to give his input into the performance appraisal. The organization can use the self-appraisal and the standard appraisal to provide a more rounded employee review. Employee self-assessment helps demystify the appraisal procedure and provides actionable insight into gaps between worker and manager ratings.

Performance Rating Scales

Rating scales are utilized in performance control systems to show an employee’s degree of performance or achievement. These scales are frequently used because they present quantitative evaluations, are relatively easy to use, and differentiate between workers (Gresham, Elliott & Kettler, 2010). Even though no conclusion exists on which specific scale operates best, many performance rating scales used by employers share similar elements. A graphic rating scale highlights every worker’s traits and rates workers on a numbered scale for every trait. The results are meant to divide employees into groups of performers, assessing promotions and salary rise. Rating scales could be numeric or alphabetic with numbers or letters corresponding to an adjective. For instance, 6=excellent or c=satisfactory.

Compensation Philosophy

The compensation philosophy at Maersk consists of a group of rules concerning the compensation of their workers. Being that the company was started as family-driven and later changed to the public brings some ideas concerning their compensation processes. An organization’s philosophy highlights sick leaves, vacations, and healthcare (Reda, 2015). The company’s philosophy is based on its performance; thus, the focus is on how employees perform. The philosophy is based on several considerations, including its financial position, market salary data, and organization size.

Value of Salary Surveys

Value salary survey might be good, relying on the number of organizations and positions surveyed. When doing a survey, it is important to examine whether the job is one that got surveyed. An employer can have information on salary ranges for a given career type. They are important to the human resource department when seeking new talents or to retain a worker. It also checks on employees’ salaries, therefore ensuring that they are not underpaid or overpaid. Discretionary benefits are employee benefits that are not approved by regulations. They include several employee benefits, including maternity leave. Maersk’s discretion benefits are friendly to workers because they are customized with several benefits that entice employees.

References

Cekada, T. L. (2010). Training needs assessment: Understanding what employees need to know. Professional Safety, 55(03), 28-33.

Gresham, F. M., Elliott, S. N., & Kettler, R. J. (2010). Base rates of social skills acquisition/performance deficits, strengths, and problem behaviors: An analysis of the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales. Psychological assessment, 22(4), 809.

Krell, E. (2015, January 07). Weighing internal vs. external hires. Retrieved February 17, 2021, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/010215-hiring.aspx

Reda, J. (2015). The Importance of a Compensation Philosophy: Redux. Journal of Compensation and Benefits January/February.