netrashetty
Netra Shetty
American Financial Group Incorporated (NYSE: AFG) is a holding company based in Cincinnati, Ohio whose primary business is insurance and investments. American Financial Group's purpose is to enable businesses and individuals to manage risk using insurance products and services tailored to meet their specific needs.
American Financial Group's major insurance division operates as the Great American Insurance Company, founded in 1872 and focuses on property and casualty insurance services. Other affiliates and subsidiaries include American Custom, Mid Continent, National Interstate, Republic Indemnity. Additional insurance specialties include (but are not limited to) equine, trucking, executive liability, fidelity and crime, and agri-business. Great American Financial Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Group and supplies a range of annuities, life insurance products and supplemental insurances to individuals and enterprises.
The parent company, AFG, is owned principally by financier Carl Lindner, Jr. and his family. Carl Lindner is Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFG. The senior Lindner's sons, Carl H. Lindner, III and S. Craig Lindner serve as Co-Chief Executive Officers.
American Financial Group was ranked 486th on the Fortune 500 list in 2004. Through the years American Financial Group has owned a number of subsidiaries, real estate properties, and companies, including The Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire, The Cincinnatian in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, Le Pavillon in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Great American Insurance Group partnered with the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, and Hamilton County to purchase naming rights for Great American Ball Park.
On December 6, 2006, American Financial sold assets acquired from successors to the dissolution of the Penn Central Railroad including the land under Grand Central Terminal and the 156 miles (251 km) of Metro North track leading to the New York City landmark to Argent Ventures. The company announced in December 2007 that they will combine their offices and move their headquarters to the brand new Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Square in 2011.
American Financial Group was one of the first publicly traded Fortune 500 companies to make political donations after corporations' freedom of speech rights were expanded to include donations as a result of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Carl Linder, Jr is a longtime top Republican donor, comfortably donating millions of his personal income to candidates and political action committees,[3]which sent ripples in campaign finance circles during the 2010 mid-term elections. American Financial, of which Linder has a non-majority 42% share, donated $400,000 to the Republican-allied PAC American Crossroads
provide an understanding of the automobile industry, , its policies and products. (2 Days)
2.Product programs- Imparts complete knowledge on MUL product vis-à-vis competition. Various programs are Segment A1, Segment A2, Segment (2 Days)
3.Selling Skills/ Consultative Selling Process- Enables executives to understand customer needs, sales processes etc and enables them to apply learning in actual selling. (2 Days)
4. Customer care - A positive attitude and the ability to motivate oneself is a pre-requisite for excellent performance in any work area. The program aims at helping one to build a positive attitude and better interpersonal skills and to enable better customer handling. (3 Days)
5.Advisor for life program: In this changed competitive environment the role of Dealer Sales Executive is seen more than a person who is selling cars to the customers. He is expected to be the Customer's ' Car Advisor for life' and make that one-time customer into his 'Customer for life'. He has to be Single Window Interface with his customers on all matters related to cars i.e. finance, insurance, Extended warranty, MGP, MGA, service etc. (2 Days)This training trains the Sales Executives on the concept of 'Advisor for Life' and helps them become a Single Point Contact with the customer.
6.Program for Dealer sales Executives handling Corporate and Institutional Sales. (2 Days)
7.Delivery Process : The training program on 'Delivery Process' has been developed as delivery now has the maximum weight age in the new factor structure for SSI. It not only focuses on the processes to be followed for delivery but also makes the DSE realize the importance of a good delivery (delivery is not the end of a sale but a beginning of a relationship)
Training process for Sales Managers /General mangers/ Branch Heads
1.Dealership Management Program: for second-generation dealers, and GM’s and RO executives on how to manage entire Dealership Operations. Financial Management, staff management, motivation, time management, planning are covered. (2 Days)
2.Sales Managers/Team Leaders Program: The Training covers issues like Sales Management (target setting and achievement, enquiry management, resource and time management etc), Supervisory skills (Performance management, leadership etc), Practical Coaching skills, knowledge of Maruti Finance, Maruti Insurance Extended warranty, MGA, True Value etc and Car Advisor for life concept. (2 Days)
3.Branch Managers Program: Many of our dealers have multiple outlets. While the owners sit at any one outlet and control the others from there, different branch heads that manages the day-to-day operations of the outlets manages the other outlets. In order to ensure that they run their respective outlets effectively we train them on the various aspects of dealership.
The training covers topics like -Making a business plan (for the dealership as a whole- Not only for sales but also for other revenue streams), Fundamentals of DBP, HR Management, Team Building and Supervision skills, Ability to motivate the team and get a buy in on the business plan, Time management/Prioritizing etc
Training and Development of dealer Sales Executives
Development and Updation of Training Modules
The Sales Training Department develops new modules along with training agencies based on market requirements, specific needs identified and feedback received
1. Conducting Training
• Annual Training Calendar is fixed based on:
Number of Sales Executives in the sales network
Training path requirement of Sales Executives
Review of training programs done in the previous year
Market Share/ Market situation/Focus areas and new product launches
• Training conducted regionally based on fixed monthly calendar.
• Training Path /Norms for all Dealer Sales persons are as follows:
All Dealer Sales Executives need to attend Induction Training before or within a month of joining the dealership (depending on when the program is scheduled in the region)
After Induction then the Sales executives needs to attend a segment B program.
They also should attend ‘ Car Advisor for life Program’ which trains him to be a one point contact with the customers handling all his car related needs like finance, insurance, extended warranty, MGA etc and how to develop and maintain relationship with customers
After gaining experience, he can attend other courses like segment C etc.
2. Monitoring and feedback:
Monitoring and Evaluation of Sales force is done on a continuous basis. Pre-tests and post-tests are conducted during training. Feedback is taken from participants on trainers and from trainers on participants. Monitoring is also done through tests and audits at the dealerships.
3. Communication:
Sales Training Department sends monthly Newsletter “Creating Winners” to all DSE’s. It is a monthly communication containing articles on various aspects of product knowledge, selling skills, market etc .It is a forum for effective communication of new ideas and strategies. It also provides two-way communication.
An Annual Selling Skill Contest is organized to test the selling skills of the sales executives. It is conducted at regional levels and culminates in an all India level contest.
Recruitment of Sales Executives:
SAT has developed a CD based Test for recruitment as a part of Recruitment System (). The test checks sales aptitude and reasoning and is a pre- interview shortlist device. It helps dealers recruit the right profile of people for their dealership. The Regional Office will be involved throughout the implementation of the while recruiting Sales Persons. All Sales Executives need to be registered with after recruitment through extranet. A unique ‘Personal Identification Number (PIN) is being issued which the DSEs have to remember and use in all communications like Trainings, reward schemes etc
`360 degree' appraisal system
Employee to be evaluated not just by superiors, but also by peers, subordinates
It would seem that there is no corporate human resources policy that has not had its share of controversies for being biased. With an increasing number of qualitative factors that affect employees at the workplace, the performance appraisal process to make it as fair as possible has been the dream of every HR manager.
And now qualitative factors are not just at play in the services sector, but also in manufacturing. With cubicles giving way to open offices, the top-down approach to employee performance appraisal is also on its way out.
One company that has set itself on course to further demonstrating and opening up its employee evaluation process is car market leader .
The company has introduced a unique 360-degree feedback system, starting with its senior leadership. The new system has been co-developed with Ernst & Young and has been put in place recently.
Under the 360-degree feedback system, the employee is rated not just by his superiors, but also by his peers and subordinates.
"We are starting the 360-degree feedback process with employees in the top management such as chief general managers and general managers, whose performance will now be assessed based on feedback from their peers and junior management employees within the same department. Till last year, their performance was being appraised only by the Directors and the Managing Director," says Maruti's Chief General Manager (HR), Mr S.Y. Siddiqui.
Ernst & Young, in consultation with Maruti, has listed a set of leadership competencies that are expected in a general manager. Based on that, it has prepared a questionnaire to which peers and subordinates can respond online.
Although acknowledged as an effective tool for leadership development in the West, Indian companies have been shy of introducing such a feedback system for fear of disturbing traditional hierarchical structures.
HR consultants feel that the critical issues in implementing such a system include assuring respondents that their feedback will remain confidential and convincing the person receiving the feedback that this is a development tool and not an appraisal tool. Maruti has handled this by getting E&Y and other consultants to make detailed presentations to the senior management personnel before the process got under way. The company has a committee of general managers, called Human Resource Inter Divisional Committee (HRIDC), which is consulted on all major HR issues.
The initiative has been unveiled with an e-mail by Mr Jagdish Khattar, asking people to support the online questionnaire process. The 360-degree feedback system will also include a self-appraisal by the general manager. At the end of the process, he can compare his self-appraisal with the assessment of his subordinates and peers.
One of the benefits that is hoping to get out of the 360-degree feedback process is the sense of empowerment and importance felt by subordinates, when they are asked to offer their feedback about their superiors. currently has over 4,000 employees on its rolls.
Recruitment and retention
Beardwell & Holden (1997) states that; employee recruitment is very important in an organization. It consists of administration, performance and staffing. All these are interrelated activities that are carried out in an organization. Management and staffing activities help in ensuring that employees with right or desired skills are recruited. The employees have also to be in the right numbers desired by the organization. Employee recruitment aims at ensuring that employees are at the right place at the right time. Human resource manager in this case is concerned with ensuring that employees perform their best. Best recruitment processes insure that the organizations get the best staff that can improve and add value to the company. The human resource has to provide better employment terms to retain employees who are experienced in the organization. This will highly help the restructuring processes. (Beardwell & Holden, 1997)
Training and development
Each employee requires more learning in order to improve his /her skills, no matter how best a candidate is, he/she can not be 100% percent qualified. Thus, the human resource management should implement learning management system (Beardwell & Holden, 1997)
In general the human resource management is supposed to come up with training and education programs for its employees. Training can be termed as systematic enhancement of knowledge, skills and attitudes of the needed by an employee in order to perform a given task. Development is the growth of an employee in terms of capability, understanding and awareness. In an organization training and development is important in order to;
1. Develop a workforce that can perform higher-grade assignments
2. Increase efficiency, effectiveness and standards of performance by the employee
3. Keep the employees informed
4. Provide the usual training of new recruited workforce
Employee performance management
The most important aspect of human resource management practice is employee evaluation. The performance of any organisation is determined directly by the performance of the employees. It is possible to monitor the evaluation if the employees of any company via the use of human resource evaluation systems. These systems are done continuously with a view to retaining useful employees. Some organizations, because of their soft approaches, have incurred huge losses due to the fact that most employees are joy-riders in the organisation. These employees are considered a liability to the organisation because they contribute very little for the productivity levels. This means that their cost benefit ratio is high (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Regulatory compliance
In the recent days, human resource management practices have extended its functions to include regulating employees in the organization. The human resource management will have to ensure that employees comply with the company rules and regulations. In addition the manager will also have to ensure that good working relations do exist between the employees. In case an employee breaks the company rules or regulations, then the human resource management has to take steps in disciplining the employee so that he/she can comply. If the employee persist being disobedient to the company rules, then the human resource management can sack him/her if that the only step that remains to be undertaken. Complying with company rules is directly related with improving production. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Compensation and benefits
Workers need to be compensated for their performance in order to encourage them to keep up or improve on that performance. The moment the human resource establishes the performance of the worker, managers should reward to commensurate with the worker's achievement. These will ensure maximum production and effectiveness of the worker; current compensation programs should include a mix of basic pay, equities and variable pay. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Employees need to be motivated in order for the company to get the best out of them. An employee who is well motivated will easily stay in the organization and be more productive. For this to occur human resource have to attend to the financial and psychological needs of the workers by rewarding them well. Hunger & Wheelen (2003) observers that, better conditions for service and financial rewards are examples of measures applied to motivate employees within the organisation while in some, it could be in terms of annual, leave, insurance or shorter working periods. The human resource manager of the organization needs to come up with good employment policies that are desirable to the employees. It is important that the workers when paid accept their pay package as "fair and just" in order for them to be motivated. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Propose a strategy you would propose for managing HR in APS showing how it aligns to the published goals
Sound Manpower planning
The best method in which APS Company can directly improve its performance in successfully in relation to its objectives and missions, is through Manpower planning
Human resource management main function is manpower planning. As observed in APS organization, it lacks proper planning in its human capital which has been it undergo costly penalties. Having the right staff, in terms of numbers and skills is a task that the human resource may strategies well. When it comes to sourcing the human resource must source well so that it can get the maximum benefits from its workforce. The human resource has to understand that overstaffing is a waste and expensive to the organisation and does not add any value to the organisation but, instead reduce the competitive advantage of the organisation. (Armstrong, 2006)
In planning of the workforce, an assessment of current and future needs of the organisation has to be taken into account, compared to the available resources together with future predicted resources. Then appropriate strategies can be undertaken to balance demand and supply of the work force. Thus, before sourcing for more workers, the human resource has to take analyse the current workforce profile in terms of numbers, ages, skills, experience, gender, flexibility, forecast capabilities, etc. the human resource then can adjust this for say 2 or 5 years ahead so as to amend for normal employee turnover, retirements and staff movement in accordance with the business plan in relation to the corresponding time frames. (Armstrong, 2006)
The result from this will give the human resource a lot of information on how to come up with sourcing plans that will be able to add value to the organisation. The human resource will have a well "though out" and sound sourcing demand programme for different dates in future which then, can be compared with the rough supply programmes. The evaluation will then show the steps that have to be taken when sourcing in order to strike a balance. (Dainty, 2000)When human resource undertake such workforce planning program it will save the organisation a lot of money at the same time add competent staff to the organisation who can take the organisation to new heights and surpass the set targets.
Developing human resource strategy
Faced with the need to add value to the organisation, human resource need to come up with a more coherent and focused approach in sourcing practices. According to Armstrong (2006) to develop such strategy, two issues have to be addressed.
1. What type of workforce does the organisation need in order to manage and also run the organisation so has to meet the organisation strategic business goals?
2. Which type of workforce programs and schemes must be planned and implemented so as to attract, develop and retain a workforce that can compete effectively?
For these questions to be answered the human resource has to address four key areas of an organisation these are;
• The sourcing culture of the organisation; norms, beliefs and the management way of the organisation has to be structured in manner that it encourages sourcing or recruitment based on merit alone and on any other factors
• Human resource has also to address the organisation structure; this will define proper job descriptions, reporting lines in the organisation and job descriptions.
• The workforce; the human resource has to address the issue of level of skills, management abilities of individual employees and staff potential
• The human resources will have also to address its systems; the human resource should have a workforce focused mechanism that will deliver a plan of workforce selection, training, communication, career development and rewards.
If the human resource need to add value to the organisation in terms of quality and better services then, it has to retain its workforce, reward them, carry out appraisal, open communication systems and then re-examine the organisation human resource management plans. These strategies will ensure that the APS is able to get and retain a workforce which will drive the organisation to new heights. (Armstrong, 2006)
Provide a critical analysis of the tools you use for this environmental analysis to show why these are important to APS
An environmental analysis of the company
They are several tools, which a company can employ when analyzing its environment both internal and external. The most common are STEP or PESTEL analysis procedure. McGahan (2004) This analysis is worth because it determines whether the organization will be fairing well or not. For the purposes of this paper we shall use PESTEL marketing tool to analyze the APS
American Financial Group's major insurance division operates as the Great American Insurance Company, founded in 1872 and focuses on property and casualty insurance services. Other affiliates and subsidiaries include American Custom, Mid Continent, National Interstate, Republic Indemnity. Additional insurance specialties include (but are not limited to) equine, trucking, executive liability, fidelity and crime, and agri-business. Great American Financial Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Group and supplies a range of annuities, life insurance products and supplemental insurances to individuals and enterprises.
The parent company, AFG, is owned principally by financier Carl Lindner, Jr. and his family. Carl Lindner is Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFG. The senior Lindner's sons, Carl H. Lindner, III and S. Craig Lindner serve as Co-Chief Executive Officers.
American Financial Group was ranked 486th on the Fortune 500 list in 2004. Through the years American Financial Group has owned a number of subsidiaries, real estate properties, and companies, including The Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire, The Cincinnatian in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, Le Pavillon in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Great American Insurance Group partnered with the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, and Hamilton County to purchase naming rights for Great American Ball Park.
On December 6, 2006, American Financial sold assets acquired from successors to the dissolution of the Penn Central Railroad including the land under Grand Central Terminal and the 156 miles (251 km) of Metro North track leading to the New York City landmark to Argent Ventures. The company announced in December 2007 that they will combine their offices and move their headquarters to the brand new Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Square in 2011.
American Financial Group was one of the first publicly traded Fortune 500 companies to make political donations after corporations' freedom of speech rights were expanded to include donations as a result of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Carl Linder, Jr is a longtime top Republican donor, comfortably donating millions of his personal income to candidates and political action committees,[3]which sent ripples in campaign finance circles during the 2010 mid-term elections. American Financial, of which Linder has a non-majority 42% share, donated $400,000 to the Republican-allied PAC American Crossroads
provide an understanding of the automobile industry, , its policies and products. (2 Days)
2.Product programs- Imparts complete knowledge on MUL product vis-à-vis competition. Various programs are Segment A1, Segment A2, Segment (2 Days)
3.Selling Skills/ Consultative Selling Process- Enables executives to understand customer needs, sales processes etc and enables them to apply learning in actual selling. (2 Days)
4. Customer care - A positive attitude and the ability to motivate oneself is a pre-requisite for excellent performance in any work area. The program aims at helping one to build a positive attitude and better interpersonal skills and to enable better customer handling. (3 Days)
5.Advisor for life program: In this changed competitive environment the role of Dealer Sales Executive is seen more than a person who is selling cars to the customers. He is expected to be the Customer's ' Car Advisor for life' and make that one-time customer into his 'Customer for life'. He has to be Single Window Interface with his customers on all matters related to cars i.e. finance, insurance, Extended warranty, MGP, MGA, service etc. (2 Days)This training trains the Sales Executives on the concept of 'Advisor for Life' and helps them become a Single Point Contact with the customer.
6.Program for Dealer sales Executives handling Corporate and Institutional Sales. (2 Days)
7.Delivery Process : The training program on 'Delivery Process' has been developed as delivery now has the maximum weight age in the new factor structure for SSI. It not only focuses on the processes to be followed for delivery but also makes the DSE realize the importance of a good delivery (delivery is not the end of a sale but a beginning of a relationship)
Training process for Sales Managers /General mangers/ Branch Heads
1.Dealership Management Program: for second-generation dealers, and GM’s and RO executives on how to manage entire Dealership Operations. Financial Management, staff management, motivation, time management, planning are covered. (2 Days)
2.Sales Managers/Team Leaders Program: The Training covers issues like Sales Management (target setting and achievement, enquiry management, resource and time management etc), Supervisory skills (Performance management, leadership etc), Practical Coaching skills, knowledge of Maruti Finance, Maruti Insurance Extended warranty, MGA, True Value etc and Car Advisor for life concept. (2 Days)
3.Branch Managers Program: Many of our dealers have multiple outlets. While the owners sit at any one outlet and control the others from there, different branch heads that manages the day-to-day operations of the outlets manages the other outlets. In order to ensure that they run their respective outlets effectively we train them on the various aspects of dealership.
The training covers topics like -Making a business plan (for the dealership as a whole- Not only for sales but also for other revenue streams), Fundamentals of DBP, HR Management, Team Building and Supervision skills, Ability to motivate the team and get a buy in on the business plan, Time management/Prioritizing etc
Training and Development of dealer Sales Executives
Development and Updation of Training Modules
The Sales Training Department develops new modules along with training agencies based on market requirements, specific needs identified and feedback received
1. Conducting Training
• Annual Training Calendar is fixed based on:
Number of Sales Executives in the sales network
Training path requirement of Sales Executives
Review of training programs done in the previous year
Market Share/ Market situation/Focus areas and new product launches
• Training conducted regionally based on fixed monthly calendar.
• Training Path /Norms for all Dealer Sales persons are as follows:
All Dealer Sales Executives need to attend Induction Training before or within a month of joining the dealership (depending on when the program is scheduled in the region)
After Induction then the Sales executives needs to attend a segment B program.
They also should attend ‘ Car Advisor for life Program’ which trains him to be a one point contact with the customers handling all his car related needs like finance, insurance, extended warranty, MGA etc and how to develop and maintain relationship with customers
After gaining experience, he can attend other courses like segment C etc.
2. Monitoring and feedback:
Monitoring and Evaluation of Sales force is done on a continuous basis. Pre-tests and post-tests are conducted during training. Feedback is taken from participants on trainers and from trainers on participants. Monitoring is also done through tests and audits at the dealerships.
3. Communication:
Sales Training Department sends monthly Newsletter “Creating Winners” to all DSE’s. It is a monthly communication containing articles on various aspects of product knowledge, selling skills, market etc .It is a forum for effective communication of new ideas and strategies. It also provides two-way communication.
An Annual Selling Skill Contest is organized to test the selling skills of the sales executives. It is conducted at regional levels and culminates in an all India level contest.
Recruitment of Sales Executives:
SAT has developed a CD based Test for recruitment as a part of Recruitment System (). The test checks sales aptitude and reasoning and is a pre- interview shortlist device. It helps dealers recruit the right profile of people for their dealership. The Regional Office will be involved throughout the implementation of the while recruiting Sales Persons. All Sales Executives need to be registered with after recruitment through extranet. A unique ‘Personal Identification Number (PIN) is being issued which the DSEs have to remember and use in all communications like Trainings, reward schemes etc
`360 degree' appraisal system
Employee to be evaluated not just by superiors, but also by peers, subordinates
It would seem that there is no corporate human resources policy that has not had its share of controversies for being biased. With an increasing number of qualitative factors that affect employees at the workplace, the performance appraisal process to make it as fair as possible has been the dream of every HR manager.
And now qualitative factors are not just at play in the services sector, but also in manufacturing. With cubicles giving way to open offices, the top-down approach to employee performance appraisal is also on its way out.
One company that has set itself on course to further demonstrating and opening up its employee evaluation process is car market leader .
The company has introduced a unique 360-degree feedback system, starting with its senior leadership. The new system has been co-developed with Ernst & Young and has been put in place recently.
Under the 360-degree feedback system, the employee is rated not just by his superiors, but also by his peers and subordinates.
"We are starting the 360-degree feedback process with employees in the top management such as chief general managers and general managers, whose performance will now be assessed based on feedback from their peers and junior management employees within the same department. Till last year, their performance was being appraised only by the Directors and the Managing Director," says Maruti's Chief General Manager (HR), Mr S.Y. Siddiqui.
Ernst & Young, in consultation with Maruti, has listed a set of leadership competencies that are expected in a general manager. Based on that, it has prepared a questionnaire to which peers and subordinates can respond online.
Although acknowledged as an effective tool for leadership development in the West, Indian companies have been shy of introducing such a feedback system for fear of disturbing traditional hierarchical structures.
HR consultants feel that the critical issues in implementing such a system include assuring respondents that their feedback will remain confidential and convincing the person receiving the feedback that this is a development tool and not an appraisal tool. Maruti has handled this by getting E&Y and other consultants to make detailed presentations to the senior management personnel before the process got under way. The company has a committee of general managers, called Human Resource Inter Divisional Committee (HRIDC), which is consulted on all major HR issues.
The initiative has been unveiled with an e-mail by Mr Jagdish Khattar, asking people to support the online questionnaire process. The 360-degree feedback system will also include a self-appraisal by the general manager. At the end of the process, he can compare his self-appraisal with the assessment of his subordinates and peers.
One of the benefits that is hoping to get out of the 360-degree feedback process is the sense of empowerment and importance felt by subordinates, when they are asked to offer their feedback about their superiors. currently has over 4,000 employees on its rolls.
Recruitment and retention
Beardwell & Holden (1997) states that; employee recruitment is very important in an organization. It consists of administration, performance and staffing. All these are interrelated activities that are carried out in an organization. Management and staffing activities help in ensuring that employees with right or desired skills are recruited. The employees have also to be in the right numbers desired by the organization. Employee recruitment aims at ensuring that employees are at the right place at the right time. Human resource manager in this case is concerned with ensuring that employees perform their best. Best recruitment processes insure that the organizations get the best staff that can improve and add value to the company. The human resource has to provide better employment terms to retain employees who are experienced in the organization. This will highly help the restructuring processes. (Beardwell & Holden, 1997)
Training and development
Each employee requires more learning in order to improve his /her skills, no matter how best a candidate is, he/she can not be 100% percent qualified. Thus, the human resource management should implement learning management system (Beardwell & Holden, 1997)
In general the human resource management is supposed to come up with training and education programs for its employees. Training can be termed as systematic enhancement of knowledge, skills and attitudes of the needed by an employee in order to perform a given task. Development is the growth of an employee in terms of capability, understanding and awareness. In an organization training and development is important in order to;
1. Develop a workforce that can perform higher-grade assignments
2. Increase efficiency, effectiveness and standards of performance by the employee
3. Keep the employees informed
4. Provide the usual training of new recruited workforce
Employee performance management
The most important aspect of human resource management practice is employee evaluation. The performance of any organisation is determined directly by the performance of the employees. It is possible to monitor the evaluation if the employees of any company via the use of human resource evaluation systems. These systems are done continuously with a view to retaining useful employees. Some organizations, because of their soft approaches, have incurred huge losses due to the fact that most employees are joy-riders in the organisation. These employees are considered a liability to the organisation because they contribute very little for the productivity levels. This means that their cost benefit ratio is high (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Regulatory compliance
In the recent days, human resource management practices have extended its functions to include regulating employees in the organization. The human resource management will have to ensure that employees comply with the company rules and regulations. In addition the manager will also have to ensure that good working relations do exist between the employees. In case an employee breaks the company rules or regulations, then the human resource management has to take steps in disciplining the employee so that he/she can comply. If the employee persist being disobedient to the company rules, then the human resource management can sack him/her if that the only step that remains to be undertaken. Complying with company rules is directly related with improving production. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Compensation and benefits
Workers need to be compensated for their performance in order to encourage them to keep up or improve on that performance. The moment the human resource establishes the performance of the worker, managers should reward to commensurate with the worker's achievement. These will ensure maximum production and effectiveness of the worker; current compensation programs should include a mix of basic pay, equities and variable pay. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Employees need to be motivated in order for the company to get the best out of them. An employee who is well motivated will easily stay in the organization and be more productive. For this to occur human resource have to attend to the financial and psychological needs of the workers by rewarding them well. Hunger & Wheelen (2003) observers that, better conditions for service and financial rewards are examples of measures applied to motivate employees within the organisation while in some, it could be in terms of annual, leave, insurance or shorter working periods. The human resource manager of the organization needs to come up with good employment policies that are desirable to the employees. It is important that the workers when paid accept their pay package as "fair and just" in order for them to be motivated. (Hunger & Wheelen, 2003)
Propose a strategy you would propose for managing HR in APS showing how it aligns to the published goals
Sound Manpower planning
The best method in which APS Company can directly improve its performance in successfully in relation to its objectives and missions, is through Manpower planning
Human resource management main function is manpower planning. As observed in APS organization, it lacks proper planning in its human capital which has been it undergo costly penalties. Having the right staff, in terms of numbers and skills is a task that the human resource may strategies well. When it comes to sourcing the human resource must source well so that it can get the maximum benefits from its workforce. The human resource has to understand that overstaffing is a waste and expensive to the organisation and does not add any value to the organisation but, instead reduce the competitive advantage of the organisation. (Armstrong, 2006)
In planning of the workforce, an assessment of current and future needs of the organisation has to be taken into account, compared to the available resources together with future predicted resources. Then appropriate strategies can be undertaken to balance demand and supply of the work force. Thus, before sourcing for more workers, the human resource has to take analyse the current workforce profile in terms of numbers, ages, skills, experience, gender, flexibility, forecast capabilities, etc. the human resource then can adjust this for say 2 or 5 years ahead so as to amend for normal employee turnover, retirements and staff movement in accordance with the business plan in relation to the corresponding time frames. (Armstrong, 2006)
The result from this will give the human resource a lot of information on how to come up with sourcing plans that will be able to add value to the organisation. The human resource will have a well "though out" and sound sourcing demand programme for different dates in future which then, can be compared with the rough supply programmes. The evaluation will then show the steps that have to be taken when sourcing in order to strike a balance. (Dainty, 2000)When human resource undertake such workforce planning program it will save the organisation a lot of money at the same time add competent staff to the organisation who can take the organisation to new heights and surpass the set targets.
Developing human resource strategy
Faced with the need to add value to the organisation, human resource need to come up with a more coherent and focused approach in sourcing practices. According to Armstrong (2006) to develop such strategy, two issues have to be addressed.
1. What type of workforce does the organisation need in order to manage and also run the organisation so has to meet the organisation strategic business goals?
2. Which type of workforce programs and schemes must be planned and implemented so as to attract, develop and retain a workforce that can compete effectively?
For these questions to be answered the human resource has to address four key areas of an organisation these are;
• The sourcing culture of the organisation; norms, beliefs and the management way of the organisation has to be structured in manner that it encourages sourcing or recruitment based on merit alone and on any other factors
• Human resource has also to address the organisation structure; this will define proper job descriptions, reporting lines in the organisation and job descriptions.
• The workforce; the human resource has to address the issue of level of skills, management abilities of individual employees and staff potential
• The human resources will have also to address its systems; the human resource should have a workforce focused mechanism that will deliver a plan of workforce selection, training, communication, career development and rewards.
If the human resource need to add value to the organisation in terms of quality and better services then, it has to retain its workforce, reward them, carry out appraisal, open communication systems and then re-examine the organisation human resource management plans. These strategies will ensure that the APS is able to get and retain a workforce which will drive the organisation to new heights. (Armstrong, 2006)
Provide a critical analysis of the tools you use for this environmental analysis to show why these are important to APS
An environmental analysis of the company
They are several tools, which a company can employ when analyzing its environment both internal and external. The most common are STEP or PESTEL analysis procedure. McGahan (2004) This analysis is worth because it determines whether the organization will be fairing well or not. For the purposes of this paper we shall use PESTEL marketing tool to analyze the APS
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