Description
The doc about best practices of Human Resources Management adopted at Fedex.
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
1. If you were the HR Head of a major competitor of Fedex: a) List down the 3 HR practices which you would emulate of Fedex. Explain reasons for the same
A. Fully automated HR system, comprehensive database of employee records: Some salient features of that are: ? PRISM (Personnel Records Information System) ? Automated job application system, online job application form, matching applicant skills to job eligibility norms. ? Identified areas where employees had to improve their skills and provided a list of reference material. ? Exit interview administered online to enable further analysis of regarding job trends and to identify internal problems. The system not only reduces the processing time of the HR executives by 50%, it also enabled the staff to concentrate on more important tasks for the organization that are strategic in nature. This practice is excellent to emulate in any other organizations, since it can be used to analyze the past trends of the company, it contributes in the longer run towards strategic decision development, and can also be customized (software and also functional changes) to incorporate the newer trends of the changing world. B. Employee Communication: FedEx had a two-way employee communication policy between the management and employees. The communication process mainly consisted of SFA (Survey-Feedback-Action) where employee workgroups and their representatives were asked to respond to a questionnaire which sought their opinions on management in general and their superiors in particular. The online survey was anonymous enabling employees to express their opinion frankly. Post the results publishing of the survey, a feedback session was conducted by the managers with the employees discussing the survey results and identifying the problems that needed to be addressed. An action plan was drafted by the work group after that. Employee communication also consisted of GFTP (Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure), which had a slightly long bureaucratic procedure, and ODP (Open Door Policy) which had to be answered within 14days. This practice is good enough to be emulated in another organization because it helps in identifying problems from the grass-root level, and consolidates right up till the top, thus enabling in better decision making process by the top management. It also shows what really the employees at the bottom think about the policies and strategies of the company and gives a reality check.
2
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 C. Companies Practices aligned to PSP(People Service Profits): The core philosophy that governed each activity at FedEx was ‘People-Service-Profit’, that is, take care of people, they in turn will deliver impeccable service demanded by the customers, who will reward the company with the profitability necessary to secure their future. The employees performance was also measures based on three factors i.e. People, Service and Profits. ? ? ? People metric: leadership abilities and determined whether managers could provide an environment in which employees could contribute effectively. Service metric: Service Quality Indicators (SQI) Profit metric: Pre-tax profit margin used to arrive at the incentives given to managers for profit sharing.
This practice can be emulated in another organization because it is very evident for any service organization that the people drive and enable the competitive advantage in the market place. Thus it is very important to realize the importance of people and align every HR activity and measurement to that. This belief of employees being most important also helps in motivating employees to provide necessary professional service and ensure profits and continued growth.
b) If you had to attract top Talent from Fedex, what would be your strategy for this, assuming compensation and role were not the key factors for attracting talent from Fedex. Develop your response based on the case study (identifying areas where Fedex may not be as good) and state your assumptions, if any
To attract talent from FedEx a competitor company must focus on improving on aspects where FedEx is lacking or has no policies for. Following are the aspects in my opinion: A. Work Life Balance FedEx hires employees in a dynamic work environment and with high risk taking abilities. It is important in such an environment to create a sustainable environment where work and life can be balanced together. Some initiatives that can be taken are: 1. Family Service: Providing the following assistance and help, including the right type of child care: ? Long-term child care (in part with the company’s own facilities) ? Temporary care (crèches) ? Care during special situations and emergencies ? Vacation programs ? Assistance for the spouse and family (if person on business travel)
3
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
2. After Parental Leave : This refers to helping all the employees to get back to work after taking a family-related timeout. To make this return to the job as simple as possible, one can be offered the opportunity to do things such as attend information events or further training, while employee is still on leave. Possibility of temporary filling in for people on vacation or sick leave, so that work load is reduced after joinig back. Flexible work schedules and help with the organization of child care, after getting back to work. 3. Programs for employees’ children: ? Summer week and student exchange programs for teenage employee children. ? Opportunity to spend an entire school year in another country and to live with a guest family there ? Tutoring the children for their exams/tests in school ? Scholarships for college education
B. Overall Development of employees: The current practices followed by FedEx in this direction are: ? Identifying training needs on a continuous basis and areas where employees can improve their skills, ? LDI (Leadership Development Institute) & FAME (Field Applied Management Education) to develop not only technical job related skills but also leadership abilities, ? LEAP (Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process) and SPEED (Succession Planning and Executive Education) for succession planning, These practices are good, yet not sufficient since they are based only on the in-house abilities f the organization. Also it gives less flexibility to the managers or the employees in assessing whether training actually is required or not. Some initiatives that can be taken in this regard are: ? Professional advancement – Employee can have the option of deciding his own career development and training costs. This can be performed by constructive, candid discussions and talks with the supervisor once a year about career interests. Following this discussion, a development plan can be put together tailored to the employee’s needs. Sponsoring eMBA programs for employees who feel it’s required for the advancement of the company. Mentoring and International Opportunities: Selected employees who have distinguished themselves through their entrepreneurial skills, international mobility, creative drive, openness to criticism and strong commitment can be coached for one year by experienced mentors. During this period, they can be systematically prepared for managerial
? ?
4
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 responsibilities and assisted with the development of their leadership skills in individual coaching sessions. Also senior middle managers can have the opportunity to set up crossdivisional networks, explore the latest business strategies and to develop leadership skills. Tie-ups with various Universities for further education or certification for skill enhancement. Training in activities like driving tutoring or easy-parenting can also be allowed within the employee’s training budget.
? ?
C. Innovative Hiring Methods: Although FedEx is hiring the employees for their risk taking abilities, however the procedure and technique of hiring does not reflect that in any manner. Interview process can be made more innovative and the excess steps can be removed e.g. aptitude test need not be taken for all sorts of employees, since for a certain job role, different set of skills may be required. Also ESF (Employee Strategic focus) needs to be improved in the organization (It is not present in FedEx, except during orientation). Thus the role of the employee in the organization and how it affects the company needs to be given right from the hiring process. Some initiatives that can be taken in this regards are: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Study-Related Internships/Corporate Projects: Learning by doing and where specific skill sets like risk-taking abilities can be tested University Partnerships for hiring Case Study Competition Skill/Behavior based Award in Universities to increase visibility as a good employer Application Tips Trade Fairs & Events Graduate Programs Interview process to be made more comprehensive
Besides these three options, benefits like retirement benefits and travel insurance can also be provided
2. Based on the industry FedEx is in and on the nature of its business, list down 1 or 2 competencies which you think are core to the organization (across
5
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
functions and levels) and which are essential for employees to possess in order for the organization to succeed. Justify your answer suitably
a) The competencies required by the employees can be answered by analyzing three basic questions about the brand value that exists in the minds of its primary customers: ? What do you want to be known for by your customers? ? Why would your primary target customers value that reputation? ? What do you need to do in order for your customers to embrace that reputation? b) After assessing the current state of the brand, the customer expectations and behavior can be observed to analyze their expectations. This is done because HR departments are service organizations and services are produced in the customer’s presence. It can be answered by three questions: ? What key needs of the customers that the employees can fulfill? ? What are the common behaviors of the customers that FedEx can align their service around? ? How do the customers evaluate and recognize the value FedEx delivers?
c) After analyzing the expectations of the customer, the company needs to focus on “how” those expectations need to be delivered. This is because the quality of the experience delivered by the service process often has much greater impact on the customer’s perception of value, than the quality of the end product itself. This can be analyzed by the following points. ? What three adjectives describe how the department delivers services? ? How do those adjectives support or undermine the targeted brand reputation of FedEx? ? Name the three adjectives that best describes how the HR department delivers services. And, what is needed to do to achieve your delivery goals? d) Also, the current strengths of the HR Department need to be assessed before assuming radically different competencies. ? What does your HR department do best? ? What are the three most important skills that the department has today that enable it to make and keep the targeted brand promise? ? How can the employee skills be further leveraged and improved to further enhance the value provided to customers? Thus, based on these parameters, the core competencies required by the employees of FedEx are recognized as:
6
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 ? ? ? Passion in whatever they do: Individual must be passionate about what they do and passionate about the service they provide to the customers Innovation to respond to a rapidly changing environment Making the right promises and doing whatever it takes to keep those promises and get the job done.
These are the competencies required by the employees of FedEx across all functions and levels to lead the organization to greater heights.
3. What do you think would be the top 5 measures the CEO of Fedex would want his HR Head to measure and report on an ongoing basis. Give an indicative scale for these measures. i.e. how would you know whether it is happening well or not
The measures that can be used in the HR department should be those linked to the organization strategy, and the organization metrics.
This will give the right idea of what to measure and the specific metrics that are useful to the organization, and not mere numbers. Even after measuring the specific HR attributes, their impact on the organization as a whole needs to be tested and measured.
7
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
Impact
•Talent meets Customer needs
Effectiveness
•Recruit talent that stays
Efficiency
•Number of Requisitions Filled
The measures that FedEx can use are: 1. HR Efficiency measures: Attrition Rate, % of old employees joining back, cost per hire, percentage of the various sources from where HIPOs joined in (eg. From career fairs, references, fresh college graduates, graduate programs, case study competitions, internships, upgraded from temporary employees etc.), Common reasons for leaving (exit interview Statistics) 2. Awards given Vs. Value Added: How effective are the awards, recognition programs, benefits and compensation in enabling employee efficiency. Incentive programs and CLS (Companywide Leadership Score) are included in this. An appropriate framework can be developed to help in assessing the performance from various aspects. The KPIs that help in providing a holistic view of the performance of an employee in various tasks and operations can be strategically arranged under four major perspectives- Performance Based, Quality and Attitude Based, Loyalty Based and Responsibility Based. 3. Effectiveness of training: The success of Training that is imparted in an organization is often linked to the overall competencies the organization is able to device. Questions that can be asked are Is the training imparted strategic in nature? Is it really required? Is it aligned with the company strategies or is it only sheer numbers? Feedback of the training, Performance change after training, control group statistics are some measures that can be used to measure training effectiveness. Some of the categories under which the ‘indicators found useful’ can be clubbed are ‘Finance’, ‘Internal Processes’, ‘Human Resources’ and ‘Development and Growth’ 4. Customer Perspective: No of days take to solve customer grievances, SQI (Statistical Quality Measures) index, Repeat customer complaints
8
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 5. Benchmarking to review performance(can be based on best practices, best fit or configurational approach; can be internal to the company or external as well).
9
doc_977203075.docx
The doc about best practices of Human Resources Management adopted at Fedex.
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
1. If you were the HR Head of a major competitor of Fedex: a) List down the 3 HR practices which you would emulate of Fedex. Explain reasons for the same
A. Fully automated HR system, comprehensive database of employee records: Some salient features of that are: ? PRISM (Personnel Records Information System) ? Automated job application system, online job application form, matching applicant skills to job eligibility norms. ? Identified areas where employees had to improve their skills and provided a list of reference material. ? Exit interview administered online to enable further analysis of regarding job trends and to identify internal problems. The system not only reduces the processing time of the HR executives by 50%, it also enabled the staff to concentrate on more important tasks for the organization that are strategic in nature. This practice is excellent to emulate in any other organizations, since it can be used to analyze the past trends of the company, it contributes in the longer run towards strategic decision development, and can also be customized (software and also functional changes) to incorporate the newer trends of the changing world. B. Employee Communication: FedEx had a two-way employee communication policy between the management and employees. The communication process mainly consisted of SFA (Survey-Feedback-Action) where employee workgroups and their representatives were asked to respond to a questionnaire which sought their opinions on management in general and their superiors in particular. The online survey was anonymous enabling employees to express their opinion frankly. Post the results publishing of the survey, a feedback session was conducted by the managers with the employees discussing the survey results and identifying the problems that needed to be addressed. An action plan was drafted by the work group after that. Employee communication also consisted of GFTP (Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure), which had a slightly long bureaucratic procedure, and ODP (Open Door Policy) which had to be answered within 14days. This practice is good enough to be emulated in another organization because it helps in identifying problems from the grass-root level, and consolidates right up till the top, thus enabling in better decision making process by the top management. It also shows what really the employees at the bottom think about the policies and strategies of the company and gives a reality check.
2
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 C. Companies Practices aligned to PSP(People Service Profits): The core philosophy that governed each activity at FedEx was ‘People-Service-Profit’, that is, take care of people, they in turn will deliver impeccable service demanded by the customers, who will reward the company with the profitability necessary to secure their future. The employees performance was also measures based on three factors i.e. People, Service and Profits. ? ? ? People metric: leadership abilities and determined whether managers could provide an environment in which employees could contribute effectively. Service metric: Service Quality Indicators (SQI) Profit metric: Pre-tax profit margin used to arrive at the incentives given to managers for profit sharing.
This practice can be emulated in another organization because it is very evident for any service organization that the people drive and enable the competitive advantage in the market place. Thus it is very important to realize the importance of people and align every HR activity and measurement to that. This belief of employees being most important also helps in motivating employees to provide necessary professional service and ensure profits and continued growth.
b) If you had to attract top Talent from Fedex, what would be your strategy for this, assuming compensation and role were not the key factors for attracting talent from Fedex. Develop your response based on the case study (identifying areas where Fedex may not be as good) and state your assumptions, if any
To attract talent from FedEx a competitor company must focus on improving on aspects where FedEx is lacking or has no policies for. Following are the aspects in my opinion: A. Work Life Balance FedEx hires employees in a dynamic work environment and with high risk taking abilities. It is important in such an environment to create a sustainable environment where work and life can be balanced together. Some initiatives that can be taken are: 1. Family Service: Providing the following assistance and help, including the right type of child care: ? Long-term child care (in part with the company’s own facilities) ? Temporary care (crèches) ? Care during special situations and emergencies ? Vacation programs ? Assistance for the spouse and family (if person on business travel)
3
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
2. After Parental Leave : This refers to helping all the employees to get back to work after taking a family-related timeout. To make this return to the job as simple as possible, one can be offered the opportunity to do things such as attend information events or further training, while employee is still on leave. Possibility of temporary filling in for people on vacation or sick leave, so that work load is reduced after joinig back. Flexible work schedules and help with the organization of child care, after getting back to work. 3. Programs for employees’ children: ? Summer week and student exchange programs for teenage employee children. ? Opportunity to spend an entire school year in another country and to live with a guest family there ? Tutoring the children for their exams/tests in school ? Scholarships for college education
B. Overall Development of employees: The current practices followed by FedEx in this direction are: ? Identifying training needs on a continuous basis and areas where employees can improve their skills, ? LDI (Leadership Development Institute) & FAME (Field Applied Management Education) to develop not only technical job related skills but also leadership abilities, ? LEAP (Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process) and SPEED (Succession Planning and Executive Education) for succession planning, These practices are good, yet not sufficient since they are based only on the in-house abilities f the organization. Also it gives less flexibility to the managers or the employees in assessing whether training actually is required or not. Some initiatives that can be taken in this regard are: ? Professional advancement – Employee can have the option of deciding his own career development and training costs. This can be performed by constructive, candid discussions and talks with the supervisor once a year about career interests. Following this discussion, a development plan can be put together tailored to the employee’s needs. Sponsoring eMBA programs for employees who feel it’s required for the advancement of the company. Mentoring and International Opportunities: Selected employees who have distinguished themselves through their entrepreneurial skills, international mobility, creative drive, openness to criticism and strong commitment can be coached for one year by experienced mentors. During this period, they can be systematically prepared for managerial
? ?
4
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 responsibilities and assisted with the development of their leadership skills in individual coaching sessions. Also senior middle managers can have the opportunity to set up crossdivisional networks, explore the latest business strategies and to develop leadership skills. Tie-ups with various Universities for further education or certification for skill enhancement. Training in activities like driving tutoring or easy-parenting can also be allowed within the employee’s training budget.
? ?
C. Innovative Hiring Methods: Although FedEx is hiring the employees for their risk taking abilities, however the procedure and technique of hiring does not reflect that in any manner. Interview process can be made more innovative and the excess steps can be removed e.g. aptitude test need not be taken for all sorts of employees, since for a certain job role, different set of skills may be required. Also ESF (Employee Strategic focus) needs to be improved in the organization (It is not present in FedEx, except during orientation). Thus the role of the employee in the organization and how it affects the company needs to be given right from the hiring process. Some initiatives that can be taken in this regards are: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Study-Related Internships/Corporate Projects: Learning by doing and where specific skill sets like risk-taking abilities can be tested University Partnerships for hiring Case Study Competition Skill/Behavior based Award in Universities to increase visibility as a good employer Application Tips Trade Fairs & Events Graduate Programs Interview process to be made more comprehensive
Besides these three options, benefits like retirement benefits and travel insurance can also be provided
2. Based on the industry FedEx is in and on the nature of its business, list down 1 or 2 competencies which you think are core to the organization (across
5
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
functions and levels) and which are essential for employees to possess in order for the organization to succeed. Justify your answer suitably
a) The competencies required by the employees can be answered by analyzing three basic questions about the brand value that exists in the minds of its primary customers: ? What do you want to be known for by your customers? ? Why would your primary target customers value that reputation? ? What do you need to do in order for your customers to embrace that reputation? b) After assessing the current state of the brand, the customer expectations and behavior can be observed to analyze their expectations. This is done because HR departments are service organizations and services are produced in the customer’s presence. It can be answered by three questions: ? What key needs of the customers that the employees can fulfill? ? What are the common behaviors of the customers that FedEx can align their service around? ? How do the customers evaluate and recognize the value FedEx delivers?
c) After analyzing the expectations of the customer, the company needs to focus on “how” those expectations need to be delivered. This is because the quality of the experience delivered by the service process often has much greater impact on the customer’s perception of value, than the quality of the end product itself. This can be analyzed by the following points. ? What three adjectives describe how the department delivers services? ? How do those adjectives support or undermine the targeted brand reputation of FedEx? ? Name the three adjectives that best describes how the HR department delivers services. And, what is needed to do to achieve your delivery goals? d) Also, the current strengths of the HR Department need to be assessed before assuming radically different competencies. ? What does your HR department do best? ? What are the three most important skills that the department has today that enable it to make and keep the targeted brand promise? ? How can the employee skills be further leveraged and improved to further enhance the value provided to customers? Thus, based on these parameters, the core competencies required by the employees of FedEx are recognized as:
6
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 ? ? ? Passion in whatever they do: Individual must be passionate about what they do and passionate about the service they provide to the customers Innovation to respond to a rapidly changing environment Making the right promises and doing whatever it takes to keep those promises and get the job done.
These are the competencies required by the employees of FedEx across all functions and levels to lead the organization to greater heights.
3. What do you think would be the top 5 measures the CEO of Fedex would want his HR Head to measure and report on an ongoing basis. Give an indicative scale for these measures. i.e. how would you know whether it is happening well or not
The measures that can be used in the HR department should be those linked to the organization strategy, and the organization metrics.
This will give the right idea of what to measure and the specific metrics that are useful to the organization, and not mere numbers. Even after measuring the specific HR attributes, their impact on the organization as a whole needs to be tested and measured.
7
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010
Impact
•Talent meets Customer needs
Effectiveness
•Recruit talent that stays
Efficiency
•Number of Requisitions Filled
The measures that FedEx can use are: 1. HR Efficiency measures: Attrition Rate, % of old employees joining back, cost per hire, percentage of the various sources from where HIPOs joined in (eg. From career fairs, references, fresh college graduates, graduate programs, case study competitions, internships, upgraded from temporary employees etc.), Common reasons for leaving (exit interview Statistics) 2. Awards given Vs. Value Added: How effective are the awards, recognition programs, benefits and compensation in enabling employee efficiency. Incentive programs and CLS (Companywide Leadership Score) are included in this. An appropriate framework can be developed to help in assessing the performance from various aspects. The KPIs that help in providing a holistic view of the performance of an employee in various tasks and operations can be strategically arranged under four major perspectives- Performance Based, Quality and Attitude Based, Loyalty Based and Responsibility Based. 3. Effectiveness of training: The success of Training that is imparted in an organization is often linked to the overall competencies the organization is able to device. Questions that can be asked are Is the training imparted strategic in nature? Is it really required? Is it aligned with the company strategies or is it only sheer numbers? Feedback of the training, Performance change after training, control group statistics are some measures that can be used to measure training effectiveness. Some of the categories under which the ‘indicators found useful’ can be clubbed are ‘Finance’, ‘Internal Processes’, ‘Human Resources’ and ‘Development and Growth’ 4. Customer Perspective: No of days take to solve customer grievances, SQI (Statistical Quality Measures) index, Repeat customer complaints
8
Human Resource Management – Best Practices at FedEx Corporation 2010 5. Benchmarking to review performance(can be based on best practices, best fit or configurational approach; can be internal to the company or external as well).
9
doc_977203075.docx