Analysis of Human Resource Management on Amazon and Microsoft

Question

Task: Finding and analysing the association of HR practices with employee performance in two real world business organisations.

Answer

Introduction
The Human Resource Department of any company is an indispensable and important part of its overall operational strategy (Daley, 2012). It has the potential ability of directly impacting the results in outcomes of the company and can also make a significant difference between the failure and success of the organisational strategies are the objectives of an organisation, both in the short as well as long term. It is discussed in this amazon human resource management that an efficient Human Resource Department should have the ability of accessing, forecasting, predicting, designing and implementing its strategies directly in sync with the objectives and strategies of the business of the company (Noe, et. Al., 2017). Such ability of the HR department is directly synced with the business goals for a coherent and mutual environment. Such a department can also entirely fail at one or more steps of creating instability an imbalance within the business organisation. In the present recession based economic cycle, it is crucial for the Human Resource Department for acting in the form of a strategic partner of the organisation, for making sure that the short term and long term goals and visions of the company from the perspectives of the human capital and finance are perfectly harmonious and aligned together (Bratton and Gold, 2017). At the same time, effective Human Resource Department can also help in significant and accurate forecasting as well scanning of the environment and utilise its resources and knowledge for setting near-exhausting scenarios for the company. This assignment deals with the HR practices of Amazon and Microsoft corporation.

Amazon: Thinking of a crazy retail giant and leader, Amazon is what comes into the mind. The company, which was primarily a bookseller, has established itself in nearly every industry. Amazon is known for being one of the leading retail companies of the world which educates, inspires and informs its customers regarding the products and services which sells for various different companies. The company has established various stores across the world in the biggest countries like Germany, United States of America, Canada, Japan and France. The ability of operating virtually provides the company with the opportunity of offering a wide range of products and services including music titles as well as books. Amazon is known for selling almost every kind of consumer product ranging from clothes, fashion products, shoes, bags, accessories, jewelleries, electronics, toys, home decor, etc. (Bloomberg, 2019a). The organization allows its clients for doing product listing on its website. The clients are required for using correct subject information and title concerned with the relevant product. Then, the outcomes of the subject information in this human resource management in amazon company are posted on the basis of availability and popularity. Besides, the results are also posted regarding the concerns of the subject information's relevance.

For the ones who wish to post music files and songs are required for giving the input of the correct keyword of the subject information and artist or album name. Furthermore, the organisation also utilises various different search tools for helping its clients in their hunt for different products. Amazon is known for working with various different companies, magazines, studios and interest groups in order to ensure that all their products are available online (Ritala, Golnam and Wegmann, 2014). The partners of the company are assisted in the promotion and selling of their products to the customers. The company packs and dispatches the products on the behalf of its partners. Besides, Amazon also performs customer service responsibilities as well as billing duties on the behalf of its business partners, post to which it provides weekly and monthly reports regarding the same kind of activities. The firm has been able to generate average annual revenue of US $232 billion, while having a total of 647,500 employees (as on 2018) in its workforce across the world (Bloomberg, 2019a).

Purpose and function of HRM
In this amazon human resource management it is discussed that the human resource management plays a significant role in the success of any business organisation of company (Snell, Morris, and Bohlander, 2015). Amazon understands such significance of having the necessary talent for performing various responsibilities and duties for the success of the company. Amazon's strategic objectives are closely aligned to the strategic objectives of the HR by the human resource management function of the firm. The company believes that employees and workers are one of the greatest contributing factors towards the success of any organisation. In the case of Amazon, companies committed towards improving and enhancing it skills of the workforce by the means of efficient development and training programs. As such, the self actualization and job satisfaction of the employees in staff members would be enhanced. It was been discussed in this human resource management in amazon company primary functions of human resource at Amazon includes selection and recruitment, training and development, compensation management, maintenance of good relationship among employees and ensuring legal and ethical compliance (McDonald and Hite, 2015). These functions help in promoting workplace environment for the employees that is productive and helps the employees and workers in performing up to their potential. The human resource functions of the company have held the employees in maintaining good attitude and moral standards within the company. The purpose of the human resource management at Amazon is promoting cordial and self respect working relationships with the workers and employees. The HR managers of the company work towards the satisfaction of the individual needs and requirements of all the workers by providing them with a coordinating environment. The workplace environment of any business should help in promoting the group as well as individual performances within the organisation.

Workplace planning
A set of procedures which is utilised by the human resource management of an organisation for managing the workers and obtaining the best potential out of them refers to Workforce planning (Othman, Bhuiyan and Gouw, 2012). The primary goal of workforce planning of an organisation is ensuring its success in the long run and realising maximum amount of profits and revenue from its operations. Amazon utilizes operational as well as strategic planning of workforce for achieving its long term as well as short term objectives (Adogla and Collins, 2014). The planning of the strategic workforce of the company helps in forecasting and planning for its workers in a way which helps in ensuring that the right talents are hired at the right time for performing the appropriate duties and responsibilities for achieving the organisational objectives and goals (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Strategic workforce planning is utilised by Amazon for responding to the changes of the future within the workforce. The company also uses planning of the operational workforce where the deficiencies and issues which occur within various operational levels are mapped or corrected (RetailDive, 2017).

Performance management
As discussed in this human resource management in amazon company that the management of performance of Amazon is tailored for the specific requirements of the company. Strategies of performance management of the company help in focusing upon alignment of the performance with the significant objectives and goals. The strategies of performance management are utilised by Amazon which help in promoting the necessary behavior within the workers. The policies of the company are quite flexible and relevant support to the Employees and workers for enabling them to achieve the objectives and goals of the organisation. The system of reward management used by Amazon helps in enhancing the motivation and retention of employees, and improves their performances. Bonuses, health insurance covers and pension benefits are provided by the organization for motivating its employees (AmazonJobs, 2019).

However, there were several reports from the media in the year 2008 regarding harsh treatment of the employees of the company (Forbes, 2015). Although the allegation was nicely excited by the media, the response of Amazon was appropriate. A proper structure where democratic representation of the employees is implemented should be established within the organization. This would help in the promotion of the good relationship between the employees and the management of Amazon.

Microsoft
Microsoft is known for being one of the ideal places for working. The organization has won various awards for its commitment towards diversity, flexibility within working arrangements and innovations. Microsoft has always been a market leader in the context of its revenue. The company has been able to generate average annual revenue of $15 billion, while having a total of 80,000 employees in its workforce across the world (Bloomberg, 2019b). Such statistics make the company one of the biggest and best technology firms of the world.

It has been inferred in this human resources management in microsoft employees of the company have the access to most of the existing resources, from periodical libraries, to source code libraries and intranet to research laboratories. The work of the manpower of Microsoft is considered to be on technology’s cutting-edge and personally challenging. According to the belief of the company, the employees are provided with whatever technologies and tools they require for the achievement of the best possible outcomes; and the employees of the company are expected for creating entertainment and software products which can potentially be sold for millions of copies across the globe. At most of the locations, the office campuses of the company are known for being the benchmark of technological hubs, with forested trails, fir trees, basketball courts, shuttle buses, and even snow-capped mountain vistas for the employees to use.

It is observed in this human resources management in microsoft primary recognition of the employees of Microsoft is known as an intellectual fuel and the workers are provided with numerous beneficial resources and plans. Such aspects have been designed for retaining the employees. The Chief of Human Resource of the organization, who joined in 2005, began reshaping the HR strategies of the company for making their more customized and innovative for individual employee requirements. As a Human Resource perspective, the primary emphasis was project the company as one that is driven by its employees. As a business organization, the company offers a high amount of flexibility to its employees and workers in the form of flexible benefit plans and flexible working arrangements. These practices of the company have widely been considered as one of the best employer and HR practices by companies and employers.

Human resource strategy
According to this human resources management in microsoft performance cultural model has been adopted by the Microsoft Corporation as the best approach for driving its success. All the important human metrics have been measured and categorised in accordance with the growth pyramid. The amount of investment made by the company in the internal and external surveys is quite substantial can put raise the company in the form of a leader in this context across the whole industry. In the contemporary times of organisational restructuring and reception, human resource is expected by businesses for understanding and manpower needs of the organisation, helping in the development of strategic plans in the context of the employees, identification of issues and problems related to talent before the business of the organisation is impacted by them and very importantly, identification of new and emerging business strategies. At the Microsoft Corporation, the Human Resource Department is made responsible and accountable for the maximization of the value of its manpower asset for driving the success of the organisation. The core functions of human resource managers, and the practices and procedures of the same have been divided among the structures of the vertical tower for making sure that the flow of information is easier and transparent. The functions which irrelevantly independent also help the business needs of Microsoft to be more closely measured and aligned from the perspective of a functional unit. The management of Microsoft often refers its organizational cultural as facilitative. The company has made significant amount of investment towards the development of its workers and employees and provides high amount of support for the optimum career growth of its workforce.

Recruitment and selection
Recruitment policy of Microsoft is dependent upon its belief of hiring the right people greater important than hiring only for filling job positions. As the company expanded, entertaining its old and basic principles however had to bring a few changes in its methods when the number of employees required within the organisation could not be source from colleges and universities only. Practices of recruitment of the company continue to remain active instead of being passive. The company believes in head hunting the best level of staff. More than 300 recruiting experts help in finding, monitoring and recruiting search staff from other organisations. The right type of people is preferred over the right type of level of skill during recruitment of employees within the company.

Employee satisfaction
Microsoft attempts at catering the requirements of its workers and employees by recognising the fact that majority of them are comprised of fresh college graduates. This is the reason why Microsoft sets up its offices in the form of campuses instead of just parking space and work space. The environment that is provided by Microsoft includes every individual employee having the freedom of decorating their workspace according to their will. Microsoft has been providing its employees with employee satisfaction by the means of giving them the opportunity for development and growth. Employee satisfaction as afforded by the company by the means of encouragement of horizontal transfers and encouragement of the employees for developing themselves by changing jobs. The top level management of the company is required for coaching the lower level of management and helping them in their development and learning. Such practices have been designed by the company for increasing the satisfaction and commitment of the employees towards the company, while maintaining the same level of spirit which was present when the organisation was born. Three aspects of tasks which impact the level of job satisfaction of an organisation are the tasks perceived value, physical strain degree and job complexity. Such aspects are managed by Microsoft by making sure that the perceived value of the tasks remains high and by providing high complexity to the high achievers. The communication of such high value takes place within the organisation by the means of culture which has been maintained by the company since a very long time.

Conclusion
It can be concluded from the human resources management in Microsoft and amazon human resource management that an efficient human resource department not only acts in the form of a business partner to the company, but also assists in the shaping of the overall business and operational strategy of the firm. The manner in which the human resource practices and strategies have been intertwined at Amazon as well as Microsoft is an instance of how businesses of giant organizations are run with common vision and objectives and how these organizations make money for their employees and investors. The amount of investment which have been made by Amazon and Microsoft for their employees and how well the cultures of work are aligned to the business strategies of the two organizations by their human resource managers is clear from the results which have been posted by both the companies, year after year. These are one of those companies which are envied as well as admired by businesses, investors and even ardent rivals. The recent changes and alterations which have taken place at both the companies, sometime due to recession, indicate towards a move or plan which could potentially change the ways the companies are looked at. The outcomes of these activities can be clearly observed only once the economy is placed back in upward motion. However, in the current time period, the principles and practices which Amazon and Microsoft stand by, can be acknowledged and admired in true earnest. The loss of reputation and public image is a result of layoff exercises, however, a business organization which aims at standing and surviving through such harsh times, must do something significant and necessary which others might not have previously. HRM assignments are being prepared by our human resource assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.

Reference List
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