Strategic Initiatives: Sonoco Products Company
Nowadays, companies face fierce competition in the marketplace due to the demands of consumers’ buying habits and what shareholders expect of the company to deliver as long-term strategies. However, gain market leadership, corporations must restructure how they assess employee performance and what is their product seller, but human resources (HR) has to be cautious of the culture of how business has always been done over the years. By looking at the case study on Sonoco Products Company, the vice president (VP) of HR, Cindy Hartley, found areas within the organization lacking in executing strategic initiatives in succession planning, employee development, a compensation system based on job
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The advantage of this approach is the cost-effectiveness of administrative work and other processes; however, the disadvantage is that each business’s individual needs and interests have fewer opportunities for direct alignment (Thomas et al., 2010).
On the other hand, a hybrid organization would cost Sonoco $2.7 million to allow divisions have some contact in the staffing, compensation and benefits, personnel programs, and succession planning (Thomas et al., 2010). The positive side of this structure is that divisional management can still call on HR for help, but the negative aspect is convincing others across the corporation to buy-in to this structure change (Thomas et al., 2010). Given both points of view for both options, a hybrid structure would make more sense due to the cost of the structure and meet each divisions’ needs without losing HR support. All in all, there are three other reasons a hybrid would work to Sonoco’s advantage.
First of all, hybrid-structured HR organizations for Sonoco will have three key people in each of the two divisions: a VP of HR, a director of compensation and development for the organization, and a director of employee relations to ensure the right people are in the right positions (Thomas et al., 2010). These three key people will come together to collaborate on planning and talent management, linking business needs to general management and significant personnel to their assigned branch, and field HR
Human resource departments today have a more distinct, calculated position within organizations, and human resource strategy influences the bottom line. “One of the challenges for HR leaders is convincing executive leadership teams that human capital is one of the most important resources in which the company can invest” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Subsequently, “this return on investment is an essential part of the argument for including HR as part of an overall business strategy” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Human resource departments utilize the information given to them from company executives and leaders, coupled with their respective expertise on all things personnel, and they plan and implement staffing concerns for the betterment of the organization. From preparing job analysis, to comparing inventory and forecasting, it is the responsibility of human resources to consider the objectives of an organization and fulfill those goals while operating the specific planning relative to HR.
As stated above this does have its disadvantages as decisions can be slow and staff can become to involved in the managing of the business.
Business environment is facing a rapid change that reminds the business management to focus on its core competencies to survive and sustain in the competitive environment. The core competencies can be developed by strategic human resource management. According to Armstrong (2006) employees are the valued assets for a company. The strategic human resource management is mainly developed in accordance to the fact that human resources need to be managed strategically for the company to enjoy sustainable competitive advantage.
| Explain how different organisational structures and management roles can impact on the HR Function (AC: 1.3)
The other form involves grouping the wire harnesses by product/geography known as the multidivisional form (M-form). The M-form is known for managing, organizing, growth and diversity of large/growing organizations. “To succeed, the M-form required the existence of a strong and professional management hierarchy, and the new decentralized organizations required strong management both at the headquarters and in the divisions” (Witzel, 2005). Decentralizing improves strategic planning by freeing up senior management time. This grouping can cause coordination problems amongst subunits, performance plans are difficult to construct, and it is less effective with local product information. Maintaining the M-form requires a strong strategic plan and management.
In doing this they appear to be a closer nit and allowing for upper management to be more accessible to the employees. With the family chain only having one person as the operations & HR manager it results in non productive man hours such as travel time, the cost incurred to get to each store with the price of fuel, plus all the wear and tear on Mr. Morgan’s vehicle. In addition to all the above Mr. Morgan has to spend time gathering everything he needs for each location before leaving his office which could take time trying to remember everything such as things he needs for hiring, scheduling, training, as well as all the payroll documentation he has to transport from location to location to fulfill the effectiveness on each visit. At the current time it is very inefficient in the way that Mr. Morgan is completing the payroll process with using excel and to input all information and then a separate system to print the payroll. It is very time consuming in the fact that he manually enters all the data into the spreadsheet and then has to transfer all information inputted over to the check printing program. As a result of all these things including the traveling between locations Mr. Morgan’s duties as the Operations Manager in addition to performing all the HR duties limits the ability for the business to
Human Resources often begins as very tactical policies, records, compliance, discipline, compensation, benefits, job descriptions, hiring, performance management (). Taken to the next level, HR becomes strategic, connecting employees to the business mission, values, and vision, in order to drive business results (). Employee goals and metrics align to the business strategy and rewards tie into results. Additionally, careful consideration is given to developing talent pipelines, employee succession plans, and career planning in order to respond flexibly to the inevitable work flow and staffing changes that all businesses experience ().
The practise of Human Resources is moving from the traditional forms of managing people to a more strategic form whereby the Human Resources function is closely linked with organisational performance and success. This strategic form of human resources has increased the need for the Human Resource professional to understand the linkages between Corporate Strategy, Human Resource Strategy and Employee Integration.
It is important for HR Management to transform from being primarily administrative and operational to becoming more strategic contributor because of the involvement of competitive advantages through a company s’ employees. Strategic HR managers need proceed with the professional growth by hiring employees with high potential and giving them opportunity to learn and make lot of experience from their job roles where can access to brightest future in the industry. Secondly, the executive succession where the strategic HR managers will hiring the potential successors and grooming them with experience and advancement to be ready for replacement of the owner of company. A company can be in right direction if proceed with the strategic succession planning. Third is the labor cost efficiency. Strategic HR department mainly focus on their top performers who effort the most to organizational goals and long-term company success. A strategic HR philosophy ensures the employees satisfied perfect where by paid to
During 2006, the first part of Alan’s plan was to convince bankers into giving Ford Motor Company billions of dollars to complete this company overhaul. Once they were provided with the right amount of money, the plan was able to be executed. With this plan came a timeline; by the year 2009, the company planned to have the ‘One Ford’ mission in action and to see production increase. Because of such a short timeline, HRD was ultimately involved throughout the entire process. As part of the company’s “One Team” approach, certain areas of the plan are discussed and analyzed to examine if anything can be improved; this is accomplished by using everyone in the company. Employees are able to share how they feel about certain areas of their work and give their opinions on how certain things should change or stay the same; after everything is examined, the leaders of the company are the ones held responsible and accountable for making the changes, if any, to whatever was examined (Ford Motor Company, 2010). During this process, new strategies can also be provided by using the employee’s opinions and assessments of their strengths and weaknesses. This ultimately shows the use of human resource development as part of the company’s competitive strategy. Without the employees understanding how to complete their job correctly, the company would plunder. Thus, the company makes
Human Resource management has a high impact on the overall organization being managed. HR management makes certain that human talent is used successfully and resourcefully to accomplish organizational goals. As an organization core competency, human resources has distinctive competencies that generates high value and sets apart an organization from competitors in areas such as productivity, quality and service, employee skills, and innovative changes. HR management activities can be grouped into categories which include strategic HR management; equal employment opportunity; staffing and talent management; compensation and benefits; and employee and industry relations. This paper will
Negatives of this structure include cost inefficiencies, possibility of affiliates having incompatible “back-office” systems (i.e. IT, accounting, HR) making company-wide planning more difficult, logistics difficulties (i.e. clients in NY and China require staffing for different shifts due to time difference, mastering different languages, cultures, etc.) and lack of synergies (i.e. each unit is in a silo structure so unit A that provides service Z may never hear of the desperate need for service Z from a Fortune 100 company that Unit B knows of).
The field of human resources (HR) plays a critical role in the performance and success of organizations. As organizations have become increasingly more complex, the effective management of HR has become even more important. The traditional perception of HR as only an administrative office is no longer valid. Instead, contemporary HR is directly involved with the internal organizational structure, business operations, and variety of functions carried out by employees on a daily basis (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). HR functions impact the organization’s strategic planning, improvement processes, and goal achievement. Six core bodies of knowledge provide the foundation for all of these HR functions. These areas are: strategic
During this portion of the case study I will try to define the current connection between organizational strategy and HR activities at The King Company. The current relationship between the King Company and Staff departments lacks structure, trustworthiness, and leadership. This is evident by reviewing the e-mails, lack of professionalism, and unfortunate management. Throughout module one we have learned strategically planning and ensuring human resources is a part of the plan from the beginning to execution phase. Old school drill meant leaders making the plan and making it happen without any involvement from human resources. Human resources primary function was to hire new employees, process paperwork, and oversee finance operations. With modern
As the world is turning out to be more aggressive and unstable than any other time in recent memory, producing based enterprises are looking to increase upper hand at all cost and are swinging to more inventive sources through HRM practices (Sparrow, Schuler, & Jackson, 1994). HR practices has been defined by (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016) as “the means through which your human resources personnel can develop the leadership of your staff.”