Introduction
An effective Human Resource Management (HRM) plan is essential for any organization to reach its goals and objectives. A successful HRM review of the Moller-Maersk organization involves understanding the core human resource (HR) responsibilities, as well as the vision and mission of the organization. By aligning the core HR requirements with the organization’s strategic plan, it will be possible to create an efficient and effective HRM system to help the organization achieve its goals.
HRM Functions and Practices: Function
From the strategic point of view, employees are a tool or a cog in the big machine of the company. Each employee must be in the proper place and function within an organization to achieve the desired overall success. If the HR department fully understands and aligns with the company’s strategic business plan, the HR team will help ensure each employee’s success in the company’s business strategy. Understanding the business strategy is a prerequisite for the company’s financial success and local professionals’ career growth. An example of such a situation would be a company where recruiters are tasked with selecting employees with profound experience; despite a smaller influx of employees, HR professionals can impact the pride and expectations of experienced job seekers (Suharti & Sugiarto, 2020). With the right approach, the company will replenish itself with the right people and show continual growth throughout its business endeavors.
Global Conditions
The global conditions during Maersk’s staffing problems were characterized by several factors, including economic volatility and political uncertainty. In terms of economic fluctuations, the global economy was uncertain, with several emerging markets facing significant turbulence, including the 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). This directly impacted Maersk’s ability to secure funding to hire new staff and maintain its existing workforce, as its financial resources were limited and its access to capital markets was restricted. Politically, the world was in a transition period, with a number of countries experiencing major changes in their governments and implementing new policies, particularly in developing countries. Political instability impacted Maersk because it operated in various markets and was subject to changes in the political environment.
Nevertheless, such a large company is experiencing constant problems needing more personnel qualifications. Some of their main issues include employee development, inadequate retention levels, attempts at rehiring, and building an inclusive culture. The company has balanced decent results and failures in the abovementioned respects (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). Often human resource managers’ energies are spent retaining underperforming employees, training poorly prepared candidates, or dealing with disgruntled rehired workers.
Given the size of the company, Maersk has some difficulty hiring employees. Some of these difficulties are due to managing different cultures in workers’ countries of origin, and lack of experience delays development (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). However, with a confident and multifunctional approach, the company has significant prospects. Once the global crisis is overcome, many employees will have higher chances of working for the company with maximum efficiency.
Staffing
Maersk has established itself as a company that mentors and inspires young professionals into experienced and competent workers. Although the hiring process for the company and the interview include many cognitive and psychological tests, the presence of experience itself is not mandatory (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). A personal profile is created for each potential employee, available only to human resources staff or supervisors. It includes the characteristics of all the specialists interviewed during the hiring process and feedback about the employee during the work process, ensuring the employee has the same vision and goals as the company.
Although companies tend to recruit employees with the necessary qualities, their experience is often critical to their performance. Therefore, many companies are often willing to use their resources to train recruits to enable them to gain the required expertise to discharge their duties. In addition, some companies often offer incentives and retention programs for employees of interest and programs for returning former employees. Given certain levels of competition due to the company’s specific nature, some former employees may re-enter the job market if it benefits the company (Snell & Morris, 2018). Moreover, in the case of Maersk, if there are no claims against a prior employee, their human resources department tries to ensure that the company can get the employee back employed with them.
However, despite the improved recruitment process at Maersk, the company should strive to provide employees with more flexibility to manage their work hours, work from home, and take time off when needed to create a better work-life balance and improve employee success and retention. This could be accomplished by implementing flexible scheduling, giving employees more control over their workloads, and offering more vacation time.
There are always two main pools of potential employees for a vacant position. The first can be identified as internal employees or candidates for the required position from other parts of the company, considering their eligibility (Snell & Morris, 2018). In this case, the advantage of the employees knowing about the company’s internal processes is visible (Shin et al., 2020). With internal competition, the selection is made from people with the necessary skills, but the entire process can have some disadvantages. Among these disadvantages can be listed the potential inability of a person to work in a new team atmosphere with a different vector of goals, a lack of experience in the actual type of work, or low performance of the employee. The latter is related to the specifics of the job. A good example would be someone with excellent performance in the logistics department; however, they may have different performance results in the sales department.
The second pool, which includes external candidates, is always associated with ambiguity, although it can provide the best candidates for the job. The ambiguity could be the exact specifics of the job, incorrect recommendations, or the person’s eventual inadequacy for the position (Cheng & Hackett, 2021; Shin et al., 2020). Oddly enough, communication skills and the ability to blend in are significant indicators of an outside candidate’s performance. An employer should also communicate the company’s culture clearly so that the candidate will have no questions if they will be a good fit for the company (Babcock, 2013). Each candidate’s detailed and thoughtful evaluation is recommended to maximize recruitment effectiveness (Babcock, 2013). In the case of internal candidates, the candidate’s peer and supervisor’s feedback should be thoroughly reviewed. In the case of an external candidate, previous jobs should be comprehensively reviewed to get feedback on the employee. Only the most adequate and unbiased evaluation can help find the right person for the position (Suharti & Sugiarto, 2020). Maximum compliance with all requirements and standards and completion of the tasks set by the candidate in the new place will indicate the successful performance of their job by the specialists of the human resources department.
Training
Needs Assessment
Needs assessments are an important tool used to identify training requirements and are essential for organizations to ensure they efficiently and effectively use their resources. There are several types of needs assessments, each of which helps to identify different training requirements. Some common needs assessments employed by most organizations include organization-wide, individual, and task-based assessments (Wallo et al., 2020). The organization-wide assessment identifies areas where the organization is underperforming and determines the necessary resources and training to improve performance. Individual assessment reveals areas where employees lack the necessary skills or knowledge and defines the appropriate additional training to improve their performance. The task-based assessment is essential in ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively, which is crucial for improving the organization’s overall performance.
Regular planning of personnel needs is a prerequisite for a business’s stable functioning and development. Candidates’ requirements and primary responsibilities can assess the company’s personnel needs. For example, we will take the requirements for the Customer Service – CARE Business Partner position at Maersk. The main requirement of this candidate is supporting the client from the beginning of the required workflow until the business achieves the desired result. Also, the responsibility and control of all financial operations in the client’s business and the organization of logistic processes for the client’s company are included in the requirements. With the above requirements, the company assigns many tasks to one employee, which will help the company save money without hiring additional employees. In addition, the company will assist potential candidates in gaining extensive experience in the business field, developing their hard and soft skills, and training a person in the company’s corporate ethics. Thus, the company and the candidate who receives a lot of experience, which helps them grow professionally, benefit from the needs assessment.
Learning Activities
Developing learning activities for staff training is essential for businesses to remain competitive in today’s ever-changing workplace. Learning activities help to ensure that staff members have the skills and knowledge they need to perform their jobs at a high level (Pourrshidi, 2021). They provide a platform for staff to stay up-to-date on current trends and industry developments. Incorporating learning activities into staff training also improves morale and job satisfaction. When staff members feel like their development and growth is supported, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated.
Today external conditions are changing very rapidly, as well as the internal states of organizations, which will cause many companies to need to prepare staff to work in a new environment. Experimental methods of personnel training are considered to be effective. For training to be practical, it is necessary to observe adult training principles. The adult training principles include awareness of a person’s need for new knowledge, self-awareness of the learner, willingness to learn, the proper attitude toward learning, and motivation (Snell & Morris, 2018). Observance of the above principles will help any manager increase learning effectiveness (SHRM, 2009). The experimental approach is based on four points: obtaining theoretical knowledge, creating a behavioral simulation related to the theory, analyzing the activity in the simulation, and including the results in the work (SHRM, 2009). An example of the experimental approach can be incorporated into the Customer Service – CARE Business Partner workflow at Maersk by simulating a call to a passive client and trying to sell services using psychological techniques. The principles of adult education can be included when an employer is looking for potential candidates for a position; with the proper interest, the potential candidate will better absorb the information presented to them.
Training Needs Assessment
In today’s market environment, organizations should regularly invest in employee development. Training staff in new methods of work should be carried out systematically. For example, training should occur every four months as this type of continual employee training sets a tone of constancy. Repetition is an excellent way of learning and helps the learner retain more of the information being taught. It is also necessary to assess training needs when a company decides to restructure its work format with clients or introduce a new range of services. In this case, the company’s employees need to undergo further training. In addition to training new technical processes, it is necessary to improve employees’ social skills constantly, even if the work is minimally related to communication (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). The value of these methods is the constant efficiency of the trained personnel; this will help the company adjust to the outside world’s changes. The higher the efficiency and quality of the work performed, the greater the number of customers and the financial uplift of the company will also grow exponentially.
SMART
SMART objectives of a learning plan allow employers to formulate a realistic and measurable goal and define the terms and necessary resources to achieve the goal. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (Campbell, 2022). Goal specificity plays a vital role when planning the desired outcome of tasks. If everyone considers the goal their way, it may not bring adequate results. Individuality can create problems in achieving the desired outcome of the goal. The following criterion is the measurability of the plan; it is necessary to be able to track progress when trying to achieve the desired result. For example, instead of a goal being set “to increase the number of clients for the year,” you can set the goal “to increase the number of clients to one hundred thousand for the year.” The achievability of the plan is necessary so that management can set realistic goals for employees that are not impossible to achieve. It is essential to find a balance between the ambition of the purpose and its implementation so that the team can save time and managers will ultimately receive the necessary results. The plan’s importance must be determined to prioritize all tasks adequately. When choosing the significance of tasks, it must be ensured that each task’s priority is balanced with the company’s development strategy and take the company to a new level in its work processes. The last criterion is time-bound, the essence of which is the analysis of the time costs for the goal. Essential goals that take about a year to achieve can be divided into intermediate steps to keep the team focused. Correct time-bound analysis helps to determine the team’s overall progress and helps define tasks for a specific period.
Personnel management can be considered an independent business process that includes planning personnel demand, recruitment, adaptation, development, assessment, motivation, and release of personnel. In practice, there are other processes associated with human resource management: change management, personnel satisfaction monitoring, personnel risk management, and talent management. Competent management is guaranteed to bring positive company results independently, in the labor market, and among competitors.
Maersk’s personnel management plan should be SMART to ensure the best results. Specifically, the goal should be to increase the number of qualified personnel by at least 10% in the next year. This goal should be measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. To achieve this goal, Maersk should begin recruiting more qualified personnel, implementing an effective adaptation process, and investing in talent management and employee development initiatives.
Evaluation
HRM plays a crucial role in designing and implementing performance management strategies. The HR manager functions as a liaison between functional leaders and employees. HRM’s job is to guarantee the execution of the achievement in which administration procedure runs smoothly. HRM’s function in the accomplishment management process is to construct the complete process, ensuring that it is straightforward and does not take too much time (Kravariti & Johnston, 2020). HRM must know the obligations allocated to each employee to build and design a method through which their overall success may be graded concerning their primary areas of duty.
As a human resources expert, one must sit down with the functional leaders of all divisions so that they are aware of which staff has been delegated which responsibilities. The performance management criteria must be apparent and straightforward. HRM should present staff with the right coaching to manage the entire performance assessment process with elegance and good sportsmanship. In addition, the HRM must meet with supervisory agencies to verify that productivity control activities are completed on time and that only qualified workers receive benefits. The HRM’s duty will be to match the quality management framework with the organization’s long-term objectives. A corporation would be able to recognize its most valuable talents and develop mechanisms to retain them for the future. The tactical methodology must create the organizational structure that will aid in preserving talent within the business. HRM strategic infrastructure could be crucial in any enterprise’s effectiveness management procedure. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the imbalance in the HRM function and close it to ascertain that the company can retain key personnel deemed essential for achieving its goals.
Performance Appraisal
There are numerous distinctions between trait, behavioral, and results-based quality assessment techniques. Personal traits include, but are not limited to, attitude, physical attractiveness, professional attitude, management, commitment, and discernment (Murphy, 2020). This quality is helpful in various situations, such as when one needs to describe leadership potential, reliability, and other benefits resulting from this review style. A results-based assessment system, also known as an interpersonally safeguarded rating approach, is used to evaluate an employee’s performance by assessing specific actions on a scale (Murphy, 2020). For instance, it can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of personnel in a company, such as whether they answer the phone appropriately or validate customer information as requested by management.
Behavioral evaluation methodologies specify which conduct should and should not be demonstrated on the job. Specific methodologies are used for cognitive appraisals, such as the effective emergency procedure, which is applied when a worker’s conduct results in an atypical success or failure in certain aspects of the job (Murphy, 2020). In addition, the interpersonally oriented measurement instrument and the behavior observation scale (BOS) are employed to evaluate critical situations. A BOS is intended to quantify the frequency with which a behavior is noticed (Murphy, 2020). For instance, the number of instances an individual was caught leaving a locked storage cabinet containing top secret information unlocked and accessible to everyone and anyone.
Suited Appraisals
Due to the many performance evaluation methods, a behavioral evaluation is the best advantage for the Maersk Customer Service CARE Business Partner position. Maersk strives to provide consumers with world-class service. As previously noted, behavior evaluations assess whether acts should or should not be demonstrated in the workplace. As one of the significant transport firms, Maersk’s quality assessments should consider the corporation’s demands. It should help encourage and determine the worker’s development necessities to establish a robust project schedule for the laborer’s future accomplishment and the institution in general. In addition, behavior evaluation would need company growth based on outcomes such as keeping business possibilities successful. Understanding that customers benefit from work obligation as the principal point of contact is crucial.
Performance Scales
In quality management frameworks, rating scales reflect an employee’s level of accomplishment or progress. Graphical rating scales are a trait-based method for evaluating personnel effectiveness in which each employee is scored based on a scale of qualities (Snell & Morris, 2018). With this form of scale, it is essential to consider the wide variety of diagrammatical scale requirements. There are variations in qualities or parameters on which employees are evaluated, the depth to which performance indicators are established for appraisers, and the clarity with which points on the scale are described (Indeed.com, 2022). This measure can be advantageous to Maersk because it is affordable and can evaluate the achievements of all employees.
Typically, numerical scales incorporate a set of specific actions that indicate distinctions of competence and serve as anchors for ranking personnel on multiple behavioral characteristics. Groysberg & Abbott (2012) noted that several employees struggled with the transition when Maersk transformed into a significant firm in 2012. Therefore, quantitative scales would objectively provide feedback (Wiles, 2018) regarding a potential incident in the Maersk scenario. The letter scales method encourages participants to pair a given statement with equally positive or negative comments. The assertions differentiate between effective and ineffective performance (Snell & Morris, 2018). This form of evaluation scale could be very effective for evaluating the Maersk client service status because it compels respondents to make objective decisions.
Performance management rigorously controls an employee’s productivity and ensures that the individual has accomplished the company’s goals, aspirations, mission, and guiding principles. In contrast, performance evaluations focus primarily on the employee’s performance throughout the year and provide concluding remarks. Human resource management is vital to the design and implements achievement management techniques. There are considerable differences between phenotypic, behavioral, and results-based methods of assessing quality. These performance evaluations can uncover development prospects and assist managers in determining the instruction needs of their employees, resulting in a more successful company.
Compensation Philosophy of Maersk
Maersk is a multinational logistics firm with operations in several nations. The compensation philosophy formally states the company’s attitude toward workforce compensation (Snell & Morris, 2018). It establishes a foundation for stability and clarifies the reason surrounding workers’ wages. The objectives, competitive attitude, strategic plan, remuneration, and comprehensive reward approaches of a company are supported by a thoughtfully crafted compensation philosophy (Grensing-Pophal, 2020). Depending on elements such as the industry, the corporation’s economic history, the culture, and other considerations, various companies adopt different strategies for compensation philosophy. Maersk bases its compensation philosophy on achievement, which might change annually depending on performance and profit margins (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). This straightforward but efficient compensation system has made Maersk active and thriving in the industry.
When it comes to designing remuneration, the corporation uses the industrial approach. Various jobs are divided into groups according to experience, expertise, and workstation requirements. Multiple employees are organized into several job groups, each paid following the needs of their respective groupings (Payne, 2020). Additionally, Maersk used the pay-for-performance concept, which allowed employees who outperformed expectations to receive incentives. At Maersk, senior leaders received bonuses, which they could receive each year, capped by their People Strategy Sessions (PSS) rating (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). Poor performers may leave Maersk more frequently under this compensation concept, but over time turnover falls drastically due to improved compensation and employee satisfaction.
The Market’s Influence on Maersk’s Compensation Philosophy
The market factors of supply and demand for human resources are taken into consideration when determining compensation. Personnel with unique skill sets and knowledge acquired through experience are paid more at Maersk than those with ordinary skills in high demand in the labor market (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). However, because of the government’s mandated minimum salary rates and employee unions’ bargaining power, the more extensive availability of human resources for some positions may not result in wage reductions beyond a floor level. The overwhelming majority of the existing workers are not employable because of inadequate talent and poor skill; hence this component alone does not lead to reduced remuneration (Bruce, 2015). Therefore, it is evident that Maersk’s compensation philosophy only partially conforms to the principle of demand and supply.
Generally, the market’s influence on Maersk’s compensation philosophy will likely impact the pay-for-performance system in two ways. First, the market rate for a particular job or position will be considered when setting base pay levels (Setiawan et al., 2021). This means that Maersk will need to offer competitive salaries to attract and retain the best talent. Secondly, the market rate should be considered when setting performance-based incentives (Setiawan et al., 2021). This means that Maersk will need to ensure that its performance-based incentives are fair and rewarding enough to motivate employees to go above and beyond. This could include such things as providing bonuses or promotions for exceptional performance.
Value of Salary Surveys to an Organization
The salary survey is the technique for gathering data on worker compensation, including pay and benefits. Salary surveys can help recruit fresh talent and keep staff when they are correctly created and implemented (Coplan et al., 2018). Additionally, this survey might offer comparison points for wages and benefits. The salary survey makes sure the business abides by the law and avoids the risk of setting pricing. Managers’ alternatives are restricted to network gossip, internet searches, and contacting competitors to determine what they are paying, especially if reliable market information needs to be examined (Miller, 2021). Additionally, these surveys provide tactical direction to the Human Resources departments regarding a company’s overall compensation (Coplan et al., 2018). Salary surveys should be conducted on a regular schedule because the form of data being collected is delicate and soon becomes out of date.
Advantages of Discretionary Benefits to Maersk
Employee privileges, known as discretionary benefits, like health and life insurance, retirement programs, sick and maternity leave, and prescription medication insurance, are not all required by law in most U.S. states. Organizations gain from worker empowerment by establishing a discretionary benefit system (Mayer, 2020). Since Maersk is offering health incentives to its employees, the workforce will be more productive because they will have an opportunity to be healthier (Groysberg & Abbott, 2012). The employees will be more apt to take advantage of the health incentives since Maersk is interested in their health. Furthermore, incidents of employees using paid sick days will be less likely an issue as the employee will be healthier.
Additionally, offering training reimbursements enables the business to raise the workers’ skill levels. Employees are more likely to take advantage of the learning experience if they do not have to pay for the training out of their pocket. Maersk will eventually have a crew that is knowledgeable and skilled. Having employees with a raised skill level and more expertise is highly valued. Giving the employees access to these additional privileges helps them feel included in the Maersk family.
Employers express gratitude for the effort by putting acknowledgment initiatives in place, which greatly enhance their employees’ happiness. For their self-esteem and a pragmatic way to support themselves, workers desire to be paid adequately for their work. Fair compensation and an indulgent benefits package show workers that the employers genuinely support them. The employer will more than likely have employees remain with them as they enjoy their jobs more rather than feeling forced to remain by offering salaries higher than the going rate for the sector and the job market. Salary surveys can serve as standards against which wages and bonuses can be evaluated and aid in retaining existing employees and attracting new talent. Discretionary benefits help Maersk keep employees by fostering a strong working relationship.
Conclusion
After reviewing the human resource management practices of Moller-Maersk, it is evident that effective management of human capital is essential for any organization to be successful. By utilizing strategic plans and mission statements, HR professionals can develop and implement processes that support and advance the organization’s overall objectives. This assessment has demonstrated that having a strong HR team is key to creating and sustaining an effective, efficient, and successful organization.
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