Unit 3 - Individual Project Collapse Top PanelsAssignment OverviewType: Individual ProjectUnit: Strategy Formulation and PlanningDue Date: Tue,12/11/18Grading Type: NumericPoints Possible: 150Point

The Human Resource Investment

Name: Brigetta N Steward

Institution: American InterContinental University

Date: 11/10/18

The Human Resource Investment

Companies that survive and thrive in the current competitive environment rely on the contributions of their employees. The firms invest heavily in their human resources in order to improve their competencies and ensure efficient functioning. Amazon has an elaborate strategy with respect to human resources management.

Employee Engagement Strategies

Although employee engagement is an important factor in enhancing the growth and productivity of companies, most organizational leaders do not prioritize it. Amazon faces various challenges in this regard. The firm has been criticized for having high demands, low pay, and a mediocre career plan. Itslimiting labor practices have led to an increased turn over and low levels of employee satisfaction. The media and advocacy groups implicate it for imposing undue pressure on new hires to meet unreasonably high standards andwork late. Although the company has taken measures to improve employee engagement and satisfaction through anonymous reporting, the efforts have not yielded significant outcomes. One of the major limitations of the program pertains to its complexity. Nonetheless, the honest feedback that it gives is essential for the business and certainly, it has a positive impact on employee engagement.

Specifically, increased engagement will increase sales and improve employee relationships. According to Mathis, Jackson, Valentine and Megich (2016), staffs that are emotionally engaged are creative, enthusiastic, proactive, and passionate about their duties. To increase employee engagement, Amazon should design its surveys in such a way that they capture key weaknesses as well as identify improvement opportunities. Most importantly, the surveys must be reported accurately and questionsshould correlate to actionable recommendations and responses.
Global Talent Management

Talent management ensures that the company hires, manages, develops and retainsmost of the most gifted and excellent employees in the industry. Amazon achieves talent management through its employee motivation programs, employee engagement strategies, capacity building, career development plans, succession planning, satisfactory compensation, and performance management. It should refine the strategy to reduce the rates of turn over thathave negative implications for its growth and development. Having a pool of talented and qualified employees will enable it to meet its business goals. Accordingly, effective management of talents helpsorganizations to focus on issues and concerns that arepertinent to the organization. Efficiency enhances performance, productivity, and sustains growth.
Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility involves implementing procedures and policies that integrate moral, social, environmental, consumer concerns, and human rights into the company’s core strategy and business operations in collaborations with all stakeholders. The aim of Amazon’s corporate social responsibility initiative is to impact positively on the entire society while optimizing value creation for the business, employees, stakeholders,and shareholders. The initiatives increase employee engagement and customer satisfaction. The company invests in and is committed to sustainability because of the benefits to the business, clients, communities, and the environment. In this respect, its Frustration-Free program engages manufacturers from across the globe by helping them to improve packing, innovative practices, and reduce waste. This ensures that theproducts reach clients safely. The company demonstrates its strong commitment to business ethics by practicing responsible sourcing. Specifically,it requires suppliers who support its operations to comply with established standards.

The systems and buildings of its urban campus use energy-efficient infrastructure that embraces reuse and recycling. As the firm focuses on being the best at meeting the needs of the clients, it uses innovation and ensures transparency. To empower its employees and improve their performance, it prepays their tuition fees and encourages them to pursue higher education in demand fields. This is regardless of whether the fields have an impact on its operations or not. Generally, the company has put in place various corporate responsibility initiatives. To a great extent, they have contributed significantly to sustained growth and employee efficiency.
Human Resource Technology

In this fastpaced society, it is important for organizations to appreciate the role of technological advancements. The improvements impact on various operations and procedures in companies. In the human resources industry, Amazon acknowledges that technology is useful for hiring, attracting, retaining, and maintaining talent. At Amazon, the technology supports the administration of its workforce and optimizes management. Notably, it helps the managers and employees to work efficiently and execute key functions faster. In particular, implementing technology enables the company’s human resource managers to collect, gather, and deliver information easily and efficiently. It supports communication and information sharing. In his review, Surkutwar (2017) admits that automating the business processes reduces the administrative workload and allows the managers to focus more on their tasks. Using technological tools, managers make effective and credible decisions.
Employment Law and Human Rights Issues

Successful organizations comply with the provisions of employment law and human rights. Meeting the occupational health and safety standards creates a safe and healthy work environment for employees, eliminates bias, and provides equal opportunities for all employees. Conversely, contravening the provisions culminates in disputesand prevents sustainable growth and development. Reports show that the company has not been committed to upholding important labor laws. It sets strict targets, disciplines employees unfairly, and exploits them. Increased incidences of electric shocks and trauma in the United Kingdom region attest to the recognition that the work conditions are unsafe.The workstations and warehouses are in a deplorable state. Generally, the safety and health of employees have not been accorded due consideration. The company should address the concern by empowering its union and enforcing the workplace standards and regulation to ensure healthy and safe environments. Failing to address the concerns has had far-reaching impacts on its ability to expand business operations. In addition, it contributes to employee turnover and makes it difficult for it to attract and retain talented staffs.
Emerging Trends in Human Resource Management

In the dynamic corporate sphere, the human resource facet is impacted on by a variety of changes. Staffing demands, improvements in technology, and the changing government policies influence the functioning of global companies such as Amazon. With regard to staffing needs, Amazon employs staffs that are innovative and who have the essential technological skills. It considers job applicants who demonstrate leadership, achieve concrete results, and are interested to learn. Since its operations are international, it considers issues of diversity and cultural competence during hiring. In this respect, the diversity and inclusion program aims at building talent, engaging employees, and enhancing quality performance. Just like other technological companies, Amazon’s operations are impacted on by government rules and regulations. For instance, it has incurred immense costs in its effort to advocate for friendlier federal rules pertaining to package delivering drones, cloud computing, and online sales taxes. Aligning its corporate strategy with the current trends enhances its competitiveness in the current society. Further, it enables it to identify and seize opportunities for sustainable growth and development.
Human Capital Challenges in the 21st Century

The modern work environment requires employees to demonstrate high-level performance and competency at all times. The demands of the workforce are changing significantly. The human capital challenges that managers face relate to corporate social commitment, employee retention, reward systems, employee compensation, employee resistance, and organizational change amongst other concerns. Amazon faces various challenges including lack of employee benefits, unsafe work environments, bureaucracy with respect to governance, poor employee relations, unhealthy competition amongst staffs,and so forth. The challenges have a negative effect on employee morale and productivity. Unsafe and hostile work environment compromise employee performance and limit professional growth.
Best Practices in Human Resource Management

Agreeably, effective management of human resources improves their productivity and performance. Providing a viable work environment and addressing employee needs boosts their creativity and enthusiasm. Motivated employees commit to meeting their personal and professional goals and objectives. One of the best practices that Amazon has adopted with respect to management of its employees pertains to embracing diversity concerns. In addition to supporting underperforming employees, it considers gender and ethnic concerns during hiring.

The organization emphasizes on employee satisfaction in order to retain them for longer.Its investment in performance improvement plans such as the Pivot training program has been instrumental in managing the employees and improving the reputation of the company. Amazon recognizes talented employees and takes practical measures to motivate and retain them. This improves its performance and competitiveness in the online industry. However, the approach impacts negatively on low-performing staffs. Another practice that has a positive impact on the wellbeing of Amazon pertains to use of technology in human resources management. In his study, Mathis et al (2016) indicates that automation of the human resource management processes helps organizations to achieve efficiency and enhance objective decision making. Besides improving the quality of products and services, organizations that embrace technological advancements attain customer satisfaction.

References

Surkutwar, P. (2017). Current Trends in Human Resource Management. New York: LAP LAMBERT.

Mathis, R., Jackson, J., Valentine, S. & Megich, P. (2016). Human Resource Management. New York: Cengage Learning.