Jose Rene R. CruelIII-BSLM

Xerox

Which areas of human resource management are necessary for Xerox to attract and retain valuable employees? Does this effort go beyond simply recruiting and hiring people with the necessary skills?

If we analyze the problem and interpolate the data given to us we could deduce that this problem would have a corresponding effect on the four functions of human resource management meaning planning, maintaining, training and utilizing.

The first impulse of management in this case Xerox in its dire financial trouble is to retrench or lay off workers. Though the effectively of one’s company is not exemplified through its products and services but through its general workforce, they are the ones in the trenches and they are the ones in direct contact with the customers. In the case problem Xerox did just that.

The traditional arena of H.R.M was only delegated into the realms of selecting and hiring employees. Though in today’s global recession recruiting and selecting new employees is only a part of the challenge, the HR activities in organizations must be revised in order to retain employees. For every employee who does not leave the organization for a new job elsewhere. That is one less employee who has to be recruited from outside. Therefore, significant emphasis is being placed on keeping existing employees and providing growth opportunities for them.

Therefore your plan will be more focused on the competencies that the employees in the organization have and will need for the organization to grow in the future. (1) The needed capabilities must be identified and linked to the work done in the organization. This identification often requires active cooperation between HR professionals and operating managers. (2) The capabilities of each employee much be assessed. This approach requires that the competencies and depth of those competencies be identified. (3) Once the comparison of the “gap” between capabilities needed in the organization and those existing in employees is identified, then training and development activities must be designed. The focus throughout is to provide guidance to employees and creating an awareness of career growth possibilities within the organization. For many individuals, continuing to enhance their capabilities and knowing that there are growth opportunities in the organization may lead to greater job satisfaction and longer employment with that organization.

In the case problem Xerox launched the “Xpress yourself” campaign which both carried the product line and how they handle their personnel. They identified first the needs of the company and how to reinvent itself through their HR department by capitalizing on the individualities of its employees. Then the Maintaining process could begin, by looking at the existing workforce and seeing the strategy being implemented it would not be a tedious task to make guidelines or checkmarks on what every employee could or would do for the company. Training also would be geared toward that goal exemplifying the corporate strategy. The utilization process would also have to exemplify corporate strategy an example of which is to expose various personnel into the various areas of management for them to know what the job entails and to express their individuality to the area they are in.

How would you expect a period of cutbacks and layoffs to affect a company’s human resource professionals? Would their goals and activities need to shift to meet this challenge? If so, how?

The period of cutbacks and layoffs will affect a company’s H.R.P. by making them more focused on utilizing and maintaining the remaining workforce. The more a workforce becomes smaller the level of communication between the departments will have to become smaller and because it is smaller it has to be clearer. Especially if we extrapolate the main thrust of Xerox which is “Xpress yourself” you must have an infrastructure to attain this goal. Therefore the implementation of Intranets within the corporate structure becomes a mandatory addition. These intranets will become the hub for the HR professionals to manage the existing personnel and to know their various feedbacks and views regarding plans or programs being implemented.

Cutbacks and Layoffs will have a negative impact on a company’s image and the recruitment process will become arduous because the people’s perception of your company is tantamount it would have a hard time recruiting new blood.

There is a need to shift the goals and activities of the HR to meet this new challenge. Innovation must come from (1) the existing workforce (2) from competition (3) from the new recruits. Why do I say this?

On the existing workforce, because they are the entrenched in the company and know already the ins and outs of the corporate structure they are the best ones to give the need innovation.

On the competition, It would be unethical to copy working programs from other companies but if the program works and it can be implemented in your company then why not? Use it for your own benefit. It also comes with the minimal risk of failure.

On the new bloods or recruits, HR must find a way to get their fresh outlooks, views and such before they become blinded by the corporate identity.

It would then be the focus of HR to find the ways and means to make the existing workforce more productive and profitable. In this regard the incentive issue will begin.

3.) Suggest one or two ways in which HR professionals at Xerox might work with line managers to build loyalty to the company and a commitment to providing “world-class products and services”

To build loyalty with your personnel your must provide some benefits or “perks” . These are designed to raise the morale and to give positive behaviour reinforcement. Though between the line managers you could not implement companywide benefits we have to focus on the “line” or specific area of responsibility.

For the line managers there are various ways to incorporate the “world-class products and services” policy.

1) Brain storming sessions wherein every person in the product line or area will have a say in how a product could be sold, to whom it should be sold etc, it can be mandatory or voluntary it depends on the willingness of your personnel to share their ideas.

2) To develop a point system wherein ideas submitted by the workforce that are implemented in general could be a bonus in their pay or an incentive for a vacation package etc.

3) For the Line managers to develop programs of training toward the goal and make the facilitators the employees themselves this works with sales personnel, marketing.

Jose Rene R. CruelIII-BSLM

A blog by definition is an online diary it is a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page. Therefore it is a personal written document about your angst and outlooks regarding different subjects. The question postulated in the handout is “who might be affected by a blog written about a company?” The answer here are the following (1) The company itself, (2) The Department you are in (3) Your co-workers (4) inadvertently yourself.

By the Company we mean it as a whole entity. How it is managed and the idiosyncrasies that underlie the corporate identity are attacked.

By the Department you are in, by writing about your area of responsibility or your department sometimes you hurt the overall morale of your department hence hindering or hampering productivity by insinuating incompetence and such in your blog.

By your co-workers by pointing out the inadequacies of your co-workers you instigate bad blood in worker relationships therefore the unity or the synergy of the group is affected.

By blogging yourself you show your intellectual capacity and how you perceive the company you are working in, the managers that are handling you and the co-workers with which you work with.

This is assuming that your blog is negative in character and in tone. Even hilarious commentaries are prone to be misconstrued in a negative light depending on the perception of the reader.

What are the information that can be made public then? What does a company have a right to keep private?

A company’s information may well be its single most valuable asset. What a company – as a collective entity –knows may be at the heart of what gives that company its competitive edge. The continued success of the organization may hinge on its ability to keep certain information out of the hands of other parities, particularly its competitors. In an age when information is king, a company’s very survival may hinge on its secrets.

The need to protect certain information for competitive reasons is that which usually comes to mind first at the mention of the subject, and this is absolutely an important reason. But there are others as well. Today, organizations face a seemingly overwhelming array of additional reasons to protect information in their possession. In addition to regulatory mandates to protect some information – such as some personal data in an employee file – there is a growing need to implement measures in effort to avoid or mitigate civil litigation.

Information such as that contained within “marketing materials” is a clear example. Some information must be disclosed as a matter of law, as is the case with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and for patents. Then there is the information that is easily understood to be sensitive with the iconic example being the secret formula for Coca Cola®.

Many labels are applied in effort to distinguish certain information that is to be protected in some way, as a subset of all the information a company may have. Common terms include “intellectual property”, “trade secrets”, “confidential information” and “proprietary information”. In the legal

profession, some of these labels create important distinctions as they may be specifically defined by laws and other regulations.

To answer the second question where in I am a hr personnel coming across a certain blog that pertains to work related topics. The following are the prodcedure to deal with this problem.

See if any corporate private secrets are being stated in the blog See if the blog is written in a positive or negative lightIf the blog is written in a negative light then I will judge if the aforementioned information has a

positive effect or corrective effect in the company. Naturally if it is written positively or negatively, I as an HR will have to investigate if these

insinuations, accusations are true.

Sources:

Fundamentals of Human Resource Masnagement 9th Edition by David A. Decnzo, Stephen P. Robbins

Human Resource Management “Gaining a Competitive Edge” 6th edition, Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerbert