Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Human Resources - Essay Example The local market has reached saturation and 80% of the firm’s sales are in North America. The firm needs new markets for sales and production options to be able to produce in a globally competitive market. This may be achieved by impeccable execution by the HR department. This would mean changing the whole organizational culture of the firm and drawing out more efficient ways of operations especially where employees are concerned. The problem was that the firm was losing shareholder value, which it needed to regain at any cost or risk the firm’s downfall as a permanent feature. The firm was growing with takeovers and eating competition shares which was not enough for real growth, as it needed to increase its top-line sales (Hofstede, 2005). Analysis With the changing global economic environment, Sonoco began suffering as its sales went down. The firm was incurring many additional expenses which could have been easily avoided had the HR structure been in line with the lo ng-term strategies of the firm. The firm was in need for surging new markets but it could not do so with the current HR design nor could it afford to spend unnecessarily especially on employees. Assessing the internal environment it seemed that the employees had settled in and were content with the fact that they had secure jobs. The majority had been working for a long time with the firm which made them at ease with one another and there was hardly any competition with one another which worked negatively for the firm (Decenzo, 2001). This is because the employees did not mind that some of them were under-producing and were ok with the fact that they were not being compensated for their extra work if any. The firm was not giving the right appreciation to the right employee, which indicates that the growth was not on merit. Perhaps there was a lack of leadership where the grievances of employees were not addressed and they stayed because the firm was lenient. The employees did not ha ve stringent objectives to work towards and apparently the overall work of each employee was not too demanding. However, the work environment was healthy as there is teamwork and employees are willing to protect each other. But there is a stark absence of a leader and key knowledge workers who could help in implementing the long-term goals and objectives of global growth. The HR department lacked structure and strategic alignment. Hartley focused on talent management and to place the right person at the right place, to assess individual worker’s input so that the compensation plan, promotion and talent may be assessed and utilised accordingly. She also focused on aligning the HR with that of GM’s businesses. She also focused on the fact that the firm needed to develop employees in terms of training and on the job learning. Lastly she understood that there was a need for leadership and to identify those with leadership qualities for the future. However, in her approach the most apparent mistake was that there was a top down approach. The industry trends were changing where the packaging demanded became extremely segmented and catering to these different niches was challenging. It was essential to understand the consumers. Likewise, according to Deresky (2007) it was essential to understand the wants and needs of the employees as suggested by Maslow in his needs theory. Once these needs were