Executive Summary
Human resource management (HRM) is one of the major functions within a specific organization. HRMdeals with different aspects within the organization and plays a crucial role in strategic planning. In Ford’s business environment, the role of Human Resource departments in the success of such organizations is increasingly important (Ford Motor Company, 2017). Today, most companies have realized the importance in the proper management of their human capital to foster growth, development, and productivity of their activities. Despite human resource management being a vast topic, performance management with Ford is very significant. There is need to determine whether employee performance truly complements the overall business strategy of the organization and advise on changes respectively (Jhajharia& Kaur, 2015). Several strategies can be taken to ensure that human resource ensures a better performance among the employees.
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This paper is an outline of how the steps that the Human Resources at the Ford is taking to ensure its alignment with the organizational strategies for better organizational performance and fulfillment of objectives. To this end, the HRM has a primary role to play since it helps in ensuring better performance and productivity in the company. The provision of opportunities for improvement and a conducive environment to employees assures the improvement of performance, builds the reputation of a business, and attracts even more consumers (Adresi & Darun, 2017). It is therefore important for HR department of Ford to ensure that it aligns itself with the organizational strategies and monitor employee performance to facilitate business success.
Description of the Organization and Strategy
Ford Motor Company is an American based market leading company in USA and Europe in the automotive industry operating globally. The company consists of eight crucial companies that are divided into three categories according to their origins including; Mazda from Japan, American automotive such as Mercury, Lincoln, and Ford, and lastly is a group of European cars such as Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volvo, and Jaguar (Toma & Naruo, 2017). The three companies provide a wide range of species at same price ranges. Based on smart management and leadership the company has achieved a continuous profitable growth by acquiring major strengths including higher customer trust and strong brand image.
Ford Motor Company has a business strategy called the “One Ford” strategy. This business strategy focuses on the company’s growth and innovation by producing quality, safe, and diversified products that will be able it to penetrate the global market (Ford Motor Company, 2017). Ford is currently planning a brighter future for the company, which requires a constant focus on efficiency of its operations. Despite being the second largest automobiles brand in United States, Ford is likely to face challenges since the level of legal scrutiny has increased .To tackle the issue Ford plans to invest more on advancing the capabilities of its technologies and investing more on electrical vehicles (Toma & Naruo, 2017). From its mission statement, Ford aims to become the most trusted company in the world by providing a range of mobility options and traffic management software to reduce congestion among cities. The company is also reallocating capital to products and reducing its costs aggressively for to achieve the highest potential growth.
Human Resources: Strategy and Role within the Organization
Ford Motors’ organizational structure is classified according the conditions within the regional markets. The characteristics of the organization’s corporate structure are also based on the nature of business and global scope (Jhajharia& Kaur, 2015). Markets that belong to the same region are similar and used as the foundation for regional development. Ford Company’s main features include global functional groups, corporate hierarchy and regional geographic divisions. The business hierarchy of the company’s organizational structure is known to be traditional such that the Executive Vice Presidents report to the company’s CEO Jim Hackett while middle managers account to the Vice Presidents (Ford Company, 2017). Ford’s organizational structure is broken down into three geographic divisions covering the world’s markets which include Asia Pacific, The Americas, and Europe, Africa and Middle East. Ford also has its main functional groups that represent explicit business purposes and are headed by vice presidents.
Ford Motor Company has a unique human resource department that has the vision of being renowned for excellent human relations and trade partnerships working earnestly to realize the company’s mission to “deliver high-impact, innovative workforce solutions, and experiences that drive One Ford today and tomorrow.” (Ford Motor Company, 2017). The HRM at Ford supports the organizational strategy by helping the company implement strategic moves; Ford has become a globalized firm due to the strategic changes in the overtime policies of its Human Resource Management (Zaheeruddin, 2015). The HR department also participates in strategic planning within the company by implementing different strategies, which are effective for the company. Fords human resource strategic plan is based on retention and hiring, employee training, employee motivation and heal and safety for its employees. The company’s retention and hiring plan is to employ innovative and customer centric minds while retaining and promoting those who are skilled. Ford is establishing a world-class information technology and training its employees both hardware and software knowledge to enable the company grows with technology (Buchanan & MacCalman, 2018). Employee motivation and engagement is also another vital focus for Ford. Additionally, Ford hires people from different backgrounds with different experiences and opinions with an aim of building a collaborative workplace.
Description of Selected HR Function – Current
Performance management is a process that is goal oriented towards maximization of employee productivity. It plays a major role in making sure that an organization has achieved its goals and accomplished its organizational strategy by improving and measuring workplace value (Jhajharia& Kaur, 2015). Despite the human resource majorly contributing performance appraisal and training, performance management plays a more crucial role. It is a continuous process in which every staff member within the organization is a part of. Ford Company has a performance management system in which every employee is directed towards achieving the strategic goals of the company (Ford Company, 2017). Ford uses policies and procedures for its performance management by focusing on employee satisfaction, employee engagement analysis and leadership and talent development. For the purpose of organizational effectiveness, every practice within Ford Company including appraisal, rewards and training are integrated. By integrating the company’s values, missions and visions into the company’s performance management, achieving the organizational goals at Ford Company has become easier.
Analysis of Selected HR Function
Every year, involves its employees on a Pulse survey to find out on the employee insights and their overall satisfaction with their jobs, the company, diversity as well as other aspects within their workplace experience (Jhajharia& Kaur, 2015). This has had positive perceptions from the employees within the past few years. Most employees provide candid positive feedback with the result being highly favorable. Another dimension measured the managers and HR awareness on employee performance and found improvements within the past few years (Buchanan & McCalman, 2018). Using employee engagement analysis is another performance management strategy used by Ford.
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Ford ensures that the employees are engaged within the company and encourages them to maintain good relationships with their customers. This is done through incentive forums, joint labor committees, unions and diversity councils. The performance management strategies of Ford Motors support the business strategy and provide the company with a competitive advantage (Ford Comapany, 2018). This is achieved through development of talent and leadership by focusing on performance. The Individual Development Plan within Ford enables the managers and employees identify their strengths and come up with customized plans for the developments (Zaheerudin, 2015). This enables them to gain more skills that leads to better production and experiences making the company more competitive over the others and ensures quality production. The company is facing problems with being stuck on overtly operational and administrative work making it harder for them to focus on core issues that affect employee performance. Therefore, there is need for the company to readjust its practices and focus more on the main problems.
Recommendations for Improvement
Ford Motor Company can implement better HRM strategies in recruitment and compensation of employees. The company should ensure that it recruits highly skilled and innovative employees, who will ensure creativity and improved product quality, therefore ensure a competitive advantage (Adresi & Darun, 2018). Further, the company should ensure that their employees find the company’s compensation fair and satisfying, to ensure that the company does not lose employees to companies offering higher pay.
Regarding diversity, Ford Motor Company should clearly incorporate its dedication to diversity in its business and HR strategy, and keeping in mind that inclusivity and diversity is a long-term recurring theme, the company can attempt to re-invent its mission statement to accommodate diversity in virtually all its departments (Toma & Naruo, 2017). New performance evaluation and improved methods needs to be achieved to keep the employees motivated. The company can create linkages, especially in its global sites of operations, with the immediate community, social structures, and institutions, and seek recommendations for various qualified candidates and dealers to work with the company (Buchanan & McCalman, 2018). This move will reinforce the company's image and improve its relations with the community. The company should always strive to lead from the top. By enhancing the company’s strategic planning process across its top-tier managerial positions, the Ford can formulate compulsory policies, and then embark on integrating improvement strategies into its organizational culture (Jhajharia& Kaur, 2015). These proposals will go a long way in increasing Ford Motor’s competitive advantage and make the company achieve its goals.
Often, human resource management deals with administrative functions, training, recruitment, performance management and compensation. These functions are essential, but on their own, they do not benefit the business adequately (Adresi & Darun, 2017). As such, aligning the HR functions and strategies to the overall organizational strategy will be useful in ensuring successful operations. The recruitment and selection of the best human resources department are paramount in building a productive workforce. To this end, this project aims at ensuring that the human resources develop better strategies for recruitment and selection of the best employees to facilitate not only the organization's success but also the project's success. Additionally, HR will incorporate better methods to ensure its strategies are well aligned with those of the organization.
Conclusion
An understanding of the Ford’s business strategy with regards to the HR department will be helpful in identifying its weaknesses and threats and conducting risk management. Most importantly, the Ford’s performance management strategies are meant to ensure the improvement in HR policies and strategies for better organizational performance. Being the second leading company of automotive production in the world Ford aims at producing quality, safe, and diversified products that will be able to penetrate the global market. The current performance management procedure at ford focuses on employee satisfaction, employee engagement analysis and leadership and talent development. This enables the company to achieve its strategic objectives and ensure employee motivation. Several practices can be integrated to enable achieve its goals. By ensuring that the company aligns to its mission, the implemented strategies will enable Ford motors achieve its goals and become more competitive in the marketplace.
References
- Adresi, A., & Darun, M. (2017). Determining relationship between strategic human resource management practices and organizational commitment. International Journal Of Engineering Business Management, 9, 184797901773166. doi: 10.1177/1847979017731669
- Buchanan, D. A., & McCalman, J. (2018). High performance work systems: The digital experience. Routledge.
- Ford Motor Company. (2017). “Human Resources.” Ford Corporate, Ford Motor Company, corporate.ford.com/careers/departments/human-resources.html
- Jhajharia, P., & Kaur, R. (2015) Achieving Strategic-Fit Between Business and Human Resource Strategies. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention. www.ijhssi.org 4(1), PP.53-61. www.ijhssi.org
- Toma, S. G., & Naruo, S. (2017). Total quality management and business excellence: the best practices at Toyota Motor Corporation. Amfiteatru Economic Journal, 19(45), 566-580.
- Zaheeruddin, M. (2015). Customer Retention Management and Strategies with Reference to Ford Motors. The International Journal of Business & Management, 3(1), 67.
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