Commitment Compensation Practices And Employee: Uniqlo International Human Resource Functions

International recruitment and selection

Discuss about the Commitment Compensation Practices and Employee.

Uniqlo is a Japanese company. It was founded in year 1949 in Ube,Yamaguchi, Japan. It turned into wholly owned subsidiary of Fast retailing company since November 2005. The company deals in clothes apparel sector. The company’s headquarters are at Minato, Tokio. Today the company deals in various markets across the globe. Today the company has over 1000 stores and emerged as a global brand. The company is constantly committed to bring about a change, diversity and challenging the conventions. The research and development centres of the company constantly invest to know about the different fashions of the world, lifestyles and materials. The company always tries to hire designers who have the capability to change the world. The company increases its sales by doing promotional campaigns for the major products each season. Uniqlo team has different cultures at different places across the globe but the aim of every team is same that is to provide truly great products (Uniqlo, 2017).  The company human resource practices effectively designed to maintain a balance between organisational goals and individual goals. This report studies in detail two international human resource functions recruitment & selection and rewards and compensation. These functions are studied in consideration with Japan as home country and Malaysia as host country. It also analyses human resource practices and policies of the firm including the global human resource strategy and the ways to manage the workforce overseas.

Recruitment involves allowing attracting pool of talent to the company and selection is choosing the best suited option from available alternatives. Both recruitment and selection come under the function of staffing (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). Staffing is one of the most important concerns for every organisation. In the multinational organisation the problem is more complex. The firm has to decide whether to recruit locally or from some foreign subsidiary. According to Dowling (2008), international staffing is based on four approaches that are ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and geocentric. The approach adopted by firm determines the recruitment and selection criteria for the firm.

Uniqlo has recently changes its recruitment and selection strategy for home country Japan. In 2011 December the company replaced its conventional style of recruitment. The company’s new recruitment procedure was enforced from year 2013. This new procedure invited fresh graduates as well as mid- carrier professionals. The procedure is open for the people of every nationality. The change from conventional style to modern style basically focuses on the needs of the individual rather than just the aims of company. Uniqlo has now kept the procedure more transparent and gives ample of time to the individuals to figure out and make decisions about their carrier goals. The company will prefer those candidates for selection who share company’s vision of changing the world (Japan today, 2011). The company is also focused towards providing internships. The company believes that internships are an effective way of training the students. The students who will successfully complete their will receive Uniqlo passports. This passport will help the students to skip the final interview procedure Japan (Fastretailing, 2011). The major reason why the company has widened its approach towards recruitment and selection is the need for diversity. The company wants talented workforce from everywhere that holds the potential for change should be the part of its workforce. The company has brought more transparency in the recruitment and selection procedure to give equal opportunity to everyone. The procedure of registering the application to work for the company includes three basic steps. These steps are pre entry, this entry and entry completed (Fastretailing, 2017).

Reward and Compensation

The recruitment in Malaysia is based on UMC. In the company UMC stands for Uniqlo’s manager candidates. The company aims to build up managerial candidates. The company exposes the candidates to all types of positions involving merchandising, local marketing, inventory management and different store operations (Fastretailing, 2017). The company’s selection procedure for Malaysia involves the following steps: the initial screening and rejects few candidates whom the company finds inappropriate.

In this session company imparts all the necessary information to the candidates about the organisation and type of work they are required to do.

This is a test which involves some questions that has to be answered in the written format online.

After the online test shortlisted candidates are called for the first round interview.

After being selected in the first round interview candidates are called for the real job experience. Their performance is observed for two days.

After been shortlisted on the basis of performance the candidates are then called for another round of interview. This is the final round for selection.

Uniqlo in Malaysia recruits the candidates on the basis of their qualities. The basic qualities that company aspires for are strong leadership skills, the capability to inspire others by example, global thinking, passionate towards serving the customers, team player, maintains integrity, creativity and innovation, pays attention to microscopic details and result oriented. The job requirements for various posts in Malaysia are efficiency in speaking English and Bahasa Malaysia, bachelor’s degree, ability to relocate throughout Malaysia , flexibility to work in shifts and multi-tasking.

Rewards can be defined as the extra benefit that a person gets for the extraordinary effort done by the employee. They are given to encourage voluntary participation (Aguinis, Joo, and Gottfredson 2013) Compensation involves entire package i.e. both monetary and non-monetary benefits that an employee receives for his regular job (Rubel and Kee, 2015). The basic objective of rewards and compensation is to attract and retain talented employees in the organisation. For international rewards and compensation firm can adopt two approaches. These approaches are going rate approach and balance sheet approach. In going rate approach the firm pays according to rates existing in the host country.  In balance sheet concept the company pays to equate the living standard of emigrant to that in the home country. The company adopting this approach constantly needs to update its data regarding living cost and revise its compensation plan accordingly (Harzing and Pinnington, 2014).

Evaluation of International Human Resource Management practices and procedures

Uniqlo pays it employees well both in home and host country. In Japan the company’s minimum wages for part- timers were around $15 hourly. Also the raises in the salary are very frequent in the company. The employees who perform really well are given hike in salary for about 2-3 times in a year. The company is also increasing the number of paid leaves (Moreshead, 2012). The company always aims to provide competitive salaries to employees throughout the globe to retain and attract competitive workforce in the organisation. The company never forgets to give employees’ equitable rewards and recognition to the employees for their extraordinary efforts.

Formation of any strategy for MNE’s is challenging task because it involves issues such as difference in social values, moral standards, laws of the country and other institutional settings. Developing a global strategy is even more challenging because issues such as workforce diversity, labour standards and equal opportunities are also to be considered (Harzing and Pinnington, 2014). For the firms doing businesses in various countries it is very important to formulate a global human resource strategy because human resource leaders are responsible for managing the global talent across the nations (Alton, 2016).

Few steps must be adopted to build an effective HRM strategy. These steps are as follows:

• The first and foremost step is to reduce favouritism for local nationals. Every employee should be equally treated.
• Identify your key activities and assign positions to people that hold responsibility to perform those tasks.
• Build a global database to know about the about the global talent that could cater you.
• Construct a mobility pyramid by knowing the willingness of managers to move to new locations.
• Build a database of managerial potential that your company holds.
• Identify the gaps in current skills and required skills of executives.
• Recruit on regular basis.
• Advertise your posts internally.
• Institute succession planning.
• Challenge and retain your talent.

Uniqlo is a subsidiary of Fast Retailing. The Global human resource strategy of Fast Retailing group focuses on work force diversity. They consider human rights as priority in their strategy. The company makes efforts to ensure equal opportunity for all. The same can be seen in the selection and recruitment policy of the company. No partiality is seen for any particular group. The company aims to create healthy atmosphere for employees at workplace so that it can promote creativity and innovation in the organisation. The work environment also aims at creating work life balance for employees.  The company also make sure that employees are credited for what they do. The global human resource strategy of the firm aims at creating a supportive environment for employees to retain them in the organisation.

Managing people overseas have to be done with much care. Company has to look for three C’s basically to manage staff overseas these C’s are common sense, courtesy and culture.

The basic steps for the companies to effectively manage their overseas staff are get the basics right, do not over manage, plan direct communication, companywide communication, being sensitive to local cultures and effective problem solving (PM editorial, 2007). UNIQLO effectively manages its staff by valuing human rights and diversity. The company ensures that effective communication is maintained within the branch and with different offices when required. The company equally values the social and cultural beliefs of all the employees. It does special efforts for empowering women’s with disabilities. The company always brings changes in its human resource system according to the diversity. The company also ensures well-being and safety of employees in the organisation. The company trains individuals to work better by organising regular training and development workshops. The company does every possible effort to solve the problems of employees as soon as possible. The workforce of the company across different nations is effectively managed.

Conclusion

Following are the recommendations that can help Uniqlo to achieve better.

• One of the basic thing that company needs to is ensure transfer of knowledge among people from different cultures in the organisation.
• The next recommendation is to consider the strategic vision. The company has already started doing that but it needs to do more to link organisations strategy to the human resource strategy.
• The company needs to appoint local managers for different offices in different countries so that they can better understand the demands of situation in their native country.
• The next thing that company should focus on is conflict resolution and troubleshooting as quickly as possible.

From the above report it can be concluded that Uniqlo is an organisation showing positive signs of growth and expansion. The company is expanding its businesses across different nations. It is a Japan based organisation and entered Malaysian markets in 2010. It also has operation in various other nations. The company focus on geocentric approach of staffing. It changed its conventional style of recruitment and selection few years ago in Japan. Now the recruitment procedure for both host and home country is more clear and transparent. The company has now opened the doors for people of all the nations. It welcomes freshly graduated students and people who have 2-3 years of experience. The company also follows fair reward and compensation system. The company offers competitive salaries to its employees. It ensures that employees are given rewards and recognition for their extraordinary efforts. The global human resource strategy of the company keeps diversity as the core value.  The company takes good care of its employees. The company effectively manages its people in different nations. It believes on three key terms Communication, courtesy and consideration to effectively manage its workforce

References

Aguinis, H., Joo, H. and Gottfredson, R.K., 2013. What monetary rewards can and cannot do: How to show employees the money. Business Horizons, 56(2), pp.241-249.

Alton, L. 2016. Create a Global Human Resources Strategy, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/create-a-global-human-resources-strategy-7-960

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Dowling, P., 2008. International human resource management: Managing people in a multinational context. Cengage Learning.

Fast retailing, 2011. UNIQLO Adopts New Approach to Recruitment in Japan, viewed on 20 August 2017 https://www.fastretailing.com/eng/group/news/1112201700.html

Fastretailing, 2017. WEB entry, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www.fastretailing.com/employment/ja/uniqlo/jp/career/regional/webentry.html

Fastretailing, 2017. What is UMC, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www.fastretailing.com/employment/en/uniqlo/my/graduate/

Harzing, A.W., and Pinnington, A., 2014. International Human Resource Management. Sage.

Japan today, 2011. UNIQLO adopts new approach to recruitment in Japan, viewed on 20 August 2017 https://japantoday.com/category/business/uniqlo-adopts-new-approach-to-recruitment-in-japan

Moreshead, C., 2012. What Apple Could Learn From The Way Uniqlo Treats Its Staff, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www.businessinsider.com/what-apple-could-learn-from-the-way-uniqlo-treats-its-staff-2012-6?IR=T

PM editorial, 2017. People management, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www2.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/29/howtomanagestaffonoverseasplacements-2007-04.aspx

Rubel, M.R.B. and Kee, D.M.H., 2015. High Commitment Compensation Practices and Employee Turnover Intention: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(6 S4), p.321.

Uniqlo, 2017. Our story, viewed on 20 August 2017 from https://www.uniqlo.com/uk/en/company/about_uniqlo.html