Apple Human Resource Management Case Study

Describe about the Human Resource Management for A Case Study of Apple.

Recruitment and selection process forms a core part of the central activities of the operation and management of an organization. The human resource management of the organization is responsible for the acquisition, development as well as for the rewards of the employees. Nevertheless, human resource forms an important part in shaping the overall framework of an organization. The HR manager must possess the important repository and up-to-date knowledge and skills. As pointed out by Zhang et al. (2014, p. 815), recruitment process is a planned rational activity that comprises of certain sequentially linked phases that might be included in the HR management strategy. Creating a positive employment relationship in the workplace, results in improvement of the productivity of the organization. The role of human resource managers holds the greatest importance in respect to such criteria.

The discussion is based on making a critical approach of the recruitment and selection process and employment relationship at Apple. Approximately, the company has 80,500 full-time employees working worldwide (Apple, 2016). Being the World’s second largest information technology company, Apple follows a strict selection policy. Several rounds of interviews are conducted and only when the management is satisfied with the candidate, the person is recruited. In this report, several theories related to employment relation will be evaluated. Along with that, the approaches made by the human resource management team of Apple will be analyzed.

According to Hollensen (2015), every organization must have certain recruitment strategies in order to pursue its survival and success. The management of the organization must be clear to the questions, ‘Whom to recruit?’, ‘What recruitment sources are to be used for proper recruitment?’, ‘When to recruit?’ and other such information. In order to achieve this criterion, it is important to follow the best fit and best practice approach. The ‘matching model’ of human resource suggests that the structure and function of an organization is the outcome of its strategies. Expanding the concept, it has been stated by Ackers (2014, p. 261), that organizational strategies are pre-eminent and both structure of the organization and the HRM policies are depended completely on the strategies of the organization.

People with their collective skills, ability and experience make a significant contribution to the organization. These people are recognized as the ones who contribute to the success of an organization. They are significant source of competitive advantage for the company. According to Zhang et al. (2014, p. 815), the recruitment strategies of an organization depend on the available resources and at the same time, the environmental dynamics as well. The recruitment of employees or labor depends on the power of the organization and the local competition. Therefore, it is important to define the profile of the candidate who has to be hired. This profile is more or less depended on the criteria of formal education or gender or age. However, opposing this, it has been commented by Cullinane & Dundon (2014), that it is the exact situation when discrimination begins. A closed recruitment channel of network might help to improve this condition.

The Human Capital theory

According to this theory, some people are born with the ability and personal capability. Danford & Zhao (2012, p. 843) mentioned that effectiveness of an organization is measured in terms of achieving the targets with the limited available resources. Employees are the one who are responsible for fulfilling the target and the production of the organization. The concept of efficiency of an employee can be holds true only when this particular aim is fulfilled. According to Armstrong & Taylor (2014), tension of an organization is held to rest on the ability of an individual to achieve the target set by the organization. As pointed out by Ackers (2014, p. 261), it also falls under the responsibility of the management to actively take part in developing the skills and interest of the employees.

Bratton & Gold (2012) suggested that the recruitment process might be passed through various stages where the candidates will be filtered step by step. These filters might be based on certain criteria like reading or writing test, personality test and even interview with personnel. The interview is the most important and critical part of selection that might decide the final criteria of selection of an employee. Bratton & Gold (2012) further argues that recruitment strategies are also set depending on the organizational intelligence. The ability to handle the complex labor market is the organizational intelligence. Another factor that influences the recruitment process is the technical complexity of the products or service of the company. However, the technological constrains sometimes could not prove to be fruitful at certain instances.

The equity approach made by an organization states the expectation that there should also be an approach to make the organization a desirable place for the employees to work in future. . Providing flexibility, loyalty to the employees and creating an atmosphere where there is absence of any kind of workplace conflict results in a better employment relationship. Employment relationship takes a takes a different meaning when certain concerns are made regarding any kind of conflict that arises at the workplace. Employees must have a clear pathway of their career that should include promotion and training programs as well. It is for the same reason, it is important for an organization to create a culture of dignity and respect in the work place.

Another important approach of recruitment process is the status quo strategy. According to this approach it has been stated that every firm might have certain resources but they might not be able to use them properly and wisely in respect to other competitive organizations. As commented by Craven (2015), in order to gain benefit of these unused resources, an organization makes approaches towards recruitment. The firm hires professionals who have better acknowledge of the technologies or the resources of the firm.  The flexible strategy of recruitment is usually used by small and medium size enterprises that do not have much resource and they are in fact forced to adapt with the changing industrial situation. These companies keep changing on their recruitment policies trying to match with the changing situation. The innovative strategy of recruitment process recommends using various platforms such as television, newspaper and even social media as a means of attracting innovative people for the organization.

Equity approach theory

It has been stated by, Bratton & Gold (2012) that recruitment is a process of generating pool of capable people in an organization for employment purpose. Selection process is carried on by the managers of the organization by using certain tools and equipment of measurement, so that they can be able to select the best from the pool of applicants. The particular person is recruited who is thought to be more likely to succeed in the job by achieving the goals and objectives set by the management. In the video, it has been seen that Luciana, Human Resources, also has the same view point. She commented that the person is recruited at Apple because the individual deserves to be at that position. However, it has also been pointed out by Herriot (2013), that training also plays a pivotal role in shaping the capability of the recruited employee. Companies like Infosys and IBM have a core believe that they can train the recruited employees in a way that would be preferable for their company.

According to resourcing cycle model, proposed by Sparrow & Cooper (2012), recruitment process begins with identification of a vacancy and ends when an eligible candidate is found to fit that post. Recruitment is a two way process. On one hand, the management of the organization looks for the best suited person and on the other hand, the candidate also inspects the company before accepting the proposal. In this respect, it has to be mentioned that Apple hires employees for different areas of functionality. John, iPad Product Design manager pointed out that the final products of Apple might seem very attractive but the manufacturing procedure is not easy. It involves great hardship and labor. Creating different and exclusive product design is the premium objective of Apple. In order to fulfill this objective, hiring only professional and capable candidate remains the only option.

Typically, the decision of recruiting an employee depends on selecting the most potential worker in terms of their recent work or more commonly, the one with most potential competencies. However, in contrast to the same approach, it has been pointed out by Taylor (2015, p. 160) that those workers who are flexible in their job are more likely to contribute in the business. The same concept has been shared by Joel, Vice President of Human Resource. As per his opinion, the person has to be flexible and comfortable with the type of job that they might be assigned. Nevertheless, recruitment and selection process is fundamental to the functioning of an organization. This shows the importance of getting the right candidate recruited. On the other hand, an inappropriate approach towards selection will definitely reduce the effectiveness

Discussion

Another important aspect of recruitment is perception of the recruiter. The quality and accuracy of perception will definitely have a major impact on the response of employee selection. Therefore, one of the effectiveness in the selection and recruitment process lies in the core principles of the recruiters. Same viewpoint has been noticed from the end of the retail head of Apple, Makiko. As per her opinion, best practices and business strategies put effect in the success of the organization. There is no doubt that Apple as an organization has its own business and market strategies. In order to keep pace with these strategies, it is very important to select the most eligible person at the time of recruitment. All businesses aim to maximize their profit and improve their profitability. However, staff satisfaction is also important to maintain the willingness of the employees at the workplace. 

Conclusion:

The success of the company can be easily credited to the employees and most importantly the human resource management of Apple. The employment recruitment and the relationship strategies that the human resource management team of Apple undertakes are based on their business strategies. They manufacture premium products that are exclusive both technologically and in terms of their design. This is the reason they look for those employees who can prove to match the expectation of the company’s operation and management. All the managerial heads that are responsible for selection and recruitment of employees are highly dedicated towards their role and responsibilities. These factors definitely add to the prosperity of the company.

Reference list:

Ackers, P., 2014. Rethinking the employment relationship: a neo-pluralist critique of British industrial relations orthodoxy. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 25, no. 18, pp.260-262.

Apple. 2016. Recruitment and Selection. [online] Available at: https://applecorporate.weebly.com/recruitment-and-selection.html [Accessed 2 Aug. 2016].

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

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Craven, J.A., 2015. The Employment Relationship. NY Practice Guide: Business and Commercial.

Herriot, P., 2013. The employment relationship: A psychological perspective. Routledge.

Hollensen, S., 2015. Human resource management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

Sparrow, P. and Cooper, C.L., 2012. The employment relationship: Key challenges for HR. Routledge.

Taylor, K., 2015. Learning from the Co-operative Institutional Model: How to Enhance Organizational Robustness of Third Sector Organizations with More Pluralistic Forms of Governance. Administrative Sciences, Vol. 5, no. 3, pp.148-164.

Van Buren, H.J. and Greenwood, M., 2013, January. Unitarist Ideology in HRM: Challenging the Dominant Framework Using Epistemological Analysis. In Academy of Management Proceedings Vol. 2013, no. 1, p. 14. Academy of Management.

YouTube. 2016. Apple's employee recruiting video. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9SK052cF3c [Accessed 2 Aug. 2016].

Zhang, A.Y., Song, L.J., Tsui, A.S. and Fu, P.P., 2014. Employee responses to employmentâ€Ârecruitment practices: The role of psychological empowerment and traditionality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 35  no. 6, pp.809-830.