HR Management Strategies For Nestle Essay.

Introducing Nestle : The Company Overview

Question:

Write a report about the strategic human resource management plan.
 

This assessment needs us to assume the role of the new HR Director for an organization. The selected organization is Nestle, which is a food and beverage company having its headquarters in Switzerland. It is a well-known and the largest food and beverage company in the world. It was established in the year 1905 using the collaboration of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company that was established in the year 1866 by Charles page and George page, both of them were brothers. The company or organization grew extensively. It is the biggest food company worldwide having a market capitalization of approximately 231 billion Swiss francs (Sethi 2012).  The products which it manufactures include dairy products, snacks, baby food, confectionary, tea, medical food frozen food and ice cream. It became the first organization to adopt the approach of creating share value. As a brand, it is recognized worldwide and has made a million of customers.

The vision of Nestle is to be a competitive and leading company dealing in health, nutrition and well-being and aims to deliver an improved value for shareholders by being a preferred employer, preferred corporate citizen and a preferred supplier with respect to the selling of the products manufactured by it (Alfes et al. 2013). It describes itself as a company, which strives to offer food, health, nutrition, wellness and health. In recent times, it created Nestlé Nutrition, which is a worldwide business organization. It is intended to reinforce the focus on the business which deals with core nutrition. It considers that reinforcing their leadership in the market is an essential component of their business strategy. This type of market is distinguished with respect to the primary motivation of the consumer or customer for purchasing a product, which is based on the parameter of nutritional content (Chowdhury 2015).

With the intention of reinforcing its competitive benefit in this area, it created as an independent worldwide commerce unit within the organization named Nestlé Nutrition and stimulated it with the prepared and profit and loss accountability for the business based on a claim with respect to Nutrition of the infants, HealthCare Nutrition, as well as Performance Nutrition (Alfes et al. 2013).

It has also made efforts of practicing corporate citizenship. It has attempted significantly to promote enhanced environmental as well as agricultural practices. It describes itself as a company which strives to offer food, health, nutrition, wellness and health. In recent times, it created Nestlé Nutrition which is a worldwide business organization. It is intended to reinforce the focus on the business which deals with core nutrition. It considers that reinforcing their leadership in the market is an essential component of their business strategy. The company or organization grew extensively. It is the biggest food company worldwide having a market capitalization of approximately 231 billion Swiss francs.  The products which it manufactures include dairy products, snacks, baby food, confectionary, tea, medical food frozen food and ice cream. It became the first organization to adopt the approach of creating share value. As a brand, it is recognized worldwide and has made a million of customers (Sethi 2012).  

Challenges faced by Nestlé in HR Management

Globally, organizations are facing a number of issues and challenges regarding human resource management. Few of the key challenges that Nestle is facing in recent times have been listed below.

• Alternative competitive forces
• Customer values and expectations
• Access to capital

To meet these challenges, Nestle has developed a strategic management plan to address them. This will help the company to achieve the strategic objectives and the HR manager needs to address them effectively.

The HR managers need to evaluate whether the available staff members and managers are competitive enough to meet the strategic objectives of Nestle. The HR manager should check for the competencies of the level of responsibilities, decision making and authorities. He should check for the personnel interaction in the internal and external environment of the business. The level of interaction and customer contact has to be verified including the level of knowledge, aptitudinal and physical skills. If found satisfactory, no new competencies are required and dissatisfaction will lead to the fulfillment of the required criteria of competence (Tarique et al. 2015). 

Superior performers are differentiated from the average performers based on their technical and behavioral aspects that include skill, knowledge, motive, trait, value, attitude and other personal characteristics that are required for the performance of the job role. The performance of the employees is tracked based on the five systems that are in place. The HR department monitors the performance of the employees and they are watched while on work. The employees are required to provide justification and accounts for their performance based on one-to-one conversation. The employees are asked to use self-monitoring tools like activity logs, checklists and project plans that help to keep a track of their work. Review of the employee performance is done on a regular basis. Gathering customer feedback about the product quality with which the employee performance is directly related (Cascio and Boudreau 2012). 

The HR department develops a performance improvement plan to guide the below standard performers to upgrade their performance. The plan must allow the employee to provide open feedback whether he has been provided with the necessary resources and tools necessary for its successful working (Olajide et al. 2014).

The employees of Nestle are trained and developed on a regular basis to meet the challenges of the future. This accounts for good risk management practices and good management strategies by the HR department. The employees are trained on the new and upcoming aspects and developed for the improvement of the product safety profile (Lasserre 2012).

The employees are motivated continuously to meet the current and future challenges. Various HR strategies are implemented to motivate them and perform well. Some of them include recognition and appreciation, increased the feeling of involved in the process of work, making the work more interesting, increasing the job security, increasing the employee responsibility and providing sufficient wages (Olajide et al. 2014).

The right people are attracted and retained to meet the future challenges of Nestle. For attracting the right people, the CVs are collected either locally or globally, as per the requirement (Bratton and Gold 2012). The job advertisement is written appropriately to attract the right candidates and refraining the wrong ones. Only the candidates with the right CV should be called out for the interview. It is cared that the rejection is done on impartial grounds and the interview notes are retained for future references (Li 2015).

Evaluation of Competencies for Nestlé Employees

The current company culture is very much in alignment with the mission, vision and values of the department. However, if any misalignment is noticed, it is taken care of immediately strictly based on the company policies, rules and regulations. 

Human resource planning is the process of identification of the human resource needs of the present and the future that are required by an organization for achieving the set goals. The plan serves as a link between the overall organizational strategic planning and the human resource management. It aids to satisfy the requirements of an organization (Rewards and Plans 2013).

Nestle on an average, based on its operation have six main departments. This includes marketing, sales and customer, finance, technology, factory and HR. Each department has its set of issues and the program should direct to address the issues (Alfes et al. 2013). For this, the plan should consist of several key programs and each program shall represent one of the key HR responsibilities that require addressing. Every department’s set of programs will be based on the set of issues. The 12-month HR plan for Nestle has been represented below for the individual departments (Chowdhury 2015).

Flow Diagram 1: 12 Month HRM Plan for Nestle

 

A detailed analysis of the individual programs for the individual departments has been discussed below.

Marketing has the programs performance management with training and development. Performance management is important for building up a skilled and talented workforce. It aims at revising and setting the employee goals with appropriate coaching and management (Tarique et al. 2015). The recommendations include building an engaged and empowered workforce with developing foundational talent and knowledge. Training and development aids to acquire the employee’s new skills along with enhancing the existing ones. It aims at making the employees perform better and increase the productivity. It should be implemented for new hire orientation and tackle the organizational shortcomings. The total duration of both the programs for the department is three months (Truss et al. 2012).

Sales and customer have the programs of change management and career development. Change management is the approach for driving usage and adoption for ensuring that the initiatives tend to deliver the expected outcomes and results (Jiang et al. 2012). It aims at closing the gap between the results and the requirements and increases the project success likelihood. Recommendations include mitigation of the project based critical risk and taking chances out of the change. Career development is important for retaining the best talent of the company and boosting up the productivity and engagement. It aims at strengthening the succession pipeline and generates the process of knowledge transfer. It must be implemented for filling up the role and skill gaps along with the creation of positive branding. Duration of these programs is two months (Purce 2014).

Finance includes recognition of performance and promotion planning. Recognition of performance is the timely, formal and informal acknowledgment of the effort and behavior of the employees. It aims at increasing the individual productivity and provides greater satisfaction of the employee. The recommendation includes recognition of the good work and acknowledges the value added by the employee to the organization (Rewards and Plans 2013). Promotion planning is the process of planning for advancing an employee towards a better job in terms of greater responsibility and increased package. It aims at appropriate planning as per the company objectives, requirements and resources to the reassignment of a job of a higher level to an employee based on his performance and experience. It should be implemented for better utilization of the resources of an employee at higher levels generate competency in the organization. Duration of the program is two months (Storey 2014).

Monitoring Employee Performance at Nestlé

Technology includes information and staff culture. Information management includes the acquisition of information from one source, distributing it among the custodian users, disposing it through deletion and archiving. It aims at controlling the growth and creation of records and reduction of operational costs Truss et al. 2012). It must be implemented for the safeguarding of the vital information and preservation of the corporate memory. Staff culture reflects the culture of the organization and contributes to developing their motivation and values. It aims at supporting employee retention and building the company reputation. It is recommended to implement better staff culture and it will eventually help in improving the productivity and quality with healthy corporate affairs. Duration of the program is three months (Jiang et al. 2012).

Factory includes recruitment and staff retention. Recruitment is the process of attraction, selection and appointment of the suitable candidates in an organization. It aims to fill up the vacant position with the right and deserving candidates and plays a crucial role in the organizational growth (Purce 2014). It should be implemented for meeting the present and future requirements of the organization and maintaining the balance of the organization. Staff retention helps to manage the employee turnover efficiently and effectively and indicates the ability of the organization to retain its staff members. It aims at saving a considerable of time and money of the organization invested in hiring process and helps to build up a better, loyal and experienced workforce. It should be implemented so that the organization can retain the valuable and potential employees and employees do not join the competitors after leaving (Bratton and Gold 2012). 

Conclusion

The strategic HR management plan implemented by Nestle is one of the high commitment, high involvement and high-performance plan in the corporate world. It has successfully managed to inculcate the objectives of its business and maintain the mission, vision and values in all its activities. Nestle offers its employees a flexible culture where the employees can successfully improve and develop the organization. This is the core reason of success of Nestle that has made it the leading food company in the world.  

References

Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.

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

Cascio, W.F. and Boudreau, J.W., 2012. Short introduction to strategic human resource management. Cambridge University Press.

Chowdhury, A.M.R.R., 2015. INTERSHIP REPORT ON Strategic Employee Motivation through effective management in HR for factory maintenance: A study of Nestlé Bangladesh Ltd.

Harmon, P., 2014. Business process change: a business process management guide for managers and process professionals. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc..

Jiang, K., Lepak, D.P., Hu, J. and Baer, J.C., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal,55(6), pp.1264-1294.

Khan, P., 2016. Human resource department of Nestle Bangladesh Limited & its various functions.

Lasserre, P., 2012. Global strategic management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Li, T., 2015. Nestle Employee Recruitment Research. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 6(4).

Olajide, T.O., Adeoti, O.O. and Elegunde, A.F., 2014. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIAN FIRMS. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Review, 4(4).

Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Rewards, E. and Plans, P., 2013. Strategic human resource management.Instructor.

Sethi, S.P., 2012. Multinational corporations and the impact of public advocacy on corporate strategy: Nestle and the infant formula controversy(Vol. 6). Springer Science & Business Media.

Storey, J., 2014. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Tarique, I., Briscoe, D.R. and Schuler, R.S., 2015. International Human Resource Management: Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises. Routledge.

Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C., 2012. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.