Best Practices in HR

Healthcare management (Discussion questions) What are the top three elements in developing your practice as a human resource manager that will ensure your competitive advantage? First student One of the most notable features of successful companies such as Google is the degree to which these companies realize that people are some of their greatest assets.

Google offers such perks as allowing engineers to pursue their own projects on company time as a way to attract the most creative people within the IT industry as well as to develop new ideas that might not come from the upper levels of management. Google offers 'perks' that make creative people flock to the company and which ensures once hired, the employees remain focused on their work.

One of the reasons Google offers free food, dry-cleaning, and fitness classes is not simply to be nice but also because it increases worker loyalty and keeps workers' attention focused on their work, not distractions at home. Google also has an extremely rigorous hiring process, to ensure that all employees are a good fit for the organization. It also has a rather unique feature in the screening process in that "uses panels of varied employees -- not potential direct supervisors or peers -- to handle its worker selection process" (Halzack 2013).

This is to ensure greater objectivity, given that the people doing the hiring are not the candidate's potential bosses. The ideal is that the screeners will ask 'what is good for the organization' not 'what is good for me as an employee?' Google also uses 'big data' to ensure its hiring process is efficient. For example, after analyzing the success rates of candidates, it concluded that no more than four interviews are necessary for most prospective employees, when considering them as potential hires for the company (Halzack 2013).

However, it is not a slave to 'big data' -- it will occasionally bring in a rare candidate for a fifth interview if the hiring panel is genuinely on the fence about his suitability. Reference Halzack, S. (2013). An inside look at Google's data-driven interview process. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/an-inside-look-at-googles-data-driven-job-interview-process/2013/09/03/648ea8b2-14bd-11e3-880b-7503237cc69d_story.html Second student Organizational culture is an extremely important component of success.

It is essential that HR finds people who fit into that culture. Zappos is an example of an organization which places a high premium on attitude as much as capabilities of prospective employees. "Zappos takes cultural fit seriously and hires slowly. Months can pass between an initial cultural fit interview with an HR recruiter and an actual job offer. If a potential employee fails to pass the cultural fit interview (50% of the weight in hiring), he or she is not invited to meet the hiring manager and other employees" (Heathfield 2014).

Zappos also famously offers candidates money to 'quit' during the training period, rationalizing that it is better to spend $3,000 to get someone who is unhappy out of the company before making the expensive and time-consuming commitment to hire him or her. In short, Zappos makes absolutely certain that everyone is happy to be there.

It also tries to guarantee that all members of the company understand the needs of customers from the ground up: "If you are hired by Zappos, you can expect to spend your first three-four weeks manning phones in their call center learning how to respond to customer needs. While this is an introduction to the soul of the business, it is also a practical approach to serving customers all year long" (Heathfield 2014). Reference Heathfield, S. (2014). 20 ways Zappos reinforces its corporate culture. About.com.

Retrieved from: http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/how-zappos-reinforces-its-company-culture.htm Part B. Reflect on what you have learned from this question Perhaps the most important thing I learned from reflecting on this question is the degree to which human resources provides essential 'resources' for the company to do its job. Especially in today's competitive service-based economy, people are an organization's greatest resource to secure a comparative advantage. Employees offer knowledge, loyalty, and commitment. It is people who make up the organization's essential character.

I also learned the importance of creative responses to HR needs.