HRM Recommendations for HP Organization

¶ … commerce and its dependence upon information technology (IT) has placed Hewlett Packard (HP), as a successful and large corporate entity. Human resources as a strategic instrument is necessary in order to maximize the potential of this company, and with a useful and detailed investigation into these processes a beneficial conclusion may be approved and determine as to how human resources best practices may be implemented into a corporate model such as HP's.

The purpose of this analysis is to present HP's current status and formulate applicable human resource management ideas and apply them to this situation. This essay will first provide a background analysis of HP to present the baseline features of this company and how it fits into both the corporate and labor cycles presented in today's market.

Next, this essay will focus on the targeted HP employee and create a model of criteria that explores the many work processes, knowledge, skills and talents that are necessary for any human wishing to contribute to this company through its labor. This essay will also discuss how technology can be applied in human resources management efforts throughout this company and provide avenues of approach that can exploit these technological advances that HP may possess.

This analysis will also include the current labor market and how it impacts the supply side of HP's human resources department. To compliment this argument, the analysis will also explore legal issues that may pertain to this effort as well. The essay will conclude with a set of HRM recommendations that are specifically tailored to this company and its ability to navigate the future of its industry with success and profits.

Hewlett Packard's History Hewlett Packard's history began in 1939 when two gentlemen, Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett incorporated their organization designed around technology and various computer development ideas such as vacuum tube technology and digital relays. The massive company that HP was to become some 50 years later, started out as a small business in a tiny garage in Northern California. The age of this company suggests its value to the development of technology in America.

HP is considered a pioneer of computer technology and many feel that Silicon Valley's first success began with the work of Hewlett and Packard. The computer and IT industry grew alongside of HP throughout the 20th century as many advances were either invented or mastered by technicians and laborers who were aligned with this company. Most importantly, HP's culture was derived from a set of principles that were supported by the original owners of the company and were passed down throughout the company's historic journey.

This culture became known as the HP Way. This idea was a derived on respect for the individual and sought excellence as a goal. The ideas of teamwork, flexibility and community integrity are also hallmark tenets of the philosophy of the company. These ideals are deeply representative of the link between the HRM and greater strategic aims of this organization. The historic alignment between the human resources of this company and the achievements of the company itself are very much present throughout.

Hewlett Packard's Current Strategy HP's current place within the market is unstable in many aspects. Throughout the last five years much has happened to this popular American brand which has caused much disruption in its internal operations. "The HP Way can survive in today's intensely competitive environment. The key to maintaining the HP Way and values like it are to create values that can be modified when changes in the firm's internal or external environment occur.

The problem most companies face when trying to hold on to their core values is that the values are sometimes too rigid," (Franklin & Mutjaba, 2007). HP has taken a direct approach to individual employee in recent times due to its problems in maintaining a competitive advantage within their particular industry. The very nature of technology and its associated markets is the speed in which changes occur. Computer technology has become easier to produce and less complicated to engineer in many aspects.

HP has, due to this shift in larger trends, been forced to reduce its workforce by a large margin. "The company's CFO Cathie Lesjak revealed during the earnings call for the third fiscal quarter of this fiscal (3QFY15) that layoffs will exceed the previous estimate of 55,000 jobs by 5%. The planned layoffs are part of the company's long-run layoff plan which was initiated in 2012. The initial target of the plan was to eliminate just 25,000 jobs. However, the target has risen every year since then.

The planned tally of layoffs grew to 55,000 jobs last year, only to rise again this year," (Blanc, 2015). The HP Way outlines a reliance on teamwork and a respect for others. While mass layoffs seems to upset this ideal, or at least put it into question, the fluctuation of HP's actions may be, in the long run, more beneficial to all parties.

HP's current strategy aims to reduce labor costs and focus on producing profits by becoming leaner and more resourceful in terms of how it creates and delivers its products to its customers. Human Resources Management at HP The Human Resources Management faction of Hewlett Packard, has for the most part been instrumental in much of the success this company has had during its massive reformation which has sought the layoffs of many of its workers.

This reshaping of the company has been done primarily through the HR department's ability to use its own resources as a strategic weapon. The competitive advantage that was lost prior to these changes was largely attributed to the overwhelming size of the company for the actual production that it was responsible for delivering. The efforts of the HRM have been recognized as being instrumental and a key part of HP's ability to remain flexible in troubled times.

Enderle (2013) wrote "in a typical turnaround, as we saw with both Apple and IBM, the company is cut back to a foundation and then rebuilt around that foundation. While HP has undergone layoffs -- and an impressive number of them to boot -- most actually occurred before the latest turnaround effort. No divisions or capabilities have been cut.

What's allowing HP to compete successfully across a breadth that exceeds any other high technology company is that the employees are being managed as a critical strategic resource, not like equipment that can be bought, sold, cost-reduced and outsourced." While there has been some success in this transition, there are problems that exist at HP that still need addressing within the framework of the greater business strategy as handed down by executive leadership.

A primary issue revolves around the idea of how the company became so overstaffed in the first place. By attacking this idea head-on, root causes of human resources management can be more clearly revealed. While the current efforts of downsizing, which include new hiring but at different paces, do not necessarily address the core issue of over-expansion. Human resources needs to play its role, which appears to be quite significant, in ensuring that compensation packages and job pricing is accurate.

Determining values for human effort is challenging and requires both scientific tools but also requires some personal wisdom that understands human nature at its core. Dismissing the emotional content of human resources management is very tempting, especially within the technology industry. The HP Way that guided the company for many decades addressed these human factors in its tenets that valued the human for its individual qualities and how a team of individuals working under respectful and flexible leaders could accomplish great goals and objectives when those energies are synchronized.

Human resources managers, much like conductors of orchestras, are responsible for blending these talents into a cohesive format that represents the true objectives and principles of the organization or institution itself. The knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) of this workforce collective is varied in some sense, but much like the rest of the IT labor market, it is highly specified. The labor pool of potential workers at HP is very large and the KSAs this company should focus on, are the ones based upon quality and not necessarily quantity.

The refocused objectives of the company are demonstrating an alignment towards slimming down and finding the best among itself. This lean approach must resonate within the HRM faction of this organization in order maintain a supportive alignment with the organizational principles and objectives. This lesson learned is now being incorporated. Pay and compensation issues of the past however are being successfully weaved into this new organizational structure with an emphasis on avoiding past mistakes.

"Although workers wanted the HP Way to remain a mainstay in the firm, the company still was not able to reinstate all of its old practices such as the retiree health-care program, the employee pension plan and layoffs. Compensation under the HP Way was also affected as the company expanded. For example, voluntary pay cuts became more common as the firm asked employees to exercise various options for reduced compensation.

Other benefits afforded offered to workers were altered as well such as the pension plan for current employees were abolished and converted to 401k plans " (Kasler, 2005). Technology One of HP's main products in its software division deals specifically with HRM issues. HP sells products that can assist HR managers with payroll and other more "tactical" tools that are included within the large scope of human resources management.

HP's tactics appear to be very strong in many aspects, however the technology that is needed to assist this company to achieve higher output in the context of the organization is one that deals with more statistical concepts dealing with compensation and benefits for laid off workers. Using technology to assist HR managers in finding ideal compensation packages can also be of great assistance in this shift of organizational strategy. The strategy has changed so the approach must change in some ways as well.

Minimizing technology may be a useful approach in this case due to the biases towards technology that is inherent within the company itself. It may be assumed that within the confines of a technologically-based corporation that the thinking within that organization is more robotic and analytical. Human resources at its core, requires some involvement of the more human elements involved such as emotion and character. This balance may need to be altered and less may be more in this particular case.

Labor Market and Legal Issues The market for IT labor is very scattered, wide, and deep in some areas. Understanding HP's current situation as a company in transition is helpful in creating a meaningful relationship with its labor market. The focus of those who are needed may need to be more on social skills and teamwork instead of raw computing power. Demig (2015) agreed when he argued "why are social skills so important in the modern labor market? The reason is that computers are still very poor at simulating human interaction.

Reading the minds of others and reacting is an unconscious process, and skill in social settings has evolved in humans over thousands of years. Human interaction in the workplace involves team production, with workers playing off of each other's strengths and adapting flexibly to changing circumstances. Such non-routine interaction is at the heart of the human advantage over machines.

The growing importance of social skills can potentially explain a number of other trends in educational outcomes and the labor market, such as the narrowing - and in some cases reversal - of gender gaps in completed education.