International HRM Assignment Sample

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Introduction: A Guide to Effective HR Policies

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Multiple MNCs are operating their business successfully in the business market all over the world in the current situation. In order to start business operations in a new business market, an MNC mainly focuses on HR policy improvement mainly. In the assessment, the HR policies will be discussed in the retail organization which is severely used to start a business in a new market beyond its boundary. The operation policies of MNCs mainly emphasize innovative HR policies for strengthening employee power as well as improving employee retention rates. Different strategies are implemented by the business leaders the improvement of the HR practices of their organizations.

Discussion on the operation policies of MNCs

Decision-making and problem-solving are two major processes that provide all the multinational companies operating their businesses across the world in several industries with higher employee engagement, higher productive rate, and profitability. The business operational strategies help the business professional and marketers to shape their company’s long and short-term goals, mission, and objectives of the business. Various effective business operation policies that the MNCs can incorporate in order to enhance their popularity, profitability and employee engagement are discussed below.

The marketers of the MNCs can capture or target a large number of customer groups by implementing their market penetrating strategies. The companies that provide customer services need to implement a market penetration strategy in order to strengthen their customer base and enhance business sales and productivity.

The organizations will also be benefited from growth in the share market and in supply chain management across the globe. Market penetration also allows the organization to pen new branches in several locations (Jacobson et al. 2018). In this way, the company can achieve business profit from both their traditional and online stores. Tesco and Walmart are the leading retail companies which have implemented this strategy to open new branches across the world and to enhance their probability and productivity rates.

The customer engagement strategy helps the marketers and professionals of the MNCs to interact freely with all their customers to understand their demands. The strategy also helps the organization to meet the market trend after analyzing the review of their prospective and current consumers. The retail MNCs have a customer engagement system where potential customers support experts and influencers to help the customers to choose the best brands as per tiger requirements (Rao et al. 2022). The strategy helps then marketers successfully handle the customers by understanding their issues regarding their products.

MNCs implement an online 24/7 customer engagement service to meet all criteria of both their internal and external stakeholders. Mobile companies like Samsung have a strong customer’s support expertise team who provides free service to all their customers 24/7. The strategy is also used by the famous retail company Tesco, as they are trying hard to meet all their customers’ demands to remain one of the leading brand throughout the year.

Effective HR policies of MNCs

HR policies are the strategies associated with the set of concepts and norms that governs the effectiveness of the employees aligned with the interest of organizational goals and interests. In course of establishing an organization in a completely new environment, it is crucial to implement effective HR policies that would be beneficial for the success and sustenance of the organization. An in-depth evaluation of some organizational productivity in response to the implementation of some policies is important. An organization belonging to the retail industry needs to implement a certain model of work process that would be effective in terms of employee engagement and success for the organization in the competitive market of the global retail industry.

Some of the crucial HR policies are enlisted below that are to be implemented in an organization to maintain a positive functional flow among the employees who are a productive unit and a direct asset to the success of an organization:

“Recruitment strategies”: The foremost aspect of the establishment of an organization in a foreign environment is to assess proper recruitment strategies. It is the framework that precisely states the expectation of the organization in a specific role, establishing a sense of clarity from the very beginning of the work process.

Recruitment policies are needed to outline adherence to the labor laws of specific countries to provide the worker with a fair environment of the work process. In 2019, an average of 3.1 million people was employed in the retail industry in the UK (statista, 2022). Henceforth, the inclusion of automated CV screening and proper advertising ensures the hiring of efficient individuals necessary for the job roles required for a company.

• “Contract of employment”: The employment contract is quite an important aspect when it comes to bringing skilled individuals on board the organization. The contract given to the employees sets a guideline covering all the necessary HR policies and agreements that an employee needs to be aware of while coming on board an organization. Sainsbury is found to implement this policy and therefore has improved its business outcome quality from 2019. The business of Tesco is also found to improve by considering an influential implementation of the “contract of employment”.

The human resource department ensures the establishment of a proper work process and culture in an organization.Therefore, formulating effective employment contracts in adherence to the employment and wage laws of a country and the workflow of the organization is important.

• “Code of conduct”: The codes and ethics are the two pillars of a company that determines its ability to sustain and be successful. These codes formulated by the department of human resource management are associated with the vision and the mission of the company and the relative work culture. According to Kaupins, (2021), HR managers are needed to be very attentive when monitoring the policies and work culture of an organization. These codes ensure the establishment of a healthy working environment in an organization. According to Dickmann (2021), codes of conduct of an organization include the rights of the employees and it should be equal for all.

Sainsbury's follows the ethical procedure in governing codes of conduct within the organization. Sainsbury's conducts third-party ethical audits and any issues found through those audits are resolved within a designated time frame (about.Sainsburys, 2022). An organization is ought to implement strategies associated with the governing policies of dress code, equal opportunity, and access to resources. This section also outlines the consequences if an employee breaches the code of conduct of an organization.

• Workplace policies regarding harassment: In an organization, it is always important to establish and properly outlay the conditions ad norms regarding harassment of the individuals in the workplace. According to Edwards et al. (2022), the work culture is necessary to be noticed as per the norms of a global stage where all the employees are to be treated with respect and equal opportunities are to be provided to them. Walmart is found to implement this HR policy and improve its current business. The employees must be provided with a safe working environment. Guidelines regarding the work culture are to be formulated in adherence to the "Equality act of 2010” Which clearly states that employees will be provided with a healthy working ambiance where bullying and harassment are strictly prohibited (gov, 2022). Practices like bullying via phone call, email, or face-to-face interaction are to be prohibited extensively. Strict actions are to be taken against unfair treatment and sexual harassment of women in the workplace.
• “Leave policy”:

An organization ought to have effective leave policies that provide the employees with a healthy work-life balance and promote a healthy working culture. Proper segmentation of public holidays, sick leaves, casual leaves, and long leaves is to be provided to the employees. According to Barslundet al. (2019), employees provided with a healthy work-life balance prove to be beneficial in the course of employee retention and it also prolongs the work life of skilled and senior employees of an organization. Efficient leave policies promote healthy working conditions to the employees of the organization.

Maternity and paternity leaves are crucial factors that are to be outlined properly to the employees all the employees are required to be entitled to these facilities that in turn will promote a healthy working condition for the employees while they are a part of an organization. Employees being provided with healthy work-life culture enhance the overall ambiance of the organization and it also enhances the productivity of the employees.

• “Employee wages”: The wages of the employees play a crucial role in the case of employee management. The human resource department of a company needs to implement proper strategies to maintain proper payroll management for the employees. The wages to be provided to the employee should adhere to the policies of the government and also be at par with the competition in the market. Tesco provides the employees with effective salaries that have helped with the sustenance of the organization and employee engagement.

Theoretical arguments

Globalization is one of the most important aspects of most MNCs all over the world and for these particular aspects; the business leaders implement different business policies as well as strategies for the improvement of the business position. For the globalization of any organization, the business leaders mostly focus on innovative HR policies as in the other country the organization has to work with new employees who belong from different cultures as well as social backgrounds (Napathorn, 2020). In the current situation, most global organizations are working with numerous man powers from different countries so the HR policies of those organizations are also updated and continuously improving.

“Employment contract” is one of the important HR policies which is severally used in the current situation by organizations all over the world. As per the point of view of George et al. (2020), this policy is very important to improve the communication system and maintain transparency between the higher authority as well as the workers of the organization. The contract policy guides to strengthen the bonding among staff as they are all equally treated by the organization. On the other hand, according to Cooke et al. (2019), strict contact can be ineffective for an organization when it emerges into a new business market. In order to make an appropriate contract for the recruitment of the new employees the culture as well as social background appropriate HR policies is very important. According to recent research, it is seen that this policy is very effective for ASDA when it started business in London and the employee’s volume increased by more than 1200. It is called the umbrella policy which guides to improve of the business position and productivity as well.

“Code of Conduct” is another significant HR poly that is mostly applied to maintain the organizational culture as the workplace environment. Apart from that, this policy denotes the mission, vision as well as organizational ethics of the employees. As stated by Napathorn (2020), this, as this policy defines the organization's culture as well as ethics so people are attracted to the customers as well as stakeholders. Apart from that, it improves the level of transparency which leads to a great organizational relationship. On the contrary, as per the perceptions of Dickmann (2021), this policy is not at all effective in denoting the ranges of the organization, performances as well as business principles. According to recent research, it is disclosed that Amazon, the leading retail organisation successfully implemented this policy when it emerged into a new business market and that is why the volume of employees, as well as employee retention rate, increased by more than 12.5% (Stor and Haromszeki, 2019). Apart from that, the standards of the business organization are not properly represented by these policies so the employees, customers as well as stakeholders of the organization are not aware of organizational information.

Another significant strategy that is mostly used in the currency situation by most business organizations all over the world is the “paternity and maternity leave policy”.  According to James and Baruti (2021), recently most MNCs apply this policy in the business process in order to improve the satisfaction level of the employees. It is seen that after the implementation of this strategy into the business process the efficiency of the employees increased greatly as well as the business productivity increased at a considerable rate. From the initial state, maternity leave was provided by all companies but in the current situation, paternity leave is very trending across the world. On the other hand, as mentioned by Edwards et al. (2022), this particular policy provides a great chance for the employees to take a long leave which reduces business productivity.

“Leave policy” is another important segment of human resources practices and it is considered the most significant policy for organizations that attract employees very much. This policy is fully dependent on the region of the workplace as the employees of a particular region. As per the point of view of Stor and Haromszeki, (2019), leave polity determined the employee engagement rate of the organization. In contrast, as stated by Dickmann (2021), an ineffective leave policy can lead to a huge employee retention rate which reduces the productivity of the business organization. In this case, if the organization has an appropriate leave policy as per the particular regions, then the employees are intended to join this organization.

Challenges of HR policies

Various challenges of HR policies that organizations have faced during incorporation are mentioned below.

Leave policy: The leave policy of the HR management system is found to be effective and beneficial for Apple. Based on this company’s previous year’s report, this company’s implemented leave policy is well-accepted by the employees (Muruganet al. 2022). Therefore, an increase in productivity is seen. In relation to the leave policy of Tesco, an improvement of the overall business management system is found that indicates a successful implementation of the leave policy in Tesco.

Code to Conduct Policy:In order to enhance the business value, profitability and productivity rates a large organization like Amazon has incorporated this code to conduct strategy. The policy is very effective in case of reducing discrimination and sexual harassment among the employees and also helps to maintain the work culture (Fareed et al. 2020). Walmart also has this strategy which benefits them from a higher rate of employee engagement and staff loyalty. The policy has been implemented into the organizational structure after the companies have suffered a lot from poor organizational culture because of inequality and gender discrimination. 

Recruitment policy:Retail sectors like Amazon, Tesco, Walmart, and Sainsbury’s are the leading companies operating their business across the world (Munshi, 2019). The companies operate their business with large numbers of potential, and efficient staffs or employees, the HRM department of the companies use this recruitment policy along with advanced technologies like Artificial intelligence and machine learning to select the best talents across the world.

Application of proper organizational examples

Several global organizationsapply these policies to their business process when they start a new journey to another country. Sometimes this becomes very effective for the organization while some organization does not implement this properly. Amazon, one of the leading retail business organizations across the world use the policy of “Code of Conduct” and this policy improves the business situation. It has a great impact on sales as well as annual revenue collection. According to recent reach, it is showed that, effective HR policy guides enhance the volume of employees by more than 5.6% and its employee retention rate also becomes lower by around 2.3% from the previous situation (Edwards et al. 2022). On the other hand, Sainsbury did not appropriately implement this policy when it started a new business in Africa and that is why the sales rate was reduced by more than 6.5%.

Walmart is another successful retail business organization that performs business all over the world and implements several HR policies like “servant leadership policy”, “conflict resolution” as well as “the 10 foot rule” into the business policies and as a result, it operates its business with comparative higher employee retention rate than other rival organizations. In contrast, Tesco faces some problems due to its HR policies when starting new business in London. The leave policy of Apple is very effective for the employees as this organization provides several facilities to the employees to maintain health and hygiene (James and Baruti, 2021). This company provides 14 weeks' leaves during the pregnancy period and non-birth parents can take leave for up to six weeks without any salary cut. Apart from that, this organization provides 12 days' leave for freshly hired candidates.

Conclusion

In the business world of the 21st century, MNCs required a lot of advancement in their business operation and human resources strategies to maintain their brand and product value, and keep their customer’s base strong. Various HR policies that organizations can incorporate to enhance their business profitability and productivity rate have been discussed in detail in this study. The business operation strategies can also be used by the companies in order to develop their products and meet the demands of customers and market trends. The effective business operation strategies that MNCs can use include product strategy, penetration in new market segments, the strategy of customer engagement, and supply chain management strategy are also discussed in this study.

Recommendations

In order to improve the business situation beyond the boundary, the MNCs can implement some policies so that the organization can successfully run the business operations.

• Implementations of research and development team: Research and development team recruitment are one of the great initiatives which an MNC can take. It may lead to the implementation of appropriate HR policies for the organization based on the regional market. 
• Innovative and appropriate HR policies: Innovative HR policies can instigate the business operation of the organisation in the new business market. It will attract new employees as well as stakeholders to the organization. 
• Adaptation and localization: In order to start a business beyond the borders the HR policies of the organization can focus more on adaptation as well as localization because without adaptations the organization cannot operate a successful business.
• Maintain a fair workplace environment: The workplace environment impacts a lot on a business organization, especially for an MNC which starts to expand its business beyond its boundary. For better growth in business, organizations should maintain a fair workplace in terms of gender inequality, sexual harassment as well as cultural miscommunication.