Amazon.co.uk is an online retail company. It is a leading retail company that informs, inspire and educate the customers about the products that they sell for various firms. The company works together with Amazon.com and have established several stores in different major countries such as United States, Germany, France, Canada, and Japan (Ritala, Golnam, & Wegmann, 2014). The company operates virtually, and this gives it the opportunity to offer a wide variety of products including books and music titles among others. The company allows their customers do their products listing on their website. They are required to use the correct title and subject information concerning their products. The search engine of the Amazon Co.Uk then posts the results of the subject information based on their popularity and availability. Besides, they also post the results concerning the relevance of the subject information. For those who want to post songs, they are required to key in the correct keyword of the artist and the subject information. Moreover, the company also uses various search tools to assist the clients in their hunt for different items. Amazon co.uk works with several companies, interest groups, studios, and magazines so as to make their products available online (Ritala, Golnam, & Wegmann, 2014). Amazon co.ke assists their partners in selling and promoting their products to the clients. They package and dispatch the products on behalf of their partners. Besides, they do the billing and perform customer service duties on behalf of their partners after which they provide a weekly report.
The Purpose and Function of the Human Resource Management at Amazon Co. UK
Human resource management plays a major role in the success of any organization. Amazon co.ke understands the importance of having the right talents to perform various duties and responsibilities for the success of the organization (Ritala, Golnam, & Wegmann, 2014). The human resource management function at the company aligns the strategic goals of the company to the strategic objectives of the HR. The organization understands that employees are the greatest contributing factor towards their success. In this case, it is committed to improving the skills of its staff through efficient training and development programs. This will enhance job satisfaction and self-actualization among its staff members. The primary functions of the HR at the company include recruitment and selection, compensation management, training, and development, ensuring legal compliance and maintaining relations among employees. These functions promote productive workplace environment where employees can perform to their potential. The HR functions at the company have allowed employees to maintain good moral standards within the organization. The purpose of HRM at Amazon Inc. is to promote self-respect cordial working relationships with the employees. The HRM managers work towards satisfying the individual needs of the employees by providing a harmonious working environment. The workplace environment should promote personal and group performance within the organization.
The Workforce Planning at Amazon Inc
Workforce planning refers to a set of procedures used by the Human Resource Management to manage the employees and obtain the best from them. The primary objective of workforce planning at the company is to ensure the long-term success of the organization and realize maximum profits from its operations. Amazon Inc utilizes both strategic and operational workforce planning to achieve both its short term and long term goals (Ritala, Golnam, & Wegmann, 2014). The strategic workforce planning allows the company to forecast and plan for its employees to ensure that it hires the right talents at the appropriate time to perform the right to achieve organizational goals and objectives. The company utilizes strategic workforce planning so as to respond to the future changes in the workforce. Besides, it enables the company to respond to the global human resources requirements and to provide an appropriate replacement for the aging staffs. Strategic workforce planning addresses the current and future staffing needs of the organization. Amazon Inc also utilizes operational workforce planning where it maps the deficiencies that occur in the various levels of operations. In this case, the organization has been able to absorb the right talents to address the current operational challenges the organization is facing. Effective workforce planning has enabled Amazon Inc to manage its organizational culture and anticipate future managerial risks. Besides, the workforce planning of the company has allowed it to develop various policies that address its core business activities. However, the company has not done much to address the future global staffing needs. The company has its major headquarters in the most developed countries in the world. It should aim at developing a workforce plan that addresses the global staff requirements to enable it to expand its market operations in other parts of the world. The workforce plan of the company should also address succession programs to allow the company to replace the outgoing workforce without hindering the current operations of the enterprise. Moreover, better strategies should be put in place to promote retention of talented employees by implementing effective compensation and reward strategies.
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Recruitment and Selection at Amazon Inc
Efficient recruitment and selection play a significant role in the performance and success of the organization. A company that implements appropriate recruitment and selection strategies stands a better chance of attracting the rights talents to fill the vacant positions. There are various recruitment strategies that firms can utilize to hire staff to fill various positions. A company may decide to use either external or internal recruitment to fill vacant positions. Besides, an organization can utilize both internal and external recruitment concurrently to hire competent and skilled staff to take up the vacancies. Amazon Inc. understands the contribution of employees towards organizational success. In this case, they utilize both internal and external recruitment methods to hire staff to fill various positions. External recruitment enables the organization to attract talents who have the requisite skills to take different positions. During the external recruitment, the company is presented with the opportunity to select the best candidate among the applicants. The HR scrutinizes the applications of various candidates and selects the most suitable candidate to fill the vacant position. On the other hand, Amazon Inc utilizes internal recruitment where employees who have demonstrated outstanding performance are given the opportunity to take up roles with more responsibilities. This gives them the opportunity to advance in their career. It is also a strategy which aims at promoting employee retention and rewarding those who have shown excellent performance. Despite the procedures utilized by the company to attract the right talents, it has failed to address gender and racial balance in recruiting its staff members. The company has failed to give equal employment opportunities to women. Most of the employees working for Amazon Inc are men. Besides, it has not embraced racial balance in its recruitment strategies. The majority of its employees are whites. Other races such as Africans, Asians, and Arabs are not well represented in the organization despite the fact that it is an international corporation.
Training and Development
Training and development is an essential function of the HR. It forms part of the strategic objective of an organization. Training provides employees with the requisite skills required for the job. It promotes the performance of the organization and at the same time improves organizational productivity. Amazon Inc has put in place efficient training and development methods that are aimed towards improving the skills and knowledge of the employees in various areas of operations. However, it should implement training policies that allow staff to adapt to the international workplace environment.
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Performance Management and Reward Systems
The performance management of the Amazon Inc is tailored towards its specific needs. Its performance management strategies focus on aligning the performance with the essential goals and objectives. The company utilizes performance management strategies that promote desirable behavior among the employees. The policies are flexible and provide the necessary support to the employees to enable them to achieve organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, the reward management systems utilized by Amazon Inc enhances employee motivation, retention, and improved performance. The company provides bonuses, pension benefits, and health insurance cover to motivate their staff. However, in the year 2008, there were media reports that company was treating the staff harshly. The media excited this allegation, but the company responded appropriately. The company should establish a structure where employees are democratically represented. This will promote the cordial relationship between the management and the employees.
Effective HR decisions should always complement the strategic objectives of the organization. However, various internal and external factors affect the human resources decisions at Amazon. Co. Uk. The company operates virtually and conducts most of its businesses online. In this case, it has to comply with various regulations that control virtual business operations. Besides, the labor laws also influence the reward and compensation strategies utilized by the organization (Armstrong, & Taylor, 2014). The company has to comply with the labor laws while designing the compensation and reward for its staff. Most of the employees of the Amazon Inc are people who have done technical courses. As such, the company is obliged to review and evaluate its compensation structure continually to ensure that it remains competitive and attract the best talents to perform organizational duties. The company has to conduct a survey and determine what its competitors pay to its employees. The compensation structure is also influenced by the geographical location of the business. In this case, it will design it compensation structure so as to fit in the labor laws of different countries such as Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. The human resources decisions concerning the compensations structure should be designed in such as a way that it complies with the labor laws of different countries. This will enable the company to attract talented staff from various countries where it operates.
Competition is an external factor that influences the human resource decisions. The major competitors of Amazon Inc are Google Inc, PC Connection, Insight Enterprises and Vishop Holdings among others. These are renowned international corporations which operate in various countries in the world. The level of competition that Amazon experiences from its competitors will influence its recruitment and selection decisions. For instance, Amazon Inc must implement effective reward and compensation strategies to attract the best talents in the labor market. The human management should, therefore, focus on developing recruitment materials that make the employees get interested in the company. Besides, the company has to develop effective strategies to retain staff. This will allow the Amazon Inc to attract the best talents that would enable it to compete effectively in the market.
Amazon Inc operates in different countries that have different legislations. Therefore, the human decisions concerning recruitment and selection should adhere to legislations of particular countries. For instance, the legislation of United States outlines the duration that an employee is expected to work for an organization. Moreover, it also describes the types of data that employers are supposed to keep. They are expected to ensure that such information concerning an employee is kept confidential. The legislations that regulate employment in the United States include Americans with Disabilities Act and Genetic Information and Non-Discrimination Act among others. The legislations of various countries where Amazon operates will influence how it keeps the records and the data of the employees. This is an issue that the organization should address while doing its restructuring.
The international policies concerning employee relations also vary from one country to another. This is a policy which is likely to influence the human resource decisions. The policies will affect the decisions that the HR will make concerning training and development, promotion and retirement. For instance, employees retire at the age of 65 in most developed countries. Therefore, the HR will have to consider the existing policies on retirement and promotion in different countries where Amazon Inc operates.
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References;
- Adogla, E.G. and Collins, J.W., Amazon Technologies, Inc., 2014. Managing resource dependent workflows. U.S. Patent 8,738,775.
- Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
- McDonald, K. and Hite, L., 2015. Career development: a human resource development perspective. Routledge.
- Ritala, P., Golnam, A. and Wegmann, A., 2014. Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(2), pp.236-249.
- Snell, S.A., Morris, S.S. and Bohlander, G.W., 2015. Managing human resources. Nelson Education.