Alignment of HR practices with business strategy and conditions for success

Human Resource Strategy

Human resource departments are pivotal in streamlining business processes within professional organizations. Employee productivity, satisfaction, and interdepartmental interactions can be improved through progressive human resource strategies. As described in the materials "HCL Technologies: Employee First, Customer Second," a large Information Technology company, HCL makes innovative internal changes in order to keep up with growing demand, workforce expansion and ever-changing customer need. The changes implemented by Vineet, president of HCL, provided benefits for the company's workforce, but provided only modest improvements for the company's revenues.

Vineet's reasoning for implementing an inverted organizational style at HCL's division company, Comnet, stemmed from his interactions with a long-standing customer. The purpose also included the promotion of dedication and personal investment by employees working for HCL. Vineed sought to accomplish these tasks by enforcing an open-door type policy with employees through items like a CEO blog, the creation of an online forum for HCL employees, and the creation of iGen, a portal through which employees could share ideas and suggestions for improving HCL. Authors Barry Staw, Robert Sutton and Lisa Pelled explain that positive employee emotion fuels workplace productivity. In a study conducted by Staw, Sutton and Pelled, they were able to positively conclude that positive relationships between employees and their superiors as well as adequate compensation were factors that helped increase employee productivity and contributions to the workplace. Their study also found that employee loyalty was greater in environments where employees were allowed to contribute criticism and ideas to business policies (Staw, Sutton Pelled 1994). By choosing to provide more forums for employees to provide feedback on HCL business as well as removing the barriers between front line staff and upper management, Vineet implemented a policy that was in line with human resource employee relations improvement strategies.

While the customer's feedback was positive, with the customer expressing satisfaction with Comnet's service and products, the customer directed all concerns, comments and questions to the front line staff, ignoring Vineet, president of the company. By enforcing a reverse organizational style, Vineet hoped to promote organizational transparency, increase accountability, and give customers a sense of Comnet's values for delivering quality products and service. As explained in the article, "Insider Ownership, Human Resource Strategies and Performance in a Transition Economy," core change is necessary to cope with changes in environmental conditions (Buck, Filatotchev, Demina, Wright 2003). By taking the risk to reorganize Comnet's structure, Vineet was seizing the opportunity to place renewed value on the company's service. The subsequent shift to EFCS helped to boost employee competency and loyalty, but the growth in revenue and employee numbers was only moderate in comparison to similar companies like Satyam and Infosys. The results of the implementation of EFCS provided limited improvements for market share improvement and revenue, Vineet's intentions were in line with HR strategy for improving and reforming strategies service development and improvement.