Singhania worked in his father’s law firm where he was exposed to a number of challenges while practicing law; he was also able to learn how the challenges could be solved. With pieces of advice from the father, Singhania managed to start a law firm that became one of the major players in the Indian legal industry. His small firm, which started with only two lawyers, rose to a bigger one with fifty lawyers within a period of six years. The achievements were made easier by a well-laid down strategy of Singhania and Partners Company.
The strategy of Singhania and Partners was to get skilled lawyers and retain them in the firm to help the organization provide their clients with high-quality legal services. The focus was on the high demand for legal services created during the liberation of the Indian economy; there was high demand for legal services and the industry had a shortage of skilled lawyers. Getting skilled lawyers was a big challenge as the industry had a few lawyers that were skilled, particularly in foreign legal issues.
The few skilled staff that were in the market kept on moving from one firm to another while others creating their own firms. Singhania and partners provided the best environment for their employees that gave room for development; employees were promoted based on their performance. Considering their lawyers as assets, the organization developed staff to be the best providers of high-quality legal services in the industry. Lawyers were given an opportunity to make presentations in the bi-weekly period to boost their confidence and improve their skills in legal practices. The organization created senior management meetings on a weekly basis where cases such as dissatisfaction were to be raised.
Remuneration was not a problem in the Singhania and Partners Company as their lawyers were the best paid in the industry. Lawyers worked as a family with joint retreats organized yearly for fun, and as bonding sessions. Staff was not being over-worked as many lawyers were assigned one task to reduce the burden. The strategies were able to help the organization retain most of its employees and remain the most competitive firm in the industry.
The most valued asset of any given company is the human resource, and every firm works very hard to find a coherent and strategic approach to ensure that this asset is properly managed. In multinational companies, there are greater challenges in managing human resources due to diversity in staff composition (Cullen, 2011). To help solve these challenges, five common International Human Resource Management (IHRM) practices are employed. The first practice is recruitment and selection, which is the process of filling vacant or overstaffed jobs. When recruiting staff, candidates are attracted and persuaded to apply for a given job, and in the selection, the best candidate among the attracted candidates is chosen.
Recruitment and selection can be defined as techniques applied to recruit and select staff to fill a job position within the organization. The second practice is training for cross-cultural adaptation; international businesses involve interactions among different cultures, and every staff needs to train and be able to adapt to the foreign culture. staff need to socialize with clients from foreign countries to understand the clients’ cultures. Formal training within the organization is also very important in solving cross-culture issues. The third IHRM practice is management development, for an organization to compete favorably with other international companies.
The organization should provide training and presentation sessions to help staff gain skills and confidence in their areas of work. A well-developed staff is a very valuable asset to the organization and may lead to core competency in the organization. Singhania did so well in this practice as they organized weekly and by-week training sessions. The fourth practice of IHRM is evaluation, which includes monitoring the performance of staff with an aim of helping them develop. The process involves observing the day-to-day activities of the staff members where the output is measured according to the goals of the firm (Stacey, 2011).
Like in the case of Singhania and Partners, they closely evaluated the performance of their staff and used the results to promote and make decisions on remuneration. Compensation is the final IHRM practice, and it involves salary, wages, and benefits given to staff for the services offered to the company. Wages and salaries are examples of cash compensation while benefits consist of health insurance, retirement plans, vacations, and many more.
A number of IHRM practices can be improved especially when market demand changes. Practice such as training staff is very important for both national and international companies (Cullen, 2011). Clients’ demand keeps on changing day-by-day especially for firms that operate across borders. Companies try to counter the impacts of these changes in demand by providing seminars and training sessions to their staff.
Looking at the case of Sanghania, the management organized for a bi-weekly presentation where the staff was taken through different topics from diverse legal areas (Stacey, 2011). The other practice that can be improved by the organization is compensation, apart from salary and wages, the company can offer staff a variety of benefits to boost their morale. Packages that are added on the fixed salaries are the most effective methods to motivate staff: that is the reason why Singhania believed that they were better placed by offering year-end bonuses to their staff.
Singhania and Partners Company used to organize by-weekly presentations where junior members were given the opportunity to present, this was done to create an opportunity for staff to learn and be able to grow with the growing firm. This, however, was not the only way to achieve their goals. To develop staff, the organization needed to use rotational training where the staff was to be assigned responsibilities in different departments so that they would be all-round employees. They also needed overseas seminars since the company was dealing with international clients; this would help staff understand the legal requirements from the foreign lands.
On the other hand, the use of bonuses at the year-end was not a sufficient method of compensating their staff. There were better non-financial benefits that would have also worked so well when used together with the bonuses. Some of these benefits include promotions, a posh office, and even scholarships given to staff. Organizations can always change their method of compensation depending on the market rates and employee preferences since staff gets stimulated in different ways (Stacey, 2011). The company should have considered improving their training and development methods and use more diverse ways of compensating their staff.
Methods used by the organization in developing their staff are not sufficient, and could not work as core competence: they only offered presentations on different topics in law. Development is very broad and needs more than just having by-weekly training. The effect of this development is that staff only developed in one area, which limited their performance. With the rotational posting of staff to different departments, employees would get a wider experience in a broader perspective, which would have worked as a core competence to the organization. Competitors that offered wide training options within the industry would beat Singhania and Partners and poach their staff.
The organization had a problem with their compensation methods since the use of salary and end-year bonuses would not be a sufficient means to motivate staff (Cullen, 2011). This explains why Seth left the organization; a year is too long for the staff to wait for his bonuses. The organization needed to use a better way of compensating performing staff such as Seth, by way of commissions, increased salary, and other non-financial benefits. The company used the same method in rewarding their staff, which could not work well with all employees as employees have different preferences.
Proper evaluation would have been done to find out which compensation method best motivated each employee to take care of every staff (Mullins, 2012). Even though the working environment in Singhania and Partners was conducive, there was a serious need to review compensation methods to prevent more staff from leaving in the future over salary issues. Employees are valuable assets in any given organization; therefore, an effort should be taken in getting and retaining skilled employees. Retaining staff will only be possible if staff feel that they are developing both financially and career-wise. When the two methods are properly managed, the company will meet the set goals while also meeting the interest of its members.
References List
Cullen, J. R. (2011). Multinational Management: A Strategic Approach (5th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Mullins, L. T. (2012). Management and Organizational Behavior. Harlow England: Prentice Hall.
Stacey, R. N. (2011). Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics. London: Prentice Hall.