Introduction
Human resource management is generally agreed to have significantly changed for two previous decades. Giant companies no longer want their corporate culture to resemble family relations. Nowadays, the capability to compete with peer organizations serves as the key to success. This leads to constant employee turnover because there is no longer place in a team for those who demonstrate underperformance. As expectations turn out to grow every day, there is a question, whether it would be better to invest in internal employees to help them be more efficient or find ready-made external professionals to bring new ideas and renovate business.
Human Resource Function and an Organization’s Strategic Plan
Indeed, all companies, including Maersk, usually adopt certain business strategies to follow. For instance, Maersk aims at expanding the list of marketplaces in Asia and Africa. Obviously, their main strategy is to achieve a higher level of inclusion. Meanwhile, this goal is out of reach without hiring professionals possessing sufficient knowledge of Asian and African cultures. That is why “they considered the firm’s major needs and looked at these needs in the context of the Group’s five-year business plan” (Groysberg & Abbot, 2013, p. 6). Apparently, these needs should be satisfied by means of corresponding talents. It is not only creative thinking and leadership that are always necessary but also specific skills that current employees should acquire with the help of training programs. If they display an inability to adjust, they will be replaced by external employees.
Human Resource Management Practices within Maersk
Unfortunately, employees may fail to perform their job responsibilities properly at work. It has been tolerated for many years in Maersk because, being a family-owned shipping company, they kept trying to accept every team member’s failures as a part of learning. However, rapid growth changed Maersk into a big player in the market. Therefore, requirements for employees have significantly grown. Formal courses and on-the-job training are considered to be the basic part of creating an efficient team. The part of the talent-management process includes the following steps: attraction, identification, development, and deployment.
Indeed, the gist of this strategy is to have the right people in the right places. Thus, HRs do their best to attract professionals and give them the opportunity for self-development. The team of executives has created the so-called People Strategy Sessions (PSS) to evaluate how people perform their job responsibilities and what unique features they possess to bring success to the company. Moreover, it turned out that self-development has a great impact on operational processes (Larsson, 2017, p. 1620). No surprise, Maersk Group has recognized investments in training programs to be an indispensable part of their expanding strategy. Diversity and inclusion have become the ultimate business goal in this particular decade.
Selection of Internal and External Candidates
Probably, it used to be generous from the company’s side to hire former students and give them time to learn, make mistakes, and finally fit into the collective. The model of a traditional company is usually referred to as a mechanism. However, workers have always been treated as family members in this company. Nowadays, it sounds unbelievable that people could work 50 years for Maersk Group. Internal candidates used to possess the privilege to occupy the best positions within the company. Usually, the source of internal recruitment is promotion. This is why there is a possibility to promote somebody relatively fast without induction training.
Meanwhile, senior positions require not only loyalty but also talents and ideas. Unfortunately, internal recruitment also means the limited choice of candidates. In contrast, external recruitment presupposes the diversity that the company is currently striving for. Thus, the percentage of external employees has increased. It seems to be unprofitable to raise professionals who may easily change their workplace for one that corresponds to their needs. In this case, it is more convenient to entice top-notch employees from peer companies.
Evaluation and Areas for Improvement
Admittedly, the recruitment process in Maersk Group seems to be well-designed. The strong point of it is the ability to influence candidates and make them a better variant of themselves. Even if somebody does not get the desired position, they will obviously get good experience. In this case, something concerning leadership development can be added to this strategy. One should never forget that a worker can be efficient only if they possess a healthy personality.
Meanwhile, the gist of the issue lies in the problems that a person may bring to their working place from personal life. Interpersonal self-development may be the only possible solution to such issues. If employees become happy masters of their own life, they will certainly be productive at work. The same concerns their ability to cooperate with each other and share tasks. Implementation of individual interpersonal training program serves as the main step to improve an employee’s success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Maersk Group serves as an example of a company that has shifted from the old model of raising employees like family members to hiring a greater number of experienced professionals possessing talents corresponding to the current needs of the company. An aspiration for expanding and inclusion forces Maersk to create new strategies to find unique candidates by attracting the right people, testing their skills, and provide them with on-job training and self-development programs. Thanks to this model, external employees bring new ideas and unique insights because internal candidates have lost their privilege to occupy all senior positions as it was in the past. Unfortunately, it means an immense turnover among employees as they often lose their places in case they no longer fit the company’s needs.
References
Groysberg, B. & Abbott, S. (2013). A.P. Moller – Maersk Group: Evaluating strategic talent management initiatives. Harvard Business School.
Larsson, J. (2017). Healthy and effective leadership behaviour through a leadership development programme. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(13-14), pp. 1617-1631.