Jose Rene R.

Cruel
III-BSLM

Xerox

Which areas of human resource management are necessary for Xerox to

attract and retain valuable employees? Does this effort go beyond simply recruiting
and hiring people with the necessary skills?

If we analyze the problem and interpolate the data given to us we could

deduce that this problem would have a corresponding effect on the four functions of
human resource management meaning planning, maintaining, training and utilizing.

The first impulse of management in this case Xerox in its dire financial
trouble is to retrench or lay off workers. Though the effectively of one’s company is
not exemplified through its products and services but through its general workforce,
they are the ones in the trenches and they are the ones in direct contact with the
customers. In the case problem Xerox did just that.

The traditional arena of H.R.M was only delegated into the realms of selecting
and hiring employees. Though in today’s global recession recruiting and selecting
new employees is only a part of the challenge, the HR activities in organizations
must be revised in order to retain employees. For every employee who does not
leave the organization for a new job elsewhere. That is one less employee who has
to be recruited from outside. Therefore, significant emphasis is being placed on
keeping existing employees and providing growth opportunities for them.

Therefore your plan will be more focused on the competencies that the
employees in the organization have and will need for the organization to grow in the
future. (1) The needed capabilities must be identified and linked to the work done
in the organization. This identification often requires active cooperation between HR
professionals and operating managers. (2) The capabilities of each employee much
be assessed. This approach requires that the competencies and depth of those
competencies be identified. (3) Once the comparison of the “gap” between
capabilities needed in the organization and those existing in employees is identified,
then training and development activities must be designed. The focus throughout is
to provide guidance to employees and creating an awareness of career growth
possibilities within the organization. For many individuals, continuing to enhance
their capabilities and knowing that there are growth opportunities in the
organization may lead to greater job satisfaction and longer employment with that
organization.

In the case problem Xerox launched the “Xpress yourself” campaign which
both carried the product line and how they handle their personnel. They identified
first the needs of the company and how to reinvent itself through their HR
department by capitalizing on the individualities of its employees. Then the
Maintaining process could begin, by looking at the existing workforce and seeing
the strategy being implemented it would not be a tedious task to make guidelines
or checkmarks on what every employee could or would do for the company.
Training also would be geared toward that goal exemplifying the corporate strategy.
The utilization process would also have to exemplify corporate strategy an example
of which is to expose various personnel into the various areas of management for
them to know what the job entails and to express their individuality to the area they
are in.

How would you expect a period of cutbacks and layoffs to affect a company’s
human resource professionals? Would their goals and activities need to shift to
meet this challenge? If so, how?

The period of cutbacks and layoffs will affect a company’s H.R.P. by making
them more focused on utilizing and maintaining the remaining workforce. The more
a workforce becomes smaller the level of communication between the departments
will have to become smaller and because it is smaller it has to be clearer.
Especially if we extrapolate the main thrust of Xerox which is “Xpress yourself” you
must have an infrastructure to attain this goal. Therefore the implementation of
Intranets within the corporate structure becomes a mandatory addition. These
intranets will become the hub for the HR professionals to manage the existing
personnel and to know their various feedbacks and views regarding plans or
programs being implemented.

Cutbacks and Layoffs will have a negative impact on a company’s image and
the recruitment process will become arduous because the people’s perception of
your company is tantamount it would have a hard time recruiting new blood.

There is a need to shift the goals and activities of the HR to meet this new
challenge. Innovation must come from (1) the existing workforce (2) from
competition (3) from the new recruits. Why do I say this?
On the existing workforce, because they are the entrenched in the company
and know already the ins and outs of the corporate structure they are the best ones
to give the need innovation.
On the competition, It would be unethical to copy working programs from
other companies but if the program works and it can be implemented in your
company then why not? Use it for your own benefit. It also comes with the minimal
risk of failure.
On the new bloods or recruits, HR must find a way to get their fresh outlooks,
views and such before they become blinded by the corporate identity.

It would then be the focus of HR to find the ways and means to make the
existing workforce more productive and profitable. In this regard the incentive
issue will begin.

3.) Suggest one or two ways in which HR professionals at Xerox might work with line
managers to build loyalty to the company and a commitment to providing “world-
class products and services”

To build loyalty with your personnel your must provide some benefits or
“perks” . These are designed to raise the morale and to give positive behaviour
reinforcement. Though between the line managers you could not implement
companywide benefits we have to focus on the “line” or specific area of
responsibility.
 For the line managers there are various ways to incorporate the “world-class
products and services” policy.

1) Brain storming sessions wherein every person in the product line or area will
have a say in how a product could be sold, to whom it should be sold etc, it
can be mandatory or voluntary it depends on the willingness of your
personnel to share their ideas.
2) To develop a point system wherein ideas submitted by the workforce that are
implemented in general could be a bonus in their pay or an incentive for a
vacation package etc.
3) For the Line managers to develop programs of training toward the goal and
make the facilitators the employees themselves this works with sales
personnel, marketing.
Jose Rene R. Cruel
III-BSLM

A blog by definition is an online diary it is a personal chronological log of

thoughts published on a Web page. Therefore it is a personal written document
about your angst and outlooks regarding different subjects. The question
postulated in the handout is “who might be affected by a blog written about a
company?” The answer here are the following (1) The company itself, (2) The
Department you are in (3) Your co-workers (4) inadvertently yourself.

By the Company we mean it as a whole entity. How it is managed and the

idiosyncrasies that underlie the corporate identity are attacked.
By the Department you are in, by writing about your area of responsibility or
your department sometimes you hurt the overall morale of your department hence
hindering or hampering productivity by insinuating incompetence and such in your
blog.
By your co-workers by pointing out the inadequacies of your co-workers you
instigate bad blood in worker relationships therefore the unity or the synergy of the
group is affected.
By blogging yourself you show your intellectual capacity and how you
perceive the company you are working in, the managers that are handling you and
the co-workers with which you work with.

This is assuming that your blog is negative in character and in tone. Even
hilarious commentaries are prone to be misconstrued in a negative light depending
on the perception of the reader.

What are the information that can be made public then? What does a
company have a right to keep private?

A company’s information may well be its single most valuable asset. What a
company – as a collective entity –knows may be at the heart of what gives that
company its competitive edge. The continued success of the organization may
hinge on its ability to keep certain information out of the hands of other parities,
particularly its competitors. In an age when information is king, a company’s very
survival may hinge on its secrets.
 The need to protect certain information for competitive reasons is that which
usually comes to mind first at the mention of the subject, and this is absolutely an
important reason. But there are others as well. Today, organizations face a
seemingly overwhelming array of additional reasons to protect information in their
possession. In addition to regulatory mandates to protect some information – such
as some personal data in an employee file – there is a growing need to implement
measures in effort to avoid or mitigate civil litigation.

Information such as that contained within “marketing materials” is a clear

example. Some information must be disclosed as a matter of law, as is the case
with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and for patents. Then there
is the information that is easily understood to be sensitive with the iconic example
being the secret formula for Coca Cola®.

Many labels are applied in effort to distinguish certain information that is to

be protected in some way, as a subset of all the information a company may have.
Common terms include “intellectual property”, “trade secrets”, “confidential
information” and “proprietary information”. In the legal profession, some of these
labels create important distinctions as they may be specifically defined by laws and
other regulations.

To answer the second question where in I am a hr personnel coming across a

certain blog that pertains to work related topics. The following are the prodcedure
to deal with this problem.

See if any corporate private secrets are being stated in the blog
See if the blog is written in a positive or negative light
If the blog is written in a negative light then I will judge if the aforementioned
information has a positive effect or corrective effect in the company.
Naturally if it is written positively or negatively, I as an HR will have to
investigate if these insinuations, accusations are true.

Sources:

Fundamentals of Human Resource Masnagement 9th Edition by David A. Decnzo, Stephen P.

Robbins
Human Resource Management “Gaining a Competitive Edge” 6th edition, Noe, Hollenbeck,
Gerbert