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Introduction
People who work in an organization or in a company make the human resource of that company. Thus, human resource management is concerned with how people are managed in an organization in order to increase their productivity and profitability (Smith, 2006). Different companies employ different employment strategies since the goods and services companies deal with are different thus calling for different approaches.
The other fact is that different people in an organization have different views, aspirations, and feelings towards different situations in an organization (Malhotra & Galleta, 2003). Human Resources Management has of late been used in referring to approaches which seek to manage the needs of the company as well as the needs of the people.
Human resource management entails analyzing the different views and aspirations people have within the organization and make them work towards the success of the company. In summary, how an organization connects to its employees is all what human resource is concerned with.
In trying to manage and solve the problem of Human Management Resources there have been various approaches initiated towards solving the problem and experts have come up with various theories and concepts that try to define human resource management.
The human resource management sector has been studied for a long period in motivation science of human behavioural science movement. The fact that people always work in order to satisfy certain needs as they climb up the ladder is a major study of concern to many experts.
During the same period, concepts of job design for example how satisfying a job is and the chances of promotion in certain jobs are also considered in the human resource management.
Evidence shows that people work harder if there is satisfaction in the organization and thus there is need for the management to design challenging and interesting jobs which are geared towards gaining the full attention and commitment of the worker. Theories explaining how human beings relate were introduced in the 1960s and others later in the 1970s.
Managers at that time were using Maslow and Herzberg‘s theories in their management strategies. When designing a new theory the applicability of the theory, the limitations and the benefits of using certain theory (and not the other) should be considered by any company that hopes to succeed.
Microsoft Company
The Microsoft Company stands as one among the most successful and wealthiest companies in the United States of America and the world as a whole. For matters concerning human resource management, the company is an employee driven organization.
Technologically, Microsoft is way ahead of other companies and the company success has always been based on the employees’ efforts as we shall see in this study. The company has always placed its employees among the very important component for its success thus human resource management study of the company would be an interesting issue to study about.
Human Resource Management at Microsoft
Company Background
The company was co-founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Since then the company has never looked back as it has grown to become a multinational company dominating the American and the world market in the computing industry.
Among the products which gave the company a prominent name are the two operating systems; which are the MS- DOS system (Micro Soft Disc Operation System) which is no longer in use and the Windows operating system which has been undergoing modifications and improvements since its introduction in the year 1998 (Oak, n.d; Aruvian, 2009).
The Hiring Process: During its Beginning Period
Ever since it’s beginning Bill Gates has been the torch and the leader of Microsoft. On the issues of recruiting new employees he always believed at recruiting the brightest and the most smart students in the universities thereby preferring intelligence over what many companies look for, which is experience (Priyadarshini, 2010).
This history of hiring new fresh but bright graduates has been practiced ever since the company began in the year 1975 when the co-founder, Paul Allen, recruited and employed the smart guys they used to know and studied with in the university or the smartest guys they could find in the universities at that time.
From the beginning the company discovered and put it into their minds that the employees were the greatest assets thus managing them in a healthy and a comfortable manner was one of its core foundations. Ever since then, the company has employed recruitment strategies that align with their philosophy which always aims at seeking the smartest and the most driven people.
When recruiting, the company began with sourcing for bright people from the prestigious institutions such as the Harvard, Yale, and other colleges in the country then assessment followed there after.
Once selected the students underwent a very involving assessment process and the first stage began with an interview where one was to face an interviewing panel of about three to ten people from the company’s Human Resource department. The interviews were very involving and the fact they were looking for intelligence and not experience is confirmed by Silistre (2007) when he states that:
These interviews are designed not only to test knowledge, but also testing thought processes, problem-solving abilities, and work habits. Technical interviews are described as being focused mainly on problem-solving, with interviewers posing problem scenarios in which the recruits are supposed to find solutions.
To test the composure of the candidate and also their creative problem-solving skills, unexpected questions were also included (Par 3).
Soon after this, the potential candidates left and awaited feed back from the hiring team who either hired or did not hire according to what their interests were. The interviewing panel was also very considerate of those who did not succeed as it forwarded to them reports indicating where their weaknesses had been observed and sometimes what needed to be done.
The interviewing process was usually a hectic activity to the recruits as most of the time they were pushed to their limits. The assumption being that if they were pushed to the limits and succeeded during the interviews then that meant they could survive in the company working environment.
If most of the recruits passed through the interviews then the hiring department forwarded their names to the manager who was now served with the role of hiring or not hiring the recruits according to what his judgment would be. Interviewing was the final phase.
The person was meant to check that the individual the company intended to hire was fully qualified and that the due procedures had been followed during the hiring process. This reduced the chances of managers hiring the wrong and unqualified persons just because of the fact that they had vacant positions which needed filling.
The Hiring Process: As At the Present Time
The company has retained its basic hiring strategies but with the company expanding globally it has been hard for the company to source for recruits only from the universities rather there has been a need also to source employees from other places. Despite all these, the hiring process has remained active rather than passive with the company still aiming at recruiting the existing best in the field.
The firm has taken advantage of other rival firms which have been laying off their employees also by monitoring and recruiting them to their company. Through all these, the company has still been seeking for the best as this can be confirmed by Silistre (2007) as he indicates that;
Microsoft’s euphemism for the kind of highly talented and driven people they sought – the pursuit was relentless, if subtle. Regular telephone calls at discreet intervals, conversations at industry conventions, invitations to formal dinners – recruiting team members employed every means possible to keep the lines of communication open (par.12).
For example when AOL was down sizing, the company assembled a team to go identify the best talent and start communicating with them with the aim of hiring them in future. In every aspect of the company its mission and vision explains what the company hopes to attain or the position it hopes to be in future and that is mostly explained by the type of the employees a company hires.
As we can ascertain from the above, Microsoft still employs different practices than what most companies do. The recruitment method of the company is simply based on how the employee can fulfill the company needs by recruiting the very best people in the job market.
Their recruitment process is based on hiring the right type of a person; somebody with the capabilities of meeting the company demands rather than focusing on experience or skill levels what other many companies look for. Silistre (2007) explains that in human resources management “Experiential Approach human resources are described as an important source of competitive advantage.
Microsoft use human resources for competitive advantage, basing their success on having the very best people in the industry and inspiring them to be the best. It is this that leads to Microsoft’s unique recruitment practices.” (Par.10). their desire to have the best class of employees in the industry justifies why their recruitment process is among the less understood strategies of hiring employees in the world.
As long as the recruitment process main idea is fulfilling a human resource need in the company, then the company urge to look for the best will always continue. This can be shown as it happened some years back when the company needed a human resource manager, the company picked Brummel an executive in the company with no HR experience.
When the CEO was asked about it he simply said the company culture demanded it be done that way. Considering that Brummel had been with the company for a period of about 7 years it was explained that she knew many things about the company than a hired human resource expert could ever know, (Anonymous, 2007).
Their approach is mainly focused at meeting the company needs not just filling the position but fulfilling some company goals and this has led to the success of Microsoft and it has grown to become a major industry power both in the United States of America and the World at large.
The recruiting staff should is always a member of the section where the company needs to be filled so as to be well informed about the department needs and what qualities are being looked into at the same time ensuring that the candidates are not misinformed about the negative characteristics of the job they are looking forward to.
To ensure no negative characteristics of the job are given, most of the final interviews are conducted by the managers themselves. The interview moves a step further and rather than informing the recruit the negative aspects that he or she might face during the employment period, the process itself prepares the recruits on how they would react if they were faced by the certain negative aspects of the job.
Putting the recruits under the same situation they would be if exposed to the true job gives the company a chance of hiring only the best and the well adapted to pressures that may arise during the job. The assumption is that if the employee succeeds at the selection process then if faced by the same situation in the job he or she would still succeed.
Achieving Employees’ Loyalty and Satisfaction
As we have discussed above, the company values its employees very much and thus ever since it was founded it has always attempted to meet and satisfy the need of its workers. With the company employing mostly young graduate from the universities, the company has created a favorable environment for working creating an environment which suits the age of its employees.
This is confirmed by Silistre (2007) when quoting a former human resource manager asking that “how do you make young kids who had never been away from home – or only as far as college – comfortable? He explains that they wanted to keep the atmosphere at work one they were somewhat familiar with, and also make sure it gave them a sense of social belonging” (par 15).
The environment created includes giving every employee his or her own office to work in and allowing them to decorate them in which ever way they want.
To enhance loyalty further, the company also offers its employees food at subsidized prices and this works as a motivation to the employees. There have been horizontal transfers within the company whose main aims have been to develop a multifaceted worker who can work in any department and this improved the growth of the workers tremendously.
Observers have noted that very few employees leave the company through dismissal rather the majority leave on their own without any conflicting occasions experienced.
Only in the 1990s that the company was experiencing a high rate of its employees leaving the jobs and seeking alternatives in the rival firms and this led to the company doing a survey to find what the problems were and how the required changes could be implemented to ensure that everybody was comfortable. The company resolved that the top management was to train the junior employees as this would help in developing them.
This was very vital since it gave the employees an opportunity to develop further. The company was also focused on how to increase its employees’ satisfaction and commitment to Microsoft as a company while still maintaining the same goals that the company was founded on and since then the company has been a success.
Performance- Culture Model
Since its foundation, the co-owner, Bill Gates always believed that employee ownership was critical in improving motivation and also enabling the company retains its employees for a longer period. The company thus offered its employees high wages and options of owning equities by buying shares from the company based on the performance once it was listed on the stock exchange.
The aim of offering stocks based on the performance and reward was and still remains that the employees are motivated to perform better due to the increased bonuses awards and stock options.
The performance goals of the employees were measured against the company objectives which were shortened to the word “SMART, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results based and Time bound” (Silistre, 2007: Par 16) and the rewards could be based depending on how one had attained the above.
The review process included common assessments by the managers to ensure that there were no deviations to the required standards and also the system also has options for self assessment who then forwards the reports to the managers for them to do the evaluation.
Thereafter, the manager and the employees meet to discuss the assessment and what needs to be done. The stock options awards are usually given only to those customers who seem to be long term assets to the company and this works to the best of the company as it tries to retain its best and most efficient employees.
Motivation of the Employee in Microsoft Company
Silistre (2007) when quoting McNamara says that, “the key to supporting the motivation of your employees is through understanding what motivates each of them” (Par 22). The relationship between the employer and the employee to Microsoft is a very important issue.
The Microsoft Company has always ensured that the company goals are well understood through its strong culture that still goes on in the company. The employees are always aware from the first day they are employed in the company of what is required of them.
A common saying goes that you cannot take a donkey to the river and force it to drink water. The donkey has to be thirsty in order to drink the water. The thirsty feeling motivates the donkey to drink water. Without the thirst there would be no motivation or the donkey to drink the water.
For the case of Microsoft Company, motivation is providing a work environment in which everyone feels satisfied through on their own at the same time serving the organizational goals and objectives (Silistre, 2007). The same thing can be described of motivation. In his motivation theory, Fredrick Herzberg stated that motivation involves hygiene factors which include the work and organization environment.
The hygiene factors include the organization, policies and their administration, salary, status and job security among other factors. He explains that the factors may not lead to high levels of motivation though but when such qualities lack there is dissatisfaction among the employees.
He explains the second factor which promotes this motivation theory involves actually what goes on in the organization and what the employees do in order to develop an inbuilt motivation with the work force. Achievement and recognition are among other factors that make the work force be intrinsically motivated. These two concepts as explained by Herzeberg, yields more motivation.
Employees should be treated as best as possible with minimum or no dissatisfaction at all (Accel Team, 2010). Those who are recruited to the company and the systems where they work in provide the necessary motivation as required by the workers.
In his theory, the hierarchy of needs, Maslow (1943) explains that no matter how well individuals (in our case a company employees) are satisfied, they may still sometimes (if not a usual thing) develop some discontentment. That is unless the company ensures that the individual is doing what is best suited for him. He gives an example that people must be allowed to do what they are trained to do and doing it best.
For instance allowing a man to be what best he can be. This is what many call self actualization. The hierarchy of needs as explained by Maslow increases as the basic needs are fulfilled, new needs will emerge and these needs are not that crucial but psychologically they are.
The ever increasing needs is all what is meant. “This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency which dominates human beings and when these too are satisfied newer ones will emerge”, (Marslow, 1943: 375).
The Microsoft Company provides all these to its employees and the staff in general and the company lays its demands from the employees to be the very best they can ever be.
Silistre quotes one of the employees as saying the “only way to achieve here is to push the envelope of what you can do. Every day try to do better. Work harder. Innovate more. People are focused 100% on performing their job as successfully as possible” (Par 25). Self actualization in the company can also be seen with the type of the employees the company hires.
They are the brightest and the smartest among their peers thus for them to achieve self actualization there is a need for them to be pushed harder and be given the opportunity to achieve more than what ordinary employees can achieve.
Employee Loyalty and Satisfaction
The company has been implementing strategies aimed at empowering its’ employees. For any organization to empower its employees there is always a need for a developed culture which allows this to happen.
In the case of Microsoft, a change of culture as the survey indicated above was needed and it has brought about the success of the company in that every employee feels some ownership to the company as they are free to make innovative decisions and then forward to the management for approval if deemed successful or revisions are made if improvements are needed to make the idea work successfully.
In a SWOT analysis done by Hafner and Hilbert (2001) the two describe one of the company strengths being attributed to the flexible workforce the company employs and the loyal and devoted workforce who in addition to a good pay also have chances of doing well by buying the company stocks, this works as a motivation towards working even harder.
For the young employees to be at par with the older employees there has been continued activity of the older employees coaching the young employees and preparing them for what is needed of them. Satisfaction of doing any job in many companies Microsoft included depends on the complexity of the job, the value of doing the work and the physical effort that need to be invested in the job.
Microsoft Company ensures that the more complex the job is the higher are the returns associated with the activity. Bill Gates as the manager and the co-founder of the Microsoft Company has always placed his employees’ way above where most other companies place them.
The expectancy theory as indicated by Vroom state that the belief that one thing will lead to another is likely to bring motivation if there exists a relationship between the performance and the outcome. It is always seen as a way of satisfying a need. The expectancy theory also explains about the rewards which come together with effort (Armstrong, 2006).
This theory is being applied at Microsoft as the company reward system has shown. Issuing of equities to the most valued employees creates a form of partnership in that even when the employee is doing his work his productivity also improves his current status in the organization as his shares improves on value as the company continues to gain profits.
The company reward system is also based on two options: the technical path and the management path. This is a very good consideration due to the fact that as we move up the company ladder the management requires less technical skills compared to the management skills (Rosen, 2003; Strebel & Lu, 2008). The company values technical skills due to its products nature.
“In most organizations, employees with conceptual skills would be rewarded by moving up the corporate ladder, while those with technical skills would not advance. Microsoft, however, offers two advancement paths, allowing those with technical skills to advance as technical experts, just as those with conceptual skills advance as managers” (Silistre. 2010: par 30).
With the just ending economic crisis, the company was not spared either and it has been working on how to reduce the expenses and increase its profitability. The economic crisis effect has also driven the fact that the existing customers pool need to be reserved and this has resulted in cancelled conferences and business meetings as the top brass in the company visit their customers.
The company has also been urging its’ employees to put more effort in maintaining their customers by ensuring products are released on time and with the promised features (Bass, 2009).
The promise comes after the company still reeling from the economic crunch and its’ plan to retrench about 5000 jobs in the year 2010 and more in the following years until it can be in a position to recover fully. This shows that despite the company success some issues still need to be checked to ensure that the company remains a major profit earner as well as a major employer (Johnston, 2009).
Conclusion
Microsoft company success can be attributed to the effective human resource policies that the company applies. The way the company has modeled its HRM policies is an example that if businesses are run with both the vision of the employee and the employer being intertwined there is no doubt a company can succeed.
Reference List
Accel Team, 2010. Human Relation Contributors. Web.
Anonymous, 2007. Reshaping Microsoft’s HR Agenda. Web.
Armstrong, M. 2006. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice: 10th Edition. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development
Aruvia, R. 2009. Analysis of Microsoft Corporation. Web.
Bass, D. 2009. Microsoft Prescribes Permanent ‘Diet’ As Sales Slump (update 3). Web.
Hafner, A. W; Hibbert, E.L: 2001. SWOT Analysis: Microsoft Corporation. Web.
Johnston, S. 2009. Microsoft Misses Earnings, First Layoffs Ahead. Web.
Malhotra, Y.; Galleta, D. F. 2003. Role of commitment and motivation in knowledge management systems implementation: theory, conceptualization and measurement of antecedents of success. Proceedings of Hawaii International conference on system sciences. Web.
Maslow, A. H. 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation: Psychological Review. Web.
Oak, M. When Was Microsoft Founded and By Whom? Web.
Priyadarshini J. 2010. Microsoft’s HR Strategy – an Analysis. Web.
Silistre, H, 2007. Human Resource Management at Microsoft. Web.
Smith, A. 2006. Control or capability? Human resource practices for a changing environment. Web.
Strebel, P; Lu, Hongze. 2008. Perspective for Managers. Web.
Rosen, C. 2003. The Employee Ownership Update: Microsoft Replaces Options With Restricted Stock. Web.
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