HR DEPARTEMENT OF APPLE

INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC
They say that communication is the oldest existential phenomenon on earth. Well, if that's the
case then human resource management would get the second place in the sibling hierarchy. In
spite of being added as a subject in management courses fairly late, HRM has been a concept
that was utilized ever since human beings started following an organized way of life. So shall we
start digging up the history of human resource management?

Some of human resource management's vital principles were used in prehistoric times. Like,
mechanisms being developed for selecting tribal leaders. Knowledge was recorded and passed
on to the next generation about safety, health, hunting, and gathering. 1000 B.C to 2000 B.C saw
the development of more advanced HR functions. The Chinese are known to be the first to use
employee screening techniques, way back in 1115 B.C. And turns out it was not Donald Trump
who started "the apprentice" system. They were the Greek and Babylonian civilizations, ages
before the medieval times.

HRM has seen a lot of nick naming in its age. Since it was recognized as a separate and
important function, it has been called "personnel relations" then it evolved to "industrial relations",
then "employee relations" and then, finally, to "human resources". I strongly believe, that human
resources is the most apt name for it. It, quintessentially, proves the importance of the human
beings working in the organization.

With the Industrial Revolution, came the conversion of the US economy from agriculture-based to
industry-based. This led them to require an extremely well-organized structure. Further, this led
them to recruit a lot of people. More so, the industrial revolution brought in maddening amounts of
immigration. Again, to create employment for all the immigrants, recruitment and management of
the recruited individuals gained vitality. As such, there was a blaring need for Human Resource
Management.

Early human resource management, in general, followed a social welfare approach. It aimed at
helping immigrants in the process of adjusting to their jobs and to an "American" life. The main
aim behind these programs was to assist immigrants in learning English and acquiring housing
and medical care. Also, these techniques used to promote supervisory training to ensure an
increase in productivity.

With the advent of "labor unions" in the 1790's, the power in the hands of the employees
multiplied considerably and increased at a rapid pace by the 1800s and furthermore in the 1900s.
This led to the HR department being more capable of politics and diplomacy. The two feats that
were quintessential to the importance of HR were; the fact that it was the HR department that got
the management and the labor unions to come on common grounds. They basically worked on
getting the management to see things from the labor perspective and grant them medical and
educational benefits. The other would be Frederick W. Taylor's (1856-1915) Scientific
Management. This book had tremendous impact on attaining better productivity from low-level
production workers.

B.F. Goodrich Company were the pioneers in designing a corporate employee department to
address the concerns of the employees in 1900. National Cash Register followed suit in 1902 by
forming a separate department to handle employee grievances, record keeping, wage
management and other employee-related functions. Personnel Managers started seeing more
sunshine since the Wagner's Act (aka National Labor Relations Act) in 1935. There was a shift in
focus from worker's efficiency to efficiency through work satisfaction, thanks to the Hawthorne
studies around the 1930s to 1940s.
 Between the 1960s and 1970s, the HRM movement gained further momentum due to the passing
of several acts like the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of
1970. Now, the HR department was the apple of the corporates' eyes because, the corporates
placed a lot of importance on human resource management to avoid plausible law suit.

So by the end of the 1970s, HRM had taken over the world! Almost all big and medium scale
industries had a department to manage their recruitment, employee relations, record-keeping,
salaries and wages, etc. Towards the 1980s, the importance of HR continued to intumesce for
several reasons like increase in skilled labor, training, regulation compliance, dismissal, etc. The
HR managers were the ones who did the hiring and the firing.

In today's date, HR has the same importance as the other departments, in some corporates, it
has more. With the constant increase in education, technology and frequent fluctuations in
economic status and structures, I believe, HR is the oldest, most mature and yet, the most
efficient of all management styles. (BY RASHIDA KHILWALA…file:///C:/Documents%20and
%20Settings/RAJ/Desktop/History%20of%20Human%20Resource
%20Management.htm)

HR DEPART$EMENT BRINGS IN CREATIVITY AND INTRAPREurship

o CREATIVITY

o Creativity is the ability to find new solutions to a problem or new modes of

expression; the bringing into existence of something new to the individual.

o Creative productivity requires a unique juxtaposition of the person's mastery

of the domain of knowledge in which creativity will be elicited, the person's ability to
think beyond the current limits of that domain, and the perseverance and
willingness/proclivity to take intellectual produce something new and transformational
within a community or context that is amenable to the transformational idea or product.

o INTRAPRNEURSHIP

o A process in which individuals inside organizations pursue opportunities

without regard to the resources they currently control, doing new things and departing
from the customary to pursue opportunities. The process by which large organizations
seek to utilize, maintain or retain the edge in innovation and profit-making by asking
employees to spawn businesses within the business.

o “ entrepreneurship within an existing organization.”

o WHAT ARE THE STEPS TAKEN APPLE IN ORDER TO IMPROVE ITS HR

DEPARTEMENT

o
o BOOSTING CREATIVITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

o WHO HAS DONE IT….AND HOW?

o APPLE:

o extraordinary efforts to align the HR function with the business.

o HR function's stated mission is to contribute to the company’s success by

fostering a world-class working environment that attracts and retains excellent people,
motivates their alignment and commitment, and inspires them to excel

o HR partners with each division to identify and develop the best talent in the
industry. We are motivated to ensure the right people are in the right jobs to fuel our
diverse and dynamic organization—and Apple's future. Its recruitment is more creative
and less uniform. Encrypts its recruitment ads on outdoor bulletin boards so that only
those who can decipher it will know job applications are being accepted. This allows any
employee to report ideas to a higher-level manager or to another division if her idea is
rejected by her immediate boss.

o ONE of the best plan adopted by APPLE is that it follows the concept of
‘Virtual Team’ wherein the related technology group, discusses their ideas in regular ‘place ware’
sessions or through teleconferences and if the idea is sound, it is sent to the product manager for
approval.

o A famous Author named ----------------------suggested the 3M of HR

DEPARTEMENT and Apple was one of te companies who abide by their sayings;

• Never kill a project: If an idea cannot be used in any of 3M’s divisions, an employee
can devote 15% of his time towards proving that it is workable. As many as 90 innovation
grants of $50,000 are awarded every year.

• Tolerate failure: By encouraging risk taking and experimentation, a company has

more chances of creating a successful product. 3M, defines its goals as 25% of a
division’srevenue must come form innovative ventures introduced in the past 5 years.
This figure may be as high as 30%.

• Keep small divisions: Too many cooks spoil the broth, so is the case with
entrepreneurial teams. The team manager must know each person by name and when a
division becomes too big (exceeding annual revenues of $300 million), it is split up into
two.

• Motivate the champions : Acknowledge the efforts of innovators by declaring awards

and giving cash grants to accomplish their projects. Promotions and salaries should be
tied to the progress of the innovative product. The champion gets the chance to head
his/her own product division one day.

• Stay close to the customer: Seek regular feedback and work on fine tuning the
product to match customer expectations. Invite customers to brainstorm about new
product ideas.
 • Share the wealth: When a new product or technology is developed, it belongs to
everyone, so share the wealth obtained from a successful technology, with the team, by
providing stock options or cash awards.

Responsibilities of Human Resource Departments

Job Analysis
The process of getting detailed information about jobs.

Job Design
The process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires.

Recruitment
The process through which the organization seeks applicants for potential employment.

Selection
The process by which the organization attempts to identify applicants with the necessary knowledge, skills,

abilities, and other characteristics that will help the organization achieve its goals.

Training
A planned effort to enable employees to learn job-related knowledge, skills, and behavior.
Development
The acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that improve an employee’s ability to meet changes in

job requirements and in customer demands.

Performance Management
The process of ensuring that employees’ activities and outputs match the organization’s goals.