BMW: Human resources

Résumé du document

International firms are more and more dealing with an International orientation by developing the business in new emerging markets and consolidating the loyal ones. In order to be effective, they have to control the financial structure and the Human Resources in the same time. Both of these services are maybe the elements that a firm tries to control but which are two of the most difficult.

In our case, we are going to be interested especially in the Human Resources factor. Which impacts have employees on the firm's structure? Why are people so complicated to manager?

It is quite simple: we can easily say that we can anticipate or force a person to do what we want. For a company, this service is one of the most strategic one and where you can't make many mistakes because it will have an impact on the way the firm is doing business and on the brand image.

In this final assignment we are going to be interested in a field I have always enjoyed: car industry and more precisely in a German firm I am passionate since I have the right to drive a car: BMW. My objective in the future is to work for this company. Is it not a good way to be effective and productive at work if you are working for a way and a brand that has always been a passion for you?

Extraits

[...] There are more and more employees who are working under pressure. Salesmen have for example objectives which are difficult to reach or the production chain is not able to produce so much more. So that more and more people have problems to manage stress. Though this is a really important factor which has to be taken into consideration. It is easier to have employees with realizable objective who are able to reach it contrary to give higher objectives and put lots of pressure and have as a result stress for the worker and disincentive. [...]

[...] Thanks to these two previous elements associated with the training and acquisition of knowledge they have created advantages that employees can find in a minority of corporate group. Capability in the company When we are considering the general situation of the company, there are many key points to take in mind. When BMW started its implantation in USA more precisely in South Carolina, they have taken only 23 months to start the construction of the building to the first car produced. This is a really short time of fulfillment. [...]

[...] As many firms in order to keep their employees, the group is offering some advantages such as formation in order to collect new knowledge. The first important advantage on which the group is communicating is everything around medical: comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans, short-term and long-term disability benefits, life insurance. The second advantage considers retiring and a pension plan. The group uses the 401K retirement savings plan. Definition of the 401K: A 401(k) plan is a retirement savings plan that is funded by employee contributions and (often) matching contributions from the employer. [...]

[...] Succession planning in the company For many companies, a workforce between 55 and 65 years old mean less productivity especially on production site and less motivation. With emerging countries there is more and more competition that is why European manufacturers are afraid of this problem. In order to anticipate the problem, BMW has already thought how to solve it. What is Succession Planning? Definition of succession planning: it is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. [...]

[...] VI) The European Culture & International HR Management The German cultural aspect Germany is facing an important problem: the ageing of the workforce especially in the industrial sector. As I said in the previous part the country is promoting more and more generation even if it was a precursor twenty years ago. There was one of the first countries to create apprenticeship with one week at school in order to learn a lot of theory and then the second week at work in order to put the theory they have learnt in practical. [...]