Human Resource Functions at Microsoft Corporation
Discuss about the People and Organizational Management for Performance.
Human Resource function involves the management of the employees working in an organization so that they can work and perform in their best possible way. Therefore. Human resource management can be defined as a part of business management that deals with the management of people. HRM is mainly concerned with handling the four distinct areas of organizational objectives, staffing, performance, administration and change management (Javed, et al., 2017).
Microsoft Corporation is the leading software development company in the world which develops, licenses, manufactures and supports a range of services and products mainly related to computing. It was established by Bill Gates and Paul Allen with its headquarters in USA. The company is serving the customers all around the world with the help of its five business units. The values and mission of the company help businesses and people to realize their full capacity and potential while working within the organization. This report addresses the human resource practices at Microsoft Corporation including selection and recruitment policies, flexible offerings to the employees, strategies used to manage the stress of the employees at workplace and methods used to evaluate employee’s performance (EMC, 2013).
The human resource function and practices of Microsoft are known for the success and growth of the organization. Human Resource department is strictly directed to follow all the rules related to the management of employees. The employees of the organization are known as most profitable and valuable assets, thus Human Resource department tries to manage such assets in most effective and efficient manner. The company ensure to develop a sound and effective process for the recruitment and selection of employees that may not result in any harm to the ethics and emotions of applicants. After hiring the employees, HR department organizes training and development programs for new employees so they can learn about their jobs and roles. Training and development programs are also organized for old employees to furnish their skills and to provide them updates about the new technological advancements (Wiley, 2014). HR department also take care about the workplace environment of the company. HR department organizes such activities which increase the morale of employees and thus results in achieving organizational objectives. HR management of the company is also famous for facilitating flexible working to the employees. After taking this steps, a major changes in the employee productivity has been seen through the annual reports of the company (Naviorldasia, 2014).
Workplace Culture of Microsoft Corporation
Introduction of the concept of flexible working is continuously is resulting into developing relations of employees and the managers. Because employees feel free to work and complete their work as according to them. This forced them to think that their managers and organizations are helpful and understand the need for work-life balance.
Further, Human resource department of Microsoft Corporation is also very well concerned about the health of the employees. The company provides many types of facilities and practices which can help in the reduction of mental stress of the employees so that they can perform better and desired manner. The organization does not give values to their equipment, technology of premises in comparison to its employees because employees are the main resources and are responsible for the growth of such equipment, technology and premises (katyayani & Rani, 2017).
As the company works on the international level, its working culture is very dynamic and features with diversified employees. Microsoft hires employees from different countries and thus their management is not easy. HR practices are developed in such a way that supports the working of people from different religion, beliefs, societies, and races. The company makes no difference on the basis of such factors and also encourages the appointment of persons with disabilities having talent and knowledge similar to the other persons. At the workplace, Microsoft provides an open communication environment to its employees so that they may not feel hesitated about discussing their problems with each other (Brito & Oliveira, 2013). This reduces the chances of miscommunication which may lead to generating fights and conflict among the employees or the managers. Microsoft also provides childcare facilities for female employees so they can work freely without worrying about their children. Further, Microsoft is featured with the beat performance evaluating practices in the industries. It provides the process in which employee can evaluate their performance on the self-assessment basis. This makes easy to understand the employees that how they are ranked and at what stages, improvement is required. Human resource policies of the organization ensure that all employees may feel secure, happy and free from burden in all manners and for this purpose, related teams are regularly working for the improvement of the same (Selvan, 2015).
Microsoft believes in hiring and recruiting extremely talented and intelligent staff from the very beginning. Co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates prefer to hire such fresh and inexperienced employees whose talent and knowledge can beat the experienced persons. The recruitment policy of Microsoft Corporation reflects the philosophy of the company. Microsoft Corporation is considered as an aggressive recruiter and is the first organization to provide jobs to elite graduates by career fairs and campuses across the world.
Recruitment and Selection
The recruitment policy of Microsoft includes:
- Compliance of government policies.
- Cost effective for the company
- Ensures job security to the employees.
- Flexible for required changes
- Facilities the opportunities of employment development
- Provides job opportunities for a long time.
- Includes hiring employees as per the objectives of the organization.
There are many factors that affect the processes of recruitment including environmental, technological, social and other factors. Microsoft has designed its recruitment and selection policy after considering all such factors so that the process cannot get interrupted. The process of recruitment and hiring of employees can be described as follows:
Microsoft Corporation conducts recruitment process form worldwide campuses. Desired candidates are required to register through official website of the company. Along with campus recruitment, the company also takes part in job fairs and job festivals to find eligible and talented professionals. A recruitment test is conducted to measure the capability, talent and the subject knowledge of the applicant. Tests are conducted by the company through offline and online modes. In such tests, applicants can expect the queries from different topics including databases, algorithms, computer languages and structures (Hitbullseye, 2018).
Further, a written test is conducted check command over English language, aptitude knowledge, mental and programming ability of the candidates. In this section, applicants can expect the questions from data interpretation and data sufficiency etc. Programming section of the test paper includes such question which can help in checking programming capability and knowledge of the candidates. This sector of the paper is considered as the toughest one because of this required extensive knowledge of the concept of software programming.
At Microsoft, recruitment of the candidates is not influenced by their academic degrees but it is focused on their interest and knowledge in computer science, aptitude and their passion for technological development. Applicants who qualify the written test with high marks are further selected for the purpose of the personal interview. The interview process may consist 6-7 rounds to check the professional capability and communication skills of the applicant. Interviews also help the company to know about the practical knowledge of the applicant instead of their bookish knowledge (Epic, 2010).
Microsoft Corporation conducts some special programs which are known as Leap Engineering Acceleration Programs (LEAP) for the candidates who don’t have any working experience. In this programme, small projects ate given to selected fresher candidates to compete with their existing knowledge. This programme is conducted for a period of 6 months after which candidates are recruited on the basis of their performance during these 6 months.
After the selection, final interviews are conducted for the candidates. During this final interview development in the knowledge of the selected candidates is evaluated. Thus employees are hired and are informed about their roles and responsibilities. Further, HR department conducts all the joining formalities with selected candidates.
Performance evaluation and measurement is a process which enables the organizations to evaluate the performance of employees. For this function, HR department is known as the main supportive factor of the company. HRM considers the employees as the most valuable asset of an organization thus the measurement of their performance lies in the hands of HR department (Kline & Carr , 2016).
At Microsoft, the methods of performance measurement can be divided into two main categories:
The objectives methods are used on basis of measurable data and criteria including sales percentage, number of production, number of failures and errors etc. Microsoft uses these methods in measuring the performance of those employees who are engaged in producing quantitative results for the company. Because the major drawback of this method is that it can be used to measure the performance of employees giving their output in qualitative terms like secretory, software engineers, directors etc (Qureshi & Hassan, 2013).
Microsoft uses subjective methods of performance measurement more frequently to make judgments and results. These are used to measure the qualitative outputs by individuals. But these methods also cannot ensure the complete and absolute accuracy of outcomes or results of the performance measurement because these can be influenced by biases and prejudices of the evaluators. For example, an assessor can be influenced by a single dimension, either in negative or positive about the employee being evaluated and this influence can affect all other related aspects of performance measurement. Along with this, managers are often considered to provide high ratings to their closure one and ignore others because of some little issues. This can affect the result of performance measurement programs conducted by the management of Microsoft.
Microsoft simultaneously uses both methods subjective as well as objectives in measuring and appraising the performance of its employees. The company uses self-assessment approach so that employees can evaluate their own performance as well. At Microsoft, the employee writes about his goal and tasks that he/she is going to complete in next six months and also writes the requirement for completing the same form their superiors and gets approval regarding the same. At the time of performance evaluation and appraisal, employees access themselves according to the objectives and goals defined by them. After this assessment, employees discuss with their line managers to get the feedbacks and ranks for appraisal.
In Microsoft, the performance of employees is ranked from 3 to 5, in which 3 is the symbol of minimum performed and 5 is considered for the best performance. Most of the employees get 4 which is the symbol for average performance. Both the methods are used as per their requirements. Further, the process of performance measurement includes some following steps:
- Providing the objectives and goals of employees at the beginning of the year.
- Providing them sufficient resources for facilitating the same.
- Measurement of improvement in work on monthly basis.
- Arranging workshops and training so the employees can improve their performance.
- Clearing all parameter that is involves in measuring the performance of employees so that they can focus on each parameter.
Microsoft evaluates the performance of its employees very carefully and this can be said on the basis of its annual report and employee feedback. The organization is working well in terms of employee satisfaction and this the main reason for its success and growth (Chopra, 2016).
Microsoft is one of the big advocates of remote working. It understands that all individuals have their own preferences about how, where and when they want to work. The company offers a mixture of opportunities to its employees with equal amount of privacy and teamwork. This enables creativity, productivity, innovation, deep work and team building. Microsoft provides flexible working facility in terms of enabling them to work from home, facilitating 24*7 shifts of working, five day week and providing shift of 8-9 hours as per the job responsibilities of the employees. In case of female employees, the company provides maternity leaves as per the requirement (Imaz, 2017). Microsoft also provides the facility of doctors and healthcare at workplace especially for the female employees if they are working at their maternity time. Microsoft provides flexibility to its employees up to an extent that their results and productivity does not get affected in a negative manner. It ensures that is an employee is working from home then he delivers his responsibilities in the desired manner by the company (Company, 2018).
Women employees of Microsoft uses this flexibility to manage their work and home life. Female employees are able to spend their time with children and families. Similarly, male employees are benefitted because they can work as per their preferences and at the time when they want to work. Flexible working increases the liability on employees to work and perform in a better way. At the same time, it also increases the chances of loss of job and deduction in salary. In order to avoid such situations, employees work in their best possible way considering the fact that their organization is providing leniency and they should not misuse the same. It also reduces the cost of fuel and transportation, time to travel and tiredness of employees. It encourages and motivates the employees to complete their jobs and assigned works on time (Kozokov, 2018).
By providing the facilities of flexible working, Microsoft saves a huge amount of sum which it can invest in developing its business. Cost saving is done by allowing work from home to employees and by introducing the culture of hot-desking. It also may cause the reduction of cost spending on extra healthcare, gym, cafeteria and other facilities related to the wellbeing of employees. Microsoft is able to hire experts and talented employees on the basis of its flexible working hours and facilities. As a result of all practices, the productivity of Microsoft Corporation is continuously increasing with the growth and development in employee’s morale, commitment, and engagement to the company. Microsoft is developing an image in employee’s minds as an organization of choice with family and friendly flexible working schedule (Hubspot, 2015).
Microsoft is adopting the concept of work-life balance by facilitating the employees their choice of working. The company has an opinion that if a person is not able to manage his personal life and professional life at the same time, then he cannot perform in his best possible way at his workplace. For gaining the results from an employee, it is necessary to provide him ease in working practices related to time and health. It is also a scientifically proved fact that imbalance of working and personal life can lead to conflicts and fights either at the workplace or at home (Loew, 2015).
It shows that Microsoft is an employer that fully support the concept of flexible working and has adopted this concept in a good structures manner. This adoption is paying a great profitability to business in terms of employee satisfaction, productivity, and ease in hiring experts and talented professionals. But the management of Microsoft also has an opinion that such flexibility should provide up to an extent that employees cannot make misuse in terms of laziness and delay in working (Toppo & Prusty, 2012).
Being a leading company of software industry, the company has to face the challenges related to the stress of employees at the workplace. Sometimes employees get overstressed because of the workload or other workplace-related issues. To deal with such type of circumstances, HR policies of the company manages some practices so that employees can get relief from their stress and work with the fresh mind. Such practices can be described as follows:
- Microsoft provides first aid and wellness training for Mental Health to its employees and managers so that every person working in the organization may have the understanding the effects of mental health issues. In addition, the company also provides education related to the healthy and unhealthy stress levels and its signs. It helps the employees to recognize and ignore the situation which can result in creating unhealthy stress.
- The company encourages its culture to have open and straight communication about wellbeing and mental health so employees may not hesitate to talk about stress with their managers and co-workers and can ask for help(Kushwaha, 2014).
- The company has adopted clear communication policies and avoids calling and emailing the workers after their working hours. It facilitates the employees to spend time with their families and remove their mental stress.
- The company provides facilities of the gym at their premises so that employees can live physically fit and can reduce their mental pressure and stress. Similarly, it also has beautiful gardens at all its workplaces which work as a place for employees to sit and rest during their interval hours or tea breaks. These all facilities describes the management practices of human resource department(Jahanian, et al., 2012).
- As every organization has some irrelevant policies, Microsoft Corporation also has some irrelevant policies which may have a negative impact on employees. The HR department of the company review these policies time to time and alter them in order to remove the extra stress and burden so that employees can work freely and can give their contribution in their best possible way.
- Microsoft also organizes cultural events and fun activities on quarterly, half yearly and yearly basis. Employees take part in such activities which makes them feel free from burden and stress. The arrangement of fun activities at every weekend makes it employees to freshen up their mind.
- Microsoft also provides flexible working facilities to employees. It means that employees can work form their home or any other place in case of any health issue that resist them to come into the office(khan, et al., 2018).
Conclusion:
On the basis of above report, it can be concluded that an effective and efficient HR department helps as the business partner and also contributes in formulating the required business policies. The way in which Microsoft has initiated its HR strategy is a great example of how the organizations that function with the common vision and objectives make money for their stakeholders and investors with the help of available human resources. The company make an investment on a very large scale in the process of recruitment, selection and providing training to the employees. The study also concludes that company provides a workplace to employees with maximum feasibility and flexible working conditions. These facilities at workplace motivate the employees to perform in their best possible way.
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