Background of Take Solutions

The HR professionals of the contemporary organizations are required to strategically align their employees with the business strategies of the organization. This is important in the context of the increased workload handled by the employees and the increasing competition faced by the organizations. In this regard, the notion of strategic human resource management becomes important since it enables the HR professionals to design the job roles, reward and recognition policy, etc. in such a manner that both the employees and the organization are capable of achieving their goals and strategies. This report will discuss various business strategies and reveal the suitable HR policies and practices that can be practiced by the organization called Take Solutions while addressing its threats and weaknesses identified through environmental analysis.

Take Solutions is reputed for offering high quality “domain-intensive services in Life Sciences and Supply Chain Management”. This implies that the main aim of the organization is to deliver “full-service Clinical, Regulatory and Safety services” which are backed by the use of innovative technologies for the purpose of offering maximum benefit to its users (Takesolutions.com 2018). Take Solutions, headquartered in Chennai, India, claims its global presence and actively conducts its business in not only the nations of Asia but also in the nations of North America, South America and Europe. As soon as a business enters into the global market, it faces a number of challenges. HR is a crucial component in the ability of Take Solutions to succeed in a changing marketplace. This requires environmental analysis (STEEPLED) to identify the external context and the opportunity & threats analysis for the identification of the suitable business strategy.

The findings from the interview with Take Solutions’ HR manager- Praveen are illustrated below: The main social and cultural factors which affect the business of the concerned organisation are language barriers, race, nationality and other differences between the employees who are a part of the organisation. The major technological factor which affects the business of the organisation is the demand of the industry to offer high-quality technical innovations for the manufacturing of drugs and medicines. The major economic trend which affects the business of the organizations are the demands of the employees for increased pay scale, currency fluctuations, availability of contracts and their fees, recession, competition, real estate prices and others. The pressure to reduce carbon footprints, energy utilization, water consumption and the development of environment-friendly actions are the environmental factors currently affecting the organization. Competitive regulations, terrorist attacks, consumer protection law, etc. are the main political factors that impact the operations of the organization. The major legislations that the organization needs to take into consideration for their business operations in India are “IT Act 2000, Income Tax, Anti-Monopoly Laws along with the Indian Copyright Act,” (Takesolutions.com 2018). The high unemployment rate of Chennai and India makes it suitable to get the right candidates for their organization (Sparrow, Farndale and Scullion 2013).

The constant growth in the automation of processes and supply of biopharmaceutical products provides an chance to Take Solutions to enhance their market and ensures knowledge consultation. Also, high youth unemployment rates allow Take Solutions to make the selection from the talent available in the market. Moreover, the Indian population is skilled in the engineering field due to excessive stress placed by the Indian education system on Mathematics and Science subjects (Praveen, 2018). This, in turn, makes them capable of understanding the needs of Pharma companies. Threats for Take Solutions comprise of the changes in government legislation. This means that the drug price control order is expanded and there is tough competition to India from the countries like Israel and China for the purpose of meeting low-cost outsourcing demand. In addition to this, wage inflation adversely affects the organization and poses a threat to its financial management (Praveen, 2018).

STEEPLED Analysis

The strengths of Take Solutions include the adoption of a unique business model before any other life science company in India. The organization has a subsidiary that specializes in Big Data Analytics in Life sciences. As a result, the number of consignments has increased leading to increase in the employment opportunities (Praveen, 2018). Meanwhile, the organization has a large talent pool of English speaking employees who are capable of integrating the recent innovative technologies within the framework of the organization in order to deliver high-quality services to the customers (Praveen, 2018). Through the use of cutting-edge technology, Take Solutions became capable of establishing an exclusive alliance with top data aggregation, thereby making expansion of its list of strategic partnerships with low cost richer functionalities (Annual report, 2016-17). However, the development phase of the biomedical industries is still running. As a consequence, there is an existence of more unorganized companies who, during expansion of their markets, have announced such products and services which are capable of increasing the competition level. Also, the global reach is attempted to be strengthened by Take Solutions and the company is looking forwards to explore North American and the European Market. However, there is a lack of talent in such markets (Praveen, 2018). Technological advantages are possesses by Take Solutions but there is insufficiency of international marketing expertise which prevents it in the successful implementation of the strategy.

Business strategy facilities in the evaluation of the ways in which Take Solutions intends to deal with all its identified threats and opportunities. Take Solutions should have an effective business strategy statement which is capable of ensuring that “best practices” are being followed all through its sales, distribution and supply chain processed. The rationale of this proposed business strategy is to develop a new product line in order to address its international business needs. The proposed business strategy will improve environmental fit through the development of skills for dealing with projects which come within an international context (Ulrich D & Dulebohn, 2015). This will further assist the organization in responding effectively towards the challenges presented by the environment. Attracting and retaining talent in order to strengthen the clinical practice should also be considered by the organization for the purpose of attaining organizational change and dealing with issues that are faced by Take Solutions in its international expansion (Shin & Konrad, 2017, pp. 973-997). Due to increased competition, the organization should improve its products’ quality and speed up the automated processes in the supply chain for the purpose of achieving improved customer service. For the effective utilization of the business opportunities, the organization should focus on the quality of the services offered by them along with the cost of such services. With the help of the business strategy of cost containment, the organization will be able to enhance expense control while offering the best quality services at affordable prices (Willis & Brown & McMillan, 2001, pp. 36-42). In addition, the organization should maintain effective knowledge transfer among employees, especially from the host country to foreign subsidiaries. During the expansion process, the organization should follow the relevant legislations, ensure the occupational health and safety and follow the ethical standards for enhancing its reputation.

OT-SW Analysis

The proposed business strategy cannot be attained through existing people management, because of the talent shortage caused by overseas acquisition. To deal with the threats faced by Take Solutions Ltd in the management of its human resources, the company should consider the development of proposed HR strategies. This will allow the company in dealing with its weaknesses and the attainment of competitive advantages through capitalizing on its opportunities that can ensure better external fit. Firstly, the organization should follow an effective recruitment strategy which will enable it to search and attract fresh talent (Collings & Wood, 2018, pp. 151-153). For instance, the organization requires to recruit personnel with relevant IT knowledge along with supply chain management background in order to plan and execute certain collaborative improvements in its supply chain process. Secondly, it is necessary for the organization to organize trained employees to enhance customer service outcomes through an ongoing support process. Therefore, for building a high-performance team, Take Solutions needs to design a plan that relates to training and development of employees in order to help the business in its several change efforts (Urich, 1998). Thirdly, proper performance management method should be developed by the organization for translating the business objectives into individual job objectives, for example, a performance- relate rewards would help. Meanwhile, for improving employee performance, several stress-busting and well-fare initiatives can be introduced by Take Solutions along with interactive sports and recreational services (Stone, 2013). Moreover, Take Solutions could develop the employment environment in an efficient and sustainable manner along with the maintenance of exceptional participatory organizational culture for attracting probable candidates. (Deadrick & Stone , 2015). Fair treatment of employees and honouring of agreements are the key points to lower labor turnover. Take Solutions Ltd must also consider strengthening diversity recruitment, meeting the demand for new knowledge, abilities, and skills. In this strategy, the company must ensure that women and minority groups have equal access to all the opportunities (Paauwe and Boon 2018).

The proposed human resource practice is deemed to be internal horizontal fit. For following the HR strategies, the HR practices should include employment security schemes, staff hiring, manageable teams along with better compensation structures and development of a wide range of training programs. The new HR policies of the organization should ensure developing elements of pay performance, management, career development along with rewards that will be consistent and linked (Ulrich and Dulebohn 2015). HR policies of the organization must also focus on introducing a system that can reflect the manner in which the business wants to treat its consumers by way of treating their employees in a similar manner. It also needs to consider developing a principle through which the development and support to the employees can be ensured as the employees who feel respected at work are capable of offering the best services to the consumers. Knowledge management practices must also be improved in the HR policies of the company in a way such that it can create, acquire, capture, share and use knowledge in improving overall employee learning and experience.

Business Strategy

Take Solutions have an ample talent to recruit from but still it is critical to recruit the best in order to meet the shortage of expertise. Before designing the HR practices, the HR professionals can consult the managers with regard to the skill sets or kind of talents required within the organization. The recruitment plan can be prepared by the HR professionals on the basis of this requirement. For example, to recruit people with IT background; those who are able to improve the clinical practice; those who work well in teams. However, the recruitment plan should also include different criteria and recruiting them based on culture attitude and fit, rather than just skills that can easily be learned by employees during the training process. The job description and job analysis are required in this process. The HR team could develop a recruitment advertisement to make potential candidates aware of job vacancies and creating alert regarding changing conditions in the labor market, especially any new legislation requirements. Personnel could be recruited from both local (low labor cost) and international sources (those who understand the global markets); hiring women and members of minority groups; promotion from internal or external candidates. After that, the training process can be designed in various forms, like coaching, mentoring or behavior modeling to ensure trainees learning in an effective way and to transfer the skills to a job. Take Solutions could hold classes based on these forms to deal with the shortage of skills and enhance the flexibility in employees to handle varied international projects.

The “market or leader pay approach” is a viable option that the HR professionals can use in performance and compensation policy. As opined by Sturman and McCabe (2016, pp. 85-97), organizations often try to enhance the performance of their employees by paying them with the kind of remuneration which their competitor companies are paying to their employees. Take Solutions could use this method to improve the performance of the employees positively and for reducing the turnover rate of the organization. The HR professionals can also formulate a talent rating system by using performance appraisal. This means the employees would be rated as per their performance and will be rewarded in an effective manner to ensure optimal levels of employee performance for meeting the organization’s strategic objectives (Mello, 2014). For instance, the evaluation of employee performance can be done by peer evaluation, self-evaluation, and 360-degree evaluation. Take Solutions is trying to expand their global market which will require lots of group work and therefore, a team player needs to be recruited. Those who work well in groups to solve the assigned projects should be rewarded. This process could reach the internal vertical fit.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, the overall effectiveness of Take Solutions depends to a large extent on the capability of its HRM team. STEEPLED and OT analysis identify the challenges in the environment that impact the business operations of Take Solutions. Strategic HRM aims at bringing the required improvement in operational HRM by way of aligning the proposed policies and practices of HR with the business needs of Take Solutions.  In order to achieve the organizational goals, the proposed HR policies, processes and practices should work in a harmonious and mutually supportive manner with several other business practices undertaken by the organization.

References 

Annual report 2016-17, <https://www.takesolutions.com/Reports_Filings/2016-17/take_solutions_annual-report_2017.pdf> viewed 2 October 2018.

Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.

Deadrick D & Stone D, 2015, ‘Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management’, Human Resource Management Review, vol. 25, pp. 139-145.

Interview with Praveen- HR Manager of Take Solutions

Mello, J 2014, Strategic human resource management, 4th edn, Cengage Learning, US.

Takesolutions.com 2018, Our vision at Navitas is to be the best knowledge company in the Life Sciences R&D space, viewed 30 September 2018 <https://www.takesolutions.com/our-vision-at-navitas-is-to-be-the-best-knowledge-company-in-the-life-sciences-r-d-space>

Take Solutions.com, 2018, Take Solutions has been named as a Leader in IDC Marketspace: Worldwide Life Science R&D BPO Services 2018 Vendor Assessment, viewed 30 September 2018, <https://www.takesolutions.com/take-solutions-has-been-named-as-a-leader-in-idc-marketscape-worldwide-life-science-r-d-bpo-services-2018-vendor-assessment>

Paauwe, J. and Boon, C., 2018. Strategic HRM: A critical review. In Human Resource Management (pp. 49-73). Routledge.

Shin, D. and Konrad, A.M., 2017. ‘Causality between high-performance work systems and organizational performance’. Journal of Management, vol. 43, no. 4, pp.973-997.

Stone, R J 2013, Managing human resources, 4th edn, Wiley, Milton, Queensland.

Sturman M & McCabe D, 2006 ‘Choosing Whether to Lead, Lag, or Match the market’, Journal of Human Recourses in Hospitality & Tourism, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 85-97.  

Sparrow, P., Farndale, E. and Scullion, H., 2013. An empirical study of the role of the corporate HR function in global talent management in professional and financial service firms in the global financial crisis. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(9), pp.1777-1798.

Ulrich D & Dulebohn J 2015, ‘Are we there yet? What’s next for HR?’, Human Resource Management Review, vol. 25, pp. 188-204.

Urich, D 1998, ‘New mandate for human resources’, Harvard business review, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 124-134.

Willis T & Brown A & McMillan A, 2001, ‘Cost containment strategies for EPR system implementations’, Production and Inventory Management Journal, vol. 42, Iss. 2. pp. 36-42.