Introduction
United Healthcare is a working division of the United Health Group, the biggestsole health carrier in the United States of America. United Healthcare serves the health assistancerequirements of individual customers and employers of every size; people age fifty and older through Medicare and other assistive products that fit their exclusive needs; the public wellbeing marketplace, offering states creative Medicaid solutions; American military service members, retirees and their families; and is intensifying in global health care markets.As an identified leader in the fitness and well-being industry, the company strives to (1) Enhance the quality and effectiveness of health care for all the Americans, (2) Improve access to health advantages, (3) Create services that make healthcare more affordable, and (4) Use technology to make the health care system easier to navigate(Bach & Edwards, 2013).
United Healthcare has considered the issue of an age gap regarding salary structure as a severe problem. The corporation has altered its wage structure by introducing a challenging program in which it modified its seniority-based salary system by associating it with performance. The company has also reflected in that performance is directly proportional to the ability of the employee irrespective of age or experience. The senior management of the business stated that to decide the pay; younger workers could also be paid more if they are talented and deliver outstanding performance.
The company also provides lifelong employment opportunity to the workers. Despite this, the company encourages the staffing of young employees. Moreover, the management made modifications to the classification of positions such as a general manager level or a deputy general manager level to senior grade one or grade two. This amendment will delimit the dissimilarity in the salary paid to the employees. Additionally, the company provides bonus and incentives to all the staff from lower grades to a higher grade in a year in the form of two installments. Therefore, the wage structure that is followed by United Healthcare is merit-based or performance-based together with salaried wage structure in which bonus part plays a prominent role (Dries, 2013).
Business Leadership and Strategy
The firm, to earn profits at the international level, and to eliminate the deficiencies of quality breakdowns, has implemented growth and generic strategies. With the aid of generic strategies, the organization is attempting to maintain its position at the international level. Conversely, the growth strategy is employed by the firm to make sure a stable growth by developing new actions. In the generic plan, the organization utilizes a brand differentiation strategy and a cost leadership strategy. By implementing this strategy, the company intends to reduce its costs of production and to lead the market by having cost leadership. By the way, the company has put into practice United Healthcare production system, which includes just-in-time manufacturing techniques. The firm justifies this strategy as it has lifted the business efficiency of the company to a large extent.
The growth strategy implemented by the corporation is market penetration in which the sales volume of the firm increases and thus, due to widespread income generation, the business enjoys cost leadership strategy. Another strategy is product development in which the organization justifies its brand differentiation strategy by using innovative services.
In the end, a market development strategy employed by the corporation is also aligned with cost leadership strategy as the market existence of the firm is strengthened to a huge extent with the assistance of this approach. However, due to quality concerns and responding belatedly to the economic turmoil, the leadership capability of the corporation is parochial. Apart from this, leadership in United Healthcare is also centralized in nature(Noe, 2013).
Diversity
United Healthcare can maintain its workforce diversity by considering the ethics and principles of each. For the diversity encouragement, the business is cheering the involvement of women in the workplace. Despite this, it is also taking appropriate measures to maintain the work-life balance in which the company is trying to balance the professional, as well as, personal life of the women. With the recruitment of people from different social groups and race, the corporation is one of the best concerning diversity.
Employee Relations
In the beginning, United Healthcare has suffered from the employment relationship crisis due to a variety of reasons such as the limited demand of manual works and rising numbers of aging employees. Owing to this, the organization faced a dearth of workers and began recruiting employees on a short-term basis. This temporary hiring has led to a disparity in the compensation systems as the ratio of provisional and overtime workers surpassed the permanent employees due to which disappointment also raised in the employees.
United Healthcare rectified this problem with the help of two pillars that are continuously improving and managing good relationships with the workers with esteem and trust. Another attempt made by the company to maintain its relationships with the staff is by providing them established employment opportunity. In this situation, the firm avoids the widespread use of extinction and suspension; thereby, providing its employees with good job security. Aside from this, the organization offers clear communication between the workers and the management. Moreover, it also supports its employees to provide their proposals for the decision-making. For this purpose, the corporation has started worker-management councils and other commissions. With the use of surveys such as employee satisfaction and employee confidence, the company can identify the loopholes (Rothwell et al., 2012).
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
In dealing with the various stakeholders, the company takes into consideration the ethics and the corporate social responsibility. Even in the harsh times’ failures due to quality an issue, the company has managed to assure the interest of its stakeholders by satisfying their demands and interests. In context to this, the firm assumes total responsibility to undertake persistent development about the environment and the general public interest. Aside from this, the firm conducts its business according to the laws and regulation, plus, carries out its functions with total sincerity and integrity.
Organizational and Employee Development
The business is focused on the general development of the workers by engaging them in producing diverse and creative things. This approach endorses their talent of imagination and risk taking capabilities. In this regard, methodical training consistent with the various geographical regions together with the divisional training is imparted to the employees. Aside from this, on the job training is also given to the workers.
The training provided is as per the classification of employees such as the professional staff and T-shaped HR, who are responsible for carrying out the routine activity. Furthermore, skills training, ethical training and language training are also given to the employees while developing the business and the employees.
Talent Management
United Healthcare promotes the development of the talent pool by developing the ability from within the firm. However, some of the senior executives of the company left the organization in the past few years. This turnover indicated that the firm is unable to preserve its talent. In the case of extreme competition, the budding and experienced talents of the organization were joining hands with their competitors, which posed a significant threat to the enterprise. In this scenario, the corporation manages its talent by reinforcing its four pillars including staffing, performance management, shared learning, and adequate salary structure.
Technology
United Healthcare has incorporated advanced technologies while manufacturing its products. It has paid emphasis on a variety of aspects by taking best possible utilization of technologies. In addition; the company to make sure the smooth running of the business also adopts the technology.
Conclusion
The company enjoys a leading position at the global level by implementing superior and sound human resource practices. Although, the company has suffered from certain issues in the past years, still because of its wide-ranging efforts it has regained its market standing and brand image. The HR activities must be aligned with the organizational objectives and responsibilities. Some of the major values that a successful HR must be able to concentrate on includes the amount of faith, joint effort, and concern and also contribute to the development of the workers. The management of the HR data can be used to prepare for the human resource in a company more efficiently.
References
Bach, S. & Edwards, M. (2013).Managing human resources. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Dries, N. (2013). The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), 272-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.001
Noe, R. (2013). Human resource management. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Rothwell, W., Prescott, R., Lindholm, J., Yarrish, K., Zaballero, A., &Benscoter, G. (2012).The encyclopedia of human resource management. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
