This paper looks at the human resource (HR) activities of Northrop Grumman and how these human resource activities are aligned with the strategic plan of the organization. Northrop Grumman is a multinational company that has presence in Aerospace systems, Electronic systems, information systems and technical services. The company mission is “to be at the forefront of technology and innovation, delivering superior capability in tandem with maximized cost efficiencies” (www.northropgrumman.com).
The purpose of human resource department in an organization is to ensure that the organization obtains and retains the skilled, committed and well-motivated employees according to its needs. Northrop Grumman is an organization that ensures that the human resource offers a planned approach to managing people effectively for performance. The organization aims at offering flexible and caring management with an aim of motivating, developing employees so that they can give their best in meeting the visions and missions an organization. The following are the human resource activities in the organization. According to Northrop Grumman human resources is regarded as “On this team, you may work in employee relations, compensation analysis, talent acquisition, or computer security. We’re a diverse group of professionals with skill sets ranging from benefits and compensation to security and learning and development” this shows that the company HR has a bigger role to play because of the large number of staff required.
Manpower planning
This is a core function of the human resource department. Manpower planning is an activity that ensures that the organization has short to long term needs of the department and the organization. Because of the more changing needs of the company and the HR department, manpower planning ensures that the organization is not left behind. Doing a manpower planning helps an organization to be able to know the number of recruits it will need in a specified period of time and the availability of talent. The HR department is also able to have early indications of possible recruitment and retention difficulties. It also helps in project the surpluses and deficiencies of specific ranks and qualifications in the organization.
Manpower planning is composed of succession planning and turnover. Succession planning is to be able to evaluate likely turnover in major posts, identify potential candidates to take up the post and offer right training and exposure of the identified candidates Northrop Grumman .Human resource wants to ensure that the company does not experience inefficiency because a given employee is no longer working with the company. This department ensures that the top management is handled by able people who have been trained and are exposed enough to work. Succession planning is a complex process hence it is only confirmed to the top level management posts.
The impact of turnover is minimized by succession planning because the shortages in other departments and branches are minimized. Since Northrop Grumman is an international company, this plan also ensures that international business branch have well able top management team. The likelihood of having a turnover in this company is very high because company top managers may be deployed in new international companies. The plan should be established and cover a period of three to five years.
The key activities in the succession plan are to identifying of the key posts and the potential successors, what will be the cause of turnover, what will be the competencies of the successors and what will be the appropriate training, and establish posts that there are no apparent successors and what needs to be done to remedial action planned. The information gathered from the succession plans should be incorporated in the training and development programs.
Turnover
Turnover in the human resource department means retirement, resignation and redundancy. Although the human resource cannot plan for turnover because it is caused by factors that are beyond their controls, they can monitor these events to ensure that the company will have a minimal difficulty in retaining the staff.
In the process of succession and turnover by the HR, the following factors should be considered; external and internal factors. External factors are like availability of talents that meet the job description by the HR based on the specified timeframe, present and the future plans. The increase or decrease in the manpower should also be considered. Internal factors are the departmental plans. An evaluation the needed staff by different staffs based on their present and planned future work. This is an activity of Northrop Grumman Company where turnover is being monitored due to high demand of experts in various fields.
Recruitment
Recruitment is an activity performed by the human resource department. Recruitment is the process of establishing the type of staff needed based on the grade and rank, and the timeframe which the staff will be needed in an organization. Recruitment has general principles of ensures that the procedure of recruiting are simple and clear to be followed by candidates and the process should be open to scrutiny by the public. Northrop Grumman has a large human resource needs and recruitment is an important task. This process ensuring that the company has proper human resource.
The key task of recruitment includes deciding on the term of appointment, selection of candidates and probation. The task of deciding of term of appointment involves deciding on the rank and grade, and timing concerns. The nature of the duties that the personnel will perform and the overall manpower in the department of deployment should be considered during the process of setting term of appointment. Term of appointment should cover the following areas; permanent and personable term, agreement terms, day-to-day terms, issues dealing with part-time and consultancy.
Appointment is another task that HR is carries out in the recruitment process of an organization. The Northrop Grumman HR is mandated with appointment of new staff members. Head of departments where the new staff will be deployed coordinate with the HR to ensure that they set minimum entries of the potential staff members. Any job vacancy in Northrop Grumman is advertised by the HR department. Advertisement is done using several media channels such as newspapers and company web site under the careers menu.
Probation is part of recruitment of staff into an organization. This is where new staff are introduced to the mission, objectives and values of the Northrop Grumman organization and departments. Probation is a very serious and critical process which enables the HR to give feedback on performance and assessment of suitability for employment in the organization. Probation can be on-the-job-training where an employee is exposed to duties required of his/her rank. They can learn the expected skills of them so that they can sustain the long-term goals. Supervision and guidance is another approach to probation where staff are given close supervision and guidance in solving problems and difficult cases.
Performance management
Performance management is a key activity and it is very important to Northrop Grumman. The company strives at having improved productivity and effectiveness by ensuring that individual performance and potential is maximized. Performance management deals with; improving the performance of the team and individuals in the company, passing across the expectations of the management to the staff and the supervisors in the organization, to ensure that individual staff members improve their career portfolio and identifying underperformance issues among the staff.
The components of performance management include; motivation, performance appraisal, promotion, guidance and supervision, and addressing poor performance. Motivation is essential part of success for the HR department of Northrop Grumman. Managers are expected to motivate those working under them to increase performance. There are many programs that promote self-motivation of the employees of the organization. Motivation in Northrop Grumman is fostered with an aim of enabling staff members to give back to the company voluntarily. This is possible by fair treatment of the employees by the supervisors and managers in various departments.
Performance appraisal is where the performance of each staff is assessed based in the agreed work objectives. Management benefits from performance evaluation because it offers an opportunity to establish the strength and deal with weaknesses. This process also give the management ideas on next posting requirements, the transfers and promotions. The head of department develop performance appraisal at their level and carry out the exercise. It is also a continuous process that requires full support from the supervisors and individuals.
Promotion
Promotion in Northrop Grumman means the staff has competencies such as the skills, abilities, attitude and knowledge required for better performance in the next rank. The competencies is always reflective in the behavior of the staff. Proper promotion which based on the hardware of a staff member severs as a motivation in the company. It motivates staff to perform well which is an important to the performance management of Northrop Grumman.
The key principle of promotion is based on merit or the best person for the job offer. Ability, experience and potential of the staff should be taken into consideration for a promotion. The human resource engages in this activity as a separate function from the day-to-day operations. The company evaluates and promotes its staff at the end of the year or after a reasonable period of time.
There are many procedures that are followed before a promotion is granted. Transparency and impartiality are the general principles of this process. Staff are given opportunity to apply for a promotion at a given period. The HR of Northrop Grumman has best management practices of giving feedback to all the applicants even if they were not considered or selected for the promotion.
Guidance and supervision
Direction and feedback to the staff is required hence the HR of Northrop Grumman takes part in a day-to-day guidance and supervision. This is a reinforcement of the annual appraisal report and it helps offers to be prepared for promotions and performance improvement. Guidance and supervision in an organization should be done in a manner that discourages bad behavior that impedes on the progress and encourage a culture of good performance. This process should also not target bad performance but there should be a balance between bad and good performance. Northrop Grumman is a company that strives to achieve the best and remain on top of its game. It has laid down guidance and supervision procedures to ensure that staff performance are improved. Guidance and supervision is more emphasized especially on the student and fresh graduate. The HR has taken up the responsibility of training fresh graduates in order for them to gain experience in the business activities.
Addressing poor performance
Performance management will not be a success if the HR of any company does not know how to resolve poor performance. Since Northrop Grumman is a leading company in systems development and other products, it ensures that the quality is maintained. If any employee is not performing according to the expectations or the agreed job terms, there are several steps taken to ensure they improve their performance. No-performing staff may negatively affect the performing staff.
The staff who are not performing according to their job rank expectation are notified and through close supervision and counseling, they are assisted to overcome the poor performance. The annual appraisal will also indicate the poor performance of the staff if the intervention by the supervisors and the counselors do not bear fruits.
If a staff member does not improve after counseling and appraisal, the formal process of demoting, written warning, stoppage of increment and retirement in the interest of the company are the next options for the HR.
Training and developments
The main purpose of training and development is to enable Northrop Grumman staff have knowledge, skills, abilities and attitude needed to overcome dynamic challenges in the business field. Northrop Grumman has many departments and sections hence the training of the staff should be focused on the needs and the goals of each department. HR has formulated a strategic approach which is characterized by commitment to training and developing staff members, regular check on the operational needs and staff competencies in each department, make training and development a continuous culture of the organization and coming up with different methods of training and learning styles for the employees .
The above training and development strategic characteristics ensure that the activity is purposeful and continuous. This activity has two components; training and development.
Training is an activity that is managed at departmental level because they are better positioned to understand the needs at their level. Each department is expected to formulate departmental training policies and design training and development plans which will support the objectives, missions and values of the department. It is the work of the departmental heads to implement training activities. Staffs at this level are encouraged to take advantage of the training program to maximize their potential. There are various types of training provided at Northrop Grumman they include:
Induction this is done when new recruits join the organization, they are taken through a training that help them familiarize with the job requirements and procedures. The norms, performance standards and objectives the department are the content of training.
Management development is a training that is meant for the managers with an aim of giving them skills and knowledge required to have a wider perspective.
Vocational training is offered to staff members in Northrop Grumman who have technical skills and knowledge on the job requirements.
Language and communication is a training aimed at equipping staff with communication skills to avoid conflict and improve on the performance. It is also a training done to equip potential international employees to know the local language in the country they will be deployed.
Development is another component of training and development that requires the company to identify and develop potential staff within the company to prepare them for greater responsibilities. Career development has been part of Northrop Grumman Company where students are taken in for internship and fresh graduate are also absorbed by the company as graduate-trainee. The company equips motivated and self-driven youth to take up their careers in this company or any other industry.
Staff relations
Staff relation ensures that there is an effective staff and management communication which motivates the staff to give their maximum cooperation, give their best and understand the overall directions from the management. Staff relation should be aimed at ensuring that management and staff have regular and open communication, staff members should be involved in decisions that touch on their affairs and management should come up with decisions and activities that improve on the welfare of the organization.
Estimated cost and benefits
Human resource activities in is very important if the company has to be competitive in the market. Most of the revenues for the company are generated from defense contracts which is a section of government that require high level of professionalism. Disclosure of information that is national important entrusted to the defense force is a total disaster hence the work of human resource to attain high level of professionalism is essential. Northrop Grumman has adopted Standards of Business which is found on the company web www.northropgrumman.com on the menu list of “Investor Relations – Corporate Governance – Overview.” For the entire employee to attain Standards of the Business as stated on the web site, the HR should perform activities such as training and development, performance management among others.
The HR activities are in line with the strategic plan of the company. The company on February 2012 gave out $0.6 million cash units and $1.3 million cash performance unit which was a motivation to the employees for achieving the financial metrics of the three year period. This shows that the company is doing the HR activities to ensure that employees work towards achieving set targets. The stock compensation plan of December 2012 where employees are compensated is also another HR activity to ensure that stock performance is improved. Employees know that if they work hard towards improving the value of the shares in the stock market they will be paid. Below is a screen shot of the compensation expenses for the company for the year ended December 31 2012, 2011 and 2010
Stock award activity for December 31 2012, 2011 and 2010
Human resource strategy is at the functional level strategy of an organization. This is a primary of an organization because at this level the organization can improve productivity. It is at functional strategy level that the human resource policies and activities support the business strategy goal of the business. To ensure that human resources activities improve business strategy, there should be a link between organizational strategy formulation and strategic human resource formulation. There has been a proactive-reactive link between business strategy and human resource strategy.
References
Northrop Grumman Corporation Special Officer Retiree Medical Plan (Amended and Restated Effective January 1, 2008) (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10(2) to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, filed April 24, 2008)
Northrop Grumman Corporation 1993 Stock Plan for Non-Employee Directors (as Amended and Restated January 1, 2010) (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, filed July 23, 2009)
